A line-by-line breakdown of what it really costs to start a company in Dubai in 2026 - free zone packages, mainland DET fees, visa and Ejari costs, the charges founders forget to budget, and how to read a consultant's quote before you sign it.
A realistic first-year budget to set up a company in Dubai in 2026 is AED 12,500 to AED 25,000 for a lean free zone licence with no visa, AED 25,000 to AED 40,000 for a free zone licence with one or two investor visas, and AED 28,000 to AED 55,000 for a Dubai mainland LLC once office rent and Ejari are included. The spread is wide because three variables move the number more than anything else: your activity, your visa count, and whether you need physical premises. JB Consultants (Jitendra Business Consultants) has formed more than 5,300 companies in the UAE since 2001, and what follows is the same cost logic we walk clients through before they commit to a jurisdiction.
Three shifts have changed how Dubai setup costs behave. First, free zone competition has compressed headline prices while pushing money into add-ons: SPC Free Zone advertises packages from around AED 5,750 and IFZA from roughly AED 11,900 to AED 12,900, but those figures assume zero visas and a shared desk. Second, premium zones have moved the other way. DMCC's published 2026 packages sit between roughly AED 31,000 and AED 49,941 depending on the track, with its Basic Biz package at AED 35,484 and the Jump Start flexi-desk option at AED 43,780 for a single year. Third, federal corporate tax has added an ongoing compliance line that simply did not exist in most 2022-era quotes.
That divergence is why two consultants can quote AED 12,000 and AED 45,000 for what sounds like the same company. They are usually not quoting the same thing. The sections below separate fixed government charges from discretionary ones so you can compare quotes on equal terms.
A free zone company gives you 100 percent foreign ownership, a fast incorporation path, and a licence issued by the zone authority rather than Dubai's Department of Economy and Tourism. Across the Dubai free zones the cost structure is consistent even when the headline prices are not.
Typical range: AED 1,000 to AED 9,020. Low-cost zones bundle registration into the package price; premium zones itemise it. DMCC, for instance, publishes company registration at AED 9,020, an application fee of AED 1,035 and an Articles of Association fee of AED 2,020 as separate lines.
What to check: whether your quote includes the incorporation documents or only the licence itself.
Typical range: AED 9,000 to AED 15,000 for standard commercial and service activities; AED 15,000 to AED 50,000 for regulated or trading-heavy activities. Activity selection drives this more than the zone does. A management consultancy licence and a general trading licence in the same free zone can differ by a factor of three.
What to check: how many activities your package covers before extra-activity charges start, usually after the third.
Typical range: AED 3,000 to AED 20,000 per year. A flexi-desk or shared workspace is the cheapest compliant option at roughly AED 3,000 to AED 7,000 annually. A dedicated office in a premium zone runs AED 15,000 to AED 20,000 and upward.
What to check: your visa quota is tied to workspace type. A flexi-desk usually caps you at one to three visas.
Typical range: AED 1,000 to AED 2,000, with DMCC at AED 1,825 annually. You need this before you can sponsor anyone, including yourself.
What to check: whether it sits inside the package or is billed separately at the visa stage, which is where most quote-to-invoice drift happens.
Typical range: AED 3,000 to AED 6,500 per two-year visa. That covers entry permit, status change, medical fitness test, Emirates ID and residence stamping. Renewals fall in a similar band, roughly AED 3,500 to AED 6,000 including medical, Emirates ID renewal and mandatory health insurance.
What to check: whether health insurance is quoted at all, because it is compulsory and frequently excluded.
Typical range: AED 0 to AED 50,000, and usually not a real cost. Most Dubai free zones no longer require capital to be deposited or blocked. Where it is required, it is a declared and refundable figure, not a fee.
What to check: whether the zone demands a bank capital confirmation letter, which forces a banking step before licensing.
A mainland licence from the Department of Economy and Tourism lets you trade anywhere in the UAE without a local distributor, bid for government contracts and open branches freely. Most commercial and professional activities now allow 100 percent foreign ownership, so the real trade-off in Dubai mainland company formation is the tenancy requirement that puts a floor under the cost.
Typical range: AED 600 to AED 2,000 combined. Foreign-language or non-Arabic trade names attract a surcharge.
What to check: reservations expire, so a delayed lease can force you to pay twice.
Typical range: AED 12,000 to AED 25,000 and above. Professional licences sit at the lower end, commercial and general trading at the upper end, and industrial licences higher again because of additional approvals. Activities needing external approval, such as healthcare, education, financial services or food handling, add regulator fees on top.
What to check: whether your activity requires third-party approval before the licence issues, since that also adds weeks to the timeline.
Typical range: AED 15,000 to AED 40,000 per year for a small office, plus AED 220 for Ejari registration. This is the line that makes mainland more expensive than free zone in year one. Some business centres offer compliant small-office tenancies at the lower end of that band.
What to check: the tenancy must be Ejari-registered, and the space must match your declared activity and visa count.
Typical range: AED 1,500 to AED 3,500. Multi-shareholder structures, corporate shareholders and bespoke profit-share clauses push this higher.
