Deel vs Rippling in the UK usually comes up when a business already runs PAYE at home and has started paying people abroad, and wants one supplier for both. Deel is a global hiring platform that files UK payroll to HMRC as one of its products. Rippling presents itself as a single platform for HR, IT and payroll that also pays people in other countries. For a UK finance lead the first practical difference is simple: Deel publishes what its payroll, contractor and Employer of Record products cost, and Rippling publishes where its platform starts.
Plans and pricing checked September 2026, and every figure below is read live from our pricing database.
What each one publishes for a UK employer
Deel's UK payroll carries a monthly base fee of £0 and is priced per employee under its Global Payroll product, shown in our table as £22/emp/mo (Global Payroll). Its Employer of Record figure is £448/emp/mo and its contractor fee reads Yes (£37/contractor).
Rippling states a starting price per user plus a monthly base fee for its required platform, and quotes everything above it. Our table shows the base fee as £30/mo and the per-user figure as From £7/user/mo. The payroll module sits on top of that platform and is quoted, as is its Employer of Record, which reads Quote.
In practice a UK business can budget an overseas hire with Deel from its website, and with Rippling only after a sales call. Neither has a free plan: Deel lists No and Rippling No. Contract terms also differ: Deel reads No and Rippling Annual.
The calculator above costs Rippling at its starting figures and labels them "from", so read its estimate as a lower bound for the platform rather than a payroll bill. Deel's HR product is priced separately, and our Deel pricing guide sets out what each of its products costs.
PAYE, RTI and pensions on each platform
For the pay run in Britain the two cover the same statutory ground. HMRC recognition reads Yes for Deel and Yes for Rippling; RTI and FPS filing reads Yes and Yes; statutory sick, maternity and paternity pay reads Yes and Yes.
The pension rows are where the wording parts company. Auto-enrolment reads Yes for Deel and Yes for Rippling, while the pension schemes each connects to are recorded as UK pension and NEST + major. If your workplace pension already sits with a named provider, ask each vendor how contributions reach it, because re-keying a pension file after every pay run is a hidden cost no price list shows.
Construction payroll is thin on both. CIS support reads Limited for Deel and Limited for Rippling, so a firm paying subcontractors under CIS needs a UK-native engine beside either one. Our payroll guide for global teams covers running a UK engine and a global platform together.
Paying people outside the United Kingdom
Deel records global payroll as Yes (100+ countries), and sells global payroll, Employer of Record and contractor management as separately priced products. Rippling says it runs global payroll on entities you own as well as through Employer of Record, all inside the same platform as its UK payroll. Immigration support reads Yes for Deel and Yes for Rippling, and converting a contractor into an employee Yes and Yes.
Misclassification cover deserves a closer look than one cell gives it. Our table records it as Yes for Deel and Yes for Rippling. Deel puts its indemnity on a higher contractor tier than its base contractor product, and Rippling's cover should be confirmed the same way, so ask which tier any quote includes before treating the contractor fee as the cost of being protected.
IR35 and UK-based contractors
None of the overseas cover above settles IR35. Where a contractor works for you from inside the United Kingdom through their own company, the off-payroll working rules put the status determination on you as the engager, not on the platform paying their invoices. Both Deel and Rippling can pay that contractor; neither makes the determination. Keep your status determination statements and the reasoning behind them in your own records whichever platform you choose.
One employee record, or a hiring platform with add-ons
Rippling's case is architectural: it describes payroll, HR, devices and app access as one system working from one employee record, so a starter is paid, enrolled and given a laptop and logins from a single entry, and a leaver is removed the same way. Deel's case is modular: it sells device and app management as its own product, Deel IT, alongside its hiring, payroll and HR products. Both can therefore cover a joiner's laptop and a leaver's access. The difference is whether that comes as part of one platform you commit to for a year, or as a separate product you add to a monthly rolling account.
Contracts, support and integrations
Support is recorded as 24/7 for Deel and Online for Rippling. Employee self-service reads Yes and Yes. Accounting integrations are listed as Xero, QBO, NetSuite, Sage for Deel and Xero, QBO, NetSuite, Sage for Rippling. AI features read Native + add-ons (Deel AI, Akai agents) and Native (Rippling AI), and the route for AI agents Native MCP (official) and Via 3rd-party (StackOne).
Strengths and trade-offs for a UK business
Deel lets you cost payroll, contractors and Employer of Record from published prices, charges no base fee on UK payroll, runs month to month and keeps support open at every hour. The trade-off is that device management, HR and hiring are separate products, so a business wanting everything under one record buys and connects several of them.
Rippling puts payroll, HR, devices and app access on one employee record and runs overseas payroll inside the same platform. The trade-off is that its published figures are only where the required platform starts, payroll and Employer of Record are quoted on top, and the commitment is annual.
Our view for a UK business
Choose Deel if what you need to decide this month is the cost of paying people abroad alongside a straightforward UK payroll: its published figures answer that without a call, and nothing ties you in for a year.
Choose Rippling if the goal is a single system for everything that happens to an employee, from payroll and pension to laptop and logins, and you are ready to commit to a platform for a year. Request the quote first, because the figures on this page are where the platform starts rather than what UK payroll will cost.
If your shortlist is really about who employs your overseas staff and who owns what they produce, read Deel vs Remote next. Either way, set your real headcount in the calculator above.