Key Takeaways
- One quote can mix official fee schedules, free zone packages and the provider's own figures. Only the official fees can be checked against a government page.
- Ejari, Dubai's official register of tenancy contracts, costs AED 220 for a company lease through a trustee centre. The AED 177.75 rate on the app and website is for leases where tenant and landlord are both individuals (October 2026).
- GDRFA Dubai, the emirate's residency office, lists the establishment card at AED 200 plus 5% VAT, AED 20 in dirham levies and an AED 50 service fee. DMCC charges AED 1,825 a year for its own card (October 2026).
- Dubai's Department of Economy and Tourism (DET) has no published fee table for mainland licences. You'll need its fee sheet for your particular activity.
- No one can promise you a bank account. Central Bank guidance says banks should not open or keep a relationship when they can't complete their due diligence checks.
You ask a few providers for a price and get back documents that look nothing alike. One gives a single package price, another lists twelve separate items, and a third tucks the visa count into a footnote. Before you can compare business setup quotes, you have to sort them into the same lines. Once that's done, you can check the government fees against the authority's own figures.
Why quotes can't be compared as they arrive
A quote often holds more than one kind of price. A fee schedule is an authority's official tariff. A package is a bundled offer from a free zone, which is an area with its own authority that licenses companies under its own rules. A vendor-quoted figure is the consultancy's own number. Only the fee schedule can be checked against an official page, and mixing the three gives you a false comparison.
Bundling makes it harder still. One package may include a desk and a visa while another quote leaves both out. A zone's online calculator may charge extra for each added shareholder or business activity. A lower headline price can simply mean a shorter list. If you want to see what typical offers include and leave out, there's a comparison of setup packages.
The fix is simple, if a little tedious. Put every quote into the same lines. Mark each line as an amount, as included, or as missing. Compare totals only when no line is blank.
The line template
Copy these twelve lines into a spreadsheet with one column per quote. A line is complete when it has an amount, a description of what it covers and a source for the figure. The last column tells you where to check it.
| Line | What the quote should state | How to check it |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Government licence fee | Amount, activity code, years covered | The fee sheet from DET or the zone for your activity |
| 2 Name and approval fees | Amount for each step | The same fee sheet |
| 3 Zone or authority fees | Registration and licence, with the package name | The zone's price list or schedule of charges, with its date |
| 4 Local agent or PRO fee (the PRO handles government paperwork) | Amount, what's covered, who signs what | u.ae's mainland guide (16 July 2026) says businesses owned completely by non-GCC residents (people from outside the Gulf states) need a local service agent. Its foreign ownership page (6 April 2026) says that requirement was dropped for most activities. Check with the licensing authority which one applies to you |
| 5 Visas | How many, whether eligible or included, the desk they depend on, fee per extra visa | The zone's own quota statement |
| 6 Establishment card | Amount and which authority issues it | GDRFA Dubai, the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MOHRE) or the zone's schedule |
| 7 Medical, Emirates ID, insurance | Amount per person | The page of the federal identity authority (ICP) and the medical centre's price list |
| 8 Desk or office and Ejari | Type of space, size, lease in the company's name | Dubai Land Department fee list |
| 9 Bank account help | What the provider does, the fee, what happens if the bank says no | The bank decides, and nobody can promise the outcome |
| 10 Tax registrations | Corporate Tax and VAT (value added tax), who handles it, the fee | Deadlines from the Federal Tax Authority (FTA) |
| 11 Renewal, exit and NOC | Total for year two, cancellation steps, any fee for a no-objection certificate (NOC) | The provider's renewal schedule |
| 12 Payment and documents | Deposit, who gets paid, refund terms, who keeps the originals | The contract itself |
A blank line is a question for the provider. And a line marked included should say what it includes.
Government fees versus service fees
Government fees are set by an authority, and you can check them. Service fees are the provider's own charge, and you can't. A good quote shows the two on separate lines and backs each government fee with the authority's receipt.
Some government fees are published. These figures were correct in October 2026:
- Ejari registration costs AED 220 through a trustee centre for a company lease. The AED 177.75 rate through the Dubai REST app or the Dubai Land Department website is for leases where tenant and landlord are both individuals.
- The GDRFA Dubai establishment card, the immigration record that lets your company sponsor visas, costs AED 200 plus 5% VAT and AED 20 in dirham levies. The same page lists further service charges and fees for urgent processing.
- The schedule of charges of DMCC (Dubai Multi Commodities Centre, a free zone) puts its establishment card at AED 1,825 a year. Each additional visa quota, meaning room for one more residence visa, costs AED 500 plus a non-refundable AED 250 application fee.
- Under Resolution 11 of 2025, a branch operating out of a Dubai free zone pays AED 10,000 a year. The six-month permit costs AED 5,000.
