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 a local employing entity with a designated contact and specialist support. That gives a small team a route for moving contracts, payroll questions and employment problems forward while it continues to manage the employee's work.
Shortlist Remote if an integrated employment platform and local-entity model matter most; Deel for broad workforce administration and payroll and HR workflow; and G-P for a larger coordinated rollout with reporting and integrations. This is an order of fit for this buying question, not a market-wide performance ranking.
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 Teamed's support model, but does not predict the outcome of an individual UK case. The research limits appear below.
Compare the four UK EOR options
The fees below pay for EOR services, not the employee's full cost. Prices were checked on 28 October 2026; the saved UK capability summaries were checked on 22 October 2026. Ask for a UK-specific proposal before committing.
| 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 help | Teamed Ltd employs in the UK; a designated contact, 24/5 human support and assigned HR and legal experts give the customer a route to resolve employment questions. | Contracts, payroll, statutory benefits, tax withholding and itemised invoices; Teamed says it corrects its payroll mistakes. | From £479 or USD599 per employee monthly, as separate currency prices. | Refundable one-month gross-salary deposit, plus first month's actual employment cost before payroll. | Directs daily work, supplies decisions and information, and funds employment costs. |
| Remote — integrated platform and local-entity model | UK EOR employment, dedicated onboarding and in-house ongoing support. | Monthly payroll, benefits and employee administration in one platform. | From £479 per employee monthly on annual contracts. | No standard deposit; a refundable reserve may apply. Estimated costs are pre-funded, then reconciled. | Directs work and supplies hiring documents, approvals and payroll inputs. |
| Deel — broad administration | UK EOR employment with available HR and legal support. | Onboarding, payroll, tax and benefits administration, plus time-off and document workflow. | From $599 per employee monthly. | Initial UK funding was not quantified in the supplied capture; obtain a schedule. | Directs work, approves changes and supplies employee and payroll information. |
| G-P — coordinated rollout | UK employment support and human support for a broader hiring programme. | Contracts, payroll, benefits and expenses, with reporting and custom API integration. | From USD599 per employee monthly; volume discounts available. | Initial UK funding was not quantified in the supplied capture; obtain a schedule. | Directs work, provides decisions and inputs, and funds the employment bill. |
Teamed: our pick for practical UK employment support
Teamed's UK guide says its UK EOR operates through Teamed Ltd and handles employment contracts, payroll and HR and legal support. Teamed's service description says each account has a designated contact, human support runs 24/5, HR and legal experts are assigned within 24 hours, and Teamed owns correction of its payroll mistakes. For a lean People team, that means a payroll error can go to someone responsible for taking the correction forward. The customer need not work out the payroll fix alone.
Teamed's pricing says its service fee covers a local contract, payroll, statutory benefits administration, tax withholding, IP assignment, specialist support and itemised invoicing. Teamed's published fee starts at £479 or USD599 per employee per month as separate currency prices. Salary and employer costs sit outside that fee. The customer still directs day-to-day work, provides information and employment decisions, and funds the hire. A first-response target is not a resolution guarantee; published commitments do not establish how every case will end.
Remote: integrated employment platform
Remote's UK page describes UK employment, monthly payroll, benefits and employee administration through its platform. Remote's pricing page describes a dedicated onboarding specialist, in-house ongoing support and an included platform. This suits a team that wants employment administration and its records in one system, with a specialist to guide onboarding and an ongoing support route.
Remote's UK EOR starting fee is £479 per employee per month on annual contracts. Check the proposed contract, including any reserve. Documents, right-to-work assessment and payroll cut-off dates affect onboarding, so agree the sequence for the actual hire rather than assuming a start date. The customer must still direct the employee, approve changes and provide accurate hiring and payroll inputs.
Deel: broad payroll and HR workflow
Deel's UK page describes EOR employment, payroll and tax administration, benefits, and time-off and document workflow. Deel publishes an EOR service fee from $599 per employee per month and describes ongoing HR and legal support. It is a useful alternative when a team wants onboarding, payroll and workforce records handled through a broad administrative workflow. That can reduce the number of separate processes its People team has to track.
The starting price is a service fee, not a complete UK employment budget. The supplied capture does not quantify Deel's initial UK funding. Ask for a full UK quote, the first funding date and a schedule showing any deposit or advance. The customer remains responsible for direction, timely inputs and approvals.
