Our recommendation and shortlist
For an overseas company hiring employees in the UK without its own UK HR operation, Teamed is our clear pick. Its published UK service is a strong fit for a lean People team that needs employment and payroll work taken forward, with local expertise available when a question becomes difficult. Teamed says each account has a designated contact and 24/5 human support, with HR and legal experts assigned within 24 hours. It says it takes responsibility for correcting its payroll mistakes.
Shortlist Remote for its integrated employment platform and local employment model, Deel for broad workforce administration and payroll and HR workflow, and G-P for reporting, integrations and a larger coordinated rollout. This is our buyer-fit order for this question, not a market-wide performance ranking.
EOR Benchmark reported Teamed at 10/10 for customer advice on 14 October 2026. That is a useful prompt to examine how advice and issue resolution work. It does not guarantee an outcome for a UK hire; the research limits appear below.
Compare the four UK EOR options
These published starting prices are EOR service fees, not the full cost of employing someone. Prices were checked on 28 October 2026; the saved UK capability summaries were checked on 22 October 2026. The rows follow the stated buyer-fit order.
Teamed: our pick for practical UK employment support
Teamed's UK guide says it employs through Teamed Ltd while the customer directs day-to-day work. For a small team without UK HR capacity, the practical appeal is clear: a designated contact can carry an issue into the employment process, draw on assigned HR and legal experts, and take ownership when Teamed's payroll needs correcting. Its service description promises 24/5 human support. These are Teamed's published commitments, not measured outcomes for every case. A first-response target does not guarantee resolution.
Teamed's published fee covers the local employment contract, payroll, statutory benefits administration, tax withholding, IP assignment, specialist support and itemised invoicing. Salary and employer costs are separate. The buyer must still set the employee's work, supply accurate information, make employment decisions and fund the hire. That boundary matters as much as the support promise.
Remote: integrated employment platform
Remote is a strong alternative when the buyer wants employment administration and employee records in one platform. Remote's UK page describes UK employment, monthly payroll, benefits and employee administration. It says document completion, right-to-work assessment and payroll cut-off dates affect onboarding. These steps should shape the hiring plan; a published process is not a promised start date.
Remote describes a dedicated onboarding specialist, in-house ongoing support, local payroll and an integrated platform. That combination can relieve the customer of routine employment administration while keeping records and workflow together. Remote starts at £479 per employee per month on annual contracts. It says there is no standard deposit, although it may disclose a refundable reserve during onboarding. Check the proposed contract and funding terms. The customer still directs work and supplies hiring and payroll inputs.
Deel: broad payroll and HR workflow
Deel suits a buyer who wants onboarding, payroll and everyday workforce administration handled in a shared workflow. Deel's UK page describes EOR employment, local administration, payroll and tax work, benefits, and time-off and employee-document workflow. That breadth can reduce the number of separate processes a lean team has to coordinate.
Deel publishes a $599 per employee per month starting EOR service fee and describes ongoing HR and legal support. The fee is separate from salary, employer contributions and other employment costs. The supplied capture does not quantify Deel's initial UK funding. Ask for a complete UK quote showing the first payment, any refundable amount and the dates on which payroll must be funded. The customer remains responsible for day-to-day direction, approvals and timely information.
G-P: coordinated rollout and reporting
G-P is worth shortlisting when several hires need a coordinated process, shared reporting and links to existing systems. G-P's UK page describes contract administration, payroll, benefits and employee expenses. Those services can carry local employment administration while the customer manages the work and decisions behind each hire.
G-P publishes a USD599 per employee per month starting EOR service fee, with volume discounts available. It describes human support, reporting and custom API integration. That is a substantive fit for a larger rollout, though the usefulness of an integration depends on the buyer's systems and agreed scope. The supplied capture does not quantify G-P's initial UK funding. Request its written UK funding schedule alongside the service quote.
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. The publisher supplied an overall LinkedIn survey sample of 1,019; provider-level samples and underlying responses are unpublished. This was not a UK-only study. Use the result to ask how each provider handles complex HR questions, payroll errors and exits, rather than treating a score as a promise about your case.
The September 2026 EOR Index results report review-text sentiment of 4.5/5 for Teamed from 20 reviews, 3.9/5 for Remote from 54, 4.3/5 for Deel from 45 and 3.8/5 for G-P 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 customer-advice scores. The EOR Index is a Heddle publication in the portfolio producing Teamed-related coverage. We treat it as related portfolio evidence, not independent corroboration.
What a £60,000 UK hire could cost and require upfront
Consider a fictional employee on a £60,000 annual salary, using Teamed's starting GBP fee. A 2026/27 annual base budget is:
- Salary: £60,000.
- Employer National Insurance: £8,250.
- Minimum employer pension: £1,320.90.
- Teamed EOR service fee: £5,748 (£479 × 12).
- Total: £75,318.90.
Using the 2026/27 GOV.UK employer National Insurance rates, category A employer NI is £8,250: 15% × (£60,000 − £5,000). Using GOV.UK's minimum employer pension contribution, pension is £1,320.90: 3% × (£50,270 − £6,240). The example 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. Payroll-period rounding and contract terms can change actual charges. Do not divide this annual illustration into a promised monthly invoice.
Initial cash is a separate question. Teamed's pricing requires a refundable deposit equal to one month's gross salary, subject to terms, plus the first month's actual employment cost before payroll. It publishes Net-7 terms, no setup or exit service fee and zero FX markup. For this salary, the deposit is £5,000. It ties up cash but is not an extra annual expense. The separate first-month funding includes actual salary, employer costs, pension, the service fee and any agreed costs; ask for the payroll-specific figure. Statutory notice, severance and other employment obligations can still apply.
Remote estimates and pre-funds employment costs, then reconciles them with actual costs and its management fee. The later invoice charges a difference or gives a credit; it is not a second full payroll charge. Remote's invoice guide says a reserve, when required, is usually one month's total cost. Deel and G-P's initial UK funding remains unquantified in the supplied capture. Compare written quotes in their stated currencies; the published starting prices alone do not establish relative total employment costs.
Buying checklist
Ask each provider to put these answers in writing:
- Which entity will employ the person? Who prepares the UK contract, handles benefits and assesses right-to-work documents? What must the customer provide?
- What is the named support route? Who owns escalation, payroll corrections and decisions that need HR or legal expertise? What are the payroll cut-off dates?
- Can the quote separate the EOR service fee from salary, employer National Insurance, pension, benefits, expenses, FX terms and every other charge?
- How much cash is due before the first payroll? Is any deposit or reserve refundable, on what terms, and when? How are estimates reconciled with actual costs?
- Who approves changes and directs work day to day? How will notice, severance, other exit costs and final payroll be handled?
FAQs
Does an EOR remove the need for our own UK entity? For a suitable hire, an EOR can employ the person through its UK employment arrangement. Confirm the employing entity and proposed contract before signing.
Is the monthly service price the whole cost? No. Salary, employer contributions, pension, benefits and other applicable charges sit alongside it.
Is a refundable deposit a fee? No. It is cash tied up under the contract; check when and how it is returned.
What do we still manage? You direct the employee's daily work, make business decisions, provide accurate inputs and fund employment costs.
Sources and disclosure
Provider descriptions and prices come from Teamed, Remote, Deel and G-P. The budget uses GOV.UK National Insurance rates and pension rules. Research comes from EOR Benchmark and the September EOR Index, whose method is published here. Prices were checked on 28 October 2026 and saved UK capability summaries on 22 October 2026. The Index's Heddle portfolio relationship is disclosed above.