Costs of setting up a new company in the UAE depending on the region:
Regarding the costs of setting up a new company in the UAE depending on the region, there are three options for this:
Work on the mainland, if your customers are located in the local market of the UAE, or want to work within the UAE markets alongside global markets
Free zones, located in various emirates, and the cost of setting up a company in the UAE in free zones is lower than the mainland, but it targets global markets.
Offshore license, and here the company is registered through free zones, but it is managed from outside the country, and this type of company does not have a physical headquarters in the UAE so it is considered the least expensive
Regardless of the legal form of the company or the type of main activity, the total costs of setting up a company in the UAE vary from region to region, and below we review some illustrative examples of this.
The cost of establishing a company in Dubai Free Zone:
Dubai has about 24 free zones with different activities, and is considered the first destination for investors from all over the world, as the financial and business center in the UAE, but how much does it cost to establish a company in the Dubai Free Zone?
First, the elements of the cost of setting up a company in the UAE in Dubai Free Zones are distributed as follows:
- The registration fee, starting from an average of AED 3,500, is paid only once upon registration of new companies, although it varies from region to region.
- License fees, which depend on the company's activities and often range from AED 10,000-100,000, and although they are an annual fee paid each year, the annual license renewal fee is lower than the fee for obtaining them.
- Visa fees range from AED 3,000-6,000 per person and vary depending on the type and duration of stay, noting that the cost of the initial visa is paid only once.
- It is worth mentioning that the free zones in Dubai offer many options for office space to reduce the cost of setting up a company in the UAE, where office rentals start from AED 60 per month.
Costs of setting up a company in Abu Dhabi:
In July 2021, the Emirate of Abu Dhabi reduced the fees for setting up companies during the Business Support Initiative, bringing the minimum costs of setting up a company in Abu Dhabi to AED 1,000, and only about $270, as the Abu Dhabi Media Office stated the abolition of registration fees with the authorities, the Chamber of Commerce and the Municipality Department, to ease the financial burden on the investor.
This does not necessarily mean that the total cost of setting up a company in the UAE in Abu Dhabi will be only one thousand dirhams, there are still many elements that control the cost of establishing a company, so the aforementioned figure expresses only the minimum and the cost of establishing a company may reach 500 thousand dirhams depending on the legal form and requirements of the activity.
The cost of setting up a company in Jebel Ali:
Jebel Ali is one of the most important and famous free zones in the UAE currently, and this may be due to its privileged location between the emirates of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and its view of the largest ports of the UAE, and is famous for attracting commercial activities, especially based on maritime import and export, as well as service and industrial activities as well.
The Jebel Ali region is characterized by comprehensive tax exemption, and with regard to the cost of establishing a company in Jebel Ali, we find that it starts from 15 thousand dirhams, and companies in the region take the form of an individual institution, a limited liability company, a civil works company or a branch of a company only, noting that the investor can switch from one activity to another or work in more than one subsidiary activity according to the powers of the legal form of the company.
