Employer of Record pricing · Overseas employers

How much does an Employer of Record cost in the UK?

Roughly £470 to £550 per employee per month. The major Employer of Record platforms publish UK pricing of about $599 to $699 per employee per month (their publicly listed rates, June 2026), and a few price in pounds directly. That is the management fee alone, before the extras below, and before the salary, employer National Insurance and pension you would pay whoever runs the payroll.

For a hire you intend to keep, running your own UK payroll costs a fraction of that, and you do not need a UK company to do it. Here are the honest numbers, the extras that are easy to miss, and the cases where an Employer of Record genuinely wins.

Interactive comparison

What would each route cost you?

Service fees only. Salary, employer NI and pension are the same whichever route you choose, so they cancel out of the comparison.

Number of UK employees

Employer of Record fee per employee per month (£)

Major platforms publish $599 to $699 per employee per month, roughly £470 to £550. Adjust to the quote you have been given.

Our side assumes a DPNI scheme at £157/mo per scheme + £500 setup per scheme (one scheme per employee) with the early-onboarding discount, with setup averaged into year one. Indicative only. full pricing here.

Beyond the headline

Employer of Record pricing: the costs that are easy to miss

The monthly fee is rarely the whole bill. Depending on the provider, budget for some or all of these, and ask about each one before you sign. None of them are unreasonable, but they are the difference between the quoted price and the real one.

Rates also move with the exchange rate if the platform prices in dollars, so treat any figure you are quoted as a starting point rather than a fixed cost. For the salary side of the budget, see what a UK employee really costs, which applies whichever route you take.

Ask about these up front

✓ A refundable deposit, often a month or two of salary, held against liabilities.
✓ Setup or onboarding fees per employee.
✓ Offboarding costs and notice terms when someone leaves.
✓ Currency conversion spreads if you fund in a different currency.
✓ Minimum terms or annual commitments, and yearly fee increases.
✓ Charges for expenses, bonuses or extra pay runs outside the standard cycle.

The honest comparison

You are not paying an Employer of Record for payroll. You are paying it to be the employer.

That is the real difference, and it is worth being clear about because it is what the fee actually buys. An Employer of Record legally employs your person in the UK: the contracts, the liability and the statutory duties all sit with the platform. Running your own payroll keeps you as the direct employer, with a specialist running the mechanics.

You do not need a UK company to do that. With no UK entity, the route for most non-EU employers is a DPNI scheme, set up in the employee's name, which we run for you at a fixed £157 a month per scheme plus a one-off HMRC setup. If your company is based in the EU or EEA, employer’s National Insurance is usually due as well, and HMRC’s route is then an NI-only scheme, which is registered in the employer’s name rather than the employee’s. We confirm which applies with HMRC before anything is set up. For one to ten UK staff you intend to keep, the maths rarely favours the Employer of Record for long. The premium pays for a flexibility most teams never use.

Worked example

Two UK employees, twelve months

	Employer of Record	Own payroll (DPNI), run by us
Service fees, year one	~£500 × 2 × 12 = ~£12,000	(£157×12 + ~£500 setup) × 2 schemes = ~£4,570
Who employs your people	The platform	You, direct relationship, your contracts
Time to start	Days	HMRC scheme setup first (DPNI typically 4 to 8 weeks; employees can usually start sooner. timeline)
Salary, employer NI, pension	Identical either way, these costs do not change with the route

Difference in year one: roughly £7,400, and more every year after, as the setup fee does not repeat.

For a single employee: an Employer of Record at about £500 a month is ~£6,000 a year. Your own DPNI payroll is ~£2,300 in year one and about £1,900 a year after that.

All three routes

Employer of Record vs DPNI vs your own UK company

	DPNI (Onshore)	Employer of Record	Own UK entity
Typical monthly cost (1 employee)	from £157	~£470 to £550	varies
Set-up cost	£500 to £750 one-off	usually none	£20k+ and months
Need a UK company?	No	No	Yes
You stay the employer	Yes	No, the platform is	Yes
Best for	a single long-term UK hire	multi-hire, benefits, under 6 months	a real UK operation

Figures are indicative and for guidance only, not a quote. No VAT is added to Onshore's fees; the price you see is the total. Your exact fixed fee is confirmed before any work begins.

Straight answer

When an Employer of Record is still the right call

We would rather tell you than sell you the wrong thing. There are real situations where an Employer of Record earns its fee, and if yours is one of them we will say so.

Plenty of companies also start on an Employer of Record and migrate to their own scheme once the hire has settled and the urgency has passed. We handle that switch too, and it is often the cheapest sequence: fast when you need fast, lean once you do not.

An Employer of Record genuinely wins when

✓ You need someone employed this week and cannot wait for any scheme setup.
✓ You want zero UK employer obligations, with another party holding the contracts and liability.
✓ You are hiring across many countries at once and want one vendor for all of them.
✓ You want benefits and HR admin completely off your plate.
✓ The hire is short-term or exploratory, under six months, and you may exit the UK quickly.

None of those apply? You are probably overpaying.

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