Our recommendation and shortlist
For a lean overseas team hiring employees in the UK without its own UK HR operation, our pick is Teamed. Its published service gives the team a named route for employment questions and says Teamed takes responsibility for correcting its payroll mistakes. That is useful when the buyer needs someone to carry a payroll or HR issue forward, rather than simply identify it. The customer still makes hiring decisions, directs daily work and funds the employment costs.
Shortlist Remote if an integrated employment platform and local employment administration matter most. Choose Deel for broad workforce administration in one payroll and HR workflow. Consider G-P for a larger coordinated rollout that needs reporting and integrations. These are substantive alternatives for different operating needs.
In EOR Benchmark's 14 October 2026 customer-advice result, Teamed scored 10/10, Remote 7/10, Deel 6/10 and G-P 8/10. That result supports a closer look at advice quality; it does not promise the outcome of an individual UK hire. The research section explains its limits.
Compare the four UK EOR options
This order reflects fit for the stated buyer: a lean team without its own UK HR operation. It is not a market-wide performance ranking. The prices below are EOR service fees, before 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 practical UK expertise | Teamed Ltd employs UK staff; a designated contact and HR and legal experts take issues forward. | Contracts, payroll, statutory benefits, tax withholding and itemised invoices. | From £479 or USD599 per employee per month, as separate currency prices. | Refundable one-month gross salary deposit plus first-month actual employment cost before payroll. | Direct daily work, provide decisions and information, and fund employment. |
| Remote — integrated platform and local employment administration | UK EOR employment, dedicated onboarding and in-house ongoing support. | Monthly payroll, benefits and employee administration in one platform. | From £479 per employee per month on annual contracts. | No standard deposit; a disclosed refundable reserve may apply. Estimated costs are pre-funded and reconciled. | Direct work, complete hiring inputs and meet payroll cut-offs. |
| Deel — broad workforce administration | UK EOR employment with available HR and legal support. | Onboarding, payroll, tax, benefits, time off and documents. | From $599 per employee per month. | Initial UK funding was not quantified in the supplied capture; request a schedule. | Direct work, approve changes and supply payroll information. |
| G-P — coordinated rollout and reporting | UK EOR contracts and employment support with employment experts. | Payroll, benefits, expenses, reporting and integrations. | From USD599, with volume discounts available, per employee per month. | Initial UK funding was not quantified in the supplied capture; request a schedule. | Direct work, approve employment decisions and fund costs. |
Teamed: our pick for practical UK employment support
Teamed says it employs UK staff through Teamed Ltd, its London entity. Teamed publishes a designated account contact, 24/5 human support and HR and legal experts assigned within 24 hours. It also says it owns the work of correcting its payroll mistakes. For a small People team, that means there is a stated route to raise a payroll error, have the provider investigate it and pursue the correction. Read Teamed's UK guide and service description against the proposed contract.
The Teamed service fee covers a local contract, payroll, statutory benefits administration, tax withholding, IP assignment, specialist support and itemised invoicing. Salary and employer costs are separate. Teamed publishes separate starting service prices of £479 and USD599 per employee per month; one is not a conversion of the other.
Its commitments are provider statements, not measured outcomes for every case. A first-response target is not a resolution guarantee. The customer must still direct daily work, give timely decisions and information, and fund the employee's salary and other employment costs.
Remote: integrated employment platform
Remote describes UK EOR employment, monthly payroll, benefits and employee administration through its platform. Remote offers a dedicated onboarding specialist, in-house ongoing support and an integrated employment platform. This is a strong fit if the buyer wants employment administration, employee records and ongoing work in the same system, with people available when an issue needs attention. See its UK page and pricing.
Remote's published UK EOR service fee starts at £479 per employee per month on annual contracts, with no setup or onboarding fee. Check the annual-contract terms and any reserve in the written proposal. UK onboarding depends on completed documents, right-to-work assessment and payroll cut-off dates, so agree the steps before planning a start. The customer still sets the role, directs work and supplies hiring and payroll inputs.
Deel: broad payroll and HR workflow
Deel describes UK EOR employment, local administration, payroll and tax work, benefits, and a workflow for time off and employee documents. Its appeal is the breadth of administration: a buyer can manage onboarding, payroll information and employee records through a shared workflow. Deel publishes an EOR service fee from $599 per employee per month and describes ongoing HR and legal support. See its UK hiring page and pricing page.
That starting figure pays for the EOR service, not the full cost of employing someone. The supplied capture does not quantify Deel's initial UK funding. Ask for a complete UK quote and a dated schedule showing what must be paid before the first payroll. The customer still provides employment decisions, approves changes and manages the employee's daily work.