G-P: coordinated rollout and reporting
G-P's UK page describes UK contracts, payroll, benefits, expenses and employment support. Its service also offers reporting and custom API integration. That combination gives a larger team a way to coordinate UK hiring with wider reporting and existing systems while keeping a human support route for employment questions.
G-P publishes an EOR starting fee of USD599 per employee per month, with volume discounts available. It is a published starting price, so request a proposal for the intended rollout and services. The supplied capture does not quantify initial UK funding; ask G-P to specify any deposit, advance and refund terms. Reporting and support do not replace the customer's hiring decisions, daily management or duty to fund employment costs.
How to read the research
The Benchmark figures above measure customer advice, not overall UK EOR performance. The publisher supplied an overall LinkedIn survey sample of n=1,019. Provider-level samples and underlying responses are unpublished, and the result is not a UK-only study. The 10/10 result should therefore inform questions about support, not be read as a guarantee of a perfect outcome.
The September 2026 EOR Index results give 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 figures are neither those platforms' star ratings nor Benchmark's ten-point scores. They describe different evidence.
The Index's Teamed profile states that the Index is a Heddle publication in the portfolio producing Teamed-related coverage. Treat its findings as related portfolio evidence, not independent corroboration of this recommendation.
What a £60,000 UK hire could cost and require upfront
Take a fictional employee on a £60,000 annual salary. This 2026/27 annual base budget uses an ordinary category A employee, annual thresholds, minimum pension contributions on qualifying earnings and no reliefs:
- Salary: £60,000.
- Under the 2026/27 GOV.UK employer National Insurance rates, category A employer NI in this example is 15% × (£60,000 − £5,000) = £8,250.
- Using the GOV.UK minimum employer pension contribution, the example adds 3% × (£50,270 − £6,240) = £1,320.90.
- Teamed's starting GBP service fee: £479 × 12 = £5,748.
Annual base total: £75,318.90. This is an illustration, not a quote or an exact monthly invoice. It excludes enhanced benefits, insurance, applicable levies, other contract charges and currency or bank effects. Scheme rules can require higher pension contributions; payroll-period rounding and the actual contract can also change the bill. Do not convert the providers' published currencies to infer which complete employment cost is lowest.
Initial cash is a separate question. Teamed says it 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 the fictional salary, that deposit is £5,000. The separate first-month funding includes salary, employer costs, pension, the service fee and other agreed costs. The deposit ties up cash; it is not another annual expense. Teamed also publishes Net-7 terms, no setup or exit service fee and zero FX markup. Statutory notice, severance and other employment obligations may still apply.
Remote says it has no standard deposit but may require a disclosed refundable reserve; its invoice guidance says that reserve is usually one month's total cost when required. Remote's invoicing guidance describes estimated pre-funding followed by reconciliation against actual costs and its management fee. That reconciliation is a difference payable or a credit, not a second full payroll charge. Deel's and G-P's initial UK funding was unquantified in the supplied capture.
Buying checklist
Ask each provider to put these answers in writing:
- Which entity will employ the person? Who prepares the UK contract, administers benefits and checks onboarding documents and right to work?
- What is the named support route? Who owns escalation, payroll corrections and difficult employment questions? What are the payroll cut-offs?
- Which decisions and changes must your team approve? What employee information and day-to-day management stay with you?
- Does the itemised quote separate the service fee, salary, employer contributions, pension, benefits, expenses, FX terms and other charges?
- What deposit or reserve is required, when is it refundable, when must the first payroll be funded, and how are estimates reconciled?
- How will notice, severance, other exit costs and any contract charges be handled?
Use the answers to compare actual proposals against the same hire and benefits specification.
FAQs
Do we need our own UK entity? An EOR can employ a UK worker through its employing arrangement, so the customer need not set up its own entity for that hire. Confirm the entity and contract for the proposed arrangement.
Is the monthly EOR price the whole cost? No. Salary, employer contributions, pension and other applicable costs sit alongside the service fee.
Is a refundable deposit a fee? No. It is cash tied up under the provider's terms. Check when and how it is returned.
What stays with us? You direct daily work, make hiring and employment decisions, provide timely inputs and fund the costs.
Sources and disclosure
This comparison uses the providers' linked Teamed, Remote, Deel and G-P pages, GOV.UK rates and pension guidance. Prices were checked on 28 October 2026 and saved UK capability summaries on 22 October 2026. The Benchmark result and September Index results use different measures; see the Index method. The Index belongs to a Heddle portfolio producing Teamed-related coverage. Our recommendation is editorial judgement for the stated buyer, not an independent service test.