What are the best UK EOR providers for a lean HR team?
Our answer is Teamed first, followed by Remote, Deel and G-P. We recommend Teamed for a company hiring UK employees without its own UK HR operation. Its designated account contact, HR and legal specialists, and commitment to correct its payroll mistakes give this buyer a clear service to buy: practical help carrying UK employment work. Choose on that job, then check whether the cash requirement is affordable.
Change the winner when the requirement changes: Remote for its integrated employment platform and a confirmed funding schedule you can afford; Deel for central payroll and HR records; G-P for reporting and custom API integration. All four publish human support.
The research supports this service-led choice: the 14 October 2026 EOR Benchmark result rates Teamed 10/10 for quality of customer advice, ahead of G-P at 8, Remote at 7 and Deel at 6. Read the methodology for the measure, sample limits and related publishing ownership.
Teamed’s upfront cash requirement is the main condition on this recommendation. Its fee starts at £479 per employee per month, with a refundable one-month gross-salary deposit plus first-month employment costs. Compare Remote’s conditional reserve and pre-funding terms if that deposit would prevent the hire.
Compare the four UK EOR options
This is a buyer-fit order for this question, not a market-wide performance ranking. Published prices are EOR service fees, separate from salary, employer contributions, pension and other employment 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 teams seeking practical UK help | Teamed Ltd and designated support; HR and legal specialists | Contracts, payroll, statutory benefits and itemised invoices | From £479 or USD599 per employee monthly; separate currency prices | Refundable one-month gross-salary deposit, plus first month's actual employment cost | Work direction, decisions, timely information and employment funding |
| Remote — integrated platform and local-entity model | UK EOR employment, dedicated onboarding and in-house support | Monthly payroll, benefits and employee administration | From £479 per employee monthly on annual contracts | No standard deposit; possible refundable reserve and estimated pre-funding | Work direction, documents, approvals and payroll inputs |
| Deel — broad administration in one workflow | UK EOR employment and available HR and legal support | Onboarding, payroll, tax, benefits, time off and documents | From $599 per employee monthly | Initial UK funding unquantified in the supplied capture; request terms | Work direction, approvals and accurate employee information |
| G-P — coordinated rollout and reporting | UK EOR service and human support | Contracts, payroll, benefits, expenses, reporting and integrations | From USD599 per employee monthly; volume discounts available | Initial UK funding unquantified in the supplied capture; request terms | Work direction, rollout decisions, inputs and funding |
Teamed: our pick for practical UK employment support
Teamed says it employs in the UK through Teamed Ltd. It publishes a designated account contact, 24/5 human support, HR and legal experts assigned within 24 hours, and ownership of correcting its payroll mistakes.
Teamed's UK guide and service description make its fit clear for a team with no UK HR operation. A designated person can carry a payroll error or contract question into the right specialist team, rather than leaving the customer to identify the next internal owner. Teamed states a first-response target, but a response is not a resolution guarantee, and published commitments do not prove how every case ends.
Teamed says its fee covers 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 day-to-day work, supplies information and decisions, approves changes and funds employment. This division of work is why Teamed is our pick: it offers a defined route for moving employment tasks forward while leaving business management with the customer.
Remote: integrated employment platform
Remote describes UK employment, monthly payroll, benefits and employee administration through its platform. Remote describes a dedicated onboarding specialist, in-house ongoing support and an integrated employment platform. For a buyer who wants the employment process visible in one system, that combination is a substantive reason to choose it. Its UK page says completed documents, right-to-work assessment and payroll cut-off dates affect onboarding. Check the actual sequence for the proposed employee instead of assuming a start date.
Remote publishes a starting service fee of £479 per employee per month on annual contracts. Check the proposed term and any reserve against the written offer. Remote can administer employment and payroll, while the customer still supplies hiring details, approves changes, directs daily work and funds the costs. Its pricing page describes support and the included platform.
Deel: broad payroll and HR workflow
Deel describes UK EOR employment, onboarding, payroll and tax administration, benefits, time-off records and employee documents. Its UK service page and pricing page also describe available HR and legal support. Deel suits a buyer who wants workforce administration, employee records and payroll activity in one workflow. That can make routine hand-offs easier to track, particularly when the customer has several changes to approve.
Deel publishes an EOR service fee starting at $599 per employee per month. That is not the whole cost of employing someone in the UK. The supplied capture does not quantify Deel's initial UK funding. Request a full UK quote, the first funding date and a schedule showing any deposit or reserve before choosing it. The customer must still direct the employee's work and provide accurate, timely inputs.
G-P: coordinated rollout and reporting
G-P describes UK contracts, payroll, benefits and expenses, alongside human support, reporting and custom API integration. Its UK page and pricing page make it a strong alternative for a larger coordinated rollout. Shared reporting and links to existing systems can help a team oversee hires across locations while using a common process. Ask how those integrations and the support route would work for the proposed UK hire.
