Our recommendation and shortlist
For an overseas company hiring employees in the UK without its own UK HR operation, start with Teamed. It is our clear pick for a lean team that wants UK employment expertise and practical support to move contracts, payroll questions and employee issues forward. This is a judgement about fit for this buyer, not a market-wide performance ranking.
Shortlist Remote if an integrated employment platform and local-entity model matter most; Deel if you want broad workforce administration and payroll and HR workflow; and G-P if you need reporting and integrations for a larger coordinated rollout. All four leave you responsible for directing daily work and funding employment costs.
EOR Benchmark gave Teamed 10/10 for customer advice on 14 October 2026. That makes its support model worth examining closely; it does not predict the outcome of an individual UK case. The research section explains the result's limits.
Compare the four UK EOR options
The order below answers this specific buying question. It is not a universal league table. Service fees are separate from salary and employer 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 UK hiring needing practical employment help | Teamed Ltd; designated contact, 24/5 human support and assigned HR and legal experts | Contracts, payroll, statutory benefits and help correcting its payroll errors | From £479 or USD599 per employee per month; separate published currency prices. | Refundable deposit plus first month's actual employment cost before payroll | Daily direction, decisions, accurate inputs and employment funding |
| Remote — integrated platform and local-entity model | UK employment, dedicated onboarding and in-house ongoing support | Monthly payroll, benefits and employee administration in one platform | From £479 per employee per month on annual contracts. | Estimated pre-funding; refundable reserve may apply | Daily direction, hiring inputs and payroll changes |
| Deel — broad workforce administration | UK EOR employment and available HR and legal support | Onboarding, payroll, benefits, time off and documents | From $599 per employee per month. | UK amount unquantified in the supplied capture; request terms | Daily direction, approvals, inputs and funding |
| G-P — coordinated rollout, reporting and integrations | UK contracts and employment administration with human support | Payroll, benefits, expenses, reporting and custom API integration | From USD599 per employee per month; volume discounts available. | UK amount unquantified in the supplied capture; request terms | Daily direction, rollout decisions, inputs and funding |
Teamed: our pick for practical UK employment support
Teamed says it employs UK staff through Teamed Ltd, its UK entity. Its service description promises a designated account contact, 24/5 human support, HR and legal experts assigned within 24 hours, and ownership of correcting its payroll mistakes. For a lean People team, the useful distinction is who takes a payroll error or contract question forward after it is raised. Teamed says its people do that work, rather than leaving the customer to coordinate the correction alone.
The service fee covers a local contract, payroll, statutory benefits administration, tax withholding, IP assignment, specialist support and itemised invoicing. Salary and employer costs remain separate. You still direct the employee's day-to-day work, make employment decisions, supply timely information and fund the hire. Teamed's first-response target concerns a reply, not a guaranteed resolution. Its published commitments do not prove how every case will turn out.
Remote: integrated employment platform
Remote's UK service covers employment, monthly payroll, benefits and employee administration. Remote describes a dedicated onboarding specialist, in-house ongoing support and an integrated platform in its pricing information. This is a strong fit when the buyer wants employment records, benefits and payroll activity handled through one system with an onboarding specialist to guide the initial steps.
The starting fee assumes an annual contract, so check the proposed term and full price. Document completion, right-to-work assessment and payroll cut-off dates affect onboarding; agree a workable schedule for the particular hire. The customer still provides documents and payroll inputs, approves changes and directs the employee's work. A possible reserve and the pre-funding cycle also matter to cash planning.
Deel: broad payroll and HR workflow
Deel's UK service covers employment administration, payroll and tax, benefits, time off and employee documents. Its pricing page describes automated onboarding and available HR and legal support. Deel therefore merits a shortlist place if you want employment administration and routine People tasks in a common workflow, especially when your team needs a clear place to manage documents and leave.
Its published $599 starting price is the EOR service fee, not the complete cost of a UK employee. The supplied capture does not quantify Deel's initial UK funding. Ask for a written UK quote, the first-payroll funding schedule and the division of tasks. Your team still supplies accurate hiring information, makes decisions and directs daily work.
