For a lean 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 intended to move contracts, payroll questions and employment issues forward. Put Remote, Deel and G-P on the shortlist too: each offers a different way to organise the work.
Our recommendation and shortlist
Teamed's UK guide says it employs through Teamed Ltd in London. Teamed says every account has 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 payroll mistakes. Those commitments make Teamed the clearest fit here for a small team that needs help carrying employment work through, rather than another place to track it.
Choose Remote if an integrated employment platform and local-entity model suit your team. Consider Deel for broad workforce administration in one payroll and HR workflow. Consider G-P for a larger coordinated rollout needing reporting and integrations. This order reflects the stated buyer's needs; it is not a market-wide performance ranking.
In EOR Benchmark's customer-advice result of 14 October 2026, Teamed scored 10/10, Remote 7/10, Deel 6/10 and G-P 8/10. That supports a closer look at Teamed's service, but it cannot promise the outcome of a UK hire. The research limits are set out below.
Compare the four UK EOR options
These are published starting 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. Ask for contract terms and a UK cost schedule before deciding.
| 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 UK expertise and follow-through | Teamed Ltd; designated contact, 24/5 human support and assigned HR and legal experts | Local contract, payroll, statutory benefits and itemised invoice | From £479 or USD599 per employee per month; separate published 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 specialist and in-house ongoing support | Monthly payroll, benefits and employee administration in its platform | From £479 per employee per month on annual contracts. | No standard deposit; a refundable reserve may apply, alongside estimated pre-funding | Directs work, provides onboarding and payroll inputs, and pays employment costs |
| Deel — broad workforce administration | UK EOR employment and available HR and legal support | Onboarding, payroll, tax, benefits, time off and documents | From $599 per employee per month. | Initial UK funding was not quantified in the supplied capture; request the schedule | Directs work, approves changes and funds employment costs |
| G-P — coordinated rollout and integrations | UK EOR contracts, benefits and expenses, with human support | Payroll, reporting and custom API integration | From USD599 per employee per month; volume discounts available. | Initial UK funding was not quantified in the supplied capture; request the schedule | Directs work, supplies hiring decisions and funds employment costs |
Teamed: our pick for practical UK employment support
Teamed's case is strongest when a lean People team needs a provider to own the next employment step. Its designated contact gives the customer a route for a payroll error, contract question or difficult HR issue; its stated payroll commitment assigns the correction work to Teamed. Access to specialists can help turn an issue into an action, although a first-response target is not a resolution guarantee.
Its published fee covers the local contract, payroll, statutory benefits administration, tax withholding, IP assignment, specialist support and itemised invoicing. Salary, employer contributions and other employment costs sit outside that service fee. The customer still directs day-to-day work, supplies accurate inputs, makes business decisions and funds the hire. Teamed's service description is a published commitment, not evidence that every case is resolved in the same way.
Remote: integrated employment platform
Remote's UK page describes UK EOR employment, monthly payroll, benefits and employee administration. Remote says a dedicated specialist oversees onboarding and in-house experts provide ongoing support through its integrated platform. That combination may fit a team that wants employment administration and records in one system, with people available to help move onboarding and later questions along.
The starting fee applies to annual contracts. Check the proposed term, any reserve and the timing of pre-funding before comparing cash needs. Documents, right-to-work assessment and payroll cut-off dates can affect onboarding, so agree the actual steps for your candidate. Your team must still direct their work and supply timely hiring and payroll information.
Deel: broad payroll and HR workflow
Deel's UK page describes local employment administration, payroll, tax and benefits, with time off and employee documents in its HR workflow. Its pricing page also describes onboarding and available ongoing HR and legal support. Deel is a useful option when the buyer wants workforce records and recurring administration handled through one workflow, especially if it already uses Deel for other workers.
The published $599 starting price is the EOR service fee, not salary or employer costs. The supplied capture does not quantify Deel's initial UK funding. Request a full UK quote, its first-payroll funding schedule and the support route for issues that need a decision. Your team still manages the employee's work and approves changes.
