Dubai free zones: the full list and how to choose

Which free zone, and how to weigh them

The right free zone is the one that fits the business, and that is a question worth asking before you commit, not after. Every free zone leads with the same headline: 100% foreign ownership, no minimum capital, fast setup. So the headline is not the decision. What separates one free zone from another is where you can trade, what opening a bank account is likely to involve, and what the activity actually needs. The activity is the specific line of business named on your licence.

The free zones we work with — the short list

These are the free zones that come up most often for owners building, moving or expanding a real business into the UAE. We have not ranked them — these are descriptions. Read it against the order further down: start with where your customers are, then use this to narrow on activity and banking. The full list, every free zone the UAE government names for each emirate, follows straight after it.

In the DIFC year-one figure the flexi desk is already counted — around AED 22,000 a year plus VAT.

Where a year-one cell is not all-in, anything it does not name, such as medicals or the bank account, is on top.

For IFZA, add AED 3,000 for the establishment card in year one. Each extra IFZA visa adds AED 2,100 a year to the licence. Meydan’s own licence-only price starts from AED 12,500. Meydan charges AED 1,850 for each visa slot, and the visa itself is on top. Meydan charges AED 15,000 a year for a shared office and AED 30,000 for a dedicated one. A full DMCC renewal is around AED 40,000 to 100,000, and the office makes most of the difference.

Read the renewal column beside year one: it is the bill that comes round every year, and it is what the business keeps paying once the setup is done.

DIFC’s own fees, not ours, are in US$. For a private company (non-retail), DIFC’s own Table of Fees sets US$8,000 to register, plus US$12,000 for the commercial licence. At renewal, it is US$12,000 for the licence, plus US$300 for the yearly confirmation statement. DIFC’s private company handbook marks the establishment card as optional, at US$618 where it applies, and lists a US$680 personnel sponsorship agreement deposit beside it.

Source: every figure marked “our price” is Start Business Services’ own, as published on our own pages for IFZA, Meydan, DMCC and the DIFC. The IFZA licence figure includes the 5% VAT. Meydan’s visa-slot and office charges are as our Meydan page sets them out. The Meydan flexi-desk is by Meydan’s own account. The DIFC visa and desk figures are as our DIFC page sets them out. Our Meydan page gives no separate renewal figure.

The RAKEZ package price is RAKEZ’s own, as our RAKEZ page quotes it, and our RAKEZ page says it stays the same at renewal. The Shams visa and office figures are from Shams’s own setup page.

We do not push a particular free zone. Banking acceptance varies by free zone and activity — we check the fit for what you actually do before anything is filed.

These are the free zones we actually set companies up in, with one exception. ADGM is in Abu Dhabi, and Start Business Services does not handle Abu Dhabi companies. It is on the list because owners weighing up the DIFC nearly always ask about it, so we explain it, and if ADGM is genuinely the right home for your business we will say so and tell you we do not work there.

The others exist, and some of them are very large, but they are not ones we work in — so we have left them off rather than list free zones we could not speak about first-hand. JAFZA is the port free zone at Jebel Ali and suits logistics, shipping and warehousing; DAFZA is airport-side and suits trading and aviation.

The rest of the Dubai list — for completeness

Here is every other free zone the UAE government names for Dubai. We do not set companies up in any of them. Each line is that free zone’s own description of what it is for, not a recommendation from us. If one of them is genuinely the right home for your business we will say so, and we will also tell you we do not work there.

The rest of the UAE list, emirate by emirate

Outside Dubai, these are the free zones u.ae names for each of the other six emirates. We have given the names only, exactly as u.ae lists them. We do not work in most of them, so we are not going to describe them second-hand.

So why do we say more than forty, when the list above is shorter? Official counts differ from one government source to another. The UAE government’s own page on the economy says about 40, and the UAE Embassy in Washington says 46. That is why we give a range rather than one exact number, and why we use the u.ae list: it is the one that names each free zone, emirate by emirate.

Source: the free zone authorities the UAE government lists for each emirate on u.ae. The one-line descriptions are each free zone’s own, taken from its own website.

Each free zone, in full

IFZA Silicon Oasis

IFZA, in Dubai Silicon Oasis, is one of the more widely used free zones for international trading and service businesses. IFZA expects a real presence on the ground, such as an office and staff (its substance requirements), and what it asks for is realistic for a genuine working business. It tends to suit owners whose customers are largely outside the UAE.

It is not one of the cheap options. On our own working ranges, as we last set them in August 2026, it sits mid-range, nearer AED 26,000 a year than the AED 8,000 to 14,000 end. Banks are comfortable with IFZA companies, but it does not carry the standing with them that the financial free zones do.

Meydan Free Zone

Meydan sits in Dubai, with flexible licensing across trading, consultancy, IT and media. It suits an owner who wants a recognisable Dubai address and a broad activity list without the cost of a financial free zone. Less of a fit if you need large-scale warehousing or industrial space. By its own account, Meydan is about 15 minutes from Dubai International Airport.

DMCC

The Dubai Multi Commodities Centre, in Jumeirah Lakes Towers, is one of the largest and best-known free zones in the world, with offices, warehouses and services on site. It carries a higher cost and suits commodities, trading and larger or more established companies that value the address and the infrastructure. Often overkill for a small service business that does not need the address, the warehousing or the higher cost.

