Every Free Zone in the UAE: The Complete List by Emirate

A list of forty free zones is not actually useful on its own, because nobody chooses from forty. What is useful is understanding the families they fall into, because that reduces the choice to two or three real candidates in about a minute.

This article gives you the full list by emirate and, more importantly, the logic for narrowing it.

Dubai

The largest concentration of free zones in the country, covering almost every sector.

• Jebel Ali Free Zone (JAFZA). The original and the largest, built around the port. Logistics, trading, manufacturing and warehousing.
• Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC). Commodities, gold, diamonds, tea and general trading, in a large business district. See our DMCC guide.
• Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). The financial free zone, with its own common law courts and regulator.
• Dubai Airport Free Zone (DAFZA). Adjacent to the airport, aviation, electronics and high value logistics. See our DAFZA guide.
• Meydan Free Zone. Broad activity, popular with small and service businesses. See our Meydan guide.
• IFZA. Broad activity, competitive pricing, widely used by consultants and traders. See our IFZA guide.
• Dubai Silicon Oasis and the Dubai Integrated Economic Zones. Technology, light industry and mixed use.
• Dubai South. Around Al Maktoum International Airport and the logistics district, including aviation and e-commerce.
• Dubai Internet City, Media City, Studio City, Production City, Design District, Knowledge Park and International Academic City. The sector clusters for technology, media, design and education.
• Dubai Healthcare City. Clinical and healthcare businesses, with its own health regulator.
• Dubai Science Park, Dubai Industrial City, Dubai Auto Zone, Dubai Maritime City, Dubai Gold and Diamond Park and Dubai CommerCity. Specialist industrial, maritime, jewellery and e-commerce clusters.

Abu Dhabi

• Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM). The emirate's financial free zone, with its own common law framework, courts and regulator. The natural home for funds, holding structures and regulated financial services.
• KEZAD, the Khalifa Economic Zones. Large scale industrial, manufacturing, logistics and port linked activity, including the Khalifa Industrial Zone.
• Masdar City. Clean technology, renewables and sustainability focused businesses.
• twofour54. Media, content production and creative industries.
• Abu Dhabi Airport Free Zone. Aviation, logistics and airport adjacent business.

Abu Dhabi's zones skew towards industry, energy, finance and government linked sectors, which reflects the emirate's economy. Our Abu Dhabi cost guide covers the practicalities.

Sharjah

• Sharjah Airport International Free Zone (SAIF Zone). Established, airport adjacent, trading and light industry.
• Hamriyah Free Zone. Port based, heavy industry, oil and gas services and manufacturing.
• Sharjah Publishing City Free Zone. Publishing, printing and related trades.
• SPC Free Zone. Broad activity and competitively priced, widely used for small businesses. See our SPC guide.
• Sharjah Media City (Shams). Media, creative and consultancy, at the low cost end.
• Sharjah Research, Technology and Innovation Park. Research, technology and industrial innovation.

The Northern Emirates

• Ajman Free Zone and Ajman Media City Free Zone. See our Ajman guide.
• RAKEZ in Ras Al Khaimah, plus RAK Maritime City and the separate RAK ICC offshore registry. See RAKEZ and the RAK emirate guide.
• Fujairah Free Zone, Fujairah Creative City and the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone. See our Fujairah guide.
• Umm Al Quwain Free Trade Zone. See our UAQ guide.

The Four Families, and Why They Matter More Than the List

Almost every founder belongs clearly in one of those four rows, and once you know which, the list of forty becomes a shortlist of three or four. Then you compare on price, visa allocation, facility and banking.

What Every Free Zone Gives You

The core benefits are common across all of them: 100% foreign ownership, full repatriation of capital and profits, customs treatment appropriate to a free zone, and the ability to sponsor residence visas within your allocation.

A free zone company is a UAE company and can invoice anywhere in the world.

The core limitation is also common: a free zone licence does not give you the right to trade directly into the UAE mainland market from your own premises. Selling to mainland customers generally requires a distributor, a mainland branch or a dual licence arrangement.

