Why We Built Kontrable

Originally written: September 2025

When we started researching the contractor management space, we thought we'd find a clear winner. A tool that understood the difference between employees and contractors. Something that didn't cost $500/month to manage 10 people. A system that worked with the payment tools businesses already use.

We found none of that. Instead, we found a market dominated by employee-first platforms charging contractor-management prices, and thousands of businesses managing everything in spreadsheets because the "professional" solutions made no sense for their use case.

This is the memo we wrote to formalize our thinking on the problem, the landscape, and what we're building to fix it.

Preface

Today, if you want to manage contractors professionally, you have two options: pay $300-600/month for employee infrastructure you don't need, or manage everything manually in spreadsheets and hope you don't miss a payment.

Neither option makes sense. Contractors aren't employees. They don't need payroll processing, benefits administration, or local entity setup. They need clear agreements, organized project tracking, reliable payment coordination, and proper documentation for tax time.

The tools that exist today were built for a different problem—hiring full-time employees in countries where you don't have a legal entity. That's a valuable service, but it's not what most businesses need when working with independent contractors.

We're building Kontrable to be the first contractor-only management platform. No payroll. No benefits. No entity setup. Just the tools you actually need to work with freelancers professionally, at a price that makes sense.

The landscape

Over the past three months, we analyzed 44 platforms in the contractor and global employment space. The patterns were striking.

The EOR giants — Deel, Remote.com, Oyster, Rippling — charge $49-99 per contractor per month. For 10 contractors, that's $490-990/month, or $5,880-11,880 per year. These platforms were built for Employer of Record (EOR) services: hiring full-time employees in foreign countries, handling local payroll compliance, providing benefits, and managing employment contracts under local labor law.

When you're hiring a full-time employee in Germany and need to navigate German employment law, provide statutory benefits, and handle payroll tax withholding, $99/month makes sense. When you're paying a designer in Austin for a logo, it doesn't.

The payroll platforms — Gusto, ADP, Paychex, Papaya Global — approach contractors as an extension of payroll. They're optimized for W-2 employees and treat 1099 contractors as a secondary feature. Their pricing reflects this: Gusto starts at $40/month base plus $6 per person. Papaya Global charges $20-30 per contractor per month. Again, you're paying for payroll infrastructure you don't need.

The specialist platforms — Plane, Lano, Pilot, Multiplier, Horizons — tried to find middle ground. Some focused on specific regions (Lano for Europe, Plane for Asia-Pacific). Others tried to be cheaper EORs. Most still charge $25-50 per contractor per month. The fundamental problem remained: they're still built around employment infrastructure, not contractor workflows.

The new wave — Agile HRO, Safeguard Global, GoGlobal, Globalization Partners — represents the latest generation. G-P Contractor starts at $39/month per contractor. Safeguard Global charges $5-10 per contractor per month depending on volume. These are better, but they're still payment processors with compliance layers, not contractor management systems.

Across all 44 platforms, we found the same pattern: tools built for employment trying to serve contractor use cases. The result is businesses paying for features they don't need, or avoiding these tools entirely and managing everything manually.

The real problems

The contractor management problem isn't about payroll or benefits. It's about coordination, documentation, and trust.

The invoice chaos. Contractors send invoices via email. You see them, mean to pay them, forget about them. They follow up. You scramble to find the original email, copy payment details into Wise or PayPal, take a screenshot, email it back, and forget to log it in your spreadsheet. The average small business processes 20-50 contractor invoices per month. At 10 minutes per invoice, that's 3-8 hours monthly just moving money around.

The compliance anxiety. Every time you hire a contractor, there's that voice: "Am I doing this right? Should I have a contract? What about tax forms?" You Google templates, maybe customize them, maybe not. You ask for W-9s or W-8BENs. They send them. You put them... somewhere. Come tax time, you're searching through emails while your accountant charges $150/hour to piece it together.

The payment delays. 71% of freelancers report experiencing late payments. But most businesses aren't intentionally paying late. Invoices get lost in email. You forget which contractors got paid this week. You sent the payment but forgot to tell them. International transfers take 2-3 days. Both sides lose—you look disorganized, they have cash flow problems, trust erodes.

