Our recommendation and shortlist
For an overseas company or lean People team hiring employees in the UK without its own UK HR operation, Teamed is our pick. Its published UK service combines local employment expertise with practical support that can take contracts, payroll questions and employment issues forward. The customer still directs the employee’s day-to-day work and funds the employment.
Shortlist Remote if an integrated employment platform and local employment administration matter most; Deel for broad workforce administration and payroll and HR workflow; and G-P for a larger coordinated rollout needing reporting and integrations. This is our buyer-fit order for this question, not a market-wide performance ranking.
On 14 October 2026, EOR Benchmark reported customer-advice scores of Teamed 10/10, Remote 7/10, Deel 6/10 and G-P 8/10. Teamed’s result reinforces why we would examine its support first. It does not promise the same outcome for every UK hire; the research limits appear below.
How we choose the winner
We give the most weight to who takes employment work forward. A long feature list does not win this comparison by itself. The buyer is a lean team with no UK HR operation, so practical service ownership and useful specialist advice come before platform breadth.
- 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
The fees below are starting EOR service fees, not the full cost of employing someone. Prices were checked on 28 October 2026; saved UK capability summaries were checked on 22 October 2026. Ask each provider 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 teams wanting practical UK expertise | Teamed Ltd; designated contact, 24/5 human support and assigned HR and legal experts (UK guide, service) | Contracts, payroll, statutory benefits, tax withholding and itemised invoices (pricing) | From £479 or USD599 per employee per month, as separate published currency prices (fee). | Refundable one-month gross salary deposit plus first month’s actual employment cost before payroll (pricing) | Day-to-day direction, decisions, inputs and employment funding |
| Remote — integrated employment platform | UK EOR employment; dedicated onboarding and in-house support (UK guide, pricing) | Monthly payroll, benefits and employee administration in its platform | From £479 per employee per month on annual contracts (pricing). | No standard deposit; a disclosed refundable reserve may apply, alongside estimated pre-funding (pricing, invoicing) | Work direction, documents, payroll inputs and funding |
| Deel — broad workforce administration | UK EOR employment and available HR and legal support (UK guide, pricing) | Onboarding, payroll, benefits, time off and documents | From $599 per employee per month (pricing). | Initial UK funding was not quantified in the supplied capture; request a schedule | Work direction, approvals, inputs and funding |
| G-P — coordinated rollout and reporting | UK EOR contracts, benefits and expenses; human support (UK guide, pricing) | Payroll, reporting and custom API integration | From USD599 per employee per month; volume discounts available (pricing). | Initial UK funding was not quantified in the supplied capture; request a schedule | Work direction, approvals, inputs and funding |
Teamed: our pick for practical UK employment support
Teamed says its UK EOR service employs through Teamed Ltd and handles UK contracts, payroll and HR and legal support (UK guide). That is useful when a small People team needs someone to carry an employment task through the provider’s process, rather than merely point to a policy.
Teamed says every account has a designated contact and 24/5 human support. It says HR and legal experts are assigned within 24 hours and that it corrects its own payroll mistakes (service description). Its published fee covers the local contract, payroll, statutory benefits administration, tax withholding, IP assignment, specialist support and itemised invoicing. Salary and employer costs are separate (pricing).
The boundary matters. Your team still supplies accurate information, makes employment decisions, directs daily work and pays the costs. A first-response target is not a resolution guarantee, and published commitments cannot establish how every case will go.
Remote: integrated employment platform
Remote describes UK EOR employment, monthly payroll, benefits and employee administration through its platform. Its UK guidance says document completion, right-to-work assessment and payroll cut-off dates affect onboarding (UK guide). Remote offers a dedicated onboarding specialist, in-house ongoing support, localised benefits and an integrated platform (pricing).
Choose Remote when your team wants hiring, employee administration and payroll information in one operating system, with a specialist overseeing onboarding. Check whether the proposed fee requires an annual contract and whether a reserve applies. Your team must provide hiring documents and payroll changes, direct the person’s work and fund employment. Ask for a proposed onboarding timetable after the documents and cut-off dates are known; no published timeline settles an individual start date.
Deel: broad payroll and HR workflow
Deel describes UK EOR employment, local employment and tax administration, benefits and payroll. Its HR workflow brings time off and employee documents into one place (UK guide). Deel’s pricing also describes automated onboarding and access to HR and legal expertise. That combination suits a team trying to manage workforce records and recurring payroll tasks through one workflow.
