Our recommendation and shortlist
For an overseas company or lean People team hiring employees in the UK without its own UK HR operation, choose Teamed first. It is our clear editorial pick when you need UK employment expertise and practical support that moves contracts, payroll questions and employment issues forward. Teamed says it employs UK staff through Teamed Ltd. It publishes a designated account contact, 24/5 human support, HR and legal experts assigned within 24 hours, and ownership of correcting its payroll mistakes.
Shortlist Remote if an integrated employment platform and local employment administration matter most; Deel if you want broad workforce administration in one payroll and HR workflow; and G-P if a larger coordinated rollout needs reporting and integrations. EOR Benchmark's 14 October 2026 customer-advice result gives Teamed 10/10. That is a useful prompt to examine how advice reaches your team, not a promise about any UK case. The research section explains its limits.
Compare the four UK EOR options
This order reflects fit for the stated buyer, not a market-wide performance ranking. The prices below are EOR service fees, separate from salary, employer contributions, pension and other employment 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 teams seeking practical UK employment help | Teamed Ltd employs UK staff; a designated contact and HR and legal specialists help carry issues forward. | Local contract, payroll, statutory benefits, tax withholding and itemised invoices. | From £479 or USD599 per employee per month; separate published currency prices. | Refundable one-month gross-salary deposit plus first month's actual employment cost before payroll. | Direct work, supply decisions and information, and fund employment costs. |
| Remote — integrated platform and local employment administration | UK EOR employment, a dedicated onboarding specialist and in-house ongoing support. | Monthly payroll, benefits and employee administration in its platform. | From £479 per employee per month on annual contracts. | No standard deposit, but a disclosed refundable reserve may apply; estimated costs are pre-funded and reconciled. | Direct work and supply hiring and payroll inputs. |
| Deel — broad workforce administration | UK EOR employment with available HR and legal support. | Onboarding, payroll, benefits, time off and documents in one HR workflow. | From $599 per employee per month. | Initial UK funding is not quantified in the supplied capture; request a schedule. | Direct work, approve changes and fund employment costs. |
| G-P — larger coordinated rollouts | UK contract, payroll, benefits and expense administration with human support. | Reporting and custom API integration support a shared operating view. | From USD599 per employee per month, with volume discounts available. | Initial UK funding is not quantified in the supplied capture; request a schedule. | Direct work, approve changes and fund employment costs. |
Teamed: our pick for practical UK employment support
Teamed's UK guide says its London entity, Teamed Ltd, employs UK staff while the customer directs their day-to-day work. Its service description puts a designated person on the account, offers human support 24/5 and says HR and legal experts are assigned within 24 hours. It says Teamed owns the work of correcting its payroll mistakes. For a small People team, that means there is a route to move a payroll error or contract question towards a fix, rather than leaving the customer to identify every next step alone.
Its published fee covers the local contract, payroll, statutory benefits administration, tax withholding, IP assignment, specialist support and itemised invoicing. Salary and employer costs remain separate. Teamed publishes separate starting EOR service fees of £479 and USD599 per employee per month. The customer must provide timely information and decisions, direct the employee's work and fund employment. A first-response target does not guarantee resolution, and published commitments do not establish the outcome of every case.
Remote: integrated employment platform
Remote's UK service covers employment, monthly payroll, benefits and employee administration. Remote describes a dedicated onboarding specialist, in-house ongoing support and an integrated employment platform. That combination suits a team wanting hiring records and ongoing employment administration in one place, with people available to help move onboarding and payroll work along.
Remote's published EOR service fee starts at £479 per employee per month on annual contracts. Check the proposed term and any reserve before comparing quotes. Documents, right-to-work assessment and payroll cut-off dates affect onboarding; no individual start date follows from a published process. The customer still directs the employee's work and supplies hiring, changes and payroll inputs. Its funding and reconciliation process also deserves a cash-flow review before the first payroll.
Deel: broad payroll and HR workflow
Deel's UK service covers EOR employment, local administration, tax and benefits, with time-off and employee documents in its HR workflow. Its pricing description adds onboarding, managed payroll and tax filings, benefits administration, and available HR and legal support. This is a credible fit when the buyer wants workforce administration collected in one workflow: a leave change, employee document or payroll input can be handled alongside the employment record.
