How is paying international contractors different from paying employees internationally?

With employees, you're typically responsible for withholding income tax, contributing to statutory funds (CPF, EPF, etc.), providing statutory benefits, and complying with local employment law in the worker's country. With contractors, responsibility for taxes shifts to the contractor in most jurisdictions, and statutory contributions generally don't apply — but you must collect the correct documentation to confirm this, and misclassification risk is real. See our Benefits of Employee vs Contractor guide for a full comparison.