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 figures come from the free zone’s own published tariffs, cross-checked against FreezoneMatch’s matcher dataset. 21 of these price in AED and make up the headline numbers below; the two USD-priced financial centres (DIFC, ADGM) are shown separately, because their cost swings too widely by licence type — a non-regulated company versus a regulated financial firm — to fold into a single AED figure. Zones that publish “contact us for pricing” are excluded (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

• 21 AED-priced zones carry a verifiable official year-1 figure in AED, as of July 2026. (DIFC and ADGM price in USD and are covered separately below.)
• Median year-1 cost across these 21 zones: AED 20,000 (using each zone’s own low–high midpoint).
• Range across the 21: AED 5,500 – AED 100,000 (the low end is Ajman Media City Free Zone and Fujairah Creative City Free Zone, tied; the high end is Dubai Healthcare City).
• DIFC and ADGM are the UAE’s two international financial centres and publish their tariffs in USD, not AED. Their year-1 cost swings widely with licence type — a non-regulated company (SPV, holding, tech) is a fraction of a DFSA/FSRA-regulated financial firm — so a single AED figure would mislead. For current fees see the official schedules linked in the currency note below.

Licence-only vs all-in: what the sticker price leaves out

Every figure in this index is a licence-and-setup cost — the free zone’s licence fee, registration/processing fee, and base package. It is the number you commit to when you register the company, and it is close to the “from AED X” price free zones advertise. It is deliberately not the full year-one bill.

Two large, variable costs sit outside it:

• Residence visas — typically AED 3,000–8,000 each, fully loaded (entry permit, status change, medical test, Emirates ID, mandatory health insurance). A two-visa setup adds roughly AED 6,000–16,000.
• Office above the base package — a flexi desk or private office, mandatory in some zones (DMCC requires at least a flexi desk), adds AED 5,000–80,000+.

So the all-in year-one cost a founder actually pays runs higher than the licence-and-setup figure here — commonly 2–3× the advertised “from” price once visas and office are in:

Zone	Licence-and-setup (this index)	Typical all-in year one
RAKEZ	from AED 6,000	~AED 15,000–18,000 (1 visa + flexi desk)
Meydan	from AED 12,500	AED 12,500–24,000 (digital, no office required)
DMCC	from AED 35,484	AED 40,000–80,000 (mandatory office + visas)

When you read any free-zone quote, confirm whether it is licence-only / licence-and-setup (like this index) or all-in year one (licence + visas + office) — the two can differ two- to threefold. Our comparison guides quote all-in year-one ranges where noted.

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 (the AED is pegged at AED 3.6725 = USD 1). Their year-1 cost depends heavily on whether the entity is a non-regulated company (SPV, holding, tech) or a financial firm regulated by the DFSA (DIFC) or FSRA (ADGM), so this index does not quote a single AED range for them. For current figures, use the official schedules:

• DIFC — official Registrar of Companies fees
• ADGM — official Schedule of Fees (note: 50%+ cuts to non-financial and retail fees took effect January 2026)

Full per-zone table (21 AED-priced 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 5,555	AED 30,000	3–5 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
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

DIFC and ADGM are excluded from this AED table because they price in USD; their year-1 cost varies by licence type — see the currency note above for links to their official fee schedules.

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	USD-priced; varies by licence type (see official fees)	USD-priced; varies by licence type (see official fees)
Setup time	5–14 days	5–14 days
Regulator	FSRA	DFSA

Both price in USD, and their cost depends on whether the entity is non-regulated (SPV, holding, tech) or a regulated financial firm — the FSRA for ADGM, the DFSA for DIFC. For current official figures see each centre’s fee schedule (linked in the currency note above) and 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. Of these, 21 publish AED tariffs (the headline numbers); DIFC and ADGM publish in USD and are shown separately, not folded into the AED figures.
• 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: the AED figures are each zone’s own AED tariff. DIFC and ADGM publish in USD and are excluded from the AED headline numbers and per-zone table; their fees vary by licence type and link to the official schedules in the currency note above.
• 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, SPC); the remainder are sourced from each zone’s official published tariff page without a more specific verification date attached.
• Last updated: 2026-07-12.

Changelog

• 2026-07-13 — Removed the DIFC and ADGM year-1 AED ranges from the headline numbers and per-zone table. Both price in USD and their cost varies too widely by licence type (non-regulated company vs DFSA/FSRA-regulated financial firm) to quote as a single AED figure; they now link to their official fee schedules. Headline median/range now cover the 21 AED-priced zones (median AED 20,000, range AED 5,500–100,000).
• 2026-07-12 — Corrected the Ajman Free Zone (AFZ) year-1 low to AED 5,555 (official e-commerce licence) and its setup time to 3–5 days. Added the “licence-only vs all-in” section clarifying that index figures are licence-and-setup, not the full year-one bill (visas + office excluded).
• 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.