Remote

Maintain employee records and leave approvals without payroll or employer-of-record services

NOT REALLY · consider alternatives
price $29/mo per seatsubscription / year $348estimated build time closest consolation build: one sittingreplaced by 0 people

A consolation build is possible, but the paid product's decisive value sits outside a solo rebuild. For Remote, maintain employee records and leave approvals without payroll or employer-of-record services. The hard boundary is global entities, payroll, benefits, compliance, payments, and employment expertise, plus compliance, payroll, and regulated integrations.

Build verification: not recorded. How we judge buildability

What you give up

  • global entities, payroll, benefits, compliance, payments, and employment expertise
  • payroll rails
  • tax and labor-law compliance
  • benefits integrations
  • identity checks and global employment infrastructure

Why people still pay

People still pay for Remote because HR platforms survive because mistakes affect pay, benefits, immigration, and legal obligations, not because forms are difficult to render. The recurring cost buys sensitive data, access, retention, audit, payroll calculations, filings, benefits, employment law, incident response, and support, not just the visible interface.

Your build guide

The stack, security requirements, and agent rules for a focused replacement.

Before you start

  • PostgreSQL
  • private self-hosted deployment
  • strict admin access
  • documented retention policy
01
Use Next.js 15, TypeScript, PostgreSQL, Drizzle ORM, and Docker Compose.
02
Model employees, leave requests, approval decisions, policy versions, and audit events; keep stable source IDs and timestamps.
03
Interface for this HR, recruiting, payroll and workforce operations workflow: a local web page with input, progress, review, and export views.
engineering roadmap

Implementation plan

1

Phase 1, architecture and data

Use Next.js 15, TypeScript, PostgreSQL, Drizzle ORM, and Docker Compose. Model employees, leave requests, approval decisions, policy versions, and audit events; keep stable source IDs and timestamps.

2

Phase 2, implement

Implement employees, teams, roles, documents, leave requests, equipment, onboarding tasks, and acknowledgements.

3

Phase 3, implement

Add approval workflows, expiry reminders, export, retention, deletion holds, and encrypted backups.

4

Phase 4, review and output

Keep compensation fields optional and never calculate payroll, taxes, benefits, or statutory filings. Add approval workflows, expiry reminders, export, retention, deletion holds, and encrypted backups.

5

Phase 5, recovery and acceptance

Ship Docker Compose, health checks, disaster recovery, and an emergency-access procedure. Verify this invariant with a saved fixture: A rejected or withdrawn request cannot change the approved balance; a policy edit must not rewrite past decisions. State the practical limit: global entities, payroll, benefits, compliance, payments, and employment expertise.

the pro prompt
Build me a focused HR, recruiting, payroll and workforce operations workflow for the personal core of Remote. Requirements:

- Use Next.js 15, TypeScript, PostgreSQL, Drizzle ORM, and Docker Compose. Model employees, leave requests, approval decisions, policy versions, and audit events; keep stable source IDs and timestamps.
- Paid product context: Maintain employee records and leave approvals without payroll or employer-of-record services. Build only this DIY scope: Maintain employee records and leave approvals, track non-sensitive people operations, and export data without calculating payroll or providing employer-of-record services.
- Implement employees, teams, roles, documents, leave requests, equipment, onboarding tasks, and acknowledgements.
- Add approval workflows, expiry reminders, export, retention, deletion holds, and encrypted backups.
- Keep compensation fields optional and never calculate payroll, taxes, benefits, or statutory filings.
- Use a local web page with input, progress, review, and export views. Required input or access: private self-hosted deployment; strict admin access.
- Recovery: Ship Docker Compose, health checks, disaster recovery, and an emergency-access procedure.
- Acceptance: with one labelled sample, show the input, saved intermediate state, and exported result; verify this invariant: A rejected or withdrawn request cannot change the approved balance; a policy edit must not rewrite past decisions.
- Out of scope: global entities, payroll, benefits, compliance, payments, and employment expertise; payroll rails. Keep this a personal, inspectable workflow.
- Include a README with setup, a sample input, required keys or permissions, data location, and the supported scope.