Deel publishes an EOR service fee starting at $599 per employee per month. That is a starting service price, not the full cost of employing someone. 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 in writing. Your team still approves employment decisions and directs day-to-day work.
G-P: coordinated rollout and reporting
G-P's UK service covers employment contracts, payroll, benefits and expenses. Its EOR description includes human support, reporting and custom API integration. Those features make G-P a substantive option for a larger coordinated rollout, especially where several internal teams need a common view of hiring and employment data. Support can help route contract, benefit and payroll questions while your team makes the business decisions.
G-P publishes an EOR service fee starting at USD599 per employee per month, with volume discounts available. Get the proposed UK scope and any discount in the written quote. The supplied capture does not quantify G-P's initial UK funding, so ask when cash is due and whether any sum is refundable. The customer continues to direct work, approve changes and fund employment costs.
How to read the research
EOR Benchmark's customer-advice result is dated 14 October 2026. In provider order, its scores are Teamed 10/10, Remote 7/10, Deel 6/10 and G-P 8/10. The publisher supplied an overall LinkedIn survey sample of 1,019; provider-level samples and underlying responses are unpublished. It is not a UK-only study. Use the scores to frame questions about response, complex HR issues, payroll accuracy and exits, not as guarantees.
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 EOR Index is a Heddle publication in the portfolio producing Teamed-related coverage. Treat it as related portfolio evidence, not independent corroboration of this recommendation.
What a £60,000 UK hire could cost and require upfront
A published monthly EOR fee is only one part of the budget. For an ordinary category A employee, the 2026/27 employer National Insurance rate is 15% above the £5,000 annual secondary threshold. For most automatic enrolment schemes, the minimum employer pension contribution is 3% of qualifying earnings between £6,240 and £50,270 a year.
For a fictional £60,000 salary, the annual base illustration 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 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 payroll-period rounding can change actual costs. Do not use the annual figure as an exact monthly invoice or convert dollar prices to claim a relative saving.
The initial cash requirement is separate from that annual expense. Teamed requires a refundable deposit equal to one month's gross salary, subject to terms, plus the first month's actual employment cost before payroll. For this £60,000 salary, Teamed's published deposit would be £5,000, refundable subject to terms. The separate first-month funding includes salary, employer costs, pension where applicable, the service fee and other agreed costs. The deposit ties up cash; it is not an extra annual expense. Teamed also publishes Net-7 terms, no setup or exit service fee and zero FX markup. Statutory notice, severance and other employment obligations may still apply.
Remote says it has no standard deposit, though it may require a disclosed refundable reserve; its documentation says a required reserve is usually one month's total cost. Remote pre-funds estimated employment costs and later reconciles them against actual costs and its management fee. That reconciliation is a difference to pay or a credit, not a second full payroll charge. Initial UK funding for Deel and G-P remains unquantified in the supplied capture.
Buying checklist
Ask each provider for written answers before signing:
- Which entity employs the person? Who prepares the UK contract and administers benefits?
- What is the named support route, who owns escalation, and who corrects a payroll error?
- What are the document, right-to-work and payroll cut-off requirements? Who approves changes?
- Can the quote itemise the service fee, salary, employer contributions, pension, benefits, expenses, FX terms and other charges?
- What deposit or reserve is required, when is it refunded, when must the first payroll be funded, and how are estimates reconciled?
- What must your team do day to day? How will notice, severance and other exit costs be handled?
Compare the answers against your staffing capacity and cash timetable, not the headline fee alone.
FAQs
Do we need our own UK entity? An EOR can employ the UK worker through its employment arrangement, so this route does not require you to set up your own entity for that hire. Confirm the proposed employing entity and scope.
Is the monthly price the whole cost? No. Salary, employer NI, pension, benefits and other applicable costs sit alongside the EOR service fee.
Is a refundable deposit a fee? No. It is cash tied up under the contract and subject to refund terms. Check those terms and the separate first-payroll funding requirement.
What remains with us? You direct day-to-day work, provide accurate inputs, approve decisions and fund the employment costs.
Sources and disclosure
Provider terms come from Teamed, Remote, Deel and G-P; the budget uses GOV.UK employer rates and pension rules. Research comes from EOR Benchmark and the September Index result and method. Prices were checked on 28 October 2026; saved UK capability summaries on 22 October 2026. The Index is a Heddle publication in the portfolio producing Teamed-related coverage, so its findings are related evidence.