UAE Freezone Cost Index — July 2026

FreezoneMatch tracks year-1 setup costs across 53 UAE free zones. This index covers the subset with official-source pricing — 23 zones whose year-1 cost figures come directly from the free zone’s own published tariffs, cross-checked against FreezoneMatch’s matcher dataset. It excludes zones whose public pages say “contact us for pricing” (see Methodology).

This is a first-year setup cost index — license, registration, and basic setup. It excludes visa processing, office rent above the base package, and renewal-year costs, which are covered on each zone’s own page.

Headline numbers

• 23 zones carry a verifiable official year-1 figure, as of July 2026.
• Median year-1 cost across these 23 zones: AED 21,250 (using each zone’s own low–high midpoint; DIFC and ADGM converted from their published USD pricing at AED 3.6725 = USD 1).
• Range across the 23: AED 5,500 – AED 367,250 (the low end is Ajman Media City Free Zone and Fujairah Creative City Free Zone, tied; the high end is DIFC’s regulated-financial-services ceiling).
• If you exclude the two USD-priced financial centres (DIFC, ADGM) to avoid any currency-conversion assumption, the AED-native median is AED 20,000 and the range is AED 5,500 – AED 100,000.

Lowest published year-1 cost, as of July 2026

Ajman Media City Free Zone (AMCFZ) and Fujairah Creative City Free Zone (FCC) are tied at AED 5,500 – 25,000 for year-1 setup — the lowest published figures in this official-tier index. (Their underlying cost breakdowns are very similar line-for-line, which may reflect a shared cost structure across smaller media-focused free zones rather than two fully distinct pricing schedules — noted for transparency.)

Currency note: DIFC and ADGM price in USD

DIFC and ADGM are UAE international financial centres and publish their official tariffs in USD, not AED. FreezoneMatch displays AED first with the published USD figure in parentheses, using a reference rate of AED 3.6725 = USD 1 (the AED is pegged to the USD, so this rate is effectively static).

• ADGM: AED 27,544 – 91,813 (~USD 7,500 – 25,000)
• DIFC: AED 55,088 – 367,250 (~USD 15,000 – 100,000)

Full per-zone table (23 zones, official tier, sorted by year-1 low)

Free zone	Emirate	Year-1 low	Year-1 high	Setup time
Ajman Media City Free Zone (AMCFZ)	Ajman	AED 5,500	AED 25,000	5–14 days
Fujairah Creative City Free Zone (FCC)	Fujairah	AED 5,500	AED 25,000	5–14 days
Ajman Free Zone (AFZ)	Ajman	AED 5,750	AED 30,000	1–2 days
Sharjah Media City Free Zone (Shams)	Sharjah	AED 5,750	AED 25,000	5–14 days
Sharjah Publishing City Free Zone (SPC)	Sharjah	AED 5,750	AED 20,000	5–14 days
Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone (RAKEZ)	RAK	AED 6,000	AED 40,000	5–14 days
Masdar City Free Zone	Abu Dhabi	AED 7,000	AED 30,000	5–14 days
twofour54	Abu Dhabi	AED 7,500	AED 35,000	5–14 days
RAK Media City Free Zone	RAK	AED 8,000	AED 20,000	5–14 days
Umm Al Quwain Free Trade Zone (UAQ FTZ)	UAQ	AED 10,000	AED 30,000	5–14 days
Khalifa Economic Zones Abu Dhabi (KEZAD)	Abu Dhabi	AED 11,000	AED 20,000	5–14 days
Khalifa Port Free Zone	Abu Dhabi	AED 11,000	AED 25,000	5–14 days
Sharjah Airport International Free Zone (SAIF Zone)	Sharjah	AED 12,000	AED 35,000	5–14 days
DUQE Free Zone	Dubai	AED 12,500	AED 20,740	3–10 days
Abu Dhabi Airport Free Zone (ADAFZ)	Abu Dhabi	AED 15,000	AED 40,000	5–7 days
Fujairah Free Zone (FFZ)	Fujairah	AED 15,000	AED 40,000	5–14 days
Hamriyah Free Zone Authority (HFZA)	Sharjah	AED 15,000	AED 50,000	5–14 days
Industrial City of Abu Dhabi (ICAD)	Abu Dhabi	AED 15,000	AED 50,000	5–14 days
Sharjah Research Technology and Innovation Park (SRTIP)	Sharjah	AED 15,000	AED 35,000	5–14 days
Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM)*	Abu Dhabi	AED 27,544	AED 91,813	5–14 days
Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC)	Dubai	AED 35,484	AED 65,000	3–5 days
Dubai Healthcare City Free Zone (DHCC)	Dubai	AED 40,000	AED 100,000	5–14 days
Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC)*	Dubai	AED 55,088	AED 367,250	5–14 days

* Published in USD; converted to AED at 3.6725 for this table. See published USD figures above.

Head-to-head: ADGM vs DIFC year-1 cost

Both are official-tier UAE financial centres and direct real-world alternatives for financial services, fintech, and professional-services founders choosing between Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

	ADGM (Abu Dhabi)	DIFC (Dubai)
Year-1 cost	AED 27,544 – 91,813 (~USD 7,500 – 25,000)	AED 55,088 – 367,250 (~USD 15,000 – 100,000)
Setup time	5–14 days	5–14 days
Regulator	FSRA	DFSA

DIFC’s published range runs higher across the band, not only at the ceiling — its midpoint (~AED 211,000) is well above ADGM’s (~AED 60,000). Setup time is typically the same for both. For a fuller walkthrough of when each makes sense, see the DIFC vs ADGM guide.

Methodology

• Universe: FreezoneMatch tracks 53 UAE free zones. This index covers the 23 with a verifiable official-source year-1 cost — meaning the free zone’s own dataSource is tagged official in FreezoneMatch’s records, the zone appears in FreezoneMatch’s matcher dataset, and the zone publishes a real year-1 figure rather than a “contact us for pricing” placeholder.
• Excluded from this specific index (not from the site): Dubai Textile City and IHC (Dubai Humanitarian) currently publish “contact for pricing” rather than a stated year-1 range, so no figure is quotable for either.
• Currency: all figures AED-first. DIFC and ADGM publish in USD; converted at AED 3.6725 = USD 1 (the AED is pegged to the USD, so this rate is stable). Published USD figures are always shown alongside the converted AED figure.
• What “year-1 cost” includes: licence fee, registration/processing fee, and base package setup. Excludes visa processing (typically AED 3,000–8,000 per visa depending on zone) and optional office upgrades.
• Dating: this index reflects each zone’s own published pricing as tracked in FreezoneMatch’s records as of July 2026. A subset of records carry an explicit “verified June 2026” source note (DMCC, DHCC, DIFC, SPC); the remainder are sourced from each zone’s official published tariff page without a more specific verification date attached.
• Last updated: 2026-07-06.

Changelog

• 2026-07-06 — Added DUQE Free Zone (official published pricing, now cross-checked in the matcher dataset). Official tier: 23 zones; median updated to AED 21,250 (AED-native median AED 20,000). Ranges unchanged.
• 2026-07-05 — Initial publication of the UAE Freezone Cost Index. 22 zones in the official tier at launch.