Business Setup Cost Across All Seven Emirates, Compared
Ali JasimSetup cost varies more within an emirate than between emirates. A licence in a low-cost northern free zone can start near AED 7,000, a Dubai free zone licence typically starts around AED 14,500, and a Dubai mainland company runs roughly AED 9,000 to AED 29,000 depending on activity, partners and visas.
Visas, not the licence, are usually the biggest single line. The cheapest emirate is only the right answer if your customers, your bank and your visa count all agree with it.
Almost every "cheapest emirate" article compares headline licence fees and stops there. That is the least useful comparison available, because the licence is rarely the biggest number on the invoice and the cheap emirate frequently costs more once you add the things you actually need.
This guide compares the real drivers instead, using figures from our own live price book rather than rounded guesses.
The Honest Headline: What a Licence Starts At
Here is the real starting point for a company with no visas, taken from the current price book. These are entry-level packages, not averages, and every one of them moves the moment you add visas or a bigger activity list.
| Route | Typical starting cost | What that buys |
|---|---|---|
| Sharjah free zone (SPC) | from AED 6,500 | Licence, 100% ownership, no visa allocation |
| Dubai free zone (Meydan) | from AED 11,920 | Licence, 100% ownership, Dubai address |
| Dubai mainland | from about AED 17,772 | Licence, trade anywhere in the UAE, simplest activity |
| UAE offshore (JAFZA) | AED 20,000 | Holding and invoicing only, no UAE trading, no visas |
| Offshore, BVI | Priced on request | International holding structure |
| Offshore, Seychelles | Priced on request | International holding structure |
Add 5% VAT to all of the above. The mainland range is wide because activity, number of partners and whether you need external approvals all move it, which is covered further down.
Why the Visa Line Matters More Than the Emirate
This is the part almost nobody publishes, and it is the single most useful thing on this page. In our price book each additional visa adds a flat, predictable amount on top of the licence:
- Dubai free zone: the step is not flat. The first visa adds about AED 9,570 to the package total and the second about AED 8,060. So a Dubai free zone company goes from about AED 11,920 with no visas to about AED 21,490 with one and AED 29,550 with two.
- Sharjah free zone: the first visa adds about AED 8,000 and each one after that about AED 5,000. From about AED 6,500 with none to AED 14,500 with one and AED 19,500 with two.
Worth being precise about what that figure contains, because you will see smaller numbers quoted elsewhere and they are not wrong, they are just measuring less.
That first-visa figure is the whole stack: the visa allocation, the employment visa itself, the status change where it applies, the medical and the Emirates ID typing.
Quote only the visa and the medical and you land nearer AED 4,000. Both figures are true, so always check which bundle a price refers to before comparing two providers.
Read those two lines again, because they change the decision. With zero visas Sharjah is less than half the price of Dubai.
With three visas the gap has narrowed considerably in percentage terms, because visa costs are far more similar between emirates than licence costs are. The more people you need to sponsor, the less the emirate choice saves you.
The calculator prices your exact combination from the real fee schedule, itemised, in under a minute.
Inside the Country or Outside: A Real AED Difference
A detail that surprises people. Whether the person receiving the visa is already inside the UAE or applying from outside changes the price, because an in-country applicant needs a status change and an overseas applicant does not.
In our price book that difference is about AED 1,500 per person in a Dubai free zone and about AED 700 in Sharjah. It is not huge on one visa.
On a team of five arriving on visit visas it is real money, and it is entirely avoidable if the timing of their arrival is planned rather than accidental.
Dubai
The most expensive on paper and the most defensible in practice. A Dubai free zone licence starts around AED 11,920 and Dubai mainland runs from roughly AED 17,772 at the simplest end to about AED 28,287 for a three-partner company with a heavier activity.
What you are paying for is not prestige, it is friction removal: banks are more comfortable, customers assume you are real, and the government service infrastructure is the most developed in the country.
If your customers are in Dubai, being licensed elsewhere and servicing them from Dubai creates a structural problem, which our guide on whether a free zone company can trade on the mainland covers honestly.
Abu Dhabi
Comparable to Dubai rather than cheaper, and the right answer when your customers are government or energy sector, or when you want proximity to the federal ministries.
Abu Dhabi has its own free zones and its own economic department, and its licensing rules are not simply Dubai's with a different letterhead.
Budget in the same band as Dubai and choose it for the customer base, not for a saving that is not really there.
Sharjah
The genuine value option, and the numbers are real: a Sharjah free zone licence starting near AED 6,500 is a little over half a Dubai equivalent, and each further visa adds roughly AED 5,000 rather than the AED 8,000 the first one costs. Our detailed guide is SPC Free Zone Sharjah.
The honest limits: some banks are slower with a Sharjah-licensed entity, and if your whole client base is in Dubai you will be commuting or paying for a Dubai presence anyway, which erases the saving.
