Almost every offer on the market starts with the word "from". From AED 12,000. From 6,000. From 5,750. Every one of those figures is real — that genuinely is what the licence costs. The problem is that a licence on its own gives you no residence visa, no bank account and no right to hire anyone. Below is what the price covers, what it doesn't, and what you actually end up paying.
What the licence buys you
A basic free zone package is the right to carry out a defined activity, a registered address, and a workspace lease sufficient for registration. Two or three activity groups are usually included; each additional one costs around AED 1,000.
Current entry prices, as published by the zones themselves:
- Shams, Sharjah — from AED 5,750. Three activities, no visa.
- RAKEZ, Ras Al Khaimah — from AED 6,000. Up to ten activities, no visa.
- Meydan, Dubai — from AED 12,500. Three activity groups, flexi-desk, lease agreement.
- IFZA, Dubai — around AED 12,900. Three activities from one group, flexi-desk.
- DMCC, Dubai — from AED 20,265. Licence and workspace priced separately.
The Shams, RAKEZ, Meydan and DMCC figures come from the zones' own published schedules. IFZA does not publish its pricing publicly — several independent consultancies quote AED 12,900, but the binding figure always comes from the zone on the day you apply.
The spread between 5,750 and 20,265 is not a difference in service quality. It is a difference in how your jurisdiction looks to a bank, a landlord and a counterparty. A Sharjah company opens a UAE bank account more slowly and with more friction than a DMCC one. If you need a corporate account within the first two months, saving six thousand on the licence can cost you more than it saves.
What the licence does not cover
Four line items that never appear in the advertised "from" price, and without which the company does not function.
Establishment card
Without it you cannot file a single visa application — not your own, not an employee's. The federal ICP fee is roughly AED 300 per year. But the zone adds its own on top: DMCC charges 1,825, Ajman Free Zone 750, and IFZA is quoted at 1,500–2,500. That gap between the federal fee and the zone's own charge is the source of most of the confusion in cost guides you'll find online.
e-Channel registration
The system through which visa applications are filed. Around AED 2,200, one time, at setup.
Visas — priced per person
This is the most underestimated line in any budget. A residence visa is made up of the entry permit, status change, medical fitness test, Emirates ID and stamping. Market rates run AED 3,500–6,000 per person in a free zone and AED 5,000–7,000 on the mainland. The medical and Emirates ID add roughly AED 400–1,000 on top if they aren't bundled into the package.
Worth knowing separately: applying from inside the country, when you are already in the UAE on a tourist visa, costs more, not less. The entry permit (AED 200–440) is replaced by a change-of-status fee running from AED 500 to 1,360. That's a few hundred dirhams per person in difference.
Medical insurance
Mandatory for anyone holding a residence visa. A basic plan starts at AED 600–1,200 per year.
A realistic budget: free zone, one founder, one visa
- Licence at Meydan or IFZA level — AED 12,500–12,900
- Establishment card — AED 750–2,500
- e-Channel registration — around AED 2,200
- Founder's visa, all in — AED 3,500–6,000
- Medical and Emirates ID — AED 400–1,000
- Medical insurance, one year — AED 600–1,200
Year one total: AED 20,000–26,000.
If you saw AED 12,900 and built your budget around it — roughly double it. This is not an agent's markup. It is the structure of the cost.
Mainland: where the difference hides
The mainland is harder to price, because there are more government touchpoints and fewer package deals.
Only one figure is officially confirmed: initial approval — AED 120. Trade name reservation, MOA notarisation, the Chamber of Commerce fee, licence issuance and the MOHRE establishment card are all charged separately, and published sources disagree noticeably on the amounts.
A realistic benchmark: AED 15,000–25,000 in government fees for year one, for a single straightforward activity, excluding rent and visas. General trading with multiple activities lands at AED 35,000–50,000.
The line most often stripped out of cheap package quotes: the market fee — 5% of annual rent on your premises. On a AED 60,000 lease that is AED 3,000 a year, every year. It rarely appears in the proposal. It always appears on the renewal invoice.
What you pay every year
Setup is a one-off. What follows is upkeep, and most people haven't budgeted for it.
Licence renewal
Renewal costs roughly what the licence did: Meydan AED 12,500 a year, DMCC 20,265, Dubai mainland 8,000–15,000 for a small company. Multi-year discounts are near-universal — DMCC gives 5% for two years, 10% for three, 20% for five. If you're confident the business is long-term, that's real money.
Visa renewal
A two-year cycle in most zones, AED 2,200–3,500 per person.
