MSA Asia review: Employer of Record in China
A Shanghai-founded corporate-services firm whose China EOR grew out of fifteen years of incorporating WFOEs and running their books. This review covers how it employs, where it operates, what it costs, how service runs and what its clients say.
Quick verdict
MSA Asia is the China EOR to choose when you already suspect the EOR is a first step towards your own entity. The people who file your hire’s individual income tax and social insurance are the people who will incorporate your WFOE later, and the firm’s written explanations of dispatch and outsourcing are the clearest in our ranking. What you give up is a platform and a rate card: onboarding and pricing run through an adviser.
Scorecard
Five criteria, weighted as in the Best EOR China ranking. The regulatory criterion carries the most weight.
Own offices in Shanghai and Beijing; the employing entity is confirmed per city before signature
Clearest published explanation of dispatch, FESCOs and the ten per cent cap in this ranking
City-by-city social insurance and housing fund tracking by a payroll practice that also serves WFOE clients
Published entry prices exist but differ between pages; the real number arrives in a written proposal
Dedicated China HR specialist; team works in English, German, French, Dutch and Mandarin
- Own offices in Shanghai and Beijing with an incorporation, accounting, tax and payroll bench behind the EOR
- Smoothest EOR-to-WFOE path in our ranking, because the same firm does both and moves staff on to direct contracts routinely
- Clear written explanations of labour dispatch, FESCOs and outsourcing, and candid about where dispatch is unsuitable
- Dedicated China HR specialist for every EOR client, with work permit and Z-visa support from the mobility team
- 1,500-plus international clients since 2011; G2 reviews cluster at 4.5 and 5 out of 5
- Western management with a multilingual team: English, German, French, Dutch and Mandarin
- No self-service platform or employee app; onboarding, payslips and leave run through your adviser
- Published entry prices are inconsistent: US$199 per employee per month on one part of the EOR page and US$800 on another. Get the figure in writing
- Coverage stops at its own footprint: China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and India. No Japan, Korea or the Philippines
- Confirm which company employs your hire in each city, and under which regime, before you sign
Good fit if you
- Expect to set up a WFOE within one to three years and want the same adviser throughout
- Want accounting, tax and payroll from the firm that employs your staff
- Hire a handful of people in Shanghai, Beijing or another major city
- Prefer a named adviser and email over a self-service dashboard
Look elsewhere if you
- Need a platform with employee self-service and integrations
- Are hiring across Asia beyond MSA’s nine markets
- Want a published rate card before you talk to anyone
Entity and China footprint
MSA Asia is a corporate-services firm first, so its footprint is a network of advisory offices rather than a single employing company. It confirms the employing entity for each hire by city before the contract is drafted.
| Location | Status | Address | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shanghai | Own office · HQ | No. 668 East Beijing Road, Shanghai | Headquarters; EOR, payroll, accounting and incorporation teams |
| Beijing | Own office | Beijing | North China advisory and payroll |
| Hong Kong SAR | Own office | Hong Kong | Hong Kong company registration, accounting and EOR |
| Singapore | Own office | Singapore | South-east Asia hub |
| Other mainland cities | Served from Shanghai and Beijing | Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Xiamen, Nanjing and more than 100 cities in all | Incorporation and payroll support on the ground; employing entity confirmed per city |
| Taiwan, Macau, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, India | Local teams | Country sites under msadvisory.com | EOR in Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand since June 2026; advisory elsewhere |
Eleven offices across nine Asia-Pacific jurisdictions; 56 local experts. Member of the GGI international alliance of independent accounting and advisory firms.
Which hiring regime your staff fall under
China has no statute that mentions “Employer of Record”. Providers place staff either under labour dispatch (劳务派遣), where a licensed agency signs the contract and dispatched staff are capped at 10 per cent of the host’s workforce, or labour outsourcing (劳务外包), where the provider employs the person directly and delivers a service. MSA Asia sets out both routes in plain language on its own site, including the FESCO model and the limits of dispatch for permanent, core roles, and it will tell you which one your hire will sit under before you sign. That candour is why it scores highly on the regulatory criterion despite not being a single-entity employer like the provider ranked above it.
Pricing
| Service | Fee | Includes | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| China EOR | From US$199 per employee per month, with US$800 cited elsewhere on the same page; confirm in writing | Labour contract, monthly payroll, IIT withholding, social insurance and housing fund, dedicated HR specialist, onboarding and offboarding | Small teams testing the market |
| Work permits and Z visas | Quoted | Foreigner’s Work Permit Notification Letter, Z-visa application, residence permit | Foreign nationals relocating to China |
| Recruitment | Quoted | Sourcing, interviewing and onboarding through the firm’s recruitment agency | Hires you have not yet found |
| WFOE incorporation and transition | Quoted | Entity set-up, bank account, tax registration and transfer of EOR staff to direct contracts | Teams graduating from EOR |
| Gross monthly salary | RMB 30,000 |
| Employer pension (16 %) | RMB 4,800 |
| Employer medical incl. maternity (10 %) | RMB 3,000 |
| Unemployment and work injury (≈ 0.7 %) | RMB 210 |
| Housing provident fund (7 %) | RMB 2,100 |
| Provider fee (per written proposal) | RMB 1,420 to 5,700 |
| Monthly cost to you | ≈ RMB 41,500 to 45,800 |
Illustrative. Shanghai 2026 employer rates on a base within the local floor and cap. Fee range spans the two published entry prices at RMB 7.13 to the US dollar.