RAKEZ and Shams — the budget and northern options

RAKEZ, in Ras Al Khaimah, is cost-competitive and suits industrial, trading and warehouse activity, with offices and land available. Shams, in Sharjah, is a low-cost media and marketing free zone, and its own site says shareholders do not need to be in the UAE to set the company up. Both can be the right answer for the right business.

The UAE's common-law financial free zones

The DIFC and ADGM are financial free zones, and they sit in a category of their own among the free zones above. Each runs on its own independent common-law system, separate from UAE civil law, and each works in English with its own courts. That legal framework is familiar to international finance and the law firms that serve it. It is why a regulated or holding business chooses one of these over an ordinary free zone. Both cost more than a standard free zone, and are only worth it for a business that genuinely needs what they offer.

DIFC — Dubai International Financial Centre

Dubai's financial district, often called the Canary Wharf of Dubai. It is built for regulated finance: fund and asset managers, neo-banks, insurers and higher-tier international law firms. It has its own regulator, the DFSA, and the DIFC Courts, which describe themselves as a common-law, English-language jurisdiction. It also has a technology side: non-regulated licences for software, data, AI and proptech, for credible tech businesses that want the common-law framework without being a regulated financial firm.

ADGM — Abu Dhabi Global Market

Abu Dhabi's financial free zone, on the same common-law model as the DIFC, with its own regulator, the FSRA, and the ADGM Courts. Those courts apply English common law directly. It suits fund and asset managers, fintech and digital-asset firms, family offices and holding structures. It is particularly known for its Foundations and SPVs, both used for holding assets within a group.

A Foundation is a UAE structure that holds assets in its own name rather than a person's. An SPV (special-purpose vehicle) is a passive company set up to hold one set of assets and debts, kept separate from the rest of the group.

DIFC or ADGM? It depends on the activity and where you need to be. It is the question owners ask most, because the two look so similar. Both are common-law financial free zones. The deciding factors are practical: the specific regulated activity and which regulator is the better fit, whether you need to be in Dubai or Abu Dhabi, the real cost once an office is added, and whether the structure is better served by ADGM's Foundations and SPVs.

One thing to know before you ask us: ADGM is in Abu Dhabi, and Start Business Services does not handle Abu Dhabi companies. If ADGM comes out as the better fit, we will tell you so plainly rather than steer you to the DIFC.

How to choose the right free zone

Work it in this order, not from the price list: where your customers are, what the activity is, how it will bank, and only then cost.

1. Where are your customers? Mostly outside the UAE — a free zone is a clean fit. If you are selling into the UAE market, look at the Dubai mainland route first. That is a licence issued by Dubai's own economic department, and it lets you trade inside the UAE market.

Since March 2025, most Dubai free zone companies can also apply to Dubai's Department of Economy and Tourism (DET) for a branch or activity permit to trade within Dubai, with their own free zone authority's approval. For the permit, though, the activity has to be on the list the DET issues, so the route is not open to everything a free zone licence covers. Financial establishments licensed in the DIFC are outside that route. The rule is set out in a Resolution of Dubai's Executive Council.

2. What is the activity? Ordinary trading and services point to a standard free zone; regulated finance points to a financial one (DIFC, ADGM).

A long list tempts people to pick the free zone named after their sector, and that is where a lot of wrong choices start. In reality, the activity most small businesses need is offered in several free zones, so the specialist one is rarely the only option.

It works the other way too. We have had owners trading gold and diamonds look at RAKEZ, and the bank would not have understood why they were not in DMCC, which is built for that trade. At Start Business Services we match the free zone to what the business actually does and to how the bank will read it, not to the name on the list.

3. How will it bank? Acceptance varies by free zone and activity — worth settling early. In our experience a straightforward account opens in as little as three to four working days. A larger company with more shareholders or higher turnover takes more like seven to ten. A higher-risk activity, such as trading physical goods or gold, can take up to three months.

4. Cost. The cheapest licence is rarely the cheapest outcome once banking and the substance the business genuinely needs are accounted for.

The rough numbers: budget free zones run around AED 8,000 to 14,000 a year, mid-range ones sit near AED 26,000, and the premium and financial free zones are typically AED 44,000–60,000+. Those are our own working ranges, from setups Start Business Services has run. They cover the licence plus the extras that come with it, not a bare licence fee. Free zones publish licence fees, not what a year actually costs, so these ranges are ours rather than a published tariff.

As an example only, set up end to end, a one-person free zone company in IFZA runs around AED 45,295 in the first year at our prices, and AED 24,645 in the second. That covers the licence, the establishment card, one residence visa, a corporate address, bank-account setup and corporate-tax registration. The establishment card is the free-zone registration that lets the company sponsor visas. It moves with the activity, the free zone and the number of visas, so at Start Business Services we set the exact cost with you in the first conversation.

Year three comes to AED 32,645. The licence, the establishment card and the address come round every year, but the residence visa renews every two years, so the bill is higher one year and lower the next. That is the pattern to ask about in any free zone, not just the first-year price.

Source: our own prices for a one-person IFZA company, as published on our IFZA page.

We lay out the full picture for your situation; the choice is yours, and we are happy to talk through whichever free zone you are leaning towards.

Written by Gareth Jones, Founder of Start Business Services — he advises UK, Irish and Australian owners on UAE company structures, free zones, banking and setup.