Audit
There has been a change here that many people missed. Certain zones — DMCC, JAFZA, DAFZA, RAKEZ, ADGM, DSO — already required audited accounts regardless of turnover, and even for dormant companies. But for tax periods beginning on or after 1 January 2025, a ministry-level rule applies: any free zone company claiming the zero rate must maintain audited financial statements regardless of revenue. So even if your zone doesn't demand an audit, QFZP status does. For most companies, 2026 was the first year this showed up in the budget.
Accounting and tax filing
Market benchmark from published rates: bookkeeping AED 1,000–1,500 a month, VAT registration around AED 1,500 one-off, a basic corporate tax package from AED 1,200.
Two AED 375,000 figures that get confused constantly
It is the same number in two different taxes, and people mix them up routinely.
- Corporate tax: 0% on taxable income up to AED 375,000, 9% above it. Measured on profit.
- VAT: registration is mandatory once taxable turnover exceeds AED 375,000 over the previous 12 months, voluntary from AED 187,500. Rate 5%. Measured on turnover.
A company with AED 500,000 turnover and AED 200,000 profit must register for VAT while paying zero corporate tax. That is a normal outcome, not a calculation error.
Corporate tax registration is mandatory for everyone — including those who will pay nothing. Companies incorporated on or after 1 March 2024 must register within three months of incorporation. The penalty for missing it is AED 10,000. It is the most expensive mistake people make purely out of not knowing.
Free zones and the zero rate
The 0% rate in a free zone applies not to all profit but only to Qualifying Income. Everything else is taxed at 9%.
The key constraint is the de minimis rule: non-qualifying revenue must not exceed 5% of total revenue or AED 5 million, whichever is lower. Cross it and you lose the status.
And the point that surprises people most often: transactions with natural persons are, as a general rule, excluded activities. If your clients are individuals rather than companies, the "free zone means 0%" assumption very likely does not apply to you at all.
Bank account: a subscription, or money frozen
The market has split into two models here, and choosing between them is less about the tariff than about how much cash you're willing to immobilise.
Digital banks charge a flat subscription and require no minimum balance. Mashreq NeoBiz is AED 99 a month for Pro and 199 for Pro Plus, with no balance requirement and no fall-below fee. Wio Business is 99 for Essential and 249 for Grow.
Traditional banks charge no subscription but require you to hold a minimum balance — broadly AED 10,000 to 50,000 depending on the bank and tier, with a penalty of around AED 250–500 a month if you dip below it. Worth confirming the exact terms with the bank directly: they change faster than the guides that list them.
For a company at the start, the digital bank is almost always the better deal: AED 1,200 a year in subscription against AED 10,000+ of working capital locked up. Either way the application can still be turned down — we covered why UAE banks reject corporate account applications separately.
What arrives in 2027
Worth knowing now, because preparation takes time.
The UAE is introducing mandatory electronic invoicing. For companies with revenue below AED 50 million — which is the overwhelming majority — the timeline is: appoint an accredited service provider by 31 March 2027, with the system becoming mandatory from 1 July 2027. Larger businesses start six months earlier.
This is not a one-off payment but a standing line in your service costs. Worth putting into the 2027 budget now.
Three scenarios
Minimal — freelancer, clients abroad
- Licence: Shams or RAKEZ, AED 5,750–6,000
- Visas: none
- Year one: AED 8,000–12,000
- Each year after: AED 6,000–8,000
Working — small business, one or two visas
- Licence: Meydan or IFZA, AED 12,500–12,900
- Visas: 1–2
- Year one: AED 20,000–26,000
- Each year after: AED 15,000–20,000
Mainland — trading with the UAE market, government contracts
- Government fees: AED 15,000–25,000
- Visas: 1–2
- Year one: AED 30,000–45,000 plus rent
- Each year after: AED 15,000–25,000
Figures exclude office rent, accounting services and audit. With full support, add roughly AED 15,000–25,000 to the annual running cost.
The honest summary
Setting up a company in the UAE is cheaper than people assume. Running one is more expensive.
An entry price of AED 6,000–13,000 is real, and nobody is misleading you when they quote it. But a company with no visa, no account and no bookkeeping is a licence in PDF form, not a working business. The realistic year-one budget for most people is AED 20,000–26,000 in a free zone and from AED 30,000 on the mainland, plus AED 15,000–25,000 a year in support from year two onwards.
Three things worth settling before you file, rather than after:
- Who your clients are. Companies or individuals, UAE or overseas. This determines both the jurisdiction and whether the zero rate applies to you at all.
- Whether you need a UAE account in the first months. If you do, saving on a licence in a cheap zone can turn into a bank rejection.
- How many visas you actually need. Each one is AED 4,000–7,000 at the start and the same again every two years.
Figures in this article are current as of September 2026 and represent market ranges. Free zone charges and government fees change without prior notice, so the final quote is always calculated on your specific configuration.
