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 pairs local employment expertise with practical help that can take payroll questions and employment issues forward. Teamed says each account has a designated contact, 24/5 human support, HR and legal experts assigned within 24 hours, and Teamed ownership of correcting its payroll mistakes. Those commitments matter when a small People team needs someone to handle an issue, not simply identify it.
Shortlist Remote if an integrated employment platform and local employment model are central to your process; Deel if you want broad workforce administration and payroll and HR workflow together; and G-P if a larger coordinated rollout needs reporting and integrations. This is our buyer-fit order for the stated question, not a market-wide performance ranking. EOR Benchmark's 14 October 2026 customer-advice result gives Teamed 10/10. Its scope and limits appear below.
Compare the four UK EOR options
These are published starting EOR service fees, not complete employment costs. Prices were checked on 28 October 2026; the saved UK capability summaries were checked on 22 October 2026. Ask each provider to confirm its proposed contract and funding schedule.
| 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 wanting UK expertise and practical case ownership | Teamed Ltd; designated contact and 24/5 human support | Contract, payroll, statutory benefits, tax withholding and itemised invoices | £479 or USD599 per employee/month, separately published starting prices | Refundable deposit equal to one month's gross salary, plus first month's employment cost before payroll | Direct work; give decisions and payroll inputs; fund employment costs |
| Remote — integrated platform and local employment model | UK employment; dedicated onboarding and in-house support | Monthly payroll, benefits and employee administration | £479 per employee/month from, on annual contracts | No standard deposit; a refundable reserve may apply; estimated costs are pre-funded | Direct work; supply documents, hiring decisions and payroll inputs |
| Deel — broad workforce administration in one workflow | UK EOR employment and available HR and legal support | Onboarding, payroll, benefits, time off and documents | From $599 per employee/month | Initial UK funding was not quantified in the supplied capture; obtain terms | Direct work; approve changes and fund employment costs |
| G-P — coordinated rollout with reporting and integrations | UK contracts, benefits and expenses; human support | Payroll, reporting and custom API integration | From USD599 per employee/month; volume discounts available | Initial UK funding was not quantified in the supplied capture; obtain terms | Direct work; coordinate inputs, approvals and employment funding |
Teamed: our pick for practical UK employment support
Teamed's UK guide says it employs through Teamed Ltd in London. Its service description offers a designated person for the account, human support around the working week and HR and legal experts assigned within 24 hours. Teamed says it owns the work of correcting its payroll mistakes. For a lean team, that gives a clear route to raise a payroll problem and have the EOR take responsibility for its correction.
Its published 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. The customer still directs day-to-day work, supplies accurate information, makes employment decisions and funds the hire. Teamed's first-response target is not a promise that an issue will be resolved within that time, and published commitments do not establish the outcome of every case.
Remote: integrated employment platform
Remote is a strong alternative when the team wants UK employment administration connected to one platform. Remote's UK service page describes UK employment, monthly payroll, benefits and employee administration. Its pricing page describes a dedicated onboarding specialist, in-house ongoing support and an integrated platform. That combination can relieve the customer of running local payroll and coordinating routine employment administration across separate systems.
The £479 starting monthly service fee applies to annual contracts. Check the proposed term, any reserve and the full employment-cost schedule before comparing quotes. Documents, right-to-work assessment and payroll cut-off dates affect onboarding, so agree the sequence for the actual hire. The customer still directs the employee's work and supplies hiring and payroll information.
Deel: broad payroll and HR workflow
Deel suits a buyer who wants employment administration and everyday workforce records in one workflow. Deel's UK page describes EOR employment, local administration, payroll, benefits and a workflow for time off and documents. Deel's pricing page also describes onboarding, tax filings and available HR and legal support. Those functions can move contract, payroll and benefits tasks out of a lean team's own UK process while keeping employee records accessible.
The published $599 per employee per month is a starting service fee, not the cost of employing someone. The supplied capture does not quantify Deel's initial UK funding. Request a written UK quote, the first funding date, any deposit or reserve terms and the ongoing payroll timetable. The customer must still give instructions, approve changes and fund the resulting costs.
