You probably already qualify for a 10 year UAE Golden Visa.

Yes, completely free. Enter your business activity, jurisdiction and visa count and get an indicative UAE company formation cost in AED instantly — no account, no sign-up, no obligation.

It takes three things from you; your business activity, your preferred jurisdiction, and your visa count — and maps them against live government fee schedules, free zone authority pricing and third-party cost bands to produce an indicative Year-1 UAE company formation cost in AED.

Here is what each input does behind the calculation. Your business activity determines which licence category applies and whether any sector-specific regulatory approvals are required — a technology consultancy and a food trading company carry different fee structures even in the same free zone. Your jurisdiction determines which authority’s fee schedule is used: DET for Dubai mainland, SEDD for Sharjah mainland, RAK ICC for offshore, or the relevant free zone authority for IFZA, DMCC, RAKEZ, SPC or Meydan. Your visa count triggers the full per-visa cost stack — immigration quota fee, medical fitness test, Emirates ID biometrics and visa stamping — multiplied across however many visas you need.

The output is broken into its three cost components — government and regulatory fees, third-party logistics, and professional service fees — so you can see what is actually driving your total rather than staring at a single unexplained number. Most online UAE business setup cost calculators return a figure with no breakdown built on fee schedules months out of date. Ours pulls from live authority pricing and shows the split, so you can compare jurisdictions on a like-for-like basis before you speak to anyone.

No — it is a reliable indicative range, not a binding quote. Government and authority fees are published and fixed, so that portion of the estimate is accurate. What can shift the final number are two variables specific to your situation: activity-specific external approvals required for regulated sectors, and your exact office solution.

A few examples of what this means in practice: a healthcare or education activity requires additional approvals from the relevant regulatory body, which adds both cost and time. A physical office costs more than a flexi-desk, and the size of that office on the mainland directly determines your visa quota. Neither of these can be resolved by a calculator alone.

The final figure is confirmed during your free consultation call, where we review your activity code, office requirement and visa count against current authority fee schedules. In the large majority of cases, the final invoice lands within the calculated range — not above it.

For most activities, foreign investors can own 100% of a UAE mainland company across more than 1,000 approved commercial and industrial activities  no local sponsor required(under no. Under Federal Decree-Law No. 26 of 2020 (effective 1 June 2021). Trading, consulting, technology, retail, healthcare and professional services all fall within the permitted list.

A small number of strategic-impact activities — defence, banking, oil and gas, telecommunications  still require an Emirati partner or commercial agent under Cabinet Resolution No. 55 of 2021. That is a separately negotiated arrangement, not a line item in your estimate. Your consultant confirms whether your specific activity qualifies for full foreign ownership before any paperwork is filed.

Because visa count is one of the largest cost variables in your UAE company formation and two otherwise identical setups can differ by AED 8,000–15,000 in Year 1 based on this number alone.

Each residence visa carries its own stack of costs: immigration quota fee, medical fitness test, Emirates ID typing and biometrics, and visa stamping. In most free zones, a zero-visa package sits in a completely different pricing tier from a two- or three-visa package. On the mainland, your visa quota is tied to your office space — a flexi-desk allows fewer visas than a dedicated office, which directly affects both your licence cost and your setup options.

If you are unsure how many visas you need, count the people who will live and work in the UAE under your company’s sponsorship  yourself included. You can always scale visa allocation up at renewal.

No — the calculator returns a Year-1 figure only. Renewal costs are real but consistently lower than your first year because the one-time setup charges don’t repeat: initial registration, establishment card issuance, document attestation and notarisation are paid once.

What does recur annually: your trade licence renewal, establishment card renewal, and office or flexi-desk fee. Residence visas renew every two years for most free zone and mainland employment visas, or every three years for investor and partner visas — each renewal carries medical, Emirates ID and stamping costs again.

As a rough benchmark, Year-2 costs typically run 40–60% lower than Year 1 for a single-shareholder setup with one or two visas. Ask your consultant for a Year-2 projection alongside your estimate — it gives you a clearer picture of your actual ongoing commitment before you commit to a jurisdiction.

No — and any provider who tells you otherwise is misleading you. A UAE trade licence makes you eligible to apply for a corporate account; approval sits entirely with each bank’s compliance function, which evaluates your business activity, shareholder nationality, source of funds and projected transaction profile independently of your licence.

Bank onboarding is where most self-filed UAE company formations stall. Each bank applies its own internal criteria — two founders with identical licences can get opposite outcomes based on nationality, activity description or expected transaction volume. The rejection rate for unprepared applications is high, and a rejection creates a compliance flag that follows your company file to the next bank.

What we do differently: our banking team pre-vets your file against each bank’s actual onboarding criteria before a single application is submitted. We identify documentation gaps that would trigger a rejection and fix them first. We then match you to the institutions that onboard your specific activity type and shareholder profile most readily — which materially improves your approval odds and reduces the time between licence issue and an operational account.

Yes. Select your preferred jurisdiction in the calculator and the estimate reflects that free zone authority’s current fee structure for your specific activity and visa count. The calculator covers the major free zones including IFZA, DMCC, RAKEZ, SPC Free Zone, Meydan Free Zone and JAFZA, alongside Dubai mainland under DET, Sharjah mainland under SEDD, and offshore structures under RAK ICC.

If you are comparing free zones — which most founders should do before committing — the calculator is built for that. Run it twice with the same activity and visa count under two different jurisdictions and the cost difference becomes immediately clear. IFZA and SPC Free Zone, for example, are consistently among the most cost-efficient options for consultancy and media activities, while DMCC is the default for commodities trading and JAFZA for logistics and import-export.

If you are not sure which free zone suits your activity, select “Not Sure Yet” in the jurisdiction field. The consultation call is where we match your trading pattern, visa requirements and budget to the right authority — including free zones the calculator does not yet price individually.

Accurate enough to budget, compare jurisdictions and shortlist your options before speaking to anyone — which is exactly what it is designed for.

The fixed portion of your estimate — government registration fees, free zone authority charges, visa quota costs and Emirates ID fees — is highly reliable because these are published fee schedules set by DET, RAKEZ, IFZA, SPC and other authorities. That portion typically represents 60–70% of your total Year-1 cost and does not vary between applicants doing the same activity in the same jurisdiction.

The variable portion — your office solution and any activity-specific external approvals for regulated sectors — cannot be fully resolved by a calculator because it depends on your specific requirements. This is where the indicative range has edges rather than a single precise figure.

Where online estimates go wrong is when they are built on outdated fee schedules or ignore visa costs entirely. Ours are updated against live authority pricing and include the full visa cost stack — quota, medical, Emirates ID and stamping — because excluding visas can make an estimate look AED 8,000–15,000 cheaper than it actually is.

The honest answer: use the figure to compare jurisdictions and plan your capital requirement. Use the consultation call to convert it into a confirmed quote.