The spreadsheet problem. Your contractor spreadsheet has names (some first name only), email addresses, payment methods (Wise? PayPal? Both?), rates, payment schedules (hopefully), last payment dates (maybe), and total paid this year (possibly wrong). Someone accidentally sorts one column. You have three versions. It's named "ContractorTracking_FINAL_v3_USE_THIS.xlsx". You update it monthly if you remember. Your co-founder has their own spreadsheet. Neither is correct.

These aren't payroll problems. They're coordination and documentation problems. The existing platforms don't solve them because they're focused on employment compliance, not contractor workflows.

Why existing solutions fail

The fundamental issue is that contractors and employees are different, but the software treats them the same.

Employees need payroll processing, tax withholding, benefits administration, local labor law compliance, and employment contracts. They work exclusively for you, follow your schedule, use your equipment, and are integrated into your organizational structure. The complexity is high, and the compliance burden is significant.

Contractors need clear project agreements, organized milestone tracking, payment coordination, and tax documentation. They work for multiple clients, set their own schedules, use their own tools, and operate as independent businesses. The complexity is lower, but the coordination burden is higher.

When you use an EOR platform for contractors, you're paying for payroll infrastructure, benefits administration, local entity setup, and employment law compliance. None of which applies to independent contractors. It's like buying a semi-truck to move a couch.

The pricing reflects this mismatch. Deel charges $49/month per contractor. That's $588/year per person. For a business with 10 contractors, that's $5,880/year. What are you getting for that money? The ability to pay people who already have Wise or PayPal accounts. Features built for employees that contractors don't need. Your money sitting in their platform for 3-5 days before reaching your contractor.

The alternative—managing everything manually—is cheaper in dollars but expensive in time and chaos. Spreadsheets, email threads, scattered invoices, forgotten payments, missing tax forms, and hours of work every month just to stay organized.

The market needed something in between: professional contractor management without employee infrastructure. That's what we're building.

What we're building

Kontrable is contractor management without the employment baggage. Three core principles guide everything we build.

Use your own payment accounts. We're not trying to be your bank. You already have Wise, PayPal, or Payoneer. They're great at moving money. We just tell you who to pay, help you track that you paid them, and keep records for accounting. Your money stays in your account until you send it. No middleman holding it for 3-5 days.

Built for contractors only. No payroll processing. No benefits administration. No local entity setup. Just organize, track, pay, and document. If you need EOR services, use Deel or Remote.com—they're excellent at what they do. But if you're working with independent contractors, you don't need any of that.

Pricing that makes sense. $99/month for up to 25 contractors. No per-contractor fees. No transfer fees. No hidden costs. If Deel would cost you $540/month for 10 contractors, we cost you $99. You save $441/month, or $5,292/year.

The workflow is simple. Invite contractors, they fill out their profiles and payment details. Create projects with milestones. When work is complete, they submit invoices. You approve, pay via your existing payment account, and mark it paid. They confirm receipt. Everything is tracked, documented, and ready for accounting.

No more invoice emails. No more spreadsheets. No more forgotten payments. No more scrambling at tax time. Just clean, organized contractor management.

The opportunity

The contractor economy is massive and growing. In 2021, over $700 billion moved between contractors and businesses in the US alone, as reported by 1099-NEC and 1099-K forms. Globally, the freelance economy is estimated at $1.5 trillion annually.

Yet the tools serving this market are either overbuilt (EOR platforms) or underbuilt (spreadsheets). There's no "Stripe for contractors"—a platform that makes contractor management as simple as accepting payments online.

The businesses that need this most are small to mid-sized companies working with 5-50 contractors. Marketing agencies with freelance designers and copywriters. Remote startups with contract developers. Production companies with project-based crews. Consulting firms with specialized contractors.

These businesses are either paying $300-600/month for tools built for a different problem, or spending 10-15 hours monthly managing everything manually. Both options are broken.

The market is ready for a contractor-first platform. One that understands the difference between employees and contractors. One that works with existing payment tools instead of replacing them. One that costs $99/month instead of $500/month.

What's next

We're opening private beta soon with a small group of design partners—agencies, startups, and consulting firms managing 5-30 contractors each. We're looking for businesses that want to help shape the product before public launch.

We're launching publicly in Q1 2026. Early access users get 50% off for 6 months—$50/month instead of $99. We're building the waitlist now.

If you're managing contractors and tired of overpaying for employee infrastructure or drowning in spreadsheets, we're building this for you.