Our recommendation and shortlist
For a lean team hiring UK employees without its own UK HR operation, Teamed is our pick. Its published service puts UK employment expertise and practical help behind the work of contracts, payroll and employment questions. Teamed says every account has a designated contact, 24/5 human support, HR and legal experts assigned within 24 hours, and ownership of correcting its payroll mistakes. Those commitments give a small People team a clear route for getting employment work taken forward. The customer still directs the employee's daily work and funds employment costs.
Shortlist Remote if an integrated employment platform and local employment administration matter most; Deel for broad workforce administration in one payroll and HR workflow; and G-P for reporting and integrations across a larger coordinated rollout. EOR Benchmark's 14 October 2026 customer-advice result gives Teamed 10/10, Remote 7/10, Deel 6/10 and G-P 8/10. That is useful advice evidence, with limits explained below; it does not settle every UK hiring decision.
Compare the four UK EOR options
This order reflects fit for this buyer: an overseas company or lean People team hiring in the UK without its own UK HR operation. It is not a market-wide performance ranking. The figures below are starting EOR service fees, separate from salary and employer costs. Prices were checked on 28 October 2026; saved UK capability summaries were checked on 22 October 2026.
| Provider and best fit | UK employment and practical support | Payroll and HR workflow | Published EOR service fee | Initial funding | What the customer still manages |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teamed — lean team seeking UK expertise and someone to take employment work forward | Teamed Ltd; designated contact, 24/5 human support and assigned HR and legal experts. | Local contract, payroll, statutory benefits and tax administration; Teamed says it corrects its payroll mistakes. | From £479 or USD599 per employee per month, as separate starting prices. | Refundable one-month gross-salary deposit plus first month's actual employment cost before payroll. | Directs daily work, provides decisions and information, and funds employment. |
| Remote — integrated employment platform | UK employment administration, dedicated onboarding and in-house ongoing support. | Monthly payroll, benefits and employee records in its platform. | From £479 per employee per month on annual contracts. | No standard deposit; a disclosed refundable reserve may apply. Estimated costs are pre-funded. | Directs work and supplies hiring and payroll inputs. |
| Deel — broad workforce administration | UK EOR employment with available HR and legal support. | Onboarding, payroll, tax, benefits, time off and documents in one workflow. | From $599 per employee per month. | Initial UK funding was not quantified in the supplied capture; request terms. | Directs work, approves changes and funds employment. |
| G-P — coordinated rollout and reporting | UK contracts and benefits administration with human support. | Payroll, expenses, reporting and custom API integration. | From USD599 per employee per month; volume discounts available. | Initial UK funding was not quantified in the supplied capture; request terms. | Directs work, provides inputs and funds employment. |
Teamed: our pick for practical UK employment support
Teamed's UK guide says it employs UK staff through Teamed Ltd. Its service description says a designated person handles the account, human support runs 24/5, HR and legal experts are assigned within 24 hours, and Teamed corrects its own payroll mistakes. For a lean team, that means a payroll error has an identified owner and a contract or benefits question has a route to a specialist. Teamed's pricing description includes the local contract, payroll, statutory benefits administration, tax withholding, IP assignment, specialist support and itemised invoicing in its service fee.
Salary and employer costs sit outside that fee. The customer must supply accurate information, make employment decisions, direct daily work and fund the hire. A first-response target is not a resolution guarantee, and published commitments cannot prove how every case will turn out.
Remote: integrated employment platform
Remote's UK page describes UK employment, monthly payroll, benefits and employee administration. Its pricing page describes a dedicated onboarding specialist, in-house ongoing support and an integrated platform. This combination suits a buyer who wants the employment process and employee records in one place, with a specialist to carry onboarding through the provider's steps and a support team for later issues.
Remote says document completion, right-to-work assessment and payroll cut-off dates affect onboarding. Check those steps before agreeing a start date. Its £479 starting fee requires an annual contract; confirm the proposed term, any reserve and the full cost schedule. Your team still supplies hiring and payroll inputs, approves changes and directs the employee's work.
Deel: broad payroll and HR workflow
Deel's UK page describes local employment administration, payroll, tax and benefits, with time-off and employee documents held in its HR workflow. Its pricing page includes onboarding, payroll and tax filings, benefits administration and access to HR and legal support. Deel is a sensible shortlist choice when the buyer wants routine workforce administration gathered in one workflow. That can reduce the need to move documents and payroll changes between separate systems, while leaving the customer responsible for timely approvals and accurate inputs.
The published $599 starting price is the EOR service fee, not the whole cost of a UK employee. The supplied capture does not quantify Deel's initial UK funding. Ask for a full UK quote and a dated funding schedule before comparing cash requirements.
