The best PEO companies in New Zealand, ranked
Ten providers that can support your New Zealand hiring through a PEO or EOR model, scored on the things that actually go wrong here: whether the provider offers genuine co-employment or EOR-only, Holidays Act handling, KiwiSaver and ACC administration, and real New Zealand support.
| # | Provider | Score | Published price | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | RemotePeople | 9.2 | From US$199 pp/m | Lowest published rate, plus recruitment and incorporation |
| 2 | Deel | 8.7 | US$599 pp/m | Scale, tooling and the largest owned-entity network |
| 3 | Safeguard Global | 8.0 | Quote only | Enterprise programmes across many countries at once |
| 4 | Pebl formerly Velocity Global | 7.9 | US$399 pp/m | Mid-market buyers wanting a published mid-range rate |
| 5 | NZPEO | 7.8 | Quote only | Visa sponsorship — holds NZ Accredited Employer status |
| 6 | Employment Hero | 7.1 | Quote only | Holidays Act accuracy and NZ business hours |
| 7 | Rippling | 7.0 | Quote only | Consolidating HR, IT and payroll on one platform |
| 8 | Global Expansion (GX) | 6.5 | From US$850 pp/m | A genuine PEO option, plus the broadest claimed reach (214 countries) |
| 9 | People2.0 | 6.0 | Quote only | Staffing agencies and recruiters needing a white-label partner |
| 10 | Oyster | 5.8 | US$499–699 pp/m | Transparent pricing, but EOR only — not a true PEO |
Prices are the providers’ own published headline rates as at September 2026 and exclude statutory employer costs. No provider publishes an NZD rate, so every buyer carries FX exposure on the platform fee. “PEO” and “EOR” are used loosely across this category — only some of the providers below offer genuine co-employment for a company that already holds a New Zealand entity; the rest are EOR-only. Ask which model you are actually buying.
RemotePeople publishes the lowest headline rate of any provider here, backed by an owned New Zealand entity rather than a partner arrangement. It also offers recruitment and entity incorporation alongside EOR/PEO, so companies can move between hiring models as their New Zealand presence grows. Onboarding is published as a day-by-day sequence rather than a vague promise, and the service covers 150+ countries beyond New Zealand.
- Lowest published rate of the ten, from US$199 per employee per month
- Owns a live New Zealand entity rather than relying on a partner
- Published NZ onboarding timeline of 1–2 weeks, or 3–6 weeks where an Accredited Employer Work Visa is required
- Dedicated account management rather than a ticket queue
- 150+ countries, so the same contract covers hires well beyond New Zealand
- Also offers recruitment and entity incorporation services alongside EOR
- Lacks the integrations of some bigger providers like Deel
- NZ entity
- NZBN 9429051023157, registered January 2023
- Pricing
- Overall pricing from US$199 per employee per month; NZ-specific pricing not published
- Onboarding
- 1–2 weeks published
- Reviews
- G2 around 4.7
The largest provider in the category by revenue and by owned-entity count, with a New Zealand company registered since 2021 under the on-hire labour classification you would expect an EOR to use. Deel acquired Omnipresent in late 2025 and bought Safeguard Global’s enterprise payroll division in March 2025, which means several competitors now run partly on Deel infrastructure. The tooling is the best-resourced here.
- NZ-incorporated since 2021, classified on the register as employment services (on-hired staff)
- Over 250 owned legal entities worldwide
- Published flat rate of US$599 per employee per month
- Largest independent review base of the ten — G2 4.8 from over 6,000 reviews
- No evidence found of a New Zealand or Australian support office, phone number or support hours
- Deel is primarily an EOR; genuine PEO co-employment for an existing NZ entity is not its core offering
- NZ entity
- NZ company 8183052, registered May 2021
- Pricing
- US$599 per employee per month
- Onboarding
- Claims as little as 1–2 days
- Reviews
- G2 4.8 (6,088); Trustpilot 4.5 (9,256)
A long-established global payroll business with a New Zealand company registered since 2020 under the on-hire classification. It sold its enterprise payroll division to Deel in March 2025 and continues on Deel technology under agreement, so ask directly whose payroll engine runs your New Zealand pay cycle. Its own affiliate register lists a separate Australian vehicle for NZ employment, which is worth a question in any RFP.
