How much does outsourced HR cost in the UK? (2026 pricing guide)

Outsourced HR in the UK usually costs from under £100 to around £800 a month for a small or medium-sized enterprise. Some outsourcing HR companies such as Neathouse Partners, that offer personalised HR & Law consultants, have their contracts starting at only £95/mo.

Where you'll land in that pricing range depends mostly on how many people you employ and how much support you need.

That's a wide range, so this guide breaks the price down. We cover the main pricing models, what each level includes and what pushes the price up. We also compare outsourcing with the two options most businesses weigh it against: hiring an HR manager, or paying an HR consultant by the day when something comes up.

TL;DR: what outsourced HR costs

• Monthly retainers for small businesses usually start at around £100 to £200 and rise with your headcount. For example, Neathouse Partners' pricing starts at £95 per month, and you get your own HR adviser for that price.
• Per-employee pricing tends to sit at about £20 to £30 per employee per month for full HR support, while software-led services such as BrightHR start from £16.67 per employee.
• Pay-as-you-go HR consultants charge a median of £525 a day in the UK.
• An in-house HR manager costs roughly £48,000 a year once you add employer National Insurance and pension to an average salary, before recruitment, training or holiday cover.
• The biggest cost driver is headcount, followed by whether employment law and tribunal support are included.

Want an exact figure for your business? Get a fixed monthly quote from Neathouse.

How much does outsourced HR cost in the UK?

There isn't one market price, because providers charge in different ways. The table below shows the four models you'll come across most often, with typical UK prices.

These figures come from the Startups.co.uk guide to HR outsourcing costs, ITJobsWatch contract rates for HR consultants and the providers' own websites.

Here's what some providers publish on their websites, to give you a sense of real numbers:

• Neathouse Partners: pricing starts at £95 per month.
• Rebox HR: outsourced HR for SMEs from £99 a month.
• Avensure: outsourced HR from £200 a month.
• BrightHR: HR software with an optional advice line, from £16.67 per employee per month.

Most of the larger providers, including Peninsula, Citation and Croner, don't publish prices and quote each client individually. That's normal in this market, but it does mean you'll need written quotes to compare like for like. If you'd like to see how the main providers differ beyond price, our comparison of the top HR outsourcing companies in the UK covers that.

What do you get for the money?

Price only means something once you know what's included, and this is where quotes that look similar can turn out to be very different.

At the entry level, a typical HR service package gives you:

• access to an HR advice line, usually during office hours;
• template contracts, letters and a staff handbook;
• some form of HR software or document library.

At the fuller end, which is what most businesses with 10 or more staff end up needing, you'd expect:

• a named point of contact, or ideally a personal adviser who handles your cases from start to finish;
• contracts, handbooks and policies drafted for your business, not just templates;
• support with disciplinaries, grievances, absence and dismissals, including preparing letters and sitting alongside you in hearings;
• access to employment lawyers when a matter needs legal advice or a claim is threatened.

As an example, here's what each Neathouse package includes:

• Outsourced HR Support: a CIPD-qualified personal adviser who's always assigned to your account, your contracts, handbook and policies drafted for you, and employment lawyers who specialise in dismissals and tribunal claims.
• Fixed-fee employment law: unlimited employment law advice and documentation, for businesses whose main need is legal cover rather than day-to-day HR.
• Health and safety: available as its own package.

You can compare all three on the packages page.

What affects the price of outsourced HR?

Once you start asking for quotes, you'll notice the price moves depending on a handful of things. Knowing them in advance helps you understand why two quotes differ.

• Headcount. This is the biggest factor. More employees means more contracts, more absence and more cases, so almost every provider prices by the number of people you employ.
• How much support you want. An advice line costs less than a personal adviser who drafts documents and handles cases with you. Unlimited advice costs more than a fixed number of hours.
• Employment law cover. Packages that include employment solicitors, or insurance that pays for tribunal claims, cost more than HR advice on its own.
• Your sector. Care homes, hospitality and other shift-based or heavily regulated sectors tend to generate more HR work, from right-to-work checks to sickness absence and night-shift disciplinaries.
• Extras. Health and safety, payroll, recruitment and HR software are usually priced separately or bundled at a higher tier.
• One-off projects. Restructures, redundancies and TUPE transfers are often charged as separate HR projects on top of a monthly retainer.

So when you compare quotes, compare the scope as well as the price. A £150 package that only includes an advice line isn't cheaper than a £250 package that includes a personal adviser and employment lawyers. It's just a different product.

Outsourced HR vs hiring an HR manager: the real cost

For most small and medium-sized enterprises, the real alternative to outsourcing is hiring someone in-house. A salary figure on its own makes that look cheaper than it is, so here's a fuller picture for an average HR manager.

The salary figure comes from PayScale, and we worked out National Insurance and pension using 2026/27 rates.

That £48,000 doesn't include recruitment fees, training, an HR software licence, or cover when your HR manager is on holiday or off sick. It also doesn't buy you legal expertise. Most HR managers are generalists, so you'd still need an employment solicitor for anything that might end up at tribunal.

