Our recommendation and shortlist
For a lean team hiring UK employees without its own UK HR operation, Teamed is our pick. Its published UK service pairs local employment expertise with a designated person who can move payroll and employment questions forward. That matters when a small People team needs help resolving work, as well as a system for recording it. Teamed says it employs UK staff through Teamed Ltd, its London entity. Its published service description promises 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-entity model 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 customer-advice result of 14 October 2026 gives Teamed 10/10, Remote 7/10, Deel 6/10 and G-P 8/10. That supports a closer look at advice quality, but it does not predict the outcome of your UK hire. Its methodology and limits appear below.
Compare the four UK EOR options
This is our buyer-fit order for the stated question, not a market-wide performance ranking. The prices are EOR service fees, before 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.
Teamed: our pick for practical UK employment support
Teamed's UK guide says it uses Teamed Ltd to employ UK staff while the customer directs their day-to-day work. A designated contact gives a lean team a route for contract, leave, payroll and exit questions. Its promise to correct its own payroll mistakes gives the buyer a clear point of ownership when a problem needs fixing. The assigned HR and legal experts can take specialist employment work forward. These are provider commitments, not measured outcomes for every case.
According to Teamed's pricing page, its service 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 service prices of £479 or USD599 per employee per month; one is not a conversion of the other. Your team must still supply accurate information, make employment decisions, direct the employee's work and fund the hire. A first-response target is not a promise of resolution.
Remote: integrated employment platform
Remote is a strong alternative when the buyer wants employment administration within one platform. Remote's UK page describes UK employment, monthly payroll, benefits and employee administration. Remote says a dedicated specialist oversees onboarding, in-house experts provide ongoing support, and its platform is included. That combination can help a lean People team keep documents, payroll inputs and employment administration connected without giving up access to specialists.
Its starting service fee is £479 per employee per month on annual contracts, with no setup or onboarding fee. Check the proposed contract and any reserve before budgeting. Document completion, right-to-work assessment and payroll cut-off dates affect onboarding, so agree a realistic timetable for the individual hire. You still direct the work, provide hiring and payroll inputs, approve changes and fund employment costs.
Deel: broad payroll and HR workflow
Choose Deel for consideration when you want several workforce administration tasks in one workflow. Deel's UK page describes local employment administration, international payroll and benefits, with time off and employee documents held in its HR workflow. This can give a People team one place to manage routine records alongside onboarding and payroll, while retaining access to specialist help.
Deel publishes an EOR service fee starting at $599 per employee per month, including onboarding, payroll and tax administration, benefits administration and access to HR and legal support. The starting fee is not the employee's total cost. The supplied capture does not quantify Deel's initial UK funding, so obtain a written UK quote and funding schedule before comparing cash needs. Confirm who will collect documents, approve payroll changes and handle exceptions. Your team still directs the employee's daily work and supplies the decisions and money needed to employ them.
G-P: coordinated rollout and reporting
G-P deserves a place on the shortlist when hiring forms part of a larger coordinated rollout. G-P's UK page describes employment contract administration, payroll, benefits, expenses and employment experts. Its reporting and integration options can help a central team see activity across hires and connect employment data to existing systems. Human support is part of its published offer.
G-P publishes an EOR service fee starting at USD599 per employee per month, with volume discounts available, plus reporting and custom API integration. This is a published starting price, not a complete UK employment budget. The supplied capture does not quantify initial UK funding; ask for the reserve or deposit terms and first payroll schedule in writing. Your team must still coordinate approvals, direct employees' work, supply accurate inputs and pay employment costs. Test whether the proposed reporting and integrations solve work your team actually has.
How to read the research
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. Its publisher supplied an overall LinkedIn survey sample of 1,019. Provider-level samples and underlying responses are unpublished, and this was not a UK-only study. The measure concerns customer advice, including response, difficult HR matters, payroll and exits. Treat the 10/10 as a prompt to examine the proposed support arrangement, not a guarantee of advice or resolution for your hire.
The September 2026 EOR Index results report 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. Those figures are neither the platforms' star ratings nor Benchmark's ten-point advice scores. The Index states that it is a Heddle publication in the portfolio producing Teamed-related coverage. We use it as related portfolio evidence, not independent corroboration of the recommendation or provider claims.
What a £60,000 UK hire could cost and require upfront
Consider a fictional employee on a £60,000 annual salary, using Teamed's starting GBP service fee. The illustrative 2026/27 annual base budget is £75,318.90:
- Salary: £60,000.
- Employer National Insurance: £8,250.
- Minimum employer pension: £1,320.90.
- Teamed EOR service fee: £5,748 (£479 × 12).
Using the 2026/27 GOV.UK employer National Insurance rates, category A employer NI is 15% above the £5,000 annual secondary threshold: £8,250 on this salary. Under the GOV.UK workplace pension rules, a minimum 3% employer contribution on qualifying earnings from £6,240 to £50,270 gives £1,320.90. The illustration assumes an ordinary category A employee, annual thresholds, a minimum qualifying-earnings pension and no reliefs. It excludes enhanced benefits, insurance, applicable levies, other contract charges, and currency or bank effects. Scheme rules, actual payroll periods and rounding can change the result. Do not treat this annual calculation as an exact monthly invoice.
Initial cash is a separate question. 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. On this salary, the deposit is £5,000. The first month's funding is additional and includes actual salary, employer costs, the service fee and any other agreed employment 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.
Remote says it has no standard deposit but may require a disclosed refundable reserve; its invoice guide says a reserve, when required, is usually one month's total cost. Remote pre-funds estimated employment costs, then reconciles actual costs and its management fee with a difference to pay or a credit. That reconciliation is not a second full payroll charge. Deel's and G-P's initial UK funding remains unquantified in the supplied capture. Ask for their schedules; do not compare total costs by converting the published dollar prices.
Buying checklist
Before signing, ask each provider to confirm:
- Which entity employs the UK worker? Who prepares the contract, administers benefits and handles the right-to-work process?
- What named support route will your team and employee use? Who owns escalation and correction of a payroll error?
- What are the document deadlines and payroll cut-offs? Who approves pay, leave, benefits and contract changes?
- 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 applies, when is it refundable, when must first payroll be funded, and how are estimates reconciled?
- What does the customer do day to day? How are notice, severance and other exit costs handled?
Request these answers for the actual UK hire and contract. Published starting prices and service descriptions leave practical details to confirm.
FAQs
Do we need our own UK entity? An EOR can employ the person through its employment arrangement while you direct their work. Confirm the employing entity and contract for your hire.
Is the monthly EOR price the whole cost? No. Budget separately for salary, employer NI, pension, benefits and any other applicable charges.
Is a refundable deposit a fee? No. It is cash held under the contract, subject to its refund terms. It affects upfront cash even though it is not an annual service expense.
What remains with us? You set the role, direct daily work, provide information and approvals, and fund employment and exit obligations.
Sources and disclosure
Provider descriptions and prices come from Teamed, Remote, Deel and G-P. The budget uses GOV.UK NI rates and pension rules. Research comes from EOR Benchmark and the September Index, read with its method and portfolio disclosure. Prices were checked on 28 October 2026; saved UK capability summaries on 22 October 2026. The Index's Heddle portfolio relationship means its Teamed-related coverage is related evidence, not an independent endorsement.