Key Takeaways
- Under Executive Council Resolution 5 of 2024, Dubai can issue your licence before the permits arrive. You still need the activity approvals before you make your first sale.
- To serve mainland customers, a Dubai free zone company can use a dual licence (AED 10,000 a year) or a six-month permit (AED 5,000).
- Dubai's e-trader licence lets you sell from home through social media and online platforms. It's issued as a sole proprietorship, a business owned by one person (dubai.ae, April 2026).
- A crypto or other virtual asset firm in Dubai needs a licence from the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA). DIFC is outside VARA's reach.
- Before a shop or restaurant opens, it needs a licence from the emirate where the unit is, a registered lease and its food or health permit.
You've got an idea for a business in Dubai. Before you work out what it might earn, find out which licence it needs. That one choice decides what you'll pay, where you can operate and which approvals you need before your first sale. Here we sort business ideas in Dubai into five groups by licence: services, online selling, trading, food and retail, and regulated activities. Income, profit and demand aren't covered.
How to read an idea by customer, regulator and premises
Three questions place almost any idea. Who pays you? Which regulator approves the activity? And do customers come to your premises?
Your customers decide the jurisdiction, meaning which authority licenses you. Executive Council Resolution 11 of 2025 gives a Dubai free zone company three ways to reach customers on the mainland, which is anywhere in the emirate outside a free zone. The company can open a mainland branch, and the resolution sets no fee for that. It can run a branch from its free zone office, usually called a dual licence, for AED 10,000 per year (Article 12). Or it can take a six-month permit for AED 5,000. The resolution only covers Dubai, as of October 2026. Any other emirate needs its own licences (Article 3(c)).
Approvals come from whichever regulator supervises your activity. Under Executive Council Resolution 5 of 2024, Dubai issues the licence first and the permits follow. You sign an undertaking, a formal promise, to get every permit before you start. Selling before a required permit arrives breaks that promise.
A business that customers visit has to be where its customers are. It takes the licence of that emirate and needs a registered lease. Office businesses that sell to other companies have more freedom over where they set up.
Small business ideas in the UAE, services and consulting
Consulting, design, software development and marketing usually run on a professional or service licence. You can get one in a free zone or on the mainland. Let your clients decide. If they're abroad, a free zone works well. For mainland clients you need the dual licence or permit described above, or a mainland professional licence from the Department of Economy and Tourism (DET), Dubai's mainland licensing office, formerly DED.
The six-month permit went live on 8 October 2025. Eligible free zone companies apply through Invest in Dubai and pay AED 5,000. It opened first to non-regulated activities such as technology, consultancy, design, professional services and trading. You need a Dubai Unified Licence to apply. The Dubai Media Office release also says 9% Corporate Tax applies to the revenue earned under the permit.
If you work alone, you have fewer options. DMCC lists its FreelanceUAE licence at AED 4,020 for one year without a visa, and its visa packages are on hold (DMCC, as of October 2026). RAKEZ lists a freelance permit from AED 6,100 for a sole practitioner, but the holder can't open a corporate bank account (RAKEZ, page stamp December 2025).
Professional activities may need proof of your qualifications before the licence is final. That's why you should get the approval list that goes with your activity code, the official code for the exact business you'll do. Serving mainland Dubai clients on a free zone licence requires one of the three options in Resolution 11 of 2025 (Article 3). Without one of them, an invoice to a mainland client goes beyond what your licence allows.
Online business in Dubai, selling and e-commerce
Online sellers can choose between Dubai's e-trader licence, a company licence with an e-commerce activity, and Abu Dhabi's Tajer licence. The e-trader licence is meant for people selling from home through social media and online platforms. It's issued as a sole proprietorship (dubai.ae, April 2026). You may only sell goods and services that are legally approved for sale in the UAE. According to dubai.ae, some online trading licences also need an approval or a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA).
The dubai.ae page doesn't say who can apply, what it costs or how long it's valid. In March 2025 the Khaleej Times quoted a DET agent who said e-trader licences were only for UAE nationals and nationals of the other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Ask DET what the rule is today for your nationality. In Abu Dhabi, the Department of Economic Development lists Tajer and a separate Freelancer licence (ADDED, October 2026).
Marketplaces have their own checks. Amazon.ae and Noon, for example, publish seller requirements that typically include a trade licence, ID documents and a bank account. Read their current seller terms before you list anything.