That's why outsourcing tends to make financial sense until a business reaches a size where HR is a full-time job. Even then, many larger businesses keep an outsourced adviser alongside their in-house team as a second opinion on difficult cases. If you're weighing up when to make that switch, our guide on when growing UK firms should outsource HR goes into more detail.

Outsourced HR vs paying by the hour or the day

The other option is to call in help only when something goes wrong. That can work if your business is very small and problems are rare, but the costs add up quickly once they don't.

• HR consultants charge a median of £525 a day in the UK, and the top 10% charge £651 or more, according to ITJobsWatch. A single disciplinary, from investigation to appeal, can take several days of a consultant's time.
• Employment solicitors usually charge by the hour. Once a dispute starts, those fees are hard to predict, which is the main reason employers move to a fixed fee. We compare the two approaches in our guide to fixed-fee employment law support vs hourly solicitor fees.

Pay-as-you-go still has its place. If you need help with a one-off restructure or a handbook rewrite, a project fee can be the cheapest route, and our HR consultancy services work on that basis too.

What does it cost not to have HR support?

It's worth putting the monthly fee next to the cost of getting something wrong. An unfair dismissal or discrimination claim can be expensive even when you win. In our guide to how much an employment tribunal costs a UK employer, we explain why legal fees alone can run past £10,000 for a defended claim, before any compensation is awarded.

Most of those claims start with a process that went wrong months earlier: a missing contract, a rushed dismissal, or a grievance that wasn't handled properly. Good outsourced HR is mostly about preventing that. Your adviser gets the process right at the start, and if a claim does come in, our employment tribunal services take it from there.

How Neathouse prices outsourced HR

We charge a fixed monthly fee, so you know what HR will cost before anything happens. Pricing starts at £95 per month, and the exact fee depends on two things: how many people you employ and how much support you need.

For that fee, you get a personal adviser who learns how your business works and handles your cases from the first call to the outcome. Larger clients get two advisers or a small team, always the same people, and a wider team covers holidays. Behind them sit employment solicitors for anything that needs legal advice. Sandstone Care, which runs 13 care homes, describes its responses as "typically the same day" in its success story.

If you run a smaller business, our page on outsourced HR support for small businesses explains how the service works at that size. If you need health and safety support as well, it's available as a separate package, and our health and safety services page covers what's included.

Find out what outsourced HR would cost your business. Get a quote and meet your adviser.

How to compare outsourced HR quotes

Because most providers quote individually, the best way to compare them is to ask every provider the same questions and get the answers in writing.

1. What exactly is included for this price? Ask for the list, and check whether contracts, handbooks and policies are drafted for you or supplied as templates.
2. Who will handle my cases? Find out whether you'll speak to a personal adviser or whoever is free on an advice line.
3. Are employment lawyers included? If not, ask what legal advice and tribunal support cost on top.
4. What costs extra? Common extras include health and safety, HR software, hearings, projects and on-site visits.
5. How will the price change as we grow? Ask how the fee moves if your headcount goes up.
6. What are the renewal and notice terms? Get these in writing before you sign, so there are no surprises later.

The bottom line: get your own HR pricing quote

Published prices and averages only get you so far, because what you'll actually pay depends on your headcount, your sector and how much support you need. The quickest way to get a real number is to ask for a quote based on your own business.

At Neathouse, that starts with a short call with one of our advisers. We'll ask how many people you employ and what's keeping you busy on the HR side, then give you a fixed monthly price in writing. You'll also meet the adviser who would look after your business, so you know who you'd be working with before you decide.

Get your HR pricing quote. Book a call with a Neathouse adviser.

Frequently asked questions

How much does outsourced HR cost per employee?

For full HR support, providers that price per head typically charge about £20 to £30 per employee per month. Software-led services with an advice line can cost less, with BrightHR starting from £16.67 per employee. Many providers, Neathouse included, quote a fixed monthly fee based on headcount instead of a strict per-employee rate.

Is outsourced HR cheaper than an in-house HR manager?

For most small and medium-sized enterprises, yes. An average HR manager costs around £48,000 a year once employer National Insurance and pension are added, while outsourced HR for a small business usually costs a few hundred pounds a month. The balance shifts once HR becomes a full-time job, although many larger businesses still keep an outsourced adviser alongside their own team.

How much does an HR consultant charge per day in the UK?

The median day rate for HR consultants in the UK is £525, with most charging between £457 and £651, based on contracts advertised in the six months to November 2026.

Does outsourced HR include employment law advice?

It depends on the provider and the package. Some packages only cover HR advice and documents, while others include employment solicitors and tribunal support. At Neathouse, employment solicitors are part of the team, so legal questions go straight to them.

What's the cheapest way to get HR support for a small business?

HR software with an advice line is usually the cheapest monthly option, and pay-as-you-go consultants can be cheaper if you rarely need help. The trade-off is that neither gives you someone who knows your business when a difficult case comes up. A fixed monthly fee with a personal adviser costs more than software alone, but it also covers the cases where getting the process wrong would cost far more.