Free Zone Licence Cost in Dubai: What Every Zone Publishes in 2026

Free zone licence cost in Dubai starts at AED 12,500 where a zone publishes a rate at all, and the honest answer to “what will it cost me” is never the sticker price — partly because the sticker describes a zero-visa shared-desk configuration almost no operating business runs on, and partly because most Dubai zones have stopped publishing rates altogether and quote only on enquiry.

This guide collects the figures the zones themselves publish, says plainly which zones publish nothing, itemises what stacks on top — establishment card, visas, facilities, deposits — and shows how to compare zones on the number that matters: the 36-month total. Every figure below carries the zone’s own website as its source and the date we checked it. Nothing is repeated from a setup agent’s price list, and where a zone publishes no rate we say so rather than guess.

For a configured comparison against your actual visa count and activity, our business setup advisory team prices shortlists side by side, and our setup cost calculator gives you the first cut in two minutes.

The Dubai price ladder, zone by zone

Zone	Published entry point	Configuration it buys	Source	Checked	Deep guide
Meydan Free Zone	From AED 12,500 per published tariff	Zero-visa digital trade licence with flexi-desk, up to 3 activity groups	meydanfz.ae	Aug 2026	Meydan guide
DMCC	Basic Biz package price AED 35,484 per published tariff	Licence and special flexi-desk, one visa eligibility	dmcc.ae	Aug 2026	DMCC guide
IFZA	No rate published; quoted on enquiry	Consultancy and service licences via partners	ifza.com	Aug 2026	IFZA guide
DAFZA	No rate published; quoted by configuration	Airport-side trading and aviation	dafz.ae	Aug 2026	DAFZA guide
Dubai South	No rate published; packaged via zone sales	Office packages to Logistics District warehousing	dubaisouth.ae	Aug 2026	Dubai South guide
JAFZA	Warehouses from AED 400 per sqm per published rate; licences quoted per project	Port-side industrial and distribution	jafza.ae	Aug 2026	JAFZA guide
DIFC	Its own fee schedule; no package sticker	Financial and holding structures under common law	difc.com	Aug 2026	DIFC guide

Two structural notes. First, the zones that publish a figure price the licence; the operational zones (JAFZA, Dubai South) price licence plus facility, which is why their numbers refuse to fit a table at all. Second, the dubai free zone license cost conversation changes once you leave the emirate — RAKEZ publishes a AED 6,000 starter package on rakez.com (checked Aug 2026), roughly half Dubai’s published entry tier.

Hamriyah, Ajman Free Zone and SHAMS run in the same budget bracket but publish no tariff, so treat any figure you see quoted for them elsewhere as unverified until the zone confirms it in writing. The trade-offs on commute and bank perception are covered in the full UAE free zones list.

What stacks on top of the licence fee

The published licence figure is the foundation of the invoice, not the invoice. It also assumes a particular licence category, so before comparing headline rates it is worth settling which freezone licence type you actually need — trading, service, industrial and the sector variants each permit different activities and price differently. A real operating setup adds:

• Establishment card / immigration file — required before any visa. Meydan publishes a one-time immigration establishment card from AED 2,000 (meydanfz.ae, checked Aug 2026); most zones fold it into a package and quote it on request.
• Visas — the freezone visa cost covers entry permit, status change, medical fitness, Emirates ID and residence stamping, and varies with inside/outside-country processing and the zone’s own service fees. Meydan publishes an investor visa from AED 4,000, an employee visa from AED 3,500 and medical plus Emirates ID assistance from AED 2,250 (meydanfz.ae, checked Aug 2026). Ask your shortlisted zones to price the same visa count in writing.
• Facility upgrades — the zero-visa tier rides a shared desk; each visa tranche demands flexi-desk or office space priced by the zone.
• Activity premiums — general trading and certain regulated activities carry higher licence fees than standard service or trading wording; the general trading licence routes show how sharply that one word moves the price.
• Attestation and notarisation — foreign corporate shareholders add document legalisation costs through the MOFA attestation chain.
• Banking — not a fee but a commitment: UAE banks set minimum average balance requirements by account tier, and they are worth confirming with the bank before you commit to a zone, because a failed balance triggers monthly charges.

