The best Employer of Record providers in Sri Lanka, ranked
Nine providers that can employ staff on your behalf in Sri Lanka, scored on what actually determines whether the arrangement works here: whether they employ through their own Sri Lankan company or a partner, how they handle the Termination of Employment of Workmen Act, whether they run EPF, ETF, APIT and gratuity accruals correctly, how plainly they explain their terms, and how they support you after signature. Sri Lanka is an open market for EOR with no dispatch licence to hold, which is the good news. The less good news is that once a hire passes 180 days of service the employer, not the client, owns one of the most protective termination regimes in Asia.
Quick verdict
RemotePeople is our pick — best for companies building a real Sri Lankan team who want a named contact on TEWA questions. Also worth a call: Deel for software-first teams with Sri Lanka as one of many countries, and ExroAsia for uK and European companies hiring several people and wanting local recruitment too.
Read this before the ranking
Sri Lanka does not regulate EOR as labour dispatch and there is no licence to check. What it does have is the Termination of Employment of Workmen (Special Provisions) Act No. 45 of 1971, known as TEWA. Where an employer has fifteen or more workers and the employee has completed 180 days of service, the employer cannot end the employment for any non-disciplinary reason — redundancy, restructuring, poor fit, the client losing the contract — without either the employee’s prior written consent or the prior written approval of the Commissioner General of Labour. Approval is slow, not guaranteed, and comes with compensation set by a gazetted formula that starts at two and a half months’ salary for each of the first five years of service. An EOR is, by definition, an employer with more than fifteen workers, so every EOR hire in Sri Lanka falls squarely inside TEWA once probation is over. In practice the exit route is a negotiated resignation or a mutual separation with a payment, and the cost of that payment is passed to you. The first question to ask any provider is how it handles a non-disciplinary exit after 180 days, what compensation it will budget, and whether its contract makes you liable for it.
How we scored, and what we could not verify
Every provider below was assessed against the same five criteria: own-entity presence in Sri Lanka, handling of TEWA and the Shop and Office Employees Act, payroll and statutory accuracy across EPF, ETF, APIT and gratuity, transparency, and support. Where a lower-ranked provider beats a higher-ranked one on a criterion, we say so on the page.
An honest limitation: Sri Lankan company records are held by the Department of the Registrar of Companies and are searchable through its eROC portal, but the search returns the company name and status, not who owns it or whom it employs. A global platform may hold a Colombo private limited company that exists mainly as a contracting shell, with payroll actually run by a local partner. Where a provider states that it employs through its own Sri Lankan entity we record that as a claim, and we recommend asking for the company registration number and the EPF employer registration number, and checking that the employer named on your hire’s EPF statement is the company you contracted with.
| # | Provider | Score | Sri Lanka footprint | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  RemotePeople | 9.2 | Employs directly in Sri Lanka; onboarding in two to five days | Companies building a real Sri Lankan team who want a named contact on TEWA questions |
| 2 |  Deel | 8.6 | Global platform; Sri Lanka served with a published cost model and local benefits | Software-first teams with Sri Lanka as one of many countries |
| 3 |  ExroAsia | 8.2 | Colombo-headquartered PEO, EOR and HR outsourcer; own operation | UK and European companies hiring several people and wanting local recruitment too |
| 4 |  Remote | 7.9 | Global platform; Sri Lanka in its country explorer with current minimum wage | Distributed teams that want stock options and a clean employee experience |
| 5 |  Skuad (Payoneer) | 7.6 | Singapore-founded, Payoneer-owned; Sri Lanka priced on its public list | Volume hiring in South Asia on a budget |
| 6 |  Multiplier | 7.3 | Singapore-headquartered platform; dedicated Sri Lanka guides | Asia-Pacific rollouts where Sri Lanka sits alongside India and South-east Asia |
| 7 |  SourceOne | 7.0 | Colombo BPO group (JFS BPO Services) with EOR and PEO lines | Back-office and support teams that may also want managed staffing |
| 8 |  G-P (Globalization Partners) | 6.7 | Global EOR, 180-plus countries; Sri Lanka covered | Enterprise buyers who need one vendor contract for the whole world |
| 9 |  Atlas HXM | 6.4 | Claims a direct entity in Sri Lanka as part of a 160-country direct model | Companies for whom the own-entity claim outweighs everything else |
Rankings reflect our assessment of each provider for hiring in Sri Lanka specifically. A provider ranked lower here may be the better choice if most of your hiring is elsewhere.