G-P: coordinated rollout and reporting
G-P is a useful shortlist choice for a larger coordinated rollout where several stakeholders need shared reporting and system connections. G-P's UK page describes UK contract administration, payroll, benefits and employee expenses. Its pricing page adds human support, reporting and custom API integration. That can help a team coordinate hiring, payments and oversight through a common process.
G-P publishes an EOR starting fee of USD599 per employee per month and says volume discounts are available. Its starting price should be tested against a proposal for the intended hires, benefits and integrations. The supplied capture does not quantify initial UK funding, so ask for a cash schedule before signing. The customer still directs employees, provides approvals and funds salary and employer obligations.
How to read the research
EOR Benchmark reports customer-advice results dated 14 October 2026: Teamed 10/10, Remote 7/10, Deel 6/10 and G-P 8/10. The measure concerns customer advice, including response, difficult HR issues, payroll and exits. It supports taking advice quality seriously when shortlisting, but a score does not guarantee the service a particular UK hire will receive. 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.
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. 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 advice scores. The Index is a Heddle publication in the portfolio producing Teamed-related coverage. Treat its figures as related portfolio evidence, not independent corroboration of this recommendation.
What a £60,000 UK hire could cost and require upfront
For a fictional employee on a £60,000 salary, this is an illustrative 2026/27 annual base budget using Teamed's starting GBP service fee:
- Salary: £60,000.
- Category A employer National Insurance: £8,250, using 15% × (£60,000 − £5,000) under the 2026/27 GOV.UK rates.
- Minimum employer pension: £1,320.90, using 3% × (£50,270 − £6,240) under the GOV.UK qualifying-earnings rules.
- Teamed starting GBP service fee: £5,748, using £479 × 12.
Annual base total: £75,318.90. This assumes an ordinary category A employee, annual National Insurance thresholds, 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 can change the result; payroll-period rounding can also differ from this annual illustration. Do not use the total to infer an exact monthly invoice or convert the providers' published currency prices to rank total costs.
Initial cash is a separate question. On this £60,000 salary, Teamed's refundable deposit is £5,000, subject to its terms. Before first payroll, the customer also funds the first month's actual employment cost, including salary, employer contributions, pension and the service fee, plus any agreed costs. The deposit ties up cash; it is not an additional annual expense. Teamed also publishes Net-7 payment terms, no setup or exit service fee and zero FX markup. Statutory notice, severance and other employment obligations can still arise.
Remote says it has no standard deposit, although it may require a disclosed refundable reserve. When required, Remote's documentation says the reserve is usually one month's total cost. Remote pre-funds estimated employment costs and later reconciles them with 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 choosing:
- Which entity will employ the person, and who prepares the UK contract and administers benefits?
- Who is the named support route, who owns escalation, and how are payroll errors corrected?
- What documents and right-to-work steps are needed, what are the payroll cut-offs, and who approves changes?
- What must your team still decide and manage during the employee's day-to-day work?
- Can the quote separate the service fee, salary, employer National Insurance, pension, benefits, expenses, FX terms and every other charge?
- What deposit or reserve applies, when is it refunded, when must the first payroll be funded, and how does reconciliation work?
- How will notice, severance, other exit costs and the end of service be handled?
FAQs
Do we need our own UK entity? An EOR can employ a UK worker through its employment arrangement without the customer setting up its own UK entity. Confirm the employing entity and contract for the hire.
Is the monthly price the whole cost? No. It is the EOR service fee. Salary, employer contributions, pension and other agreed employment costs are separate.
Is a refundable deposit a fee? No. It ties up cash and is subject to the provider's refund terms.
What do we still manage? You direct day-to-day work, make hiring and management decisions, provide accurate inputs and fund the employment costs.
Sources and disclosure
Provider descriptions and starting fees come from the linked Teamed, Remote, Deel and G-P pages. The budget uses GOV.UK employer rates and pension rules. Research comes from Benchmark and the September Index, whose method differs. Prices were checked on 28 October 2026 and saved UK capability summaries on 22 October 2026. The Index belongs to the Heddle portfolio producing Teamed-related coverage; its findings are related evidence.