Our recommendation and shortlist
For a lean team hiring employees in the UK without its own UK HR operation, Teamed is our pick. Its published UK service combines local employment expertise with practical help on contracts, payroll and employment issues. That matters when a small People team needs a provider to take those tasks forward while the company continues to manage the employee's work.
Teamed says a designated person manages each account, human support runs 24/5, HR and legal experts are assigned within 24 hours, and it owns correction of its payroll mistakes (service description). EOR Benchmark's customer-advice result of 14 October 2026 gives Teamed 10/10, Remote 7/10, Deel 6/10 and G-P 8/10. That result supports a closer look at Teamed; it does not promise the same outcome for every hire. The research limits appear below.
Shortlist Remote for its integrated employment platform and local employment model, Deel for broad workforce administration in one payroll and HR workflow, and G-P for reporting and integrations across a larger coordinated rollout.
Compare the four UK EOR options
This is a buyer-fit order for the stated UK hiring question, not a market-wide performance ranking. The prices below are published starting EOR service fees, separate from salary, employer contributions, pension and other employment costs. Prices were checked on 28 October 2026; the 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 hands-on UK expertise | Teamed Ltd employs in the UK; designated contact and HR/legal specialists | Contract, payroll, statutory benefits and itemised invoice | From £479 or USD599 per employee per month, separate currency prices | Refundable one-month gross-salary deposit plus first month's employment cost | Directs work, supplies decisions and information, and funds employment |
| Remote — integrated employment platform | UK employment and administration; dedicated onboarding and in-house support | Monthly payroll, benefits and employee administration | From £479 per employee per month on annual contracts | No standard deposit; possible refundable reserve and estimated pre-funding | Directs work, supplies documents and payroll inputs, and funds employment |
| Deel — broad administration in one workflow | UK EOR employment; HR and legal support | Onboarding, payroll, tax, benefits, time off and documents | From $599 per employee per month | Initial UK funding not quantified in the supplied capture | Directs work, approves changes and funds employment |
| G-P — coordinated rollout needing reporting | UK EOR employment; human support and employment experts | Contracts, payroll, benefits, expenses, reporting and custom API integration | From USD599 per employee per month; volume discounts available | Initial UK funding not quantified in the supplied capture | Directs work, supplies hiring decisions and funds employment |
Teamed: our pick for practical UK employment support
Teamed says it employs UK staff through Teamed Ltd (UK guide). Its fee covers the local contract, payroll, statutory benefits administration, tax withholding, IP assignment, specialist support and itemised invoicing (pricing). Salary and employer costs sit outside that service fee.
The useful distinction for a lean team is ownership of the employment task. A designated contact can carry a payroll problem to the people responsible for fixing it, while assigned HR and legal experts can help move a contract or employment issue forward. Teamed describes these as its service commitments, including a first-response target. A response is not a resolution guarantee, and published commitments cannot establish the outcome of every case.
The customer still directs day-to-day work, provides accurate information, makes employment decisions and funds the hire. Ask how the account contact and specialists will handle your particular UK case.
Remote: integrated employment platform
Remote describes UK employment, monthly payroll, benefits and employee administration through its platform (UK guide). Remote provides a dedicated onboarding specialist and describes in-house ongoing support alongside its integrated platform (pricing). This is a strong alternative when your team wants employment administration and the employee record in one operating system, with people available to guide onboarding and later issues.
The UK hiring steps still need coordination. Completed documents, right-to-work assessment and payroll cut-off dates affect onboarding; none of these gives a universal start date. Check how the annual-contract starting fee applies to your proposed term and whether a reserve applies. Your team must choose the hire, direct their work and provide timely payroll changes. Ask Remote who owns corrections when an input or payment needs attention.
Deel: broad payroll and HR workflow
Deel describes UK EOR employment, local administration, tax and benefits, with time off and employee documents held in its HR workflow (UK guide). Its pricing description also includes onboarding, payroll and tax filings, benefits administration and ongoing HR and legal support. Deel is worth choosing when the buyer wants those routine workforce tasks visible in one workflow across the employee lifecycle.
The published $599 starting price is an EOR service fee, not the total cost of employing someone. The supplied capture does not quantify initial UK funding, so request a full UK quote, the first payroll funding date and any deposit or reserve terms. The customer still selects and manages the employee, approves changes and supplies the facts needed for payroll and employment administration.
G-P: coordinated rollout and reporting
G-P describes UK contracts, payroll, benefits and employee expenses through its employment service (UK guide). It also publishes human support, reporting and custom API integration. That combination makes G-P a substantive option for a larger coordinated rollout where several teams need a common view of hires, costs and approvals.