- NZ-incorporated since 2020, classified as employment services (on-hired staff)
- Claims 187 countries with around 130 owned entities
- Realistic published onboarding for NZ of one to two weeks, rather than the “minutes” claims elsewhere
- Genuine enterprise track record on multi-country programmes
- No published pricing at all — the pricing page redirects to a calculator
- No evidence found of a dedicated New Zealand support office; support is Zendesk ticketing with no published hours
- NZ entity
- NZ company 7927756, registered April 2020
- Pricing
- Quote only
- Onboarding
- One to two weeks for NZ
- Reviews
- G2 4.3 (131); Trustpilot 4.2 (30)
Velocity Global rebranded to Pebl during 2026. Despite the name it is a US company, with a Delaware holding structure — but it owns a genuine New Zealand entity dating to February 2020, the second-oldest here. Its published US$399 rate sits usefully between RemotePeople’s entry price and the US$599 that Deel and others cluster on.
- NZ-incorporated since February 2020, second-longest NZ tenure of the ten
- Published headline rate of US$399 per employee per month
- 185+ countries claimed
- Strong G2 standing carried over from the Velocity Global product
- Support is platform, help centre and an AI assistant — no named account manager, and no evidence found of published NZ support hours
- Built as an EOR; check directly whether a genuine co-employment PEO option exists for New Zealand
- NZ entity
- NZ company 7875381, registered February 2020
- Pricing
- US$399 per employee per month
- Onboarding
- No verified NZ timeline
- Reviews
- G2 4.7 badge, count not published
NZPEO is the specialist New Zealand brand of ANZPEO, built solely for the Australia and New Zealand market rather than as one of a hundred-plus countries. It holds New Zealand Accredited Employer status, letting it sponsor Accredited Employer Work Visas, Specific Purpose and Talent visa pathways directly — a genuine differentiator almost no other provider on this list can match. The only New Zealand Companies Register entry we found is an Australian company registered as an overseas company.
- Holds NZ Accredited Employer status and can sponsor AEWV, Specific Purpose and Talent visas
- Specialist focus on only Australia and New Zealand, rather than 100+ countries
- Genuine dedicated account management, confirmed by independent review
- Wellington office on Lambton Quay, so real NZ-timezone coverage
- Covers two countries only — not useful if you are hiring beyond AU and NZ
- No published pricing; circulating figures are third-party estimates
- No G2, Trustpilot or Google review presence at all
- NZ registration
- Appears to be an overseas entity (Australia); overseas company number not confirmed, NZ registration March 2023
- Pricing
- Quote only
- Countries
- Australia and New Zealand
- Reviews
- None found on any public platform
Ranked sixth overall, but it wins an important criterion outright. Employment Hero is the only provider here with a real in-product Holidays Act calculator — the “greater of” test between ordinary weekly pay and average weekly earnings, a 52-week earnings import, rate-fixing at leave start, and the parental-leave carve-out. It is also the only one publishing New Zealand business hours and a +64 phone number. What pulls it down is commercial opacity around its fee model.
- Best Holidays Act tooling of any provider here, by a wide margin — and the only one that shows the actual calculation in-product
- IRD-approved, with automatic payday filing inside two working days
- The only provider publishing NZ support hours (8.30am–5.30pm Wellington) and an NZ phone number
- NZ corporate footprint dates to 2020 via its KeyPay entity
- Register classification is an on-hire code, not a software code — it really is an EOR, not just payroll software
- Two contradictory public fee models at once: 5% of payroll on one page, US$400–600 per employee per month on another
- AI-first support, with phone access gated to the top tier and an explicitly unmonitored support inbox
- Lowest Trustpilot score of the ten at 3.9, including a specific New Zealand complaint about onboarding in August 2026
- Built as an EOR; genuine PEO co-employment for an existing NZ entity is not confirmed
- NZ entity
- NZ company 8661609, registered April 2023
- Pricing
- Quote only; two conflicting published models
- Support
- NZ hours published, +64 numbers
- Reviews
- G2 4.4 (4,017); Trustpilot 3.9 (574)
Rippling is best understood as a unified workforce platform that happens to include EOR, rather than an EOR specialist. If a business is already consolidating HR, IT, device management and payroll onto one system, adding New Zealand headcount through the same platform is a genuine convenience rather than a bolt-on. It runs a real US PEO, though a co-employment PEO offering has not been confirmed for New Zealand specifically.
