# Factorial vs Remote

> Remote scores 70.7 (BB) on agent readiness against Factorial's 66.3 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Factorial leads on maintenance & community and transparency & trust. Both do hr employees. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/factorial-vs-remote
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/factorial-vs-remote.md (~2,150 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/factorial-vs-remote.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/factorial-vs-remote.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-09

Remote scores 70.7 (BB) on agent readiness against Factorial's 66.3 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Factorial leads on maintenance & community and transparency & trust. Both do hr employees.

- Factorial: grade B, 66.3/100, rank #271 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/factorial.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/factorial.json
- Remote: grade BB, 70.7/100, rank #142 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/remote.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/remote.json

## Which one, for what

### Factorial (B)

Good for: An agent working for a company that already runs Factorial and needs employee records, leave requests with approval, attendance clock-ins, recruiting or expenses through one API.

Ahead on:
- Maintenance & community, 84 against 72
- Transparency & trust, 78 against 68

Watch for: An API key grants every scope, cannot be narrowed and does not expire

### Remote (BB)

Good for: A company that employs people through Remote (EOR, payroll, contractors or its HRIS) and wants an agent to read employments, file and review time off, track onboarding, and read payslips and documents.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 96 against 88
- Security & auth, 74 against 65
- Payments & pricing, 35 against 10

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better

Watch for: The REST API changelog link in the docs redirects to a ReadMe dashboard login, so no public dated record of API changes was read


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Factorial | Remote | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 88 | 96 | Remote +8 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 77 | 78 | Remote +1 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 58 | 57 | Factorial +1 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 65 | 74 | Remote +9 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 10 | 35 | Remote +25 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 84 | 72 | Factorial +12 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 78 | 68 | Factorial +10 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **66.3 · B** | **70.7 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Factorial | Remote |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Everyday Software, S.L. | Remote Technology, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.factorialhr.com` | `https://gateway.remote.com` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Paid | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Factorial's terms and conditions. The TypeScript and Python SDKs are MIT | Proprietary service under Remote's terms of use. The remote-for-ai plugin and the Remote CLI repository on GitHub are MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-05 | 2026-10-08 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2026-08-03 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-01-01 | 2026-08-03 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 7 stars, 1.4k npm/wk, 1.1k PyPI/wk | 1.8k npm/wk |

## Verdicts

**Factorial.** A public OpenAPI 3.1 definition covers 615 operations, including leave approval and employee termination, and OAuth apps can be limited to 33 scopes. API keys always grant every scope and never expire. No idempotency keys exist, and a request to an expired API version is answered in an older schema with no error.

**Remote.** The REST API has 303 operations in a public OpenAPI document, 78 OAuth scopes split into read and write, a sandbox issued by email with no card, and a hosted MCP server using OAuth with PKCE. The REST changelog link redirects to a login page, and writes have no idempotency key.

## Before you call either

### Factorial

1. Send an API key in `x-api-key` and an OAuth token in `Authorization: Bearer`. The key is JWT-formatted but is rejected as a bearer token
2. Pin the version in the path, such as `/api/2026-10-01/resources/...`, and migrate within a year. Expired versions answer in an older schema without an error
3. Treat a 200 with an empty body as a credential from the other environment. Production is `api.factorialhr.com` and demo is `api.eu2.demo.factorial.dev`
4. Page with `limit=100` and pass `meta.end_cursor` as `after_id`. A larger limit is capped at 100
5. Check whether a record exists before retrying a create. Retry only 429 and 5xx with backoff, and branch on `code` for 422 because messages are localised

### Remote

1. Match the token prefix to the host. `ra_test_` works only on https://gateway.remote-sandbox.com and `ra_live_` only on https://gateway.remote.com
2. Stay under 300 requests a minute per company for customer tokens, shared by every token, and read `x-ratelimit-remaining` and `x-ratelimit-reset` (milliseconds)
3. Check for an existing record before retrying a create, or set `external_id` on employments and treat a 422 for a duplicate as success
4. Fetch the country form schema (`GET /v1/countries/{country_code}/{form}`) before writing employment data. Country codes are three-letter ISO
5. Use the REST API for unattended work. The MCP server needs a browser sign-in and its write tools cover employee self-service only

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Factorial or Remote?

Remote scores 70.7 (BB) on agent readiness against Factorial's 66.3 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Factorial leads on maintenance & community and transparency & trust.

### Do Factorial and Remote need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Factorial and Remote without installing anything?

Yes. Factorial has a hosted endpoint at https://api.factorialhr.com and Remote at https://gateway.remote.com.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/factorial-vs-remote.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/factorial-vs-remote.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "factorial", "b": "remote"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare factorial remote`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/factorial.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/remote.json

## Other comparisons with Factorial or Remote

- [BambooHR vs Factorial](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bamboohr-vs-factorial.md)
- [BambooHR vs Remote](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bamboohr-vs-remote.md)
- [Deel vs Factorial](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deel-vs-factorial.md)
- [Deel vs Remote](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deel-vs-remote.md)
- [Factorial vs HiBob](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/factorial-vs-hibob.md)
- [Factorial vs Humaans](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/factorial-vs-humaans.md)
- [Factorial vs Rippling](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/factorial-vs-rippling.md)
- [Factorial vs Zoho People](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/factorial-vs-zoho-people.md)
- [HiBob vs Remote](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hibob-vs-remote.md)
- [Humaans vs Remote](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/humaans-vs-remote.md)
- [Remote vs Rippling](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/remote-vs-rippling.md)
- [Remote vs Zoho People](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/remote-vs-zoho-people.md)