There is a real number, and it is not 50. Enter your plan and this finds the exact crossover headcount for a private limited company and for a full captive GCC — including the cases where the honest answer is that you should stop paying us a fee and incorporate.
Step 1
Does not move the crossover — it is identical on both sides. It sizes the totals.
Editable — check today’s rate before you quote these figures anywhere.
EOR side
Starting from $99. Plans run $99–$399 depending on salary band and scope — raise this if your team is senior, because it moves the crossover more than anything else here.
PF, ESI, gratuity. Wisemonk publishes 15–22%. Applies identically to both routes.
Entity side
Incorporation filings alone are only $750–$1,500. The rest is apostille, nominee resident director, FC-GPR, banking, multi-state EPF/ESI and Shops & Establishments registrations, transfer pricing setup and advisory.
Only used by the realistic overhead model.
Captive GCC only
Charges facilities and IT to the EOR route too, so the comparison is like-for-like. Coworking can usually be contracted through your EOR; a long-term Grade A or SEZ lease generally requires an entity.
Step 2 · your crossover
A band, not a point, because it moves with how leanly you run the entity: break-even lands at 31 on flat outsourced overhead and 62 once you staff HR and finance in-house. Wisemonk publishes 25–40 as the typical range.
Stay on EOR
At 18 employees, your own entity costs more than an EOR
An Indian entity carries roughly $48,000 a year in fixed overhead whether you employ 3 people or 30 — audit, ROC filings, company secretary, transfer pricing documentation, payroll software. Spread across 18 heads that is $2,667 each, against $1,188 a year on an EOR fee. Incorporating now would cost you about $99,848 over 3 years and delay your first hire by two to four months.
EOR · 3yr
$1.49M
incl. $64,152 in fees
Own entity · 3yr
$1.59M
incl. $20,000 setup
Entity costs extra
$100k
over 3 years at 18 heads
Heads to revisit at
31
re-run this when your plan passes it
India headcount
The captive GCC line never crosses. On pure cash cost per head, a physical centre does not beat an EOR at any headcount — the office and IT spend is roughly $4,650 per seat per year on top of the entity. Companies build GCCs for IP ownership, brand presence in the India talent market, and SEZ tax benefits, not to save money against an EOR fee. Anyone who sells you a GCC on cost arbitrage alone is comparing it to your US payroll, not to this.
Month
| Statutory audit + ROC filings Published | $7,000 |
|---|---|
| In-house payroll + tax filings Published | $7,000 |
| Company secretary + legal counsel Published | $6,000 |
| Registered office + GST Published | $4,000 |
| Transfer pricing documentation Published | $3,000 |
| Bank maintenance + payroll software Published | $3,000 |
| In-house HR + finance capacity at 18 heads Estimate | $18,000 |
| Fixed cost per year, regardless of headcount | $48,000 |
Divided across 18 employees that is $2,667 per head per year, against $1,188 on an EOR fee. Overhead per head keeps falling as you hire; the fee does not. That is the whole mechanism.
Compliant offer in 24–48 hours, hire live in days
SPICe+ officially 2–4 weeks, realistically 6–8 with apostille
Add EPF/ESI + Shops & Establishments in every state you hire in
Entity, FEMA/FC-GPR, office, IT, India Head, governance
| EOR fee / employee / mo | Lean entity | Realistic entity |
|---|---|---|
| $99 (entry) · yours | 31 heads | 62 heads |
| $149 | 21 heads | 31 heads |
| $249 | 13 heads | 13 heads |
| $399 | 8 heads | 8 heads |
Read the top row against the bottom. A team on the $99 entry fee has to get large before an entity makes sense. A senior team priced at $399 crosses over almost immediately — if that is you, an entity or a managed-payroll arrangement is probably the right answer and we would rather say so than sell you a fee.
Recommended path
Compare what it actually takes to run an entity vs. hiring through Wisemonk's EOR.
| Wisemonk EOR | Entity setup | |
|---|---|---|
| Setup time | 2-5 days | 3-6 months |
| Upfront cost | $0 | $15,000-$25,000 |
| Compliance ownership | Wisemonk handles end-to-end | Your in-house team |
| Payroll & statutory filings | Included | You manage with consultants |
| Exit cost & complexity | Cancel anytime | 6-12 months wind-down |
| Best for | Below your crossover, or testing the market | Past your crossover, long-term India presence |
Most companies underestimate the hidden costs of entity setup. Transfer pricing, compliance, and taxes can add 20-25% overhead to your total India spend.