- One platform for HR, IT, finance and payroll, not just EOR — useful if consolidating tools is the goal
- NZ entity on the Companies Register since 2023
- Runs a genuine PEO model in its home US market
- Backed by substantial funding and a broad enterprise customer base
- No published New Zealand pricing; quote-based
- Best value shows up when adopting the wider platform, not EOR alone
- Genuine PEO co-employment for an existing NZ entity is not confirmed outside the US
- NZ entity
- NZ company 8073464, registered 2023
- Pricing
- Quote only
- Onboarding
- No verified NZ timeline
- Reviews
- G2 4.8 (3,000+, platform-wide)
Global Expansion has operated since 1999, making it one of the longest-running names in this list, and it is now part of Equus Software's global mobility group. It claims reach into 214 countries and territories, the broadest of any provider here, and unlike most on this list it explicitly offers a genuine PEO product alongside EOR for businesses that already hold their own New Zealand entity.
- Genuine PEO option, not just EOR, for companies with an existing NZ entity
- Broadest claimed country reach of any provider here, at 214
- Long operating history dating to 1999
- Published EOR pricing from US$850 per employee per month
- Thin independent review coverage — G2 shows a 4.9 rating from a single review, and Trustpilot 3.9 from 23
- No NZ entity found on the Companies Register; appears to operate as an overseas entity or through partners
- Highest published entry price of the ten at US$850 per employee per month
- NZ entity
- No NZ Companies Register entry found
- Pricing
- EOR from US$850 per employee per month; PEO by quote
- Onboarding
- No verified NZ timeline
- Reviews
- G2 4.9 (1); Trustpilot 3.9 (23)
People2.0 has built its business over decades through acquiring back-office and employer-of-record entities across 40+ countries, and it is worth understanding on its own terms: it is built for staffing agencies and recruiters who need a white-label back-office partner, rather than for a company hiring one New Zealand employee directly. If that is not your situation, the fit is likely to feel wrong regardless of price.
- Decades of accumulated back-office and compliance infrastructure across 40+ countries
- Purpose-built for staffing agencies and recruiters as a white-label partner
- Established, acquisition-built network rather than a recent market entrant
- Not aimed at companies hiring directly — the model assumes a staffing-agency or recruiter relationship
- No unified public platform in the way most competitors here present one
- Pricing available by request only, with almost no independent review coverage
- No NZ Companies Register entry found
- NZ entity
- No NZ Companies Register entry found
- Pricing
- By request
- Onboarding
- No verified NZ timeline
- Reviews
- G2 4.0 (1); Glassdoor 3.1 (107, company-wide)
Oyster is included here because it is frequently shortlisted alongside PEO providers, but it is worth being direct about what it actually is: an EOR, not a PEO. It has no co-employment product for a company that already holds a New Zealand entity, and by its own account it relies on third-party partners rather than owned infrastructure across parts of the Asia-Pacific region. Judged purely as an EOR it is well-funded and well-reviewed, with transparent published pricing.
- Transparent published pricing, from US$499 to US$699 per employee per month
- Strong review volume across G2, Trustpilot and Capterra
- Well-funded, having raised roughly US$286 million at a US$1.2 billion valuation
- EOR only — not a true PEO, so no co-employment option if you already hold an NZ entity
- Relies on third-party partners rather than owned infrastructure in parts of the Asia-Pacific region, by its own account
- No evidence found of an owned New Zealand entity behind its NZ entry
- NZ entity
- No evidence found of an owned NZ entity
- Pricing
- US$499–699 per employee per month
- Onboarding
- No verified NZ timeline
- Reviews
- G2 4.4 (1,040); Trustpilot 4.5 (249); Capterra 4.6 (91)
How we scored these providers
- Whether the provider offers genuine co-employment PEO for a company that already holds a New Zealand entity, not just EOR for companies that don't
- Published, verifiable pricing versus quote-only pricing
- Evidence of an owned New Zealand entity on the Companies Register, versus an overseas entity or no NZ registration found
- Demonstrated New Zealand Holidays Act, KiwiSaver and ACC handling in the actual product, not just a general payroll claim
- Published or evidenced New Zealand support hours, contacts, or account management
- Independent review volume and standing across G2, Trustpilot, Capterra and similar platforms
- Breadth of country coverage beyond New Zealand, for businesses planning to expand further
- Additional services genuinely offered alongside EOR/PEO, such as recruitment or entity incorporation
What we could not verify: several providers do not publish New Zealand-specific pricing, support hours, or onboarding timelines, and we have not independently confirmed entity ownership structures beyond what is publicly registered. Where we could not find evidence of something, we say so rather than assuming its absence. Verify current pricing and terms directly with each provider before deciding.