RemotePeople
Sri Lanka is a market most global platforms serve at arm’s length; RemotePeople runs it as a full EOR, onboarding new hires in two to five business days, paying in rupees, and handling EPF, ETF and PAYE, at fees in the US$300 to US$600 range it publishes, against the three to six months and US$15,000-plus of a BOI company. Founded in 2018 by Antoine Boquen and Pierre Pradier and headquartered in New York, with its Asia-Pacific business run from Singapore, the company has more than 250 staff across 30 countries and over 3,000 clients. It is clear about the Termination of Employment of Workmen Act, the point on which Sri Lankan employment differs most from its neighbours, and structures contracts and exits accordingly. Every client has a dedicated account manager backed by HR and employment specialists; recruitment, payroll for companies with their own entity, contractor management and incorporation sit alongside EOR. EOR Flex starts at US$199 per employee per month.
- Onboarding in two to five business days, with EPF, ETF and PAYE handled from the first payslip
- Clear on the Termination of Employment of Workmen Act and how to contract around it
- Dedicated account manager backed by HR and employment specialists
- Recruitment, payroll, contractor management and incorporation alongside EOR
- EOR Flex from US$199 per employee per month
- Fewer third-party integrations than Deel or Rippling
- Total cost depends on a quote; ask for the all-in figure including gratuity accrual
- Resident visa sponsorship for foreign hires is arranged case by case, as with every provider
- Sri Lanka entity
- Employs directly in Sri Lanka; EPF- and ETF-registered employer
- Regional base
- Singapore (Asia-Pacific HQ); global HQ New York
- Also offers
- Recruitment, global payroll, US PEO, contractor management, Contractor of Record, benefits and visa support, entity incorporation
- Operating since
- 2018
Deel
The best-known global platform and, for Sri Lanka, a competent one. Deel’s Sri Lanka page is unusually candid for a platform: it puts the employer cost at 15.6 per cent, itemised as 12 per cent EPF, 3 per cent ETF and a 0.6 per cent administrative charge for liability cover, and it lists gratuity as a built-in benefit alongside optional private health cover from Unisure and Allianz. The software — onboarding, payslips, expenses, equipment, HRIS — is the best in this comparison, and if you are hiring in fifteen countries this quarter it is hard to argue with. Two things hold it back here. Deel does not say on its Sri Lanka page whether the employing company is its own or a partner’s, and its guide still quotes the pre-2026 minimum wage. More importantly, support is asynchronous, and a TEWA exit is exactly the kind of problem a queue handles badly. ExroAsia and RemotePeople both know the Labour Department process from the inside; Deel will know it from a playbook.
- Best software, integrations and employee experience in this comparison
- Transparent published cost model for Sri Lanka including the liability surcharge
- Gratuity and private health benefits configurable from the dashboard
- One platform for contractors, EOR, payroll and HRIS worldwide
- Own-entity or partner status in Sri Lanka is not stated publicly
- Ticket-based support; TEWA separations need a person
- Some published Sri Lanka figures lag statutory changes
- Sri Lanka entity
- Not stated; ask whether your hire’s EPF employer is a Deel company or a partner
- Regional base
- Global; Asia-Pacific teams in Singapore and elsewhere
- Also offers
- Contractors, global payroll, HRIS, immigration
- Operating since
- 2019
ExroAsia
ExroAsia (Pvt) Ltd is a Sri Lankan company that does EOR as its main business rather than as one line among fifty countries, and it is the local specialist we would put in front of any client whose Sri Lankan team is going to be more than two or three people. It runs PEO, EOR, payroll, HR outsourcing and labour-law compliance from Colombo, adds recruitment across technology, finance and BPO roles, and has built a client base among UK scale-ups in particular; it states that it is the first Sri Lankan company to hold Cyber Essentials and IASME certification for UK data-security standards. On TEWA it beats every global platform here, because its people deal with the Labour Department week in, week out. Where it loses ground is breadth and polish: coverage outside Sri Lanka is recent and should be treated as partner-based until proven, there is no self-service platform to speak of, and the marketing copy is louder than the service warrants. Its claim of a Dubai office and 20-plus countries is its own; we have not verified it.