- Salary, employer social insurance and housing fund, passed through at cost
- Statutory severance of one month’s pay per year of service on termination
- Work permit, visa and recruitment services, quoted separately
- Accounting, tax filing and WFOE incorporation, on separate engagement letters
- A thirteenth-month payment, customary though not mandatory
Service and platform
How service runs
Every EOR client gets a dedicated China HR specialist as a single local contact. Contracts are drafted with IP assignment and non-compete clauses, payroll is processed and paid on your chosen date, and city-specific social insurance rates are tracked by the same payroll team that serves the firm’s WFOE clients. Onboarding of a first hire takes days rather than weeks. The team is Western-managed and bilingual, with partners who work in English, German, French, Dutch and Mandarin.
Platform
- Onboarding
- Adviser-led; contracts by email and e-signature
- Payslips
- Bilingual, monthly, by email
- Leave and expenses
- Tracked by the HR specialist; no employee app
- Reporting
- Monthly cost reports formatted for HQ consolidation
- Languages
- English, German, French, Dutch, Mandarin
| Capability | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Employ through own Chinese company | Confirm per city | Own offices in Shanghai and Beijing; employing entity named in the proposal |
| Hong Kong hiring | Yes | Own Hong Kong office; clients use it to enter Hong Kong and China together |
| Recruitment | Yes | Through the firm’s China recruitment agency |
| WFOE incorporation and EOR-to-entity transfer | Yes | The firm’s core business since 2011 |
| Work permits for foreign hires | Yes | Global mobility team handles the permit and Z-visa process |
| Self-service platform | No | Adviser-led model |
What users say
EOR reviewers on G2 describe a team that knows local employment law in detail and keeps the client compliant without needing much input.Recurring theme across G2 EOR and HR reviews
Several clients used the EOR to enter Hong Kong and mainland China first, then had the same firm set up their subsidiary and move staff across, which is the path MSA is built for.G2 reviews, EOR and HR category
One team of five engineers was onboarded through the PEO route within two weeks; clients switching from another EOR report lower cost and better service after the move.G2 reviews, EOR and HR category
Alternatives in China
| Provider | Operating model | Consider when | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| RemotePeople | Own Chinese entity; Shanghai HQ and four registered branches | You want the EOR’s own company on the contract, a published fee and a platform | 9.2 |
| Dezan Shira & Associates | Pan-Asia advisory since 1992 | You want tax and legal advice attached to the hire across more of Asia | 7.4 |
| CIIC | Central state-owned enterprise; licensed dispatch in 400-plus cities | You want a state-owned employer on the contract and have a large headcount | 6.5 |
See the full Best EOR China ranking
MSA Asia is the adviser’s EOR. It will not give you a dashboard, and it should give you one price rather than two, but if your China plan ends in a WFOE it is the firm most likely to get you there without changing hands, with the books, tax filings and payroll already in order when you arrive.
Frequently asked questions
Who signs my employee’s contract?
MSA Asia confirms the employing entity for each hire by city in its proposal. Ask for the company name and unified social credit code before you sign, and whether the hire sits under dispatch or outsourcing.
Which price is right, US$199 or US$800?
Both figures appear on the firm’s EOR page as of October 2026. Treat the written proposal as the price; the difference usually reflects headcount, city and the services bundled in.
Can I move my EOR staff to my own WFOE later?
Yes, and this is the firm’s strongest use case. It incorporates the WFOE, opens the bank account and tax registrations, and moves employees on to direct contracts with continuous service.
Does it cover countries outside China?
Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and India through local teams, with EOR in Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand since June 2026. Not Japan, Korea or the Philippines.
Can it sponsor a work permit for a foreign employee?
Its global mobility team handles the work permit notification letter, Z visa and residence permit. Eligibility still depends on the city, the role and the employing entity, so raise it early.
How we reviewed
We read the firm’s EOR, PEO, labour dispatch and pricing pages, its office and team listings, the June 2026 expansion announcement and the 32 G2 reviews it publishes. Scores follow the same five criteria and weights as the Best EOR China ranking. We update this review when pricing, entities or coverage change.
Sources
- MSA Asia, Employer of Record China, retrieved 18 October 2026
- MSA Asia, PEO and labour dispatch in China
- MSA Asia, offices, team and client reviews
- MSA Asia expands EOR services across Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand, June 2026