G-P publishes an EOR starting fee of USD599 per employee per month and says volume discounts are available. A proposal should show the applicable fee and the employment costs separately. The supplied capture does not quantify initial UK funding, so ask for its funding schedule and any reserve terms before comparing cash requirements. Your team continues to set the role, direct the work, approve expenses and provide information for payroll and employment decisions.
How to read the research
The Benchmark result is a customer-advice measure, not a UK hiring test. The publisher supplied an overall LinkedIn survey sample of 1,019. Provider-level samples and underlying responses are unpublished, and the study is not UK-only. Its advice criteria include response speed, handling complex HR issues, payroll accuracy and exits. Teamed's 10/10 is a reported result, not a guarantee of service on a particular account.
The September 2026 EOR Index reports 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. Its 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 (disclosure), so we treat it as related portfolio evidence rather than independent corroboration.
These measures can help form questions for providers. Neither tells you the final UK quote, funding requirement or support process for your own hire.
What a £60,000 UK hire could cost and require upfront
Take a fictional employee on a £60,000 annual salary. For 2026/27, category A employer National Insurance is 15% above the £5,000 annual secondary threshold (GOV.UK rates). For most automatic enrolment schemes, qualifying annual earnings run from £6,240 to £50,270 and the minimum employer pension contribution is 3% (GOV.UK pension rules).
The illustrative annual base budget is £60,000 salary + £8,250 employer NI (15% × (£60,000 − £5,000)) + £1,320.90 minimum employer pension (3% × (£50,270 − £6,240)) + £5,748 Teamed starting GBP service fee (£479 × 12) = £75,318.90. This assumes an ordinary category A employee, annual thresholds, minimum qualifying-earnings pension and no reliefs. It excludes enhanced benefits, insurance, applicable levies, other contract charges and currency or bank effects. Payroll-period rounding and the actual contract can change the result. Do not use this annual illustration as an exact monthly invoice.
Initial cash is a separate question. Teamed requires a refundable deposit equal to one month of gross salary, plus the first month's actual employment cost before payroll; it publishes Net-7 terms, no setup or exit service fee and zero FX markup (pricing). The deposit would be £5,000 in this example, subject to refund terms. The separate first-month funding includes salary, employer contributions, pension, the service fee and other agreed costs. The deposit ties up cash; it is not an extra annual expense. No exit service fee removes statutory notice, severance or other employment obligations.
Remote says it has no standard deposit, although it may disclose a refundable reserve during onboarding; when required, its documentation says the reserve is usually one month's total cost (pricing; reserve guidance). Remote invoices estimated employment costs in advance, then reconciles them with actual costs and its management fee; the later invoice charges the difference or gives a credit, rather than charging a second full payroll (invoice process). Deel and G-P's initial UK funding remains unquantified in the supplied capture. Obtain written schedules; do not compare total costs by converting the published service-fee currencies.
Buying checklist
Ask each shortlisted provider:
- Which entity will employ the person, and what UK contract and benefits will it provide? Who handles onboarding documents and right-to-work checks?
- What named support route will we use? Who owns escalation, payroll cut-offs and correction of an error?
- Can you provide an itemised quote separating the service fee, salary, employer contributions, pension, benefits, expenses, FX terms and other charges?
- What deposit or reserve is due, when can it be refunded, and when must we fund the first payroll? How will estimated and actual costs be reconciled?
- Which changes must we approve, what information must we supply, and what day-to-day work stays with us? How will notice, severance and exit costs be handled?
Get the answers for the proposed employee and contract. Published starting fees and service descriptions cannot settle these details.
FAQs
Do we need our own UK entity? An EOR can employ a UK worker for a customer without its own UK employing entity. Confirm the proposed arrangement for your hire.
Is the monthly EOR price the whole cost? No. Budget for salary, employer contributions, pension and any agreed benefits or other charges as well as the service fee.
Is a refundable deposit a fee? No. It is cash held subject to contractual refund terms, separate from employment expense.
What remains with us? You choose and direct the employee, make business decisions, supply accurate inputs and fund employment costs.
Sources and disclosure
This comparison uses the providers' Teamed, Remote, Deel and G-P pages, GOV.UK rates and pension rules, the Benchmark result and the Index September result and method. Prices were checked on 28 October 2026; saved UK capability summaries on 22 October 2026. The Index's Heddle portfolio relationship means its Teamed coverage is related research, not independent confirmation of this recommendation.