Content creators fall into this group as well. If you post advertising content in the UAE, paid or unpaid, you need the Advertiser Permit from the National Media Authority, unless the content promotes your own business. The permit requires a licence for electronic media activity and is free for residents for the first three years (Media Council guide, August 2025; confirm with the National Media Authority). Before your first listing, check the TDRA approval and any approvals your products need.
Trading and import-export
For a trading business, the licence has to name the goods you sell. Free zone or mainland comes down to where your customers are. Each zone describes its limits in its own words. SAIF Zone's website, with content from around 2020, says its licence only covers operating inside the zone, and that goods may be sold into the UAE once customs duties are paid. Dubai free zone companies have the options set out in the first section.
Value added tax (VAT) is a second filter. Goods supplied in a free zone count as outside the UAE for VAT only if the zone is on the list of Designated Zones kept by the Federal Tax Authority (FTA). The zone also has to meet the Article 51 conditions on fencing and customs controls (FTA VAT guide, July 2018). Being a free zone isn't enough on its own.
The approvals you need depend on the goods. Some products need a permit from the regulator that supervises them, and you must have it before the first sale. Get the permit list for each product code on your licence from the licensing authority. Only put goods on the licence that you actually sell.
Food, retail and hospitality
Restaurants, shops and other hospitality businesses need a mainland licence in the emirate where the premises are. The food or health permit has to be in hand before you open. A commercial lease must be registered in Ejari, Dubai's official register of tenancy contracts, in the licensed company's name (Dubai Land Department FAQ). For a company lease, registration costs AED 220 through a trustee centre. The AED 177.75 rate, through the Dubai REST app or the Dubai Land Department website, applies when the tenant and the landlord are both individuals (October 2026).
Your licence can come before the permits. So before you sign a lease, find out what each permit requires of the unit itself. The Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) has a separate retail column in its fee table, and a concept inside the centre is something to raise with DIFC directly.
A shop or restaurant that customers walk into is tied to its unit and to the emirate it's in. Ask DET or the zone whether a free zone licence allows a walk-in unit at your address. The lease and the permits are both checked against the premises.
Business options in Dubai that a regulator controls
Some activities are controlled by a regulator. For those, the regulator decides how you can set up, and the company licence comes second. Banking, exchange houses, finance companies and insurance are strategic activities under Cabinet Resolution 55 of 2021, and they fall under the Central Bank. Inside DIFC and Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), financial services are authorised by the Dubai Financial Services Authority and the Financial Services Regulatory Authority.
Dubai has a separate regulator for virtual assets such as crypto. VARA licenses virtual asset firms across Dubai, free zones included, though DIFC is excluded. Check with VARA and with your licensing authority what applies to your activity.
Clinics answer to a health regulator. In Dubai that's the Dubai Health Authority, and in Abu Dhabi it's the Department of Health. Property brokerage needs a DET licence and broker registration with the Real Estate Regulatory Agency at the Dubai Land Department. Abu Dhabi has its own real estate regulator. Real estate agents must also register on goAML, the UAE's system for reporting suspicious transactions (Ministry of Economy and Tourism).
The regulator decides which option the activity may take. Get that confirmed in writing before you pay for a licence.
Next step, licence, zone and visa
Once you know which licence option fits your idea, the remaining order of work is short.
- Settle the activity code and list the permits that go with it.
- Pick free zone or mainland based on your customers. The guide to mainland versus free zone and the list of free zones by emirate help here.
- Prepare your bank papers before you apply for the licence. The guide to bank account rejection shows what the bank looks at.
- Compare quotes fee by fee, using what a package includes and leaves out and the red flags in quotes.
- Leave visas until last, because the free zone sets your visa quota, the number of residence visas your company may apply for. See free zone visas and residency.
A business setup adviser can match your idea to an activity code that can actually be licensed and list the permits it needs, so you know both before paying anything. After the licence is issued, a PRO, the person who handles government paperwork for a company, takes care of the forms. You'll find more in what a PRO does. If you're starting from outside the country, setting up a UAE company from abroad covers the remote steps.
AdvisoryHub may receive a fee when you request an introduction; it does not affect the information on this page.
More Company Setup Guides
Related Company Setup Guides
- UAE free zone list by emirate, with authorities and websites
- Free zone vs mainland Dubai, six questions to decide
- Starting a business in Dubai as a foreigner, from abroad
- Business setup scam Dubai, red flags in quotes and providers
- Free zone visa and investor residency through your company
- Business bank account rejected in Dubai, why and what to fix
- PRO services Dubai and UAE, tasks, fees and how to choose
- Dubai company setup packages and what they leave out