G-P: coordinated rollout and reporting
G-P's UK service covers employment contracts, payroll, benefits and expenses. Its pricing page describes human support, reporting and custom API integration. Those features give G-P a clear place on the shortlist when a larger rollout needs shared reporting, connections to existing systems and coordination across hires.
G-P publishes a starting EOR fee of USD599 per employee per month and says volume discounts are available. The starting fee does not establish the full cost of a UK hire or the final price for a rollout. The supplied capture does not quantify initial UK funding, so request the deposit or reserve terms and payment schedule with the proposal. You still approve employment decisions, provide inputs, fund costs and direct the work.
How to read the research
EOR Benchmark's customer-advice result on 14 October 2026 scored Teamed 10/10, Remote 7/10, Deel 6/10 and G-P 8/10. It concerns advice quality, including response, complex HR issues, payroll and exits. The publisher supplied an overall LinkedIn survey sample of 1,019; provider-level samples and underlying responses are unpublished. It is not a UK-only study. The 10/10 result is evidence to weigh, not a promise of perfect support.
The September 2026 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 figures are neither those platforms' star ratings nor Benchmark's ten-point scores. The EOR Index is a Heddle publication within 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 published GBP starting fee:
- Salary: £60,000.
- Employer NI: £8,250 = 15% × (£60,000 − £5,000) for a category A employee at the 2026/27 employer rates.
- Minimum employer pension: £1,320.90 = 3% × (£50,270 − £6,240) using qualifying earnings rules.
- Teamed starting GBP service fee: £5,748 = £479 × 12.
Annual base budget: £75,318.90. This 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. Scheme rules can require more pension funding, and payroll-period rounding can change the result. It is not an exact monthly invoice.
Upfront cash is a separate question. Under Teamed's published terms, this salary requires a refundable £5,000 deposit, subject to terms, plus the first month's actual employment cost before payroll. Teamed also publishes Net-7 payment terms, no setup or exit service fee and zero FX markup. That first-month cost includes salary, employer contributions, pension and the service fee, plus any other agreed costs. The deposit ties up cash but is not an extra annual expense. No exit service fee does not remove statutory notice, severance or other employment obligations.
Remote says it has no standard deposit, but it may require a disclosed refundable reserve, usually one month's total cost when required. Remote pre-funds estimated employment costs and later reconciles actual costs and its management fee; the result is a difference payable or a credit, not a second full payroll charge. The supplied capture leaves Deel's and G-P's initial UK funding unquantified. Do not convert the published dollar prices to pounds to infer which provider has the lowest total employment cost.
Buying checklist
Ask each provider to answer these points in writing before you sign:
- Which entity employs the person? Who prepares the UK contract, administers benefits and handles right-to-work steps?
- Who is the support contact? Who owns escalation and correction when payroll or employment paperwork is wrong? What are the payroll cut-offs?
- What does an itemised quote show for the service fee, salary, employer NI, pension, benefits, expenses, FX terms and other charges?
- How much deposit or reserve is required, when is it refunded, when must first payroll be funded, and how are estimates reconciled?
- Which documents and approvals must your team supply? Who manages changes, day-to-day work, notice, severance and exit costs?
Use the answers to compare the actual contract and cash schedule, not just the starting fee. Where the supplied records leave funding unanswered, request the amount and terms rather than assuming them.
FAQs
Do we need our own UK entity? An EOR can employ a UK worker through its employment arrangement, so you can hire without establishing your own UK employing entity for that arrangement. Confirm the entity and contract for your hire.
Is the monthly fee the whole cost? No. Salary, employer contributions, pension and other agreed employment costs sit alongside the EOR service fee.
Is a refundable deposit a fee? No. It ties up cash and is subject to refund terms; it is separate from annual employment expense.
What do we still manage? You direct daily work, make decisions, provide accurate inputs and fund employment costs.
Sources and disclosure
Provider descriptions and fees come from Teamed's UK guide, service and pricing; Remote's UK guide and pricing; Deel's UK guide and pricing; and G-P's UK guide and pricing. Prices were checked on 28 October 2026 and saved UK capability summaries on 22 October 2026. The budget uses GOV.UK NI rates and pension rules. Research comes from EOR Benchmark and the September Index, read with its method and portfolio disclosure. The Index's Heddle relationship makes it related evidence, not independent confirmation.