- Sri Lankan company employing Sri Lankan staff; no partner layer
- Real depth on TEWA, Wages Boards and gratuity, and a recruitment arm that knows Colombo salaries
- UK-aligned data-security certification, which matters to regulated European clients
- Competitive on price for a specialist
- No platform comparable to Deel or Remote; expect spreadsheets and email
- Multi-country claims are new and unverified; treat it as a Sri Lanka provider
- Founding date and headcount are not published
- Sri Lanka entity
- Own operation, ExroAsia (Pvt) Ltd, Colombo
- Regional base
- Colombo
- Also offers
- PEO, HR outsourcing, payroll, recruitment, remote IT staffing
- Operating since
- Not published
Remote
Remote built its reputation on employing through its own entities rather than partners, and on a clean employee experience that includes equity plans and a competitive benefits menu. Its Sri Lanka explorer page is current — it carries the Rs 30,000 minimum wage effective January 2026, which several competitors still get wrong — and it names the Shop and Office Employees Act, the Factories Ordinance and the Maternity Benefits Ordinance as the governing statutes. What it does not say is whether Sri Lanka is one of its owned-entity countries, and its public material is thinner on TEWA, gratuity and ETF than Deel’s or RemotePeople’s. Onboarding is fast for Sri Lankan nationals; a right-to-work check adds three days for anyone else, and payroll cut-off on the tenth of the month can push a start date. It is a strong choice for a distributed company with one or two Sri Lankan hires who care about stock options; less so for a company building a Colombo team of twenty.
- Owned-entity philosophy and a clean, well-liked platform
- Current statutory figures on its Sri Lanka page
- Equity and stock-option handling for Sri Lankan employees
- Transparent published global pricing
- Sri Lanka own-entity status not stated on the country page
- Little public detail on TEWA or gratuity handling
- Payroll cut-off dates constrain start dates
- Sri Lanka entity
- Not stated; ask
- Regional base
- Distributed; no Sri Lankan office
- Also offers
- Contractors, global payroll, HRIS, equity
- Operating since
- 2019
Skuad (Payoneer)
Skuad was built in Singapore for South and South-east Asia, and Sri Lanka is one of the few countries for which it publishes a headline price: a list rate of US$349 per employee per month, discounted towards US$199 on annual commitment and volume. That makes it the cheapest credible route into Sri Lanka on this page, and since the Payoneer acquisition it has the payment rails to pay rupee salaries without the correspondent-bank friction that still affects Sri Lankan transfers. Its Sri Lanka guide is long and broadly accurate on EPF, ETF, APIT and gratuity. The trade-offs are the usual ones for a volume platform: support is tiered, own-entity status in Sri Lanka is not disclosed, and the organisation is still settling after being folded into a much larger payments group. Worth a call for eight support agents in Colombo on a budget; less so for a senior hire with a five-year horizon.
- Published Sri Lanka pricing, the lowest on this page
- Built for South Asia; strong in India next door
- Payoneer’s rails for rupee payroll
- Own-entity or partner status in Sri Lanka not disclosed
- Discounted rate depends on volume and annual commitment
- Product and team still integrating into Payoneer
- Sri Lanka entity
- Not stated; likely partner-supported, ask
- Regional base
- Singapore
- Also offers
- Contractor payments, global payroll via Payoneer
- Operating since
- 2019; part of Payoneer since 2024
Multiplier
Multiplier is the other Singapore-built platform in this comparison and, like Skuad, it treats South Asia as home territory rather than an afterthought. Its Sri Lanka material is more careful than most: it is one of the few global providers to name the Wages Boards Ordinance, under which trade-specific wages boards can set minimum terms above the national floor, and it covers probation, working hours and termination policy in a way that suggests someone local has read it. Pricing is quoted rather than published for Sri Lanka, own-entity status is not stated, and support is platform-first with regional account teams rather than a named Colombo contact. It edges out SourceOne and G-P on software and Asia-Pacific footprint, and suits a plan that also covers India, the Philippines and Indonesia. On the ground in Colombo, ExroAsia and SourceOne will know more.
