Our recommendation and shortlist
For a lean team hiring employees in the UK without its own UK HR operation, Teamed is our clear pick. Its published UK service puts a designated contact and HR and legal specialists behind the contract, payroll and employment questions that would otherwise return to a small People team. The customer still makes hiring decisions, directs the employee's daily work and funds employment costs.
Shortlist Remote if an integrated employment platform and local employment administration matter most. Choose Deel for broad workforce administration in a payroll and HR workflow. Consider G-P for a larger coordinated rollout that needs reporting and integrations. These are credible alternatives for different operating needs.
EOR Benchmark's 14 October 2026 customer-advice result gives Teamed 10/10. That is a reason to examine its support closely, not a promise about any individual case. The research section explains the survey's scope and limits.
Compare the four UK EOR options
This is our buyer-fit order for hiring UK employees without your own UK HR operation. It is not a market-wide performance ranking. Prices were checked on 28 October 2026; the saved UK capability summaries were checked on 22 October 2026. Every price below is a starting EOR service fee, separate from salary and employer costs.
| 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 wanting UK employment expertise and practical help | Teamed Ltd employs in the UK; designated contact, 24/5 human support and assigned specialists help move employment issues forward. | Contract, 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's employment cost. | Hiring decisions, daily direction, timely inputs and funding. |
| Remote — integrated platform and local employment administration | UK EOR employment, benefits and employee administration; dedicated onboarding and in-house support. | Monthly payroll and an integrated employment 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. | Work direction, documents, payroll inputs and funding. |
| Deel — broad workforce administration | UK EOR employment and local administration, with available HR and legal support. | Payroll, benefits, time off and employee documents in one workflow. | From $599 per employee per month. | Initial UK funding is not quantified in the available capture; request a schedule. | Work direction, approvals, information and funding. |
| G-P — coordinated rollout, reporting and integrations | UK contracts, payroll, benefits and expenses, with human support. | Onboarding and offboarding workflow, reporting and custom API integration. | From USD599 per employee per month; volume discounts available. | Initial UK funding is not quantified in the available capture; request a schedule. | Work direction, approvals, integration decisions and funding. |
Teamed: our pick for practical UK employment support
Teamed says it employs UK staff through Teamed Ltd, its London entity. It says a designated person manages the account, human support runs 24/5, HR and legal experts are assigned within 24 hours, and Teamed owns correction of its payroll mistakes. For a team without its own UK HR operation, that ownership matters: a payroll error can be raised with someone responsible for taking the correction forward, rather than leaving the customer to work out the employment process alone.
Teamed says its service fee covers the local contract, payroll, statutory benefits administration, tax withholding, IP assignment, specialist support and itemised invoicing. Salary and employer costs are separate. Its UK guide and service description set out the model.
The customer must still direct daily work, supply accurate information, make employment decisions and fund the hire. A first-response target is not a resolution guarantee. Published service commitments cannot establish how every case will turn out.
Remote: integrated employment platform
Remote describes UK EOR employment, monthly payroll, benefits and employee administration through its platform. Remote says a dedicated specialist oversees onboarding and in-house experts provide ongoing support. This is a strong fit when a team wants employment administration, documents and payroll activity in one platform, with people available to help through the process.
Remote's UK EOR service fee starts at £479 per employee per month on annual contracts, with no setup or onboarding fee. Check the proposed contract's term, included services and any reserve before comparing it with another offer. Remote's UK page says document completion, right-to-work assessment and payroll cut-off dates affect onboarding; none establishes a start date for a particular hire. The customer must provide documents and payroll inputs, approve changes, direct the work and fund the employment costs.
Deel: broad payroll and HR workflow
Deel describes UK EOR employment, local employment administration, payroll and benefits automation, and a workspace for time off and employee documents. That breadth suits a buyer who wants onboarding and routine workforce records to sit alongside payroll and benefits rather than pass through separate systems. It can reduce the administrative hand-offs a lean team has to coordinate.
Deel publishes an EOR service fee from $599 per employee per month and describes onboarding, payroll and tax filings, benefits administration, and ongoing HR and legal support. Its UK service page describes the local workflow. The available capture does not quantify initial UK funding. Obtain a written UK quote and funding schedule, including any upfront amount and its refund terms. The customer still supplies hiring details, approves changes, directs daily work and pays the underlying employment costs.