$ open in your agent (prompt prefilled, you press enter), copy the prompt or copy AGENTS.md · generated from this app's build plan

share on X ↗

Alternatives to building your own

Frappe HRA complete HR suite without the license bill; the server, backups and upgrades are now in your job description.8.5kaug 2026open source↗Horilla HRHire-to-leave HR in Docker; free forever means you own the updates and backups.1.4kjul 2026open source↗OrangeHRM StarterThe old-school HR suite: records, leave, attendance and approvals, with a real server and no fashion budget.1.1kjun 2026open source↗

all 4 free alternatives to Remote →· no votes, no pay-to-list · just what's real

Remote pricing

planmonthlyannual (per mo)what you get
employer of record$699/user—$699 per employee/month in 90+ countries; HR Essentials included
payroll$29/user—$29 per employee/month; HR Core included
contractor management$29/user—$29 per active contractor/month; HR Core included
contractor management plus$99/user—$99 per active contractor/month; protection up to $100,000 per contractor
contractor of record$325/user—Starts at $325 per contractor/month; uncapped indemnity
peo$99/user—Starts at $99 per employee/month in the US; US bank account required
equity$39—Starts at $39/month for Delaware C corporations

free tierno free tier

billingmonthly public pricing; no public annual discount

hidden costsFX uses Remote's exchange rate; statutory employer costs, benefits, severance, and local obligations remain additional where applicable. Upfront deposits are normally avoided but reserves can be required for higher-risk cases.

pricing sources checked 2026-08-10 · pricing source ↗

Questions about Remote

Can you build your own Remote with AI?

A full replacement is not the recommended project. A consolation build is possible, but the paid product's decisive value sits outside a solo rebuild. For Remote, maintain employee records and leave approvals without payroll or employer-of-record services. The hard boundary is global entities, payroll, benefits, compliance, payments, and employment expertise, plus compliance, payroll, and regulated integrations.

What does the Remote build prompt cover?

The prompt starts with this scope: Maintain employee records and leave approvals, track non-sensitive people operations, and export data without calculating payroll or providing employer-of-record services. Full-product capabilities excluded from the comparison include: global entities, payroll, benefits, compliance, payments, and employment expertise; payroll rails; tax and labor-law compliance. Follow the implementation plan and its prerequisites before expanding the build.

How do I use the prompt, AGENTS.md and agent skills?

Start with the Remote prerequisites and stack, then copy the prompt into your coding agent. Save the project rules as AGENTS.md in the project root. Linked skills are optional packages or source instructions for specific tasks; review their current contents and install only those matching the chosen stack. A skill does not supply API credentials or verify the finished app.

How long will this Remote project take?

The catalogue estimate is closest consolation build: one sitting for the limited scope. Setup, integration approvals, debugging, deployment and ongoing maintenance can add time. This is an estimate, not a delivery guarantee.

What would I give up by replacing Remote?

global entities, payroll, benefits, compliance, payments, and employment expertise; payroll rails; tax and labor-law compliance; benefits integrations; identity checks and global employment infrastructure. People still pay for Remote because HR platforms survive because mistakes affect pay, benefits, immigration, and legal obligations, not because forms are difficult to render. The recurring cost buys sensitive data, access, retention, audit, payroll calculations, filings, benefits, employment law, incident response, and support, not just the visible interface.

What price is this guide comparing against?

The recorded Payroll plan is $29/mo per seat (monthly per user), checked 2026-08-10. Check the linked pricing source before buying. Building your own also has hosting, API and maintenance costs; the recorded amount is not a guaranteed saving.

What can I use instead of building Remote?

Frappe HR: A complete HR suite without the license bill; the server, backups and upgrades are now in your job description. Horilla HR: Hire-to-leave HR in Docker; free forever means you own the updates and backups. OrangeHRM Starter: The old-school HR suite: records, leave, attendance and approvals, with a real server and no fashion budget. Compare all listed options at https://howtovibecodeit.dev/remote-com/alternatives. Check each option's license, hosting needs and feature limits.

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