Founders, Leaders and HR heads of fast growing startups across US, Europe, SEA and Oceania trust our services to manage their India teams.
The Wisemonk team played a key role in helping us hire for specialized B2B SaaS marketing skills. We were able to build the team within four months, and hire experienced professionals from Tier 1/major B2B SaaS brands. This includes SEO, digital marketing, business development, product marketing, content marketing, and GTM roles. They are a great partner providing integrated services for EOR and recruitment/hiring and I’d recommend them to any B2B SaaS vendor.
Red Hill Technology Solutions has run its India engineering team on Wisemonk for the past year and a half. They handle payroll and benefits end to end, so I can offer my employees good health insurance without having to master the idiosyncrasies of Indian benefits myself. Payroll cutoff reminders arrive every month before I need them, and off-cycle bonus runs have never been a problem. Even equipment purchasing, a real headache for a US company shipping to Indian addresses, is as simple as telling them what I need. Exchange rates are fair and the pricing is transparent.
Deepika Elumalai, our point of contact, ties it all together. Whatever comes up, she pulls in the right people and sees it through. For any US company building a team in India, Wisemonk is an easy recommendation.
Wisemonk is a key partner for EOM-Energy O&M Services, playing an essential role in supporting our operations. Their seamless payment solutions make transactions not only simple and fast but also reliable. The team’s responsiveness, professionalism, and proactive approach give us complete confidence in every interaction. We look forward to strengthening our collaboration, using Wisemonk both for Employer of Record services and for recruitment support, to help us expand our team in India in the short and medium term.
We came across Wisemonk and met with the CEO and staff to explain our situation, and were very impressed with their customer-focused approach to their business. Wisemonk onboarded all of my employees in one or two days. They paid my employees' salaries on the day after my payment cleared. Needless to say, my employees and I were very satisfied with their service then and remain so over a year later. We are an American company, so I was very happy to see that they have a US bank account where I can make ACH payments to minimize bank charges. All salary payments are timely. They worked directly with my employees to enroll them in the health care program and explain any coverage-related issues. The best part is that we get to work with a dedicated person assigned to our company. I would highly recommend Wisemonk and think of them as our Indian HR department.
As the CEO of The Humble Bucks LLC, I had a great experience working with Wisemonk.io. They made our hiring process in India smooth, efficient, and cost-effective. We were assigned a dedicated recruiter who helped us find and hire three EOR employees at a very competitive price.
Beyond hiring, Wisemonk’s support team was extremely helpful in managing important operational logistics. They assisted us with coordinating meeting-related needs, including flight tickets, employee laptops, and other practical requirements, which saved us significant time and effort.
Overall, Wisemonk has been a reliable partner for The Humble Bucks LLC. Their combination of recruiting support, EOR services, and hands-on operational assistance made the entire experience seamless. I would recommend Wisemonk to any company looking to hire and manage employees in India with confidence.
We've been using WiseMonk to support our India team for the past six months, and the experience has been excellent. They've handled everything from payroll and statutory compliance to equipment procurement and benefits enrollment — all with a level of responsiveness and professionalism that makes managing a remote India team from Canada feel seamless. Nileena and the team are always quick to reply and proactive about flagging anything we need to know. We'd happily recommend WiseMonk to other companies looking to hire and manage talent in India.
I'm very Happy that I discovered Wisemonk. They have been a pure pleasure to work with, and their attention to detail is impressive. They helped us understand their pricing model, find top-qualified individuals, interview them, and then onboard them. I gave them criteria for the type of people we sought, and they delivered. The individuals they were able to find have been some of the best engineers I have ever worked with. I recommend Wisemonk to anyone who is in need of staffing assistance.
I highly recommend them. Wisemonk helped us tap into the vibrant and top-notch Indian talent market and hire our first couple of founding engineers in record time. We've been able to accelerate our roadmap and deliver terrific value to our customers thanks to Wisemonk's efforts. They are easy to work with and very transparent about the process. I highly recommend them to any company looking for talent located in India.
Process was professional & very smooth. We've worked with Wisemonk to source developers in India and it's worked incredibly well for us. We are very pleased with the talent of the developers and the Wisemonk process was professional and very smooth. We highly recommend using Wisemonk for talent sourcing!
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