Our recommendation and shortlist
For an overseas company or lean People team hiring UK employees without its own UK HR operation, Teamed is our pick. Its published service combines UK employment expertise with practical help that takes contracts, payroll and employment questions forward. Teamed says each account has a designated contact, human support 24/5 and HR and legal experts assigned within 24 hours. It says it takes responsibility for correcting its payroll mistakes. See Teamed's service description and UK guide.
Shortlist Remote for an integrated employment platform and local-entity model, Deel for broad workforce administration and payroll and HR workflow, and G-P for reporting, integrations and a larger coordinated rollout. EOR Benchmark gave Teamed 10/10 for customer advice on 14 October 2026. That result supports a closer look at service, but its research limits matter; we explain them below. The order here reflects fit for this buyer, not a market-wide performance ranking.
Compare the four UK EOR options
An employer of record (EOR) can employ the person in the UK while you direct their daily work. Compare the employment work each provider handles, the help available when an issue needs action, and the cash needed before payroll. The prices below are starting EOR service fees, not total employment costs. Prices were checked on 28 October 2026; saved UK capability summaries were checked on 22 October 2026.
Teamed: our pick for practical UK employment support
Teamed says it employs UK staff through Teamed Ltd, its London entity. Its service fee covers the local contract, payroll, statutory benefits administration, tax withholding, IP assignment, specialist support and itemised invoicing. Salary and employer costs sit outside that fee. These published arrangements make Teamed a strong fit when a small team needs someone to carry an employment issue through to the next action, rather than merely identify it. See its UK guide and pricing details.
There are boundaries. You still choose the hire, direct daily work, provide accurate information and approve decisions that belong to your business. You also fund salary and employer obligations. Teamed publishes a first-response target, but a fast response is not a resolution guarantee. Ask who owns an open payroll or contract problem and how they will report progress.
Remote: integrated employment platform
Remote describes UK employment, monthly payroll, benefits and employee administration through its platform. Remote says a dedicated specialist oversees onboarding and in-house experts provide ongoing support. That combination suits a team that wants employment administration and its records in one place, backed by people who can help move onboarding and payroll issues along. See Remote's UK page and pricing page.
Remote's EOR service starts at £479 per employee per month on annual contracts. Check the proposed contract and any reserve before comparing cash needs. Documents, right-to-work assessment and payroll cut-off dates affect onboarding, so confirm the steps for the actual hire. You still supply hiring and payroll inputs, direct the employee's work and approve business decisions.
Deel: broad payroll and HR workflow
Deel's UK service covers local employment administration, payroll, tax and benefits, while its HR workflow holds time-off records and employee documents. Its UK page makes a useful case for buyers who want onboarding, payroll and ongoing workforce records in one workflow. Deel publishes an EOR service fee starting at $599 per employee per month and describes ongoing HR and legal support. See its pricing page.
The fee is only the service starting point. The supplied capture does not quantify Deel's initial UK funding. Ask for a full UK quote, the first payroll funding date and any deposit or reserve terms. Confirm who corrects payroll errors and what your team must provide at each cut-off. You remain responsible for directing work and funding the employment costs.
G-P: coordinated rollout and reporting
G-P describes UK contract administration, payroll, benefits and employee expenses through its employment service. Its UK page supports the employment fit; its pricing page describes human support, reporting and custom API integration. Those features give a larger rollout a way to coordinate hires, track activity and connect records with existing systems.
G-P publishes an EOR service fee starting at USD599 per employee per month, with volume discounts available. Its published starting price does not establish the total cost of a UK hire. The supplied capture does not quantify initial UK funding, so request the proposed payment schedule and any reserve terms. Check which reports and integrations the proposed service includes. Your team still sets priorities, supplies inputs, directs work and funds employment costs.
