Compare / Somewhere
RemoteHire.ph vs Somewhere
Somewhere: offshore recruitment firm (formerly Shepherd). RemoteHire.ph: a directory of ID-verified Filipino freelancers you hire and pay directly, for a flat $39/month or $228/year. They are different kinds of thing, and the table says where.
| Row | RemoteHire.phRemoteHire.ph |  Somewhere |
|---|---|---|
| What you pay | $19 or $39/mo | % of salary · reported, not on their own site |
| No cut of what you pay | Yes. | Partly. |
| Your freelancer keeps | 100% | Not stated; a recruiter's fee is the employer's to pay. |
| Pay your hire directly | Yes. | Yes. |
| Unlimited hires | Yes. | No. Reported, not on their own site. |
| Unlimited messages | Yes. | Not stated on their site. |
| Unlimited job posts | Yes. | Not stated on their site. |
| Up to 5 people included | Yes. | Not stated on their site. |
| Contracts included | Yes. | Not stated on their site. |
| Invoices included | Yes. | Not stated on their site. |
| Time tracking included | Yes. | Not stated on their site. |
| Browse full profiles free | Yes. | No. |
| Freelancer ID checked | Yes. | Yes. |
| Tool certifications | Yes. | Not stated on their site. |
| Video introductions | Yes. | Partly. |
| Public profile scores | Yes. | Not stated on their site. |
| Background information | Yes. | Not stated on their site. |
| No screenshots or monitoring | Yes. | Not stated on their site. |
| No off-platform ban | Yes. | Yes. |
| No bidding | Yes. | Yes. |
| Built for the Philippines | Yes. | No. |
means partly, or not stated on their own pages · Checked 30 Aug 2026 · every mark sourced
They recruit, and usually employ and manage, the person for you. You pay for that service: the monthly figures below include the worker's pay, so they are a different kind of number from a subscription.
Row by row
- What you pay
RemoteHire.ph
Flat subscription: $39/month or $228/year. Freelancers pay nothing.Somewhere
Direct Hire: a one-time fee stated as “a percentage of their first-year salary”; the percentage is not published. Widely reported as 25–35% with a $500 refundable deposit. Their own somewhere.com/pricing page describes the model but contains no numbers. · reported, not on their own site- No cut of what you pay
RemoteHire.ph
Yes. None. You pay your hire directly and we never touch it.Somewhere
None ongoing in the Direct Hire model: after the placement fee, the hire is on your payroll. The size of that one-off fee is reported elsewhere, not published by them.- What the freelancer gives up
RemoteHire.ph
None, ever. No commission, no membership, no bidding fees.Somewhere
Not stated; a recruiter's fee is the employer's to pay.- Pay your hire directly
RemoteHire.ph
Yes. You pay your hire directly and we never touch the money. The records around it (hours, invoices, contracts) are built in.Somewhere
Yes. After the placement the hire is on your own payroll; Somewhere is out of the loop.- What a second hire costs
RemoteHire.ph
Yes. One flat fee whether you hire nobody or twenty people. There is no fee per hire, per seat or per placement.Somewhere
No. A percentage of a first-year salary per placement, so each hire is charged again. · reported, not on their own site- Messaging, and what it is capped at
RemoteHire.ph
Yes. No cap of any kind: message as many people as you like, as often as you like, on any Premium plan.Somewhere
Not stated on their site.- Job posts, and what they cost
RemoteHire.ph
Yes. Included with Premium and uncapped. The free plan publishes one post, which closes at 25 applications.Somewhere
Not stated on their site.- Team members on one account
RemoteHire.ph
Yes. A Premium subscription covers up to five people on one account, flat.Somewhere
Not stated on their site.- Contracts included
RemoteHire.ph
Yes. Contracts are built in and free: draft one, both sides sign it in the app, and the signed version is frozen and publicly verifiable.Somewhere
Not stated on their site.- Invoices included
RemoteHire.ph
Yes. Freelancers invoice from the app in any of six currencies, from approved hours or by hand. We never touch the money.Somewhere
Not stated on their site.- Time tracking included
RemoteHire.ph
Yes. Hours with weekly approval. No screenshots, no activity monitoring.Somewhere
Not stated on their site.- Free to browse profiles
RemoteHire.ph
Yes. A free account gets full search, every filter and saved lists.Somewhere
No. Recruiter-only: vetted candidates are shared during a search, not browsable.- Government-ID verification
RemoteHire.ph
Yes. A person reviews every freelancer's government ID before the badge appears.Somewhere