Our guide to free zone companies doing mainland business covers exactly where the line sits.

What Actually Differs Between Zones

• Price, which ranges from a few thousand dirhams to substantial figures for premium zones.
• Visa allocation, which is frequently the real constraint rather than the licence fee.
• Facility options, from flexi desk to warehouse to industrial land.
• Activity list, since not every zone licenses every activity.
• Reputation and banking friction, which vary more than zones like to admit.
• Location, which matters enormously for goods and hardly at all for services.

Tax Treatment Is National, Not Zonal

A persistent myth deserves killing here. Being in a free zone does not automatically mean 0% corporate tax.

The 0% rate applies to a Qualifying Free Zone Person on qualifying income, subject to conditions including adequate substance and the nature of the income. Non qualifying income is taxed at the normal 9% above AED 375,000.

VAT applies at 5% nationally with the same registration threshold, and designated zone rules affect goods rather than exempting businesses. See the Federal Tax Authority, our corporate tax guide and VAT registration guide.

Real Cost Anchors

To give the list some grounding, here are itemised figures from our own price book rather than estimates. SPC Free Zone in Sharjah starts around AED 6,500 with no visas and around AED 14,500 with one, each visa after the first about AED 5,000.

Meydan in Dubai starts around AED 11,920 with no visas and around AED 21,490 with one, that first visa adding about AED 9,570.

Those two anchor the affordable end of Sharjah and Dubai respectively. Premium and sector specific zones sit well above them, and the cheapest northern emirate packages sit at or below the Sharjah figure.

Price your exact requirement through our cost calculator.

How to Narrow Forty to One

1. Define the activity. This alone eliminates most zones.
2. Identify your family from the table above.
3. Count the visas you need in year one and year two.
4. Decide the facility: desk, office, warehouse or land.
5. Shortlist three zones that satisfy all four.
6. Price them properly, including visas and renewal, not just the first year headline.
7. Sense check banking before committing, because that is where the friction appears.

Designated Zones and the Customs Question

A distinction worth knowing because it is frequently muddled. Some free zones are additionally treated as designated zones for VAT purposes, which affects how goods moving in and out are treated rather than exempting the business from VAT.

It is a goods rule, not a company rule, and it matters mainly to traders holding physical stock.

Separately, free zones are customs controlled areas, so goods held there sit in a customs suspended position until they enter the UAE market, at which point duty becomes payable. For a re export business this is a genuine cash flow advantage.

For a company selling into the local market it is simply a step in the process. The official position on both is published by the Federal Tax Authority and the general services index at u.ae.

The practical implication for choosing a zone is small unless you move goods. If you do, ask specifically whether the zone is designated and how its customs process works, because that answer affects your working capital.

Renewals and What Happens After Year One

Every free zone licence renews annually, and the renewal cost is not always the same as the setup cost.

Some zones price the first year attractively and renew higher, some do the reverse, and facilities and visa allocations renew on their own cycles alongside the licence.

Ask for the renewal figure before you commit, not after. A zone that is cheapest in year one and expensive thereafter is a poor choice for a business you intend to run for a decade.

Our guide to free zone company renewal covers the deadline traps, and they are real: a lapsed licence causes disproportionate problems with banking, visas and contracts.

The other post year one consideration is moving. Companies do change zones, and it is a fresh incorporation plus an orderly closure of the old entity rather than a transfer.

That is worth knowing before you choose, because it makes the initial decision slightly more consequential than the marketing suggests.

The Honest Summary

Most businesses could operate successfully from several different zones, and the anxiety founders feel about this choice is usually disproportionate. Activity, visas, facility and banking are the four things that genuinely matter.

Prestige matters in a small number of sectors and is expensive everywhere else.

If you are in Dubai and undecided, our decision guide by business type walks through it. If cost is the main driver, read the cheapest way to start a business in the UAE and compare the northern emirates properly rather than defaulting to Dubai.