G-P: coordinated rollout and reporting
G-P's UK EOR description covers employment contracts, payroll, benefits and employee expenses. Its pricing page also describes human support, reporting and custom API integration. That combination is useful for a larger coordinated rollout where several stakeholders need shared information and the employment workflow must connect with existing systems.
G-P publishes an EOR service fee from USD599 per employee per month, with volume discounts available. This is a published starting price, so ask what the proposed UK scope includes. The available capture does not quantify initial UK funding; request the amount, timing and refund conditions in writing. The customer remains responsible for its hiring choices, daily supervision, approvals, system requirements and employment funding. Reporting and integration can organise those inputs, but they do not remove the decisions behind them.
How to read the research
EOR Benchmark reported customer-advice results on 14 October 2026 of 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, and this is not a UK-only study. The result concerns customer advice, including response, complex HR issues, payroll accuracy and exits; a 10/10 score does not guarantee an outcome for a new customer.
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 values 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. Its portfolio disclosure makes that relationship clear. Treat its figures as related portfolio evidence, not independent corroboration of our recommendation or any provider's claims.
What a £60,000 UK hire could cost and require upfront
A published EOR fee is only one line of the employment budget. Consider a fictional employee on a £60,000 annual salary with Teamed's starting GBP fee. For 2026/27, ordinary category A employer National Insurance is 15% on earnings above the £5,000 annual secondary threshold. In most automatic enrolment schemes, qualifying annual earnings run from £6,240 to £50,270 and the minimum employer pension contribution is 3%. These figures come from GOV.UK employer rates and pension rules.
- 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 starting GBP service fee: £5,748 = £479 × 12.
- Illustrative annual base budget: £75,318.90.
Teamed publishes separate starting service prices of £479 and USD599 per employee per month. The calculation uses the GBP price; the USD figure is not a currency conversion. It 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. Payroll-period rounding and the final contract can change actual costs. Do not use this annual illustration as an exact monthly invoice.
Initial cash is a separate question. Teamed requires a refundable deposit equal to one month's gross salary plus the first month's actual employment cost before the first payroll; it publishes Net-7 payment terms, no setup or exit service fee, and zero FX markup. For this salary, the deposit would be £5,000, subject to the contract's refund terms. The separate first-month funding covers actual salary, employer contributions, pension, the service fee and other agreed costs. The deposit ties up cash; it is not another annual expense. No exit service fee removes statutory notice, severance or other employment obligations. See Teamed's pricing and published fee.
Remote says it has no standard deposit, but it may require a disclosed refundable reserve; its invoice guidance says that, when required, the one-time reserve is usually one month's total cost. Remote pre-funds estimated employment costs, then reconciles them with actual costs and its management fee; the later invoice is a difference to pay or a credit, not a second full payroll charge. See its reserve guidance and invoice process. Initial UK funding for Deel and G-P is unquantified in the available capture. Ask both for written schedules. Published prices in different currencies do not establish relative total employment cost.
Buying checklist
- Ask which entity will employ the person, what the UK contract and benefits include, and who checks onboarding documents and right-to-work evidence.
- Confirm the named support route, who owns escalation, payroll cut-offs, how errors are corrected and what decisions the customer must approve.
- Request an itemised quote separating the service fee, salary, employer contributions, pension, benefits, expenses, FX terms and every other charge.
- Get the deposit or reserve amount, refund terms, first payroll funding date and reconciliation process in writing. Ask what happens if actual costs differ from estimates.
- Agree who provides payroll changes and who directs the employee's daily work. Confirm how notice, severance and other exit costs would be handled.
Use the answers to compare the work each provider will take forward, as well as the cash and decisions that remain with your team.
FAQs
Do we need our own UK entity? An EOR can employ a UK worker through its local employment arrangement, so the customer need not establish its own entity for that hire. Confirm the arrangement for your case.
Is the monthly price the full cost? No. It is the EOR service fee. Budget separately for salary, employer contributions, pension, benefits and other agreed charges.
Is a refundable deposit a fee? No. It ties up cash and is returned subject to the contract's terms and outstanding obligations.
What do we still manage? You choose the hire, direct daily work, provide accurate inputs, approve decisions and fund employment costs.
Sources and disclosure
Provider descriptions and fees come from Teamed, Remote, Deel and G-P; the budget uses GOV.UK rates and pension rules. Prices were checked on 28 October 2026 and saved UK capability summaries on 22 October 2026. Research comes from EOR Benchmark and the September EOR Index, whose method differs. The Index is a Heddle publication in the portfolio producing Teamed-related coverage; its findings are related evidence, not independent corroboration.