From AED 4,000

Meydan Free Zone's published investor visa rate — meydanfz.ae, checked Aug 2026

Year one is a promotion; year three is the truth

Zones compete for incorporations, not renewals — so the discounting lives at the front. A typical three-year cost curve steps up twice: at first renewal, when rack rates replace the promotion, and whenever headcount forces a facility upgrade with its bigger visa quota. Renewal fees track the licence, visa renewals fall due every two years for most free zone residence permits, and amendments (activity changes, shareholder changes, name changes) each carry published administrative fees.

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Zone pricing is a mortgage teaser rate with a flag. Nobody regrets the year-one number; the regret is discovering year two after signing. Price 36 months and the shortlist reorders itself.

The comparison method that survives contact with reality:

1. Configure identically. Same visa count, same facility tier, same activity wording at every shortlisted zone.
2. Quote in writing. Zones move pricing seasonally; a screenshot from January is fiction by July.
3. Sum 36 months. Licence renewals, visa issue and renewal, facility rent, establishment card renewals.
4. Add the tax dimension. If QFZP treatment is part of the plan, the audit fee and the substance-grade facility belong in the model — the QFZP checklist shows what the claim actually demands.
5. Stress the exit. Liquidation and licence-cancellation costs differ by zone and become very real if plans change.

When Dubai’s premium is worth paying — and when it isn’t

The gap between RAKEZ’s published AED 6,000 starter package and Dubai’s published tier — AED 12,500 at Meydan, AED 35,484 for DMCC’s Basic Biz package — buys three concrete things: client-facing address weight, smoother banking conversations, and proximity to your home, your customers and the airport your investors land at. For consultancies invoicing international clients, e-commerce brands and holding-adjacent structures, that premium is often rational. For workshops, back-office operations and cost-driven trading, it frequently isn’t — which is why the low-cost setup routes lean north, and why hybrid structures (operations in a cheap zone, brand entity in Dubai) exist at all.

One cost the licence price never captures: compliance. Every free zone company, cheap or premium, must register for corporate tax through EmaraTax (an AED 10,000 late-registration penalty backs the deadline under the FTA’s administrative penalty schedule — Cabinet Decision 129 of 2025, effective 14 April 2026 — with the full breakdown in our UAE tax penalties guide), keep proper accounting records as UAE tax law requires, and register for VAT at AED 375,000 of taxable supplies. Zones don’t remind you; the FTA’s penalty engine does. Our corporate tax and accounting teams wire this in at setup so it never becomes cleanup.

Every published line, in one table

Below is every free zone figure in this guide with the zone that publishes it, what the figure buys and the date we checked the zone’s own website. Nothing here comes from an agent’s price list, a comparison blog or a screenshot. If a zone is missing from this table, it is because the zone publishes no rate — not because we could not be bothered to look.

Zone	Published line	Amount	What that figure covers	Source	Checked
Meydan Free Zone	Trade licence	AED 12,500	Digital trade licence with flexi-desk, zero visas	meydanfz.ae	4 Aug 2026
Meydan Free Zone	General trading licence	AED 15,000	Broader activity wording, same facility tier	meydanfz.ae	4 Aug 2026
Meydan Free Zone	Investor visa	AED 4,000	One investor residence permit	meydanfz.ae	4 Aug 2026
Meydan Free Zone	Employee visa	AED 3,500	One employee residence permit	meydanfz.ae	4 Aug 2026
Meydan Free Zone	Establishment card	AED 2,000	One-time immigration file, prerequisite to any visa	meydanfz.ae	4 Aug 2026
DMCC	Basic Biz package	AED 35,484	Licence plus special flexi-desk, one visa eligibility	dmcc.ae	4 Aug 2026
RAKEZ	Starter package	AED 6,000	Entry package in Ras Al Khaimah	rakez.com	4 Aug 2026
Sharjah Publishing City	Package rate	AED 5,750	Entry package in Sharjah	spcfz.ae	4 Aug 2026
Umm Al Quwain FTZ	All-inclusive tariff	AED 2,266 per month	Monthly all-inclusive package	uaqftz.com	4 Aug 2026
JAFZA	Warehouse rate	AED 400 per sqm	Facility only; licences quoted per project	jafza.ae	4 Aug 2026

Read the Meydan block as a worked example rather than a quote. A zero-visa digital trade licence is AED 12,500. The same business with one owner on an investor visa needs the establishment card first, then the visa — three published lines, not one. Swap the activity wording to general trading and the licence line moves again. That is the whole argument for configuring before comparing: the ladder between those rows is steeper than the gap between most zones.