- Asia-Pacific headquarters and depth across South and South-east Asia
- Sri Lanka guides that acknowledge the Wages Boards regime
- Good platform for contracts, payroll and benefits across many countries
- Sri Lanka pricing on request only
- Own-entity status not disclosed
- No local presence; TEWA handled remotely
- Sri Lanka entity
- Not stated; ask
- Regional base
- Singapore
- Also offers
- Contractors, global payroll, HRIS, immigration support
- Operating since
- 2020
SourceOne
SourceOne is a Sri Lankan BPO that added EOR and PEO to a business built on virtual staffing and IT outsourcing, and it is refreshingly plain about its terms. It charges a fixed monthly fee per employee with separate service fees on off-payroll items such as bonuses and reimbursements, fixes the exchange rate annually so your rupee budget does not move with the currency, and states on its EOR page that termination carries one month’s notice during probation and three months after it, with compensation managed under TEWA. It holds ISO 27001:2022, which for a BPO handling client data is the right certificate to have. Its natural client is a company hiring finance, support or IT staff who may also want SourceOne to find and manage them. The limitations are scale — a hundred-odd staff and a single-country footprint — and the fact that EOR is one of six service lines rather than the core. It beats every global platform on transparency of terms; it does not match ExroAsia on EOR specialisation.
- Plain published terms: fixed monthly fee, annual fixed exchange rate, stated notice periods
- ISO 27001:2022 certified; Sri Lankan company employing Sri Lankan staff
- Recruitment, staffing and IT outsourcing under one roof
- Sri Lanka only; no use for a multi-country plan
- EOR is one line among several; the group is a BPO first
- Small team; confirm who handles Labour Department matters
- Sri Lanka entity
- Own company, JFS BPO Services (Pvt) Ltd, Colombo
- Regional base
- Colombo
- Also offers
- PEO, virtual staffing, RPO, IT staff augmentation
- Operating since
- 2014
G-P (Globalization Partners)
G-P more or less invented the modern EOR category and it remains the safe procurement choice for large companies that want one master agreement covering every country they might ever hire in, Sri Lanka included. Its Sri Lanka guide covers contracts, hours, holidays, bonuses and termination at the level of a five-minute read, which is honest about how much attention a market of this size gets inside a 180-country catalogue. Enterprise contracting, security review and legal support are all strong. The weaknesses for Sri Lanka specifically are cost — G-P has historically priced at the top of the market — and the absence of any local presence or published rupee-level detail on TEWA, gratuity or the Wages Boards. Own-entity status in Sri Lanka is not stated. If your procurement team has already approved G-P globally, adding a Colombo hire is easy; if Sri Lanka is the point, the providers above will serve you better for less.
- Enterprise-grade contracting, security and legal support
- 180-plus countries under one agreement
- Long track record and deep compliance bench
- Premium pricing; Sri Lanka quoted only after a sales cycle
- Thin public detail on Sri Lankan specifics
- Own-entity status in Sri Lanka not disclosed
- Sri Lanka entity
- Not stated; ask
- Regional base
- Boston; Asia-Pacific teams in Singapore and elsewhere
- Also offers
- Contractors, global payroll, entity advisory
- Operating since
- 2012
Atlas HXM
Atlas is on this list for one reason: it is the only global provider that states in writing that it employs in Sri Lanka through its own entity rather than a partner, as part of what it calls a 100 per cent direct model across 160-plus countries. If that holds up against the Registrar of Companies and the EPF record, it is a real advantage, because most of the platforms above will not say either way. We record it as Atlas’s claim. Against that, the Sri Lanka employment-law page on its own site was last updated in 2023 and its published guidance is generic; the platform is serviceable rather than distinctive; and it has no local presence, so TEWA questions are answered from abroad. Onboarding is quoted at around two weeks, slower than RemotePeople or Deel. It suits a company for whom the own-entity assurance outweighs software, price and local knowledge, and which is prepared to verify that assurance before signing.
