Our recommendation and shortlist
For an overseas company or lean People team hiring UK employees without its own UK HR operation, Teamed is our clear pick. Its published UK service combines local employment expertise with practical help that takes payroll and employment work forward. Teamed's UK guide says it employs through Teamed Ltd in London. Teamed says every account has a designated 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.
Shortlist Remote for its integrated employment platform and local-entity model, Deel for broad workforce administration and payroll and HR workflow, and G-P for reporting, integrations and a larger coordinated rollout. EOR Benchmark gave Teamed 10/10 for customer advice on 14 October 2026. That is a useful reason to examine its support closely, with the research limits explained below. You still direct the employee's daily work and fund their employment.
Compare the four UK EOR options
This order reflects fit for this specific buyer, not a market-wide performance ranking. The figures below are starting EOR service fees, separate from salary, employer contributions, pension and other 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 team seeking UK expertise and hands-on progress | Teamed Ltd employs in the UK; a designated contact and specialists handle employment questions and payroll errors | Contract, payroll, statutory benefits, withholding and itemised invoices | From £479 or USD599 per employee monthly, as separate published service prices (fee) | Refundable one-month gross-salary deposit plus first month's actual employment cost before payroll | Daily direction, hiring decisions, timely inputs and funding |
| Remote — integrated platform and local-entity model | UK employment and administration, dedicated onboarding and in-house ongoing support | Monthly payroll, benefits and employee records in one platform | From £479 per employee monthly on annual contracts (pricing) | No standard deposit; a reserve may apply, alongside estimated pre-funding | Work direction, documents, payroll inputs and funding |
| 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 monthly (pricing) | Initial UK amount not quantified in the reviewed material | Work direction, approvals, inputs and funding |
| G-P — larger coordinated rollout | UK contracts, payroll, benefits and expenses with human support | Reporting and custom API integration | From USD599 per employee monthly; volume discounts available (pricing) | Initial UK amount not quantified in the reviewed material | Work direction, approvals, inputs and funding |
Teamed: our pick for practical UK employment support
Teamed best fits a team that needs an employment partner to move routine work forward while its own People capacity is thin. Teamed's pricing says its 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. Its published service description gives the customer a route to someone who knows the account and says Teamed corrects its own payroll mistakes. That can relieve the customer of running payroll and chasing a provider through each correction.
The boundary matters. The customer still supplies accurate information, makes employment decisions, directs day-to-day work and funds the costs. Teamed's first-response target is a response target, not a promise to resolve an issue within that time. Published commitments do not establish the outcome of every case.
Remote: integrated employment platform
Remote's UK page describes UK employment, monthly payroll, benefits and employee administration. Remote describes a dedicated onboarding specialist, in-house ongoing support and an integrated platform. That combination suits a buyer who wants local employment administration and employee records in one system. The onboarding specialist and ongoing team can carry the employment process and support requests; the customer still supplies hiring decisions, documents, payroll changes and funds.
The UK page says document completion, right-to-work assessment and payroll cut-off dates affect onboarding. Confirm those steps before setting an internal start-date plan. Its £479 starting service fee is for an annual contract. Ask how that contract, any reserve and the funding timetable apply to your hire.
Deel: broad payroll and HR workflow
Deel's UK page describes local employment administration, payroll and tax work, benefits, time off and employee documents in one workflow. Its pricing page also describes onboarding and ongoing HR and legal support. This is a strong fit when a team wants hiring, payroll and routine employee administration handled through a shared workflow. Those services can reduce the work of assembling separate records and processing routine changes.
The published $599 starting amount is an EOR service fee, not the full employment bill. The reviewed material does not quantify Deel's initial UK funding. Obtain an itemised UK quote and funding schedule, including who supplies documents and approves changes.
G-P: coordinated rollout and reporting
G-P's UK page describes contracts, payroll, benefits and expenses; its pricing page adds human support, reporting and custom API integration. G-P makes sense for a larger coordinated rollout that needs employment activity visible across teams and connected to existing systems. Its employment experts and support can take forward contract, payroll and benefits administration while reporting helps the customer oversee it.
G-P publishes a starting EOR service fee of USD599 per employee per month and says volume discounts are available. The reviewed material does not quantify initial UK funding. Request the UK quote, implementation scope and cash schedule. The customer remains responsible for daily work direction, decisions, inputs and employment funding.
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. It is relevant to the support question, but a 10/10 result does not guarantee any customer's outcome. 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, complex HR issues, payroll accuracy and exits.
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 advice scores. The Index is a Heddle publication in the portfolio producing Teamed-related coverage, as its disclosure states. Treat it as related portfolio evidence, not independent corroboration.
What a £60,000 UK hire could cost and require upfront
A fictional hire on a £60,000 annual salary shows why the service fee is only one line of the budget. Using the 2026/27 GOV.UK employer National Insurance rates, category A employer NI is £8,250: 15% × (£60,000 − £5,000 annual secondary threshold). Under the GOV.UK qualifying-earnings pension minimum, employer pension is £1,320.90: 3% × (£50,270 − £6,240). Teamed's published GBP starting fee adds £5,748: £479 × 12. The illustrative annual base budget is £75,318.90: £60,000 salary + £8,250 employer NI + £1,320.90 pension + £5,748 service fee.
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. Scheme rules, payroll-period rounding and the agreed contract can change actual charges. It is an annual planning figure, not a forecast of an exact monthly invoice.
Initial cash is a separate question. Teamed's pricing requires a refundable £5,000 deposit for this salary, subject to terms, plus the first month's actual employment cost before payroll. That first-month amount includes salary, employer costs including pension, and the service fee, with other agreed costs where applicable. The deposit ties up cash; it is not an extra annual expense. Teamed publishes Net-7 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, although it may require a disclosed refundable reserve. Its invoice guidance says a reserve, when required, is usually one month's total cost. Remote pre-funds estimated employment costs, then reconciles them with actual costs and its management fee. The next invoice charges the difference or gives a credit; it is not a second full payroll charge. Deel's and G-P's initial UK funding was not quantified in the reviewed material. Compare written funding schedules without converting the published currency prices into assumed total costs.
Buying checklist
Ask each provider to put these answers in writing:
- Which entity employs the person? What UK contract and benefits apply? Who 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 steps? Who collects the records, approves changes and tells the employee what happens next?
- Can the quote separate the EOR service fee, salary, employer contributions, pension, benefits, expenses, FX terms and every other charge?
- What deposit or reserve is required, when is it refunded, when must first payroll be funded, and how are estimates reconciled?
- What must we decide and do day to day? How will notice, severance, final payroll and other exit costs be handled?
Use the answers to compare work actually removed from your team, contract terms and cash timing alongside the starting fee.
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 for that hire. Confirm the proposed employing entity and contract.
Is the monthly price the whole cost? No. The published starting price is a service fee. Salary, employer contributions, pension and other agreed costs sit alongside it.
Is a refundable deposit a fee? No. It is cash tied up under the contract, with refund terms to check.
What do we still manage? You choose and direct the employee, provide timely information and approvals, and fund employment and exit obligations.
Sources and disclosure
Provider descriptions and starting fees come from Teamed, Remote, Deel and G-P. The budget uses GOV.UK NI rates and pension rules. Research references are Benchmark, the September Index and its 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-related coverage is related evidence.