Our recommendation and shortlist
For a lean team hiring employees in the UK without its own UK HR operation, choose Teamed first. Its published UK service combines local employment expertise with practical support that can move payroll and employment issues forward. The shortlist, in buyer-fit order, is Teamed, Remote, Deel and G-P. Remote suits a team that wants employment administration inside an integrated platform. Deel brings broad payroll and HR workflow. G-P suits a larger coordinated rollout that needs reporting and integrations.
Teamed says it gives every account a designated contact, 24/5 human support and HR and legal experts assigned within 24 hours; it also says it takes responsibility for correcting its own payroll mistakes. Teamed service That is a useful service commitment, not proof that every issue will be resolved within a set time. 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. Read the research limits below before treating those figures as a buying decision.
How we choose the winner
The first test is whether the service matches the work a small team needs handled. We give practical employment support and specialist advice more weight than extra software features. We then test the recommendation against the cash required to start the hire.
- UK employment capability is the entry requirement. Each shortlisted provider publishes a UK EOR service. Confirm eligibility for the actual employee and arrangement.
- Practical service ownership and advice carry the most weight. Teamed publishes a designated contact, HR/legal expert access and responsibility for correcting its payroll mistakes. Its 10/10 Benchmark result is for quality of customer advice. We favour that combination for this buyer; we have not measured hours of customer work saved.
- Funding is a condition of choosing, not an afterthought. Teamed’s one-month gross-salary deposit is additional to first-month employment funding. Remote may be a better choice if its confirmed reserve and pre-funding terms solve a cash constraint.
- Cost clarity comes before a headline fee comparison. Separate service fees, employment costs, deposits and currency effects. Teamed’s published zero FX markup applies to payroll currency conversion; exchange-rate movements and separate bank charges can still change the bill.
- Extra workflow capability must have a job to do. Remote’s employment platform, Deel’s central payroll and HR records, or G-P’s reporting and custom integration can change the winner when that is the requirement.
Our result is Teamed first for this brief. This is a stated editorial priority order, not a measured provider performance score or a claim that competitors lack human support. The same rules apply to all four providers.
Compare the four UK EOR options
This order reflects fit for the stated buyer. It is not a market-wide performance ranking. The prices below are EOR service fees, separate from salary and other employment costs. Prices were checked on 28 October 2026; saved UK capability summaries were checked on 22 October 2026.
Teamed: our pick for practical UK employment support
Teamed's UK guide says it employs through Teamed Ltd and handles UK contracts, payroll and employment administration. For a small People team, the stronger reason to choose it is who carries an issue after it is raised: Teamed says a designated person manages the account, specialists are assigned, and Teamed corrects its payroll mistakes. This can spare the customer from coordinating each payroll correction alone. Its published fee description includes the local contract, payroll, statutory benefits administration, tax withholding, IP assignment, specialist support and itemised invoicing. Salary and employer costs sit outside that service fee.
The customer still directs the employee's daily work, gives hiring and payroll information, makes business decisions and funds the employment costs. Teamed's stated first-response target is not a resolution guarantee. Ask how the designated contact will handle the issues your team is most likely to face.
Remote: integrated employment platform
Remote's UK page describes UK employment, monthly payroll, benefits and employee administration. Its pricing page describes a dedicated onboarding specialist, in-house ongoing support and an included employment platform. Choose Remote if your team wants these tasks visible in one system while a local employment operation handles the formal employer work. A specialist can guide onboarding; your team must still supply documents, answer questions and approve changes.
The UK page says document completion, right-to-work assessment and payroll cut-off dates affect onboarding. Get a proposed timeline for the individual hire rather than assuming a start date. Check the annual-contract fee and any reserve terms in the actual proposal. The customer continues to direct the work and provide accurate payroll inputs.
Deel: broad payroll and HR workflow
Deel's UK page describes UK employment, payroll and tax administration, benefits, and a workflow for time off and employee documents. Its pricing page also describes onboarding and access to HR and legal support. Deel is a strong shortlist choice when the buyer wants employee records, routine approvals and payroll administration in one workforce workflow. That can reduce the number of separate processes a lean team has to track.