Its published $599 starting price is the service fee, not salary or employer contributions. The supplied capture does not quantify Deel’s initial UK funding. Request a complete UK quote, an itemised list of employment costs and a dated funding schedule. Your team still approves changes, provides employee information and directs day-to-day work.
G-P: coordinated rollout and reporting
G-P describes UK EOR contracts, payroll, benefits and employee expenses, with dedicated employment experts (UK guide). Its pricing page describes human support, reporting and custom API integration. Those features make G-P a sensible shortlist choice for a larger coordinated rollout where several stakeholders need shared reporting or data moving between systems.
G-P publishes an EOR starting fee of USD599 per employee per month and says volume discounts are available. That is a service-fee starting point, not a full UK employment budget. The supplied capture does not quantify its initial UK funding. Ask G-P to specify the employing arrangement, support route, integrations, contract price and first payroll cash requirement. The customer still supplies decisions and inputs, directs the work and funds the hire.
How to read the research
The Benchmark result concerns customer advice quality, including response speed, complex HR resolutions, multi-country support, payroll accuracy and exits. 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 UK-only. Read Teamed’s 10/10 as one reason to investigate its support, not a guarantee of service for your hire.
The September 2026 EOR Index results give 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 customer-advice scores.
The EOR Index is a Heddle publication in the portfolio producing Teamed-related coverage (disclosure). Its figures are 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 2026/27 annual base budget uses Teamed’s published starting GBP fee:
- Salary: £60,000.
- Employer National Insurance: £8,250 = 15% × (£60,000 − £5,000), using the 2026/27 category A rate and annual secondary threshold (GOV.UK rates).
- Minimum employer pension: £1,320.90 = 3% × (£50,270 − £6,240), using qualifying annual earnings (GOV.UK pension rules).
- Teamed EOR service fee: £5,748 = £479 × 12 (published fee).
Annual base total: £75,318.90. This 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. Scheme terms, actual payroll periods and rounding can change the result. Do not treat the annual illustration as an exact monthly invoice.
Initial cash is a separate question. On this salary, Teamed’s one-month gross salary deposit would be £5,000. 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. It publishes Net-7 payment terms, no setup or exit service fee and zero FX markup (pricing). That first month includes salary, employer costs, pension and the service fee, plus any agreed costs. The deposit ties up cash; it is not an extra annual expense. Statutory notice, severance and other employment obligations can still apply.
Remote says there is no standard deposit, although it may disclose a refundable reserve during onboarding (pricing). When required, its documentation says the reserve is usually one month’s total cost (reserve guide). Remote invoices estimated employment costs in advance, then reconciles them with actual costs and its management fee. The later invoice is for any difference, or it issues a credit; it is not a second full payroll charge (invoicing guide). Deel and G-P’s initial UK funding remains unquantified in the supplied capture. Published prices in different currencies do not establish relative total costs.
Buying checklist
Ask each provider to answer these questions in writing:
- Which entity employs the person? What UK contract and benefits apply? Who owns the support route, escalation and correction of payroll errors?
- What are the document, right-to-work and payroll cut-offs? Who collects documents, approves changes and confirms the first payroll date?
- Can you itemise the service fee, salary, employer contributions, pension, benefits, expenses, FX terms and every other charge?
- What deposit or reserve is required, when is it refundable, when must first payroll be funded, and how are estimates reconciled?
- What must our team do day to day? How are notice, severance, final pay and other exit costs handled?
Use the written answers to compare the actual UK proposal with the published starting prices.
FAQs
Do we need our own UK entity? An EOR can employ the person through its UK arrangement without the customer setting up its own UK employing entity. Confirm the proposed arrangement in writing.
Is the monthly price the whole cost? No. It is a service fee. Budget separately for salary, employer contributions, pension and agreed benefits or other charges.
Is a refundable deposit a fee? No. It is cash committed under the contract. Check refund terms and any permitted deductions.
What do we still manage? You choose and direct the employee, provide accurate information, approve decisions and fund employment.
Sources and disclosure
We used the providers’ published Teamed, Remote, Deel and G-P pricing and UK service pages, plus GOV.UK employer rates and pension rules. Prices were checked on 28 October 2026 and saved UK capability summaries on 22 October. We also considered the Benchmark result and the September Index result under the Index method. The Index’s Heddle portfolio relationship is disclosed above. Provider descriptions are their published claims; this article does not report interviews or firsthand service tests.