Yes. “We confirm their identities, call their previous employers, and if needed, ask for a national security clearance”, in the screening stage of their own vetting list. Re-sourced 2026-08-27: the page this used to cite now 404s, and the sentence was found intact on the page above rather than the claim being dropped.- Tool certifications
RemoteHire.ph
Yes. A practical task in the tool, reviewed by a person; every credential is publicly verifiable.Somewhere
Not stated on their site.- Video introductions
RemoteHire.ph
Yes. Sixty-second intros, recorded in the app and reviewed before display.Somewhere
Their vetting list names “required video submissions to validate English speaking skills and professional experience”. Whether a client ever receives one is not stated anywhere on their pages, which is what keeps this off a tick. Re-sourced 2026-08-27 and the honest half is recorded: the page that carried the list verbatim has been withdrawn (it 404s), the sentence survives only in search snippets of their pages, and the process page above no longer states it. It is a dash on the strength of that.- Profile scores
RemoteHire.ph
Yes. Every profile carries a 0-100 score for how complete and how checked it is, with the breakdown behind it. It is not a rating of how good somebody is at their job, and no client can move it.Somewhere
Not stated on their site.- Background information
RemoteHire.ph
Yes. Deep Check: what this platform has confirmed about a person, who confirmed it and when. Records of things that happened here, never a judgement about how somebody works.Somewhere
Not stated on their site.- No screenshots or monitoring
RemoteHire.ph
Yes. No screenshots, no activity tracking, no monitoring: a commitment, not an omission. Hours are checked by weekly client approval.Somewhere
Not stated on their site.- You own the relationship
RemoteHire.ph
Yes. The relationship is yours from the first message; nothing bans taking it anywhere.Somewhere
Yes. The hire joins your company directly; you pay them, not Somewhere.- No bidding or gig auctions
RemoteHire.ph
Yes. Post a job and freelancers apply, or message anyone directly. There is no bid to win.Somewhere
Yes. Recruiters share vetted candidates; no bidding.- Built for the Philippines
RemoteHire.ph
Yes. Filipino freelancers only; the whole trust story is the PH government-ID check.Somewhere
No. They place talent in “18+ countries”; the Philippines is one region beside Latin America and South Africa.- What posting a job costs
RemoteHire.ph
Included with Premium: unlimited posts with screening questions.Somewhere
Not stated on their site.- How hours are checked
RemoteHire.ph
Weekly approval by the client. No screenshots and no activity monitoring: a commitment, not an omission.Somewhere
Not stated on their site.- Trial and notice terms
RemoteHire.ph
A 30-day money-back guarantee on both plans: tell us within 30 days of a payment and we refund it in full. One refund per account, most recent payment only. Cancel anytime; free accounts keep full search and saved lists.Somewhere
A six-month guarantee with one free replacement; a refundable deposit starts the search.
Why there is no cost bar here
Somewhere's price includes the worker's pay, and ours does not. A side-by-side bar would either invent the salary split inside their figure or compare a service price against a subscription, and both are the kind of arithmetic this page exists to refuse. The caveats below say what is and is not in their number.
When Somewhere is the better choice
- You are making a permanent, senior or hard-to-scope hire and want a recruiter to run the whole search.
- You want the hire on your own payroll from day one, with a guarantee behind the placement.
Worth knowing
- The placement percentage is deliberately unpublished; the 25–35% figure is reported, not on their own site, and is kept out of every calculation here.
- A one-time fee of a quarter of a year's salary is a different shape of cost from any subscription: cheap if the hire stays five years, expensive if they leave in six months.
Every claim here was read from Somewhere's own pages on 30 Aug 2026: 1840andco.com/blog/remote-staffing-agencies · reported, not on their own site · somewhere.com/pricing · somewhere.com/ · reported, not on their own site · somewhere.com/post/how-to-find-trustworthy-remote-employees-to-help-you-grow-your-business · somewhere.com/post/how-somewhere-works-offshore-hiring-process.
See who is on RemoteHire.ph first
The directory is free to search, and every face on it has shown a government ID to a person.