The zones that publish nothing — and how to price them anyway

A striking share of the UAE free zone market has stopped publishing tariffs. That is a commercial decision, not an oversight: quote-on-enquiry lets a zone price by segment, run promotions without repricing a public page, and keep competitors guessing. It also means any figure you find for these zones on a third-party page is, at best, someone’s old invoice.

Zone	Emirate	Publishes a rate?	Practical consequence
IFZA	Dubai	No	Priced through partner channels; ask for the zone’s own quote in writing
DAFZA	Dubai	No	Quoted by configuration; airport-side facility drives the number
Dubai South	Dubai	No	Packaged via zone sales; Logistics District priced per project
JAFZA	Dubai	Facility only	Warehouse rate published; licence quoted per project
Hamriyah Free Zone	Sharjah	No	Facility-led pricing; plot or warehouse dominates the budget
SHAMS	Sharjah	No	Any AED figure you see quoted for SHAMS is unverified
Ajman Free Zone	Ajman	No	Quote on enquiry
KEZAD	Abu Dhabi	No	Industrial land and utilities priced per project
Fujairah Free Zone	Fujairah	No	Quote on enquiry
SAIF Zone	Sharjah	No	Quote on enquiry

One correction worth making loudly, because it circulates widely: AED 5,750 is Sharjah Publishing City’s published package rate, not SHAMS’s. The two zones are frequently confused in comparison articles, and SHAMS publishes no tariff at all. If a page quotes a SHAMS licence price, treat it as unsourced.

The method that makes quote-only zones comparable is unglamorous. Write one scope document — activity wording, visa count, facility tier, shareholder structure — and send the identical document to every zone on the shortlist. Ask each for a written quote covering year one and the renewal, and ask explicitly which lines are promotional. Zones answer that question honestly when it is asked in writing.

The compliance budget the licence fee never shows

Every zone brochure ends at the licence. The obligations below start the day it is issued, apply identically in every free zone, and are set by federal law rather than by the zone. They belong in the same budget as the licence.

Obligation	Legal basis	What it means for a free zone company
Corporate tax registration	Federal Decree-Law 47 of 2022	Mandatory for every free zone company, including one expecting 0%
9% above AED 375,000	Federal Decree-Law 47 of 2022; Cabinet Decision 116 of 2022	Applies unless genuine QFZP conditions are met
QFZP status	Ministerial Decision 229 of 2025	Failing the conditions costs the relevant period and the four following tax periods
Audited financial statements	Ministerial Decision 84 of 2025	A precondition of QFZP status, and a cost most brochures omit
Small business relief	Ministerial Decision 73 of 2023, as amended by Ministerial Decision No. 131 of 2026	Available up to AED 3,000,000 revenue, currently to 31 December 2029
VAT registration	Federal Decree-Law 8 of 2017	Mandatory at AED 375,000 of taxable supplies; voluntary from AED 187,500
Record retention (general)	Cabinet Decision 74 of 2023, Article 3(1)(c)	Seven years
Record retention (capital assets)	Federal Decree-Law 8 of 2017, Article 60(2)	Ten years
Record retention (real estate)	VAT Executive Regulation Article 71(2), amended by Cabinet Decision 100 of 2024	Fifteen years

The single largest omission in most cost comparisons is the audit. A zone that markets a cheap licence and a zone that markets an expensive one both require audited statements before a Qualifying Free Zone Person claim survives scrutiny, and that fee lands every year, not once. If the 0% rate is part of the plan, price the audit alongside the licence or the plan is not costed.

The second omission is the consequence of getting QFZP wrong. Under Ministerial Decision 229 of 2025, a free zone person that fails the conditions does not simply lose the benefit for that year — it loses qualifying status for the relevant tax period and the four tax periods that follow. Measured over the 36-month window this guide argues for, that is a far bigger number than any difference between zone tariffs.

Four configurations, and where the answer changes

The same shortlist reorders itself depending on what the business actually is. These are configurations, not quotes — the point is which cost line dominates, because that tells you which zone to press hardest.

Solo consultant, one visa, no premises. The licence and the single investor visa are the whole budget, so the published-rate zones are directly comparable and the northern emirates undercut Dubai sharply. The deciding question is whether a Dubai address earns its premium with your clients.