- Explicit own-entity claim for Sri Lanka, which few global providers make
- Direct model means one point of accountability if the claim is verified
- Broad global coverage
- Sri Lanka guidance last updated in 2023; check every figure
- No local presence; slower onboarding than the leaders
- Verify the entity claim against the registry and your hire’s EPF statement
- Sri Lanka entity
- Own entity (claimed)
- Regional base
- Global; no Sri Lankan office
- Also offers
- Contractors (Agent of Record), global payroll
- Operating since
- 2015 as Elements Global Services; rebranded Atlas in 2022
How we scored
- Own-entity presence in Sri LankaWhether the provider employs your hire through a Sri Lankan company it owns, or through a local partner it subcontracts to. Two of the nine are Sri Lankan companies; one global provider claims a direct entity; the rest do not say. Partners are acceptable when named, but a partner layer is one more party between you and a TEWA negotiation.
- Handling of TEWA and the Shop and Office Employees ActWhether the provider can explain, before signature, what happens when you want to end a non-disciplinary employment after 180 days: consent, Commissioner approval, the gazetted compensation formula and its Rs 2.5 million cap, and who pays. We also looked for awareness of the Wages Boards Ordinance, which can set trade-specific minimums above the national floor.
- Payroll and statutory accuracyEPF at 12 per cent employer and 8 per cent employee, remitted to the Central Bank’s EPF Department; ETF at 3 per cent to the ETF Board; APIT withheld monthly under the Inland Revenue Act with the Rs 1.8 million annual tax-free threshold; gratuity accrued at half a month per year for payment on exit after five years; overtime at one and a half times; and the Rs 30,000 national minimum wage from January 2026.
- TransparencyWhether fees, exchange-rate treatment, notice periods and TEWA liability are set out before a sales cycle. RemotePeople, Deel, Skuad and SourceOne publish the most; G-P and Multiplier publish the least.
- SupportWhether there is a named person who knows your account and can sit in front of the Labour Department if needed, or a queue. The Colombo firms and RemotePeople win here; the platforms are competent but asynchronous.
Frequently asked questions
Is Employer of Record legal in Sri Lanka?
Yes. Sri Lanka has no labour-dispatch statute and no licence requirement for a company that employs staff and places them with a client, so an EOR operates under ordinary employment law: the Shop and Office Employees Act for office, retail and service staff, the Wages Boards Ordinance for trades with a wages board, the EPF and ETF Acts, the Payment of Gratuity Act and TEWA. The employee is the EOR’s employee in law and yours in practice. What Sri Lankan law does not do is let the EOR shed its obligations because the client changed its mind; that is why TEWA sits at the centre of this page. See our guide to where EOR is legal across Asia.
What does an EOR cost in Sri Lanka?
Three layers. First, salary in rupees. Second, statutory employer contributions of 15 per cent of gross — 12 per cent to the Employees’ Provident Fund and 3 per cent to the Employees’ Trust Fund — plus a gratuity accrual of roughly 4.2 per cent that most providers hold against the half-month-per-year liability that crystallises after five years. Third, the EOR fee, which ranges from around US$200 a month at the volume end (Skuad) through US$300–600 (RemotePeople’s published band) to considerably more at the enterprise providers. Deel adds a 0.6 per cent liability surcharge. There is no statutory thirteenth-month salary, but an annual bonus is customary in many sectors and some wages boards mandate one, so budget for it. Our employer-cost comparison puts Sri Lanka among the cheaper markets in Asia on contributions.
Can an EOR sponsor a work visa in Sri Lanka?
In principle yes, in practice with effort. Foreign nationals need a residence visa in the employment category from the Department of Immigration and Emigration, and the application must be sponsored by the Sri Lankan employer with a recommendation from either the Board of Investment, for BOI-approved companies, or the relevant line ministry. An EOR that holds BOI status has the smoother route; one that does not will go through the ministry recommendation, and processing commonly takes six to twelve weeks. Not every provider on this page will do it — the Colombo firms and RemotePeople say they will; several platforms restrict Sri Lankan EOR hires to nationals and residents. Sri Lanka also introduced a digital nomad visa, but that is for people employed abroad and does not substitute for employment sponsorship.