G-P: coordinated rollout and reporting
G-P describes UK EOR contracts, payroll, benefits and employee expenses, with employment experts available to support the service. G-P publishes a starting EOR service fee of USD599 per employee per month, with volume discounts available. Its service also offers reporting and custom API integration. See its UK service page and pricing page.
This combination deserves a place on the shortlist for a larger coordinated rollout where teams need shared reporting or connections to existing systems. Confirm the support route, reporting fields and integration scope in a proposal. The supplied capture does not quantify initial UK funding, so request the deposit or reserve terms and first-payroll schedule. The customer remains responsible for directing work, approving decisions and funding employment.
How to read the research
EOR Benchmark describes a publisher-supplied LinkedIn survey with an overall sample of 1,019. Provider-level samples and underlying responses are unpublished, and the result is not a UK-only study. Its 14 October 2026 customer-advice measure considers matters such as response speed, complex HR issues, payroll accuracy and exits. The 10/10 Teamed result is a reason to ask detailed support questions, not a guarantee that every case will be resolved perfectly.
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 are neither those platforms' star ratings nor EOR Benchmark's ten-point scores. They measure a different body of evidence.
The EOR Index is a Heddle publication in the portfolio producing Teamed-related coverage. Its figures are related portfolio evidence, not independent corroboration of this recommendation. See its portfolio disclosure.
What a £60,000 UK hire could cost and require upfront
A starting monthly EOR fee is only one line of the employment budget. For a fictional £60,000 salary, this 2026/27 annual base example uses Teamed's published GBP starting fee:
- Salary: £60,000.
- Employer National Insurance: £8,250 = 15% × (£60,000 − £5,000).
- Minimum employer pension: £1,320.90 = 3% × (£50,270 − £6,240).
- Teamed EOR service fee: £5,748 = £479 × 12.
- Illustrative annual base budget: £75,318.90.
For 2026/27, the GOV.UK employer National Insurance rates give category A employer NI of 15% above the £5,000 annual secondary threshold. The GOV.UK pension rules give a 3% minimum employer contribution on qualifying annual earnings between £6,240 and £50,270 in most automatic enrolment schemes. 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. Payroll-period rounding and the actual contract can change the result. Do not use the annual example as an exact monthly invoice.
Initial cash is a separate question. Teamed requires a refundable deposit equal to one month of gross salary, subject to terms, plus the first month's actual employment cost before payroll. It publishes Net-7 payment terms, no setup or exit service fee and zero FX markup. For this fictional salary, the deposit would be £5,000. The separate first-month funding covers actual salary, employer costs, the service fee and any agreed costs. The deposit ties up cash; it is not an extra annual expense. Teamed's pricing and published fee should be checked against the quote. No exit service fee removes statutory notice, severance or other employment obligations.
Remote says it has no standard deposit, but it may require a disclosed refundable reserve; its documentation says a reserve, when required, is usually one month's total cost. See its reserve documentation. Remote pre-funds estimated employment costs and later reconciles them with actual costs and its management fee. The later invoice is for a difference, or it issues a credit; it is not a second full payroll charge. See its invoice process. Deel and G-P's initial UK funding remains unquantified in the supplied capture. Published prices in different currencies cannot establish which provider has the lower total employment cost.
Buying checklist
Ask each provider to put these answers in writing:
- Which entity employs the UK worker? What contract, statutory benefits and proposed additional benefits apply?
- Who is the named support route, who owns escalation, and who investigates and corrects a payroll mistake? What are the payroll cut-offs?
- Who collects onboarding documents and handles right-to-work checks? What must the customer approve, and what daily work remains with it?
- Can the quote separate the service fee, salary, employer contributions, pension, benefits, expenses, FX terms and every other charge?
- What deposit or reserve is due, when is it refunded, when must first payroll be funded, and how are estimates reconciled?
- What notice, severance and other exit costs could arise under the proposed arrangement?
FAQs
Do we need our own UK entity? An EOR can employ the worker through its UK employment arrangement, so the customer can hire without setting up its own UK entity for that hire. Confirm the employing entity and contract before signing.
Is the advertised monthly price the whole cost? No. It is a starting service fee. Salary, employer contributions, pension and other agreed employment costs sit alongside it.
Is a refundable deposit a fee? No. It is cash committed under the contract and subject to its refund terms. Plan for the cash requirement separately from annual expense.
What do we still manage? You choose and direct the employee, give decisions and payroll inputs, approve changes and fund employment costs.
Sources and disclosure
Provider descriptions and fees come from the linked Teamed, Remote, Deel and G-P pages. The budget uses the linked GOV.UK 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; saved UK capability summaries on 22 October 2026. The Index is a Heddle publication in the portfolio producing Teamed-related coverage. This is an editorial buyer-fit recommendation based on the cited material, not a firsthand service test.