Working with external contractors and freelancers around the world has become standard practice for businesses today. But the more contractors you hire, the heavier the burden on your internal teams.
Legal teams draft contracts for different jurisdictions, often bringing in outside consultants. Operations managers spend their days coordinating across platforms, chasing deadlines, and assigning new work. Finance teams process hundreds of payments each month, with every contractor preferring something different – bank transfers for some, e-wallets for others, cryptocurrency for a few.
We’ve built a solution that makes working with contractors worldwide genuinely simple.
What Is Contractor Management?
Contractor Management is a platform that automates how you work with external contractors. Create and sign contracts, process payments, and leave the paperwork behind – document management runs on autopilot.
Contractor Management works best when:
Your contractors operate as independent professionals or companies (sole proprietors, self-employed individuals, legal entities)
You’re working in standard jurisdictions without unusual restrictions on contractor engagement (for more complex markets, Contractor of Record is the better option – more on that shortly)
Your priorities are speed, maintaining control of the process, and keeping operational costs low
We designed Mellow Contractor Management precisely for these situations – to give you flexible, efficient contractor operations no matter where your people are located.
How It Works
Here’s the process:
Invite a contractor to the platform
Choose your contract type – fixed rate (one total amount) or milestone-based (pay as stages are completed)
Set the payment schedule – monthly, biweekly, or weekly
Sign the contract – both you and the contractor sign directly in the platform
Payments go out automatically once the work or milestone is completed
What It Costs
Pricing is straightforward: €35 per contractor per month. No hidden fees, no per-transaction charges, no surprise additions on your invoice. Your expenses stay predictable, and you can plan your budget with confidence.
When Contractor Management Makes Sense
You want to manage global contractors directly, with automation that doesn’t sacrifice control
You’re hiring under direct contracts rather than employment relationships, and you don’t want intermediaries involved
Your business is expanding into new regions and you’d rather not spend time on manual contractor administration
You need reliable payments to contractors in any currency, without delays or unexpected complications
You’re paying multiple contractors and want to keep costs down while maintaining flexibility
Contractor Management vs. Contractor of Record
Mellow offers both options so you can choose what fits each situation – or use them together.
Contractor Management (CM): Your company contracts directly with each contractor and sets the working terms. You get the infrastructure – one unified system for contracts, payments, task management, status updates, and administration. It makes managing distributed teams much easier, but the legal relationship remains between you and each contractor.
Contractor of Record (CoR): Instead of direct contracts, you work through a subcontracting arrangement. Your company signs a single contract with the provider, and the provider contracts with your contractors on your behalf. This approach reduces misclassification risk, allows you to operate safely in countries with complex regulations, and handles compliance requirements for you.
The short version: CM – for maximum flexibility at the lowest cost. CoR – for legal protection, especially in markets with strict labor laws.
Many companies use both – CM for routine work, CoR for situations that require extra protection.
Choosing Between CM and CoR
Both accomplish the same goal – they allow you to work with people anywhere in the world. They just do it differently. You can choose the right approach for each market or contractor.
When CM is the right choice: Your company wants direct relationships with contractors and wants to control rates, timelines, and terms. CM works well for teams scaling quickly who don’t want to establish legal entities in every country and need to keep operational costs manageable. Onboarding, invoicing, and payments all happen automatically, you can connect contractors in minutes, and it costs less than CoR. The tradeoff: your company remains responsible for proper contractor classification.
When you need CoR: You’re in situations where legal protection and compliance matter most – long-term contracts, jurisdictions with complex rules, high risk of misclassification, or you simply don’t have labor law expertise in-house. The provider handles registration, compliance, and the contractual relationships, effectively acting as the legal employer for your contractors.
If you need to hire people quickly in multiple countries without excessive administrative burden, CM is usually the answer. When you’re dealing with jurisdictions that have strict regulations, or you want to avoid misclassification risk entirely, CoR makes more sense. In practice, most companies combine both – using CM as the default and switching to CoR for complex jurisdictions.
Most companies work with the majority of their contractors through Contractor Management under direct contracts. They turn to Contractor of Record selectively – for instance, with European contractors where misclassification risk is higher, or in countries like Argentina where local requirements make direct engagement more difficult.
One Platform for Everything: From Finding Talent to Paying Them
Mellow’s ecosystem covers the entire contractor lifecycle.
Find talent: Our free Scout service helps you locate contractors around the world quickly.
Pay and manage: Contractor Management automates your global contractor operations. Onboard contractors, manage their work, and pay them – quickly, transparently, and without legal complexity.
When you need to work with contractors in challenging jurisdictions, switch to the Contractor of Record model. You get added protection: a local legal entity handles registration according to that country’s rules, and the compliance burden shifts away from your company.
Your entire process becomes streamlined – from finding contractors to paying them regularly – without juggling multiple tools or handling things manually. Your team can stop managing administrative chaos and focus on growing the business.
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