How long can an employee stay on EOR in Sri Lanka?
Indefinitely. There is no statutory limit on the duration of an EOR employment, no cap on the proportion of a client’s workforce that can be employed this way and no restriction on role types, unlike China, Korea or Vietnam. The practical limit is economic: once a Sri Lankan team passes ten or fifteen people, the accumulated gratuity and TEWA exposure sitting on the provider’s books, and the fee you are paying for it, start to argue for your own entity. Several providers here — RemotePeople, ExroAsia, and the corporate-services route generally — will help you incorporate and transfer the staff when that point comes. Structure the transfer as a continuation so service for gratuity and TEWA is preserved.
How do probation and termination work in Sri Lanka?
Probation is not defined in statute for shop and office employees but six months is customary, and the figure is not accidental: TEWA protection applies to a workman with 180 days of service in an employer with fifteen or more staff. During probation the employer can end the contract for unsuitability on the contractual notice. After it, a disciplinary dismissal for proven misconduct remains possible with due process, but any non-disciplinary termination requires the employee’s written consent or the Commissioner General of Labour’s written approval, with compensation under the 2005 gazetted formula: two and a half months’ salary per year for the first five years, two months for years six to fourteen, then tapering, capped at Rs 2.5 million. There is no statutory notice period; one month is customary, and providers such as SourceOne write three months post-probation into their contracts. Gratuity of half a month’s salary per year is payable on any exit after five years’ service. Our employment-law guide compares this with the rest of the region.
Should we use an EOR or set up our own company in Sri Lanka?
For fewer than about ten people, or for anything you are not sure will last, use an EOR. A private limited company through the Registrar of Companies is not difficult in itself, but it brings a resident director or company secretary requirement, annual filings, EPF and ETF employer registration, APIT registration with the Inland Revenue Department, and a bank account in a system that still applies exchange controls under the Foreign Exchange Act. A BOI-approved company adds incentives and a smoother visa route but a longer approval. The 2024–2026 recovery has made the case for a Sri Lankan presence stronger — growth has returned under the IMF programme, inflation has come down from its 2022 peak and the rupee has been far more stable than it was — but exchange-rate risk has not gone away, which is one reason SourceOne fixes its rate annually and why you should ask every provider how it converts your dollars or pounds into rupee payroll. See our regional guide to the best EOR providers in Asia and to employee benefits across the region.
Not sure which provider fits?
Tell us how many people, which roles and how soon, and we will point you to the two or three providers worth talking to in Sri Lanka — without passing your details to any of them.
Ask usSources
- Sri Lanka, Termination of Employment of Workmen (Special Provisions) Act No. 45 of 1971, as amended; Gazette Extraordinary No. 1384/7 of 15 March 2005 (compensation formula); Department of Labour, Termination of Employment Branch.
- Sri Lanka, Shop and Office Employees (Regulation of Employment and Remuneration) Act No. 19 of 1954, as amended; Wages Boards Ordinance No. 27 of 1941; Factories Ordinance; Maternity Benefits Ordinance.
- Sri Lanka, Employees’ Provident Fund Act No. 15 of 1958 (Central Bank of Sri Lanka, EPF Department); Employees’ Trust Fund Act No. 46 of 1980 (ETF Board); Payment of Gratuity Act No. 12 of 1983.
- Sri Lanka, National Minimum Wage of Workers Act No. 3 of 2016, as amended by Act No. 11 of 2025; Inland Revenue Act No. 24 of 2017 and Inland Revenue Department APIT tables effective April 2025.
- Department of Immigration and Emigration, residence visa (employment category) requirements; Board of Investment of Sri Lanka, guidance for foreign employees of BOI enterprises.
- Department of the Registrar of Companies, eROC company search; International Monetary Fund, Sri Lanka Extended Fund Facility programme reviews 2023–2026.
- Provider websites and published documentation, reviewed September 2026.