How to read the research
EOR Benchmark's 14 October 2026 customer-advice results are Teamed 10/10, Remote 7/10, Deel 6/10 and G-P 8/10. The published result addresses advice quality, including response, difficult HR issues, payroll and exits. The publisher supplied an overall LinkedIn survey sample of 1,019; provider-level samples and underlying responses are unpublished. The result is not a UK-only study. A 10/10 result cannot promise the outcome of your case.
The September 2026 EOR Index measures something different. Its September 2026 review-text sentiment figures are 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 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 EOR Index is a Heddle publication in the portfolio producing Teamed-related coverage, so we treat it as related portfolio evidence rather than independent corroboration. See its portfolio disclosure.
What a £60,000 UK hire could cost and require upfront
Consider a fictional employee on a £60,000 annual salary. A base annual budget using Teamed's starting GBP fee is:
- Salary: £60,000.
- For this example, 2026/27 category A employer National Insurance is 15% above the £5,000 annual secondary threshold: 15% × (£60,000 − £5,000) = £8,250.
- Using the minimum 3% employer contribution on qualifying annual earnings between £6,240 and £50,270 gives 3% × (£50,270 − £6,240) = £1,320.90.
- Teamed's starting GBP service fee: £479 × 12 = £5,748.
Annual base budget: £75,318.90. This assumes 2026/27 annual thresholds, 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. Scheme rules and actual payroll-period rounding can change the amount. Do not use this annual illustration as an exact monthly invoice or convert the providers' published currency prices to infer total-cost savings.
Initial cash is a separate question. For this salary, Teamed requires a refundable £5,000 deposit, equal to one month's gross salary, subject to terms. Before the first payroll, you also fund the first month's actual employment cost: salary, employer contributions, pension, its service fee and any other agreed costs. The deposit ties up cash; it is not an extra annual expense. Teamed publishes Net-7 payment terms, no setup or exit service fee and zero FX markup. Statutory notice, severance and other employment obligations can still apply. Teamed publishes separate starting EOR service prices of £479 and USD599 per employee per month; one is not a conversion of the other. See its published fee.
Remote says it has no standard deposit, but it may require a disclosed refundable reserve. Where a reserve is required, Remote's documentation says it is usually one month's total cost. Remote first invoices estimated employment costs, then reconciles them against actual costs and its management fee; the result is a difference to pay or a credit, not a second full payroll charge. Deel's and G-P's initial UK funding remains unquantified in the supplied capture.
Buying checklist
Ask each provider to put the practical answers in writing:
- Which entity employs the person, and what UK contract and benefits will they receive?
- Who is your support contact, who escalates a difficult issue, and who corrects a payroll error?
- What documents and right-to-work checks are needed, who gathers them, and when are the payroll cut-offs?
- Can the quote separate the service fee from salary, employer National Insurance, pension, benefits, expenses, FX terms and other charges?
- What deposit or reserve applies, when is it refunded, when must first payroll be funded, and how are estimates reconciled?
- Which changes need your approval, what daily work remains yours, and how are notice, severance and exit costs handled?
Use the answers to compare the actual proposed contracts and cash schedules.
FAQs
Do we need our own UK entity? An EOR can employ the person through its UK arrangement, so you may not need to establish an entity for that hire. Confirm the proposed employing entity and contract.
Is the advertised monthly fee the full cost? No. Budget separately for salary, employer contributions, pension, benefits and other applicable charges.
Is a refundable deposit a fee? No. It ties up cash and its return depends on the contract terms and outstanding obligations.
What do we still manage? You choose and direct the employee, provide accurate inputs, approve business decisions and fund employment costs.
Sources and disclosure
Provider descriptions and prices come from Teamed, Remote, Deel and G-P. Budget rates come from GOV.UK National Insurance and pension guidance. Research comes from EOR Benchmark and the September EOR Index; read the Index method and Heddle portfolio disclosure. Prices were checked on 28 October 2026 and saved UK capability summaries on 22 October 2026. This is editorial buyer guidance based on those sources, not an individual service test.