The Cheapest Business Setup in the UAE in 2026 (Real Prices, Compared)

Search for the cheapest company setup in the UAE and you will find a lot of numbers that turn out not to be the number. A licence is advertised at a striking price, then the visa is extra, the establishment card is extra, the eChannel registration is extra, and the figure you were sold bears little relation to the invoice you receive.

We publish the full price of every zone we work with. Here is how they actually compare.

The entry price, zone by zone

For a licence with no residence visa, current pricing across the zones we file in starts at:

- **Ajman ANC — AED 4,888** - **Ajman Free Zone — AED 5,555** - **Sharjah Media City — AED 5,750** - **RAK — AED 6,000** - **Sharjah Standard — AED 6,875** - **IFZA (Dubai) — from AED 10,857** - **Dubai South and Dubai Meydan — AED 12,500**

Ajman ANC is the lowest entry point. That is a real number, not a teaser: it covers the application fee, licence and registration, lease agreement, memorandum of association, eChannel registration and establishment card.

Cheapest is not always right

The lowest price is the right answer only if the cheapest emirate suits your business. Three things should override price:

**Where your clients are.** If you are selling to Dubai corporates or need a Dubai address on your invoices, an Ajman licence saves money you may lose again in credibility. Dubai zones cost roughly twice as much for a reason.

**What you are licensed to do.** Each authority licenses a different list of activities. The cheapest zone is no bargain if it cannot license what you actually do, and amending an activity later costs more than choosing correctly at the start.

**Whether visas are included.** This is where most comparisons fall apart, and it deserves its own section.

The visa question changes the ranking

Zones price visas very differently, and the cheapest licence is not always the cheapest company once people are involved.

Take one residence visa. RAK moves from AED 6,000 to AED 14,000 — the visa costs AED 8,000. Dubai Meydan moves from AED 12,500 to AED 14,350 — the visa costs AED 1,850. At zero visas RAK is less than half the price of Meydan. At one visa they are within AED 350 of each other.

If you need two or three visas, run the comparison at your real visa count rather than at zero. The ranking genuinely reverses.

What "all-inclusive" should mean

On RAK and both Ajman zones the tier price is all-in: the visa, establishment card, change of status, medical and Emirates ID are covered at the stated visa count, with nothing billed on top. The Dubai and Sharjah zones quote some of those items separately, so a headline price there is not directly comparable to an all-in one.

That is the single most useful question to ask any provider: **is this price complete, and if not, what is missing?**

No VAT surprise

The prices above are what you pay. We do not add 5% on top at checkout.

Getting a real number

Pick your emirate, your activity and your visa count, and the price should follow from those three choices — itemised, with the licence and the visas shown as separate lines so you can see exactly what each is costing you.

*Prices are current at publication and are the standard package prices for each authority. Check the packages page for live pricing before budgeting.*