Four-person services firm, four visas, small office. Visa lines and facility rent overtake the licence. A zone with a cheap licence and an expensive per-visa tariff can lose to a costlier licence with better visa economics — which only shows up once you price the visas, not the sticker.

Trading company holding stock. Warehousing dominates. JAFZA publishes AED 400 per sqm for warehouse space, and at that point the licence line is rounding. Port adjacency and customs handling decide the total, not the tariff.

Manufacturer or processor. Land, power load and utilities dominate, and QFZP status is genuinely reachable because the substance is the plant itself. Here the audit fee is not overhead; it is the price of the 0% rate, and it is worth paying.

Twelve questions to put in writing before you pay

Zones answer written questions precisely and verbal questions optimistically. Send this list to every zone on the shortlist and compare the replies rather than the brochures.

#	Question to the zone	Why it changes the number
1	What is the renewal price for this exact package?	Year one is usually promotional
2	Which lines in this quote are promotional and when do they expire?	Reveals the real base rate
3	What does each additional visa cost, issue and renewal?	Visa economics vary more than licences
4	Is the establishment card one-time or recurring?	Often a separate line entirely
5	What facility tier does this visa count require?	Visa quotas are tied to space
6	What does an activity amendment cost after issuance?	Growth triggers this within a year
7	What does adding or removing a shareholder cost?	Investment rounds trigger this
8	Are audited financial statements required at renewal?	Adds an annual professional fee
9	What is the licence cancellation and liquidation cost?	The exit is a real number
10	Is my activity on the qualifying activities list?	Decides whether 0% is even available
11	What is the notice period on the facility contract?	Locks you in longer than the licence
12	What is the total for 36 months on this configuration?	The only figure worth comparing

Two of these questions do more work than the rest. Question one exposes the promotional gap, which is where almost every unpleasant surprise in year two originates. Question twelve forces the zone to do the arithmetic you would otherwise do badly, and a zone that declines to produce a 36-month figure has told you something useful about how it prices.

Question ten deserves emphasis. The corporate tax treatment of a free zone company turns on whether its income is qualifying income, and that is a federal test applied to activities, not a benefit the zone can grant. A zone can tell you whether your intended activity appears on the qualifying list; it cannot tell you your income qualifies. That analysis belongs with your adviser, and it is worked through in the QFZP qualifying income deep dive.

What it costs to be wrong, and how to be wrong cheaply

Choosing the wrong zone is recoverable, but the recovery is not free, and the cost sits in places the setup conversation never reaches. A licence cannot simply be transferred between free zones. Moving means cancelling one entity and incorporating another, which drags in visa cancellation and re-issue for every employee, a new establishment card, a new bank account with a fresh compliance review, and a fresh corporate tax registration against the new licence.

The compliance record moves with you awkwardly too. Accounting records must survive the move under the retention periods above, and a corporate tax return still falls due for the stub period of the entity being closed. None of that is dramatic; all of it is billable time and elapsed weeks.

Two decisions make being wrong cheap. First, avoid long facility commitments in year one — a notice period longer than the licence term converts a licensing decision into a property decision. Second, get the activity wording right at issuance rather than at first amendment, because activity wording is the single field most likely to force a change, and the routes for adding activities to a UAE trade licence show how much administration follows one word.

There is a third safeguard that costs nothing: write down, before incorporation, what would have to be true for this zone to be the wrong answer. Zero-visa headline pricing hides the moment headcount arrives. Facility-led zones hide the moment goods volume falls. Naming the trigger in advance turns an expensive surprise into a planned review.

How Velmont Crest helps

We are straight about where we stand: Velmont Crest is an official channel partner of Meydan Free Zone and RAKEZ and a referral partner across the other major zones, so we are paid by some of the zones on this list and not by others. What we do not do is let that decide your shortlist — the comparison below is built on identical scope and current written quotes, and we will tell you when the zone that pays us is the wrong answer for your activity.

We configure your shortlisted zones identically, obtain current written quotes, build the 36-month model including the compliance layer the brochures skip, and flag where a cheaper licence quietly forfeits something your business needs — a qualifying activity, a bankable facility tier, a visa quota with headroom. After incorporation we run the finance function: bookkeeping, VAT, corporate tax and the audit file if QFZP is in play. The licence fee is one line of a three-year budget; talk to us about the other lines before you pay the first one.