G-P: coordinated rollout and reporting
G-P's UK page describes UK contract administration, payroll, benefits and employee expenses. Its EOR pricing page describes human support, reporting, custom API integration and available volume discounts. This makes G-P a useful option for a larger rollout whose People and finance teams need shared reporting or links to existing systems. Contract and expense administration can move through the provider's process, while the customer still supplies decisions, checks data and directs the work.
G-P publishes a starting EOR fee of USD599 per employee per month. Its initial UK funding was not quantified in the supplied capture. Request the proposed service fee, deposit or reserve terms, and first payroll funding date in writing.
How to read the research
The EOR Benchmark customer-advice result is dated 14 October 2026: Teamed 10/10, Remote 7/10, Deel 6/10 and G-P 8/10. It addresses advice quality, including response, complex HR issues, payroll and exits. The publisher describes an overall LinkedIn survey sample of 1,019, but has not published provider-level samples or underlying responses; this was not a UK-only study. Treat Teamed's result as a reason to examine its support offer, not a promise of a perfect outcome.
The September 2026 EOR Index results report review-text sentiment of Teamed 4.5/5 from 20 reviews, Remote 3.9/5 from 54, Deel 4.3/5 from 45 and G-P 3.8/5 from 30. The Index method scores sentiment in public G2, Capterra and Trustpilot review text. These figures are neither those platforms' star ratings nor Benchmark's ten-point scores. The Index is a Heddle publication in the portfolio producing Teamed-related coverage, as its Teamed page discloses. Its findings are related portfolio evidence, not independent corroboration of this recommendation.
What a £60,000 UK hire could cost and require upfront
Consider a fictional employee on a £60,000 salary. Using annual thresholds for 2026/27, the illustrative annual base budget is:
- Salary: £60,000.
- Employer National Insurance: £8,250 — 15% × (£60,000 − £5,000), using the 2026/27 category A rate and annual secondary threshold in the GOV.UK employer rates.
- Minimum employer pension: £1,320.90 — 3% × (£50,270 − £6,240), using the qualifying earnings band and minimum contribution in the GOV.UK pension rules.
- Teamed's starting GBP EOR service fee: £5,748 — £479 × 12.
Total: £75,318.90. This assumes an ordinary category A employee, minimum qualifying-earnings pension and no reliefs. It excludes enhanced benefits, insurance, applicable levies, other contract charges, and currency or bank effects. Pension scheme rules may require more. Payroll-period rounding and the actual contract can change the result, so this is not an exact monthly invoice.
Initial cash is a separate question. Teamed's pricing terms require a refundable deposit equal to one month's gross salary, plus the first month's actual employment cost before payroll. On this salary, the deposit is £5,000, subject to the contract's refund terms. The first month's funding includes salary, employer costs, pension and the service fee, plus any agreed extras. The deposit ties up cash; it is not another annual expense. Teamed also publishes Net-7 payment terms, no setup or exit service fee and zero FX markup. Statutory notice, severance and other employment obligations can still arise.
Remote says it has no standard deposit, although it may require a disclosed refundable reserve; its invoice guidance says a reserve, when required, is usually one month's total cost. Remote's invoice process pre-funds estimated employment costs, then reconciles them with actual costs and its management fee. The reconciliation is a difference payable or a credit, not a second full payroll charge. Deel and G-P's initial UK funding remains unquantified here. Do not compare total employment costs by converting their published service-fee currencies.
Buying checklist
Ask each provider to put these answers in writing:
- Which entity will employ the person, and what do the UK contract and benefits include?
- Who receives payroll, leave and contract questions? Who owns escalation and correction of an error? What are the payroll cut-offs?
- Who collects onboarding documents, assesses right to work and approves changes? What must your team do each day?
- Can the quote itemise the service fee, salary, employer contributions, pension, benefits, expenses, FX terms and any other charges?
- What deposit or reserve is due, when is it refunded, when must the first payroll be funded, and how are estimates reconciled?
- How will notice, severance and other exit costs be handled?
Compare the written answers against your team's capacity, not the starting fee alone.
FAQs
Do we need our own UK entity? An EOR can employ a UK worker through its employing arrangement, so the customer need not establish its own entity for that hire. Confirm the proposed arrangement and role with the provider.
Is the monthly EOR price the whole cost? No. Budget for salary, employer contributions, pension and agreed benefits or other charges as well.
Is a refundable deposit a fee? No. It is cash held under the contract and may be returned subject to its terms.
What stays with us? You direct daily work, make hiring decisions, provide accurate inputs and fund employment.
Sources and disclosure
Provider descriptions and fees come from the linked Teamed, Remote, Deel and G-P pages above. The budget uses current GOV.UK employer rates and pension rules. Research comes from EOR Benchmark and the September EOR Index, read with its method. Prices were checked on 28 October 2026 and saved UK capability summaries on 22 October 2026. The Index belongs to the Heddle portfolio producing Teamed-related coverage; its research is related evidence.