Cloudstaff

What Cloudstaff does

Cloudstaff recruits, employs, and equips offshore staff who work for a single client full time, while the client directs their work. The site describes the model as employer of record. Cloudstaff handles sourcing, contracts, equipment, HR, payroll, and support, and the client manages hours and tasks through Cloudstaff's own apps. Role families cover finance and accounting, customer and sales support, operations and admin, digital marketing, IT and development, and e-commerce and logistics.

Founder and CEO Lloyd Ernst launched the company in 2005 after building the internet firm WebCentral. The CMS record lists 16 delivery centers in the Philippines and more than 6,000 staff and contractors, and the site adds talent hubs in Colombia, India, and Kenya. Cloudstaff claims 20 years in outsourcing, more than 1,000 client companies, and a 99 percent staff retention rate, though the success stories page says 1,300 companies and the accounting page says 99.5 percent.

Security claims are specific. The site lists ISO 27001, ISO 9001, PCI DSS, and SOC 2 certifications, plus GDPR and HIPAA compliance.

Pricing and engagement

Cloudstaff does not publish per-role prices, but it offers a TeamBuilder calculator that estimates cost by role. The CMS record lists rates under $25 per hour and a $1,000 minimum. The site says a role costs approximately 70 percent of the fully loaded cost of a local hire and that teams of 5 to 10 remote staff typically save $150,000 to $450,000 a year.

Onboarding runs in three steps. Align and match covers sourcing and presenting pre-vetted candidates, equip and onboard covers contracts, secure equipment, and training to the client's KPIs, and operate and thrive covers ongoing management. Most teams are working within 15 to 25 days. Each client gets a US-based account manager with monthly check-ins, quarterly strategic reviews, and Net Promoter Score surveys. A Lift and Shift program moves an existing outsourced team to Cloudstaff without rehiring.

Who should hire Cloudstaff

The best fit is a company with recurring, well-defined work and a manager who can direct remote employees day to day. Accounting firms are the most developed use case, with role lists for tax preparers, bookkeepers, payroll processors, and audit support, and the site says many accounting staff hold CPA licenses and know US GAAP.

• CPA and advisory firms facing tax season peaks. Wipfli, a Wisconsin accounting firm, and C2 Accounting are featured success stories.
• Property, strata, and mortgage businesses in Australia, where Cloudstaff has a local phone line and several named case studies.
• Companies already outsourcing elsewhere that want to move their team without rehiring, through the Lift and Shift program.
• Buyers who need certified security controls on offshore staff, given the ISO 27001, PCI DSS, and SOC 2 claims.

Who should look elsewhere

Cloudstaff is a staffing provider, not a software agency in the usual sense. It does not scope, price, or deliver a software project. Companies that want a vendor to own architecture, timelines, and outcomes should look at the product studios elsewhere in this directory.

• Teams that need senior engineers for a short project. Developers are offered as full-time dedicated staff, and the case studies are mostly accounting, support, and admin roles.
• Buyers who rely on review platforms. The CMS record notes only 3 Clutch reviews for a firm of this scale, and no review profile is linked from the site.
• Companies that want exact outcome data. The success story summaries describe capacity and continuity gains without figures.

Track record and signals

The success stories page lists 13 client accounts across the US, Australia, and APAC. Named clients include Wipfli, an accounting and consulting firm that built a global accounting model with Cloudstaff, Avetta, a supply chain risk company that set up distributed customer support, Alliance Consumer Solutions in medical collections, Built and McConnell Dowell in construction, TM Strata in strata management, and Leisurecom in travel. None of the summaries on the crawled pages contain numeric results.

The site lists a long awards record, including HR Asia Best Places to Work from 2021 to 2024, the AFR Fast 100 in 2020 and 2022, an Ernst and Young Australia Entrepreneur of the Year finalist spot in 2024, three Asia CEO 2024 awards, and a Philippine Daily Inquirer top employer listing for 2023. Most of these recognize Cloudstaff as an employer rather than its client outcomes.

The leadership page names a CEO, a chief financial and operations officer, a CTO, chief recruitment, product, and people officers, and a North America general manager based in Charlotte, North Carolina. A Glassdoor rating of 4.6 appears on the accounting page. The CMS record counts 3 Clutch reviews. All retention, savings, and client counts are self-reported.

How Cloudstaff compares

Against the software agencies in this directory, Cloudstaff is an outlier. Its sub-$25 hourly rate and $1,000 minimum are the lowest listed, but it sells dedicated employees rather than delivered projects, so it competes with Philippine BPO and employer-of-record providers more than with development studios. Its advantages are scale, security certifications, US-based account management, and a broad role catalog. Its gaps are a thin third-party review record, no published rate card, and no software case studies with measurable outcomes.