G-P: coordinated rollout and reporting
G-P's UK page describes contracts, payroll, benefits and employee expenses through its EOR service. Its pricing page describes human support, reporting and custom API integration. Those features give G-P a clear place on the shortlist for a larger, coordinated hiring rollout where teams need shared visibility and existing systems connected.
G-P publishes a USD599 per employee per month starting EOR price and says volume discounts are available. The supplied capture does not quantify initial UK funding, so ask for a proposal showing both recurring charges and cash due before payroll. Confirm who handles employment questions across the rollout and what information your team must provide. You still direct employees' daily work and pay their employment costs.
How to read the research
The Benchmark figures above measure customer advice quality on a ten-point scale. The publisher supplied an overall LinkedIn survey sample of 1,019; provider-level sample sizes and underlying responses are unpublished. The 14 October 2026 result is not a UK-only study. Use Teamed's 10/10 as a prompt to test its proposed support process, not as a guarantee for an individual case.
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 values are neither those platforms' star ratings nor Benchmark's customer-advice scores. They describe a different measure and do not establish UK service outcomes.
The EOR Index is a Heddle publication in the portfolio producing Teamed-related coverage. Its findings 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 annual salary, this is an illustrative 2026/27 base budget using Teamed's starting GBP service fee:
- Salary: £60,000.
- GOV.UK's 2026/27 employer rates give category A employer National Insurance of 15% above the £5,000 annual secondary threshold: 15% × (£60,000 − £5,000) = £8,250.
- Under GOV.UK's workplace pension rules, the minimum employer contribution in this example is 3% of qualifying earnings between £6,240 and £50,270: 3% × (£50,270 − £6,240) = £1,320.90.
- Teamed's £479 monthly starting fee: £479 × 12 = £5,748.
Illustrative 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. Payroll-period rounding and the actual contract can change the result. It is not an exact monthly invoice, and the dollar-denominated starting prices above should not be converted to infer a total-cost winner.
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. The deposit in this example is £5,000. It ties up cash but is not an extra annual expense. First-month funding separately covers actual salary, employer costs, the service fee and other agreed costs. Ask for the first invoice and refund terms; statutory notice, severance and other employment obligations may still apply.
Remote says it has no standard deposit, though it may disclose a refundable reserve during onboarding. Remote's reserve guidance says a reserve, when required, is usually one month's total cost. Remote's invoice guidance describes estimated pre-funding followed by reconciliation against actual costs and its management fee. That reconciliation produces a difference to pay or a credit, not a second full payroll charge. Obtain written initial-funding terms from Deel and G-P too; the supplied captures do not quantify them for the UK.
Buying checklist
Ask each provider to put these answers in writing:
- Which entity will employ the person, and what UK contract and benefits will apply?
- Who is the named support route? Who owns escalation, payroll error correction and the next action on an HR issue?
- What documents and right-to-work steps are needed? Who gathers them, and what are the payroll cut-offs?
- Which changes must your team approve? What remains yours to manage day to day?
- Can the quote itemise the service fee, salary, employer contributions, pension, benefits, expenses, FX terms and every other charge?
- How much cash is due before the first payroll? What are the deposit or reserve refund terms and the reconciliation process?
- How will notice, severance and other exit costs be calculated and funded?
Compare written answers for your proposed employee and contract, not just the starting fee.
FAQs
Do we need our own UK entity? An EOR can employ a UK worker through its employing arrangement, so the customer need not create its own UK entity for that hire. Confirm the proposed arrangement and candidate requirements.
Is the monthly price the whole cost? No. It is a service fee. Salary, employer contributions, pension and other agreed employment costs are separate.
Is a refundable deposit a fee? No. It is cash tied up under the contract, subject to its refund terms.
What do we still manage? You direct daily work, make business decisions, provide accurate inputs and fund employment.
Sources and disclosure
Provider descriptions and starting prices come from the linked Teamed, Remote, Deel and G-P pages; prices were checked on 28 October 2026, and saved UK capability summaries on 22 October 2026. The budget uses GOV.UK employer rates and pension rules. Research references are EOR Benchmark, the September Index results and its method. The Index's Heddle portfolio relationship means its Teamed-related coverage is related evidence. This shortlist is editorial buyer-fit advice, not a firsthand service test.