What to check: foreign corporate shareholders need attested and legalised documents from the home country, a separate cost and often the longest lead time in the entire process.
Typical range: AED 600 to AED 1,500 for Chamber membership, plus a market fee of 5 percent of annual office rent on commercial licences.
What to check: the market fee recurs every year and is rarely shown in a headline setup quote.
Typical range: AED 2,000 to AED 5,000 for the labour and immigration files, then AED 4,000 to AED 7,000 per visa. Mainland visas run through MOHRE as well as GDRFA, adding labour card and bank guarantee elements that free zone visas do not carry.
What to check: the MOHRE deposit per employee, and whether your quote treats it as a cost or a refundable deposit.
| Cost element | Free zone (Dubai) | Mainland (DET) |
|---|---|---|
| Licence and registration | AED 9,000 - 25,000 | AED 13,000 - 27,000 |
| Workspace requirement | Flexi-desk from AED 3,000 | Ejari office from AED 15,000 |
| Immigration file / establishment card | AED 1,000 - 2,000 | AED 2,000 - 5,000 |
| Per visa (2 years, all-in) | AED 3,000 - 6,500 | AED 4,000 - 7,000 |
| Typical year-one total (1 visa) | AED 20,000 - 35,000 | AED 32,000 - 55,000 |
| Trading inside UAE mainland | Via distributor or mainland branch | Unrestricted |
| Government contract eligibility | Generally no | Yes |
The decision rule we use with clients is simple. If your customers sit outside the UAE, or are UAE businesses that will contract with you rather than buy across a shop floor, free zone is almost always the cheaper and faster answer. If you need to invoice UAE government entities, open retail premises, or place staff on client sites across the Emirates, mainland pays for itself inside the first year despite the higher entry cost.
Consultant fees in Dubai typically run AED 3,000 to AED 15,000 depending on scope, and the number alone tells you very little. What matters is what sits inside it. Ask for the quote split into three columns: government fees, zone or authority fees, and the consultant's own service fee. A firm that will not separate those is usually marking up government charges.
Then test it against five questions:
In our experience, quotes that fail these five questions are the ones that arrive 30 to 40 percent higher at invoice stage.
Weigh what happens after the licence issues, too. Incorporation is a one-week problem; banking, tax registration, visa renewals and annual filings are a ten-year relationship. A consultant who handles only formation leaves you re-procuring the harder half of the work six weeks later.
The lowest compliant entry point is a single-activity free zone licence with a flexi-desk and no visa, starting from roughly AED 5,750 to AED 12,900 depending on the zone. It suits consultants, freelancers and holding structures. It does not suit anyone who needs UAE residency, staff or retail premises, and upgrading later costs more than choosing correctly at the start.
In most Dubai free zones and for most mainland LLCs, no. Where a share capital figure appears it is generally declared rather than deposited, and it remains your money. A small number of regulated activities and specific zones still require a bank capital confirmation letter.
Plan AED 3,000 to AED 6,500 for a two-year free zone investor or employment visa covering entry permit, status change, medical, Emirates ID and stamping, and AED 4,000 to AED 7,000 for the mainland equivalent. Add mandatory health insurance, which is a separate annual premium.
You must register regardless of profit. Tax applies at 9 percent on taxable income above AED 375,000. Small Business Relief can reduce taxable income to nil for businesses with revenue up to AED 3 million, but it is available only for tax periods ending on or before 31 December 2026, so it should not be assumed in a multi-year plan.
Yes, but the bank's comfort with your activity, shareholder nationality mix and substance matters more than the jurisdiction. Free zone companies with a flexi-desk and no resident director face more scrutiny. Expect four to eight weeks, and prepare a clear business plan with source-of-funds evidence.
Year two drops the one-time registration and incorporation charges but keeps licence, workspace, establishment card, insurance and visa renewals. Most clients see 60 to 80 percent of the year-one figure. Watch for packages where year one is discounted and year two is not.
Costs in Dubai are predictable once the structure is right, and expensive once it is not. If you want a fixed, itemised quote that separates government fees from service fees for your specific activity and visa count, explore our business setup in Dubai services or speak to the JB Consultants team. We will tell you which jurisdiction actually fits your model before you pay for one.
Contact our experts to discuss your business setup requirements and find the perfect solution.
Contact Us TodayRelated articles from our blog
Business SetupDubai is home to more than 3.4 million Indian nationals and over 70,000 Indian-owned businesses, making it the most active South Asian entrepreneurial hub in the Middle East. This guide ranks the top business setup consultants in Dubai for entrepreneurs from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka.
Read More
Business SetupSeven UAE business setup firms assessed on whether they genuinely deliver all four pillars - company formation, residence visas, corporate banking and ongoing PRO - in-house, and how to spot a bundled quote that quietly outsources the hard parts.
Read More
Business SetupNine business setup consultancies in Dubai with 25 or more years of verified market presence, assessed on service breadth, bank account facilitation, and licensing track record.
Read More