Moving an contractor on full-time, would you start local entity or use EOR?

We’ve been working with a developer in Germany for a while and would now like to bring them onto the team full-time.

The problem is that we don’t have a German entity, and keeping them as a contractor doesn’t really feel right once they’re basically working as a regular employee.

Our accountant suggested looking at an employer of record, and G-P is one of the options we’re considering so we wouldn’t need to set up a company in Germany just for one person.

Has anyone here actually hired someone this way?

I’d be interested to know how it worked in practice, especially around onboarding, benefits, payroll and HR. Did it feel pretty normal once the person joined, or were there any unexpected complications?