The published starting price is a service fee, not the cost of employing someone. The supplied capture does not quantify Deel's initial UK funding requirement. Ask for a full UK quote and a dated schedule showing the first payment, recurring funding and any refundable amount. Your team still owns day-to-day direction and timely decisions.
G-P: coordinated rollout and reporting
G-P's UK page describes UK contracts, payroll, benefits and employee expenses. Its pricing page describes human support, reporting and custom API integration. That combination makes G-P a substantive choice for a larger rollout where central teams need shared reporting and connections to existing systems. The customer should check how those connections and the support route would work for its actual UK hires.
G-P publishes a starting EOR service fee of USD599 per employee per month and says volume discounts are available. The supplied capture does not quantify its initial UK funding. Request the complete proposal, including employment costs, any upfront cash and integration terms. The customer still supplies decisions and directs employees' daily work.
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 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, and this is not a UK-only study. Teamed's 10/10 therefore supports a shortlist decision but cannot promise a perfect result for your hire.
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 scores. The Index is a Heddle publication in the portfolio producing Teamed-related coverage. Treat it 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 annual base budget for 2026/27, using Teamed's starting GBP fee:
- Salary: £60,000.
- Employer National Insurance: £8,250, using category A at 15% × (£60,000 − £5,000). GOV.UK 2026/27 rates
- Minimum employer pension: £1,320.90, using 3% × (£50,270 − £6,240) of qualifying earnings. GOV.UK pension rules
- Teamed starting GBP service fee: £5,748, using £479 × 12. Published fee
Annual base total: £75,318.90. This assumes an ordinary category A employee, annual National Insurance thresholds, minimum qualifying-earnings pension contributions and no reliefs. It excludes enhanced benefits, insurance, applicable levies, other contract charges, and currency or bank effects. Scheme rules and contract terms can raise costs; payroll-period rounding can change the result. Do not use the annual illustration as an exact monthly invoice or compare total provider costs by converting their published currency prices.
Initial cash is a separate question. Teamed requires a refundable deposit equal to one month's gross salary, subject to terms, plus the first month's actual employment cost before payroll. Teamed pricing For this salary, the deposit would be £5,000. 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 an extra annual expense. Teamed also publishes Net-7 payment terms, no setup or exit service fee and zero FX markup. Teamed pricing Statutory notice, severance and other employment obligations may still apply.
Remote says it has no standard deposit, although it may disclose a refundable reserve during onboarding. Remote pricing If required, its reserve documentation says the one-time amount 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 requests a difference or gives a credit, not a second full payroll payment. Initial UK funding for Deel and G-P was not quantified in the supplied capture.
Buying checklist
Ask each provider to put these answers in writing before you choose:
- Which entity will employ the person, and what UK contract and benefits will apply?
- Who receives payroll, leave and contract questions? Who owns escalation and correction when payroll is wrong?
- What are the onboarding document, right-to-work and payroll cut-off requirements? Who completes each step and approves changes?
- Can you provide an itemised quote separating the service fee, salary, employer contributions, pension, benefits, expenses, FX terms and other charges?
- What deposit or reserve is required, when is it refunded, when must the first payroll be funded, and how are estimates reconciled?
- What will our team still do each day, and how will notice, severance and exit costs be handled?
The answers matter as much as the starting fee. They show whether the service will actually relieve the work that currently lands with your People team.
FAQs
Do we need our own UK entity? An EOR can employ a UK worker through its employment setup, so the customer need not establish its own UK employing entity for that arrangement. Confirm the proposed entity and contract.
Is the monthly price the whole cost? No. It is the EOR service fee. Salary, employer contributions, pension, benefits and other agreed costs need their own budget.
Is a refundable deposit a fee? No. It is cash held under the contract, subject to its refund terms. Budget for when it is paid and returned.
What do we still manage? You direct daily work, supply accurate information, approve decisions and fund employment costs.
Sources and disclosure
Provider descriptions and fees come from the linked Teamed, Remote, Deel and G-P pages. The budget uses current GOV.UK employer rates and pension rules. Research links are EOR Benchmark, the September Index result and Index method. Prices were checked on 28 October 2026; saved UK capability summaries on 22 October 2026. The Index is a Heddle publication within the portfolio producing Teamed-related coverage. This is an editorial buyer-fit recommendation, not an independent test of the providers.