Author: Hasan Can Soygök, Founder, Remotify
Company as a service is not a new idea. Sweden’s Frilans Finans has operated this model since 1999, serving over 150,000 freelancers and processing roughly 145 million euros in annual turnover. What is new is the explosive convergence of regulatory pressure, cross-border freelancing growth, and digital infrastructure that is turning company as a service from a Nordic niche into a global necessity.
The concept is straightforward. The platform invoices the client on the freelancer’s behalf under its own legal entity, collects payment, deducts its fee and applicable taxes, then pays out the freelancer. The freelancer never needs to register a company, obtain a VAT number, or navigate local business bureaucracy.
Five Models of Company as a Service
Several distinct models have emerged within the company as a service space, each with different legal structures and cost implications.
The Merchant of Record model, used by platforms like Remotify and Xolo Go, has the platform “buy” the freelancer’s services and “resell” them to the client. The invoice sits between the platform and the client. The freelancer is a supplier to the platform, not an employee.
The Nordic Self-Employment Company model, used by Cool Company and Frilans Finans, makes the freelancer a temporary employee of the platform for each assignment. The platform handles employer contributions, pension, insurance, and taxes. This provides genuine employment protections at higher cost.
The French Portage Salarial model creates a tripartite relationship where the freelancer holds an employment contract with an umbrella company. The Agent of Record model, used by Abillio, provides the platform’s legal entity and VAT infrastructure to freelancers with explicit company as a service positioning. Then there is the Contractor of Record model, used by Deel, where the platform hires the contractor on the client’s behalf.
Each version of this model solves the same core problem differently. What matters is that the problem itself is growing fast.
Why 40 Million Digital Nomads Need Company as a Service
The demand drivers are intensifying across multiple fronts. Germany’s Scheinselbständigkeit regulations generated roughly 487 million euros in retroactive social insurance claims during 2023 alone. Average costs per affected freelancer range from 45,000 to 120,000 euros for 2 to 3 years of retroactive contributions. German companies increasingly refuse to engage freelancers directly without an umbrella or company as a service intermediary.
The Netherlands lifted its DBA Act enforcement moratorium in January 2025. An estimated 32 percent of new Dutch freelancers make critical compliance errors in their first year. France caps auto-entrepreneur revenue at 83,600 euros for services, forcing successful freelancers into a complex tax regime. The UK umbrella market has grown 14 percent annually since 2015, though a major regulatory crackdown arrives in April 2026.
Meanwhile, 40 million digital nomads globally contribute an estimated 787 billion dollars annually to the world economy. Over 64 countries now offer dedicated digital nomad visas. These workers inherently operate across jurisdictions where they lack business registration. Company as a service exists precisely for them.
The Price War Is Heating Up
The competitive landscape in company as a service is experiencing intense price competition. Juuli offers dynamic pricing starting at 2 percent per invoice. Remotify starts at 2.5 percent. WorkNode FLEX charges 3.95 percent. Useme takes 4.99 percent with a monthly cap. Abillio and Ruul both charge 5 percent, though Ruul users have reported effective rates of 7 to 8 percent after all deductions.
The Nordic employment-model company as a service platforms charge premiums. Cool Company sits at 5.98 percent and Frilans Finans at roughly 6 percent. Those higher fees include employer-level benefits like insurance, pension, sick pay, and holiday pay.
This pricing divide reveals a fundamental market segmentation within the CaaS space. The reseller-style platforms offer lower fees but no social safety net. The Nordic employment-model platforms provide genuine protections at higher cost. Both serve real needs, and the market has room for both.
In terms of scale, the Frilans Finans group leads with 150,000 plus freelancers and over 1 million invoices created. Ruul claims 120,000 users. Cool Company reports 100,000 contractors served. These are not small experiments. The model is established infrastructure.
How Company as a Service Intersects With EU Regulation
The relationship between company as a service and the EU Platform Work Directive is strategically important. The Nordic umbrella model, where the freelancer IS an employee of the platform with social insurance and pension, completely sidesteps the directive’s employment presumption. There is no bogus self-employment because employment IS the legal structure.
The reseller model carries slightly more nuance. If the company as a service relationship is superficial and the platform provides no real employer functions beyond invoicing, tax authorities could look through the arrangement. The key variable is whether the platform provides genuine substance to the intermediary relationship.
On the DAC7 compliance side, company as a service platforms that handle the invoicing relationship already collect the seller data required for tax reporting across multiple countries. Building robust reporting turns a regulatory burden into a trust signal.
EOR Giants Are Not Competing for This Market
A critical insight: established Employer of Record companies like Deel, Remote, and Oyster HR approach from the employer side, not the freelancer side. Deel offers contractor management at 49 dollars per month per contractor and Contractor of Record at 325 dollars per month per contractor.
True company as a service is freelancer-initiated. The freelancer comes to the platform, brings their own client, and uses the platform’s infrastructure to issue a compliant invoice. EOR contractor management is client-initiated. The hiring company uses the platform to pay freelance contractors it has already engaged. These are fundamentally different user journeys and value propositions.
Company as a Service Is Permanent Infrastructure
The evidence overwhelmingly supports company as a service as permanent infrastructure rather than a temporary workaround. Frilans Finans has operated for 25 years and expanded across 25 countries. UK umbrella company usage grows 14 percent annually. Regulatory complexity from the Platform Work Directive, DAC7, and country-specific enforcement is increasing rather than decreasing.
With 76.4 million US freelancers projected to exceed 90 million by 2028, and freelancers expected to represent over 50 percent of the US workforce by 2027 to 2028, the gap between formal employment and independent work keeps widening. Company as a service fills that gap. The era of informal cross-border freelance payments is ending, and company as a service is what comes next.