- The basic health insurance package is AED 320 a year (u.ae, September 2026).
DET doesn't publish a fee table for Dubai mainland licences. Mainland here means anywhere in the emirate outside a free zone. Ask DET for the fee sheet that covers your activity, and until you have it, treat any licence fee in a quote as the provider's own figure. Gulf News reported in September 2026 that the Invest in Dubai cost calculator adds about 5% of annual rent for licences that need premises.
Free zone fees come from the zone's own schedule or package. Get that document with its date on it. The total alone isn't enough.
Costs that show up after you sign
A cost that's missing from a quote doesn't go away. You usually just pay it later. Look out for these:
- Renewal. You want the year-two total, item by item, because the licence, the desk and the visas may each renew on different terms.
- Costs per hire and per company: the establishment card, medical test, Emirates ID and insurance. The guide to UAE visa costs explains how these fit together.
- Dubai Chamber membership, a separate fee that depends on your legal form and activity.
- Knowledge and innovation fees, small charges added to government services. On Ejari, the Dubai Land Department charges AED 10 for each of them.
- Amendments. Changing your activity or company name counts as an amendment. It has its own fee, and you have to tell the bank.
- Audit. Every LLC (limited liability company) must have an auditor under Article 27 of the Commercial Companies Law (2021 text; check the current wording after Federal Decree-Law 20 of 2025).
- Corporate Tax registration, due within 3 months of incorporation. Registering late means an AED 10,000 penalty (FTA Decision 3 of 2024; Cabinet Decision 75 of 2023 as amended).
- Exit costs for cancelling the licence, deregistering for tax, cancelling visas and closing the bank account.
All of these are legitimate costs. The trouble starts when a quote says nothing about them, and the cost guide for the UAE shows how fast they add up.
Payment terms, refunds and who holds your documents
Agree the payment terms in writing before you pay the first deposit. Pay only the company named as the contracting party in the agreement. You should have a written scope of work, a refund clause and a tax invoice in hand. If someone asks you to pay into a personal account, or into a company other than the one you're contracting with, stop and ask why.
Your documents need the same care as your money. The company should keep its original documents, its login for the government portal and access to its registered address. A provider that insists on keeping all three can block you from doing anything without it.
No one can guarantee a bank account or a visa decision. The Central Bank's guidance on customer due diligence, the checks a bank runs on who you are and where your money comes from, is listed as in force from 7 November 2025. Look in the rulebook for the April 2026 update. The guidance says institutions should not open or keep a relationship when they can't complete those checks. If a quote says the provider is an official partner of a zone, ask the zone to confirm it.
Here are five made-up quote lines that should prompt questions:
- Setup package: AED [amount], all inclusive, with no breakdown underneath.
- Visas: 5 included, with no office or desk named.
- Government fees: as per authority, with no amount given.
- Bank account: arranged by the provider, with nothing about what happens if the bank says no.
- Deposit: 50% to the account below, where the account holder isn't the company you're signing with.
A worked example with two quotes
The table below uses invented round numbers, each marked example only. They show the method. They aren't real prices.
| Line | Quote A (example only) | Quote B (example only) | Gap to close |
|---|---|---|---|
| Headline | AED 10,000 package | AED 15,000 total | Different formats |
| Licence and registration | Included, not split out | AED 10,000 | Ask A for a split |
| Visa | 1 included, office or desk not stated | 1 at AED 2,500, office stated | Ask A what space it's tied to |
| Establishment card | Not listed | AED 1,000 | Ask A for an amount |
| Medical and Emirates ID | Not listed | AED 1,500 | Ask A for an amount |
| Bank help | "Assistance", nothing more | Introduction only | Ask A what it does |
| Year-two renewal | Not listed | AED 10,000 | Ask A for a figure |
| Deposit | To a private person's account | To the company's account, with a tax invoice | Ask A who gets paid |
At first glance, Quote A is AED 5,000 cheaper. Now say its missing items come back at AED 4,500 in total. A's first-year cost becomes AED 14,500 against B's AED 15,000, and the gap is down to AED 500. You'd still need answers on the year-two renewal and on who receives the deposit.
How to ask for a revised quote
Send both providers the same template and ask each one to fill it in:
- Every line gets an amount, the word included with what it covers, or not applicable.
- Government fees stay apart from service fees, with the authority's receipt or fee sheet attached for each government fee.
- The visa count names the office or desk behind it and the fee for each extra visa.
- The total for year two is stated.
- The contract sets out the payment terms, the refund clause and who keeps the documents.
Wait until every line is filled before you compare. If a provider can't fill a line, or won't commit to a scope on paper, that tells you something about working with them.
This is a sensible point to get a second opinion. An independent adviser can test two quotes against this template in one sitting. For the questions around it, read about red flags in business setup quotes, how to choose a consultant and whether you need one at all.
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