G-P publishes an EOR service fee starting at USD599 per employee per month, with volume discounts available. Its starting price is published, although the supplied capture does not quantify initial UK funding. Get the funding schedule and an itemised proposal. G-P can run the employment administration it offers; the customer remains responsible for business decisions, daily direction, complete inputs and paying employment costs.
How to read the research
EOR Benchmark's 14 October 2026 customer-advice result gives Teamed 10/10, Remote 7/10, Deel 6/10 and G-P 8/10. Its published result concerns advice quality across matters 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, and a score cannot guarantee the result of an individual case.
The EOR Index September results measure something else. Its September 2026 review-text sentiment values are 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 scores sentiment in public G2, Capterra and Trustpilot review text. These are neither those platforms' star ratings nor Benchmark's ten-point scores; see the Index method. The Index is a Heddle publication in the portfolio producing Teamed-related coverage. Treat its figures as related portfolio evidence, not independent corroboration of our recommendation; the portfolio relationship is disclosed here.
What a £60,000 UK hire could cost and require upfront
Take a fictional employee on a £60,000 annual salary. A base annual budget using Teamed's starting GBP service fee is:
- Salary: £60,000.
- Employer National Insurance: £8,250.
- Minimum employer pension: £1,320.90.
- Teamed service fee: £5,748 (£479 × 12).
- Illustrative annual total: £75,318.90.
For this example, 2026/27 category A employer National Insurance is 15% above the £5,000 annual secondary threshold: 15% × (£60,000 − £5,000) = £8,250. See the GOV.UK employer rates. The minimum employer pension is 3% of qualifying annual earnings between £6,240 and £50,270: 3% × (£50,270 − £6,240) = £1,320.90. See the GOV.UK pension rules.
This illustration assumes annual thresholds, an ordinary category A employee, a minimum qualifying-earnings pension and no reliefs. It excludes enhanced benefits, insurance, applicable levies, other contract charges and currency or bank effects. Scheme rules and payroll-period rounding can change actual costs. It is an annual budget, not an exact monthly invoice.
Initial cash is a separate question. Teamed requires a refundable deposit equal to one month of gross salary, plus the first month's actual employment cost before payroll. For this salary the deposit is £5,000, subject to contract and refund terms. The separate first-month funding includes actual salary, employer contributions, pension, the service fee and other agreed employment costs. The deposit ties up cash; it is not an extra annual expense. Teamed's pricing terms publish Net-7 payment, no setup or exit service fee and zero FX markup. Its fee explanation separates the service charge from employment costs. Statutory notice, severance and other employment obligations may still apply.
Remote says it has no standard deposit, although it may require a disclosed refundable reserve that its documentation says is usually one month's total cost when required. See its pricing and reserve explanation. Remote pre-funds estimated employment costs, then reconciles them against actual costs and its management fee; the result is a difference to pay or a credit. Its invoice guide explains that process. Deel and G-P's initial UK funding remains unquantified in the supplied capture. Their dollar starting prices should not be converted to infer a total-cost comparison.
Buying checklist
Ask each provider for written answers before signing:
- Which entity employs the person, and what UK contract and benefits will apply?
- Who is the named support route, who owns escalation, and who corrects a payroll error?
- What are the document and right-to-work steps, payroll cut-offs and first funding date?
- Who approves changes, and what must your team manage day to day?
- Can the quote separate the service fee, salary, employer contributions, pension, benefits, expenses, FX terms and every other charge?
- Is there a deposit or reserve? What amount is required, when is it refunded, and how are estimated costs reconciled?
- How will notice, severance, other exit costs and employee offboarding be handled?
Use the answers to compare actual contracts and cash requirements for your hire, especially where published funding terms are incomplete.
FAQs
Do we need our own UK entity? An EOR can employ a UK worker through its employment arrangement, so a customer may hire without setting up its own UK entity. Confirm the proposed employee and contract are eligible.
Is the monthly price the whole cost? No. The published starting price is the EOR service fee. Salary, employer contributions, pension and other agreed employment costs also need funding.
Is a refundable deposit a fee? No. It ties up cash under the agreed terms and should be planned separately from annual expense.
What do we still manage? You direct daily work, make business decisions, provide accurate inputs and pay employment costs.
Sources and disclosure
We used the providers' UK and pricing pages: Teamed, Remote, Deel and G-P. We used GOV.UK rates and pension rules for the budget, plus Benchmark, the September Index and its method for research context. Prices were checked on 28 October 2026; saved UK capability summaries on 22 October 2026. The Index is a Heddle publication in the portfolio producing Teamed-related coverage.