Dubai vs Ajman, Sharjah and RAK: What the Price Difference Buys You

A licence in Dubai South or Dubai Meydan starts at AED 12,500. One in Ajman ANC starts at AED 4,888. That is a difference of more than AED 7,600 a year, every year, for what is on paper the same thing: a free zone trade licence with 100% foreign ownership.

So what does the extra actually buy, and when is it worth paying?

What you get for the Dubai premium

**A Dubai address.** This is the honest core of it. A Dubai licence puts a Dubai address on your trade licence, your invoices and your bank application. For businesses selling to Dubai corporates, government-adjacent entities or international clients who know Dubai and nothing else in the UAE, that recognition has commercial value.

**Cheaper visas at volume.** Dubai Meydan adds a visa for AED 1,850 against RAK's AED 8,000. If you are hiring, the Dubai premium narrows sharply and can disappear entirely.

**A longer visa ladder.** Dubai South scales to six visas at AED 23,600. If you plan to grow a team, starting somewhere that caps early means restructuring later.

**Banking perception.** UAE banks are cautious with all new companies, but a Dubai free zone address with a genuine Dubai operating story tends to move through onboarding with fewer questions than an address the relationship manager has to look up.

When the northern emirates are the better answer

**You are a solo consultant or freelancer.** If you need one licence, no visa or one visa, and your clients are international, an Ajman or RAK licence does the same legal job for less than half the money.

**You are testing an idea.** Committing AED 12,500 a year to validate a business is a real cost. AED 4,888 is a far more sensible experiment.

**Your work is online.** If you deliver remotely and invoice internationally, your clients are unlikely to know or care which emirate issued the licence.

**Cash matters more than optics.** Every dirham not spent on a licence is a dirham in the business.

The mistake to avoid

Do not pick an emirate purely to save money if it cannot license your activity. Each authority licenses a different list, and discovering that your activity is not covered after paying is the expensive version of this decision. Confirm the activity is licensable in that zone before you commit.

A reasonable rule of thumb

If your customers are in Dubai, buy Dubai. If your customers are anywhere else — or everywhere — the northern emirates will do the same job for less. And if you are hiring several people, run the numbers at your real visa count, because the premium is much smaller than the headline suggests.

*Prices current at publication. See the packages page for live figures.*