It works best for consultants, service businesses and holding structures that do not need a Dubai address to be credible.
Ajman, Ras Al Khaimah, Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain
The northern emirates compete almost entirely on price and they are good at it.
Ajman Free Zone and RAKEZ in particular have built real volume by being cheap and fast, and RAKEZ is a serious option when a business needs actual warehouse or light industrial space rather than a desk.
See RAKEZ company setup.
Fujairah is the outlier worth knowing about because of its east coast port, which matters for specific trading and shipping businesses and for nothing else. Umm Al Quwain is the smallest and cheapest and is chosen almost entirely on price.
What Is the Same Everywhere
It is worth being clear about what does not change with the emirate, because a lot of comparison content implies otherwise:
- Corporate tax. Federal, 9% above AED 375,000 of taxable profit and 0% below it, everywhere. See UAE corporate tax explained.
- VAT. 5%, federal, with mandatory registration at AED 375,000 of taxable supplies.
- Immigration process. Entry permits, medicals and Emirates ID run through the federal system, documented at icp.gov.ae.
- Labour rules. Federal, administered by MOHRE for mainland employment.
So the emirate changes your licence cost, your address, your visa allocation mechanics and your regulator. It does not change your tax position, and anybody telling you a particular emirate is a tax play is selling you something.
The Costs That Follow You Whichever Emirate You Pick
A comparison of setup fees is only half the picture, because several costs are decided by the shape of your business rather than by its address, and they often dwarf the licence difference you spent a week agonising over.
- Office or workspace. A flexi-desk is the cheap floor everywhere. A real office is a different order of cost everywhere, and the jump is bigger than the emirate gap. See office space costs.
- Accounting. UAE law requires proper books regardless of emirate, and the cost tracks your transaction volume, not your licence.
- Health insurance per employee. An employer obligation, and priced on the plan you choose rather than on where you registered.
- Annual renewal. Every emirate renews annually, and renewal is broadly in the same order as the original licence, so a cheaper licence is also a cheaper renewal every year after. That is the one place the emirate saving genuinely compounds.
That last point is worth sitting with. A one-off saving of a few thousand dirhams at setup is pleasant.
The same saving repeating every year for five years is a different decision, and it is the strongest argument for the lower-cost emirates when the rest of your requirements allow it.
How to Actually Choose
- Where are your customers? If the answer is Dubai, start there and justify moving away, not the other way round.
- How many visas in year one? The more visas, the less the emirate saves you.
- Do you need a bank account quickly? If yes, weight the emirate and the zone by how comfortable banks are with it.
- Do you need physical space? Warehouse or light industrial changes the answer completely and usually points north.
- Mainland or free zone? Decide this first. It matters more than the emirate. See free zone against mainland on cost.
The Short Version
If cost is genuinely the deciding factor and you need few or no visas, a northern or Sharjah free zone will save you real money.
If you need several visas, a bank account soon, or customers who are in Dubai, the saving shrinks fast and can turn negative.
The only way to settle it is your own numbers rather than a table of headline fees, which is exactly what the cost calculator is for.
Frequently asked questions
On headline licence cost the northern emirates and Sharjah are cheapest, with a Sharjah free zone licence starting near AED 6,500 against roughly AED 11,920 for a Dubai free zone equivalent. The gap narrows as you add visas, because visa costs are far more similar between emirates than licence costs are. Cheapest on paper is not cheapest overall if banking or your customer base pulls you back to Dubai.
In our current price book each additional visa adds roughly AED 8,000 in a Dubai free zone, with the first visa closer to AED 9,570, and roughly AED 5,000 in a Sharjah free zone, on top of the licence. That makes visa count the single biggest driver of total setup cost for most small companies, usually larger than the difference between one emirate and another.
From outside. An applicant already inside the country needs a status change, which adds roughly AED 1,500 per person in a Dubai free zone and roughly AED 700 in Sharjah. On a single visa it is minor, but across a small team arriving on visit visas it adds up, and it is avoidable if arrival timing is planned in advance.
No. Corporate tax is federal at 9% above AED 375,000 of taxable profit and 0% below, and VAT is federal at 5%, so both apply the same in every emirate. The emirate changes your licence cost, your address, your regulator and your visa allocation mechanics. Anyone presenting a particular emirate as a tax advantage is misrepresenting how UAE tax works.
Only if your customers, your banking needs and your visa count all agree with that choice. A very low-cost licence in a distant emirate, combined with an overseas director and little local substance, is exactly the profile banks slow down, and three months without a corporate account costs far more than the licence saving. Choose on total outcome, not on the licence line.
See the number for your setup
The cost calculator runs on Dubai Business Corporation’s real price book. Answer a few questions and get your total, fully itemised, in under a minute.
