Key Takeaways
- FZE, FZCO and FZ LLC aren't among the five company forms in the Commercial Companies Law. Each free zone defines these labels in its own rules.
- At Jafza, an FZE has one shareholder and an FZCo has two to fifty. Jafza sets no minimum share capital for either.
- The DIEZ zones, Dubai Airport Freezone and Dubai Silicon Oasis among them, write their own forms and capital rules into their regulations. Get the current text from the zone.
- IFZA trades as IFZA FZCO and DMCC's setup page uses FZCO. Meydan and SHAMS license LLCs, and RAKEZ uses FZ-LLC for one to fifty shareholders.
- A quote can use a different label from the one that ends up on your licence. Find out which form the zone actually issues and which regulation defines it.
Ask a few setup firms for a free zone price and the quotes may not even agree on what kind of company you'd get. One says FZ LLC, the next says FZCO, a third says FZE. They look like different products. In fact they're labels, and each free zone (an area with its own authority that licenses companies under its own rules) decides what its labels mean. The same word can come with a different shareholder rule in the next zone along. Every label has a usual meaning, but for your company the only definition that counts is the one in the regulation of the zone that issues your licence.
What the three labels usually mean
The Commercial Companies Law (CCL) is the federal law that says which kinds of company can exist in the UAE. Its Article 9 lists five: joint liability, limited partnership, limited liability, public joint stock and private joint stock. FZE, FZCO and FZ LLC aren't on that list. Free zone companies follow the law of their own zone instead. The CCL only reaches them when their zone's law lets them work onshore, meaning outside the free zone (Article 5, 2021 text). Under Federal Decree-Law 20 of 2025 they do that through a branch or a representative office, according to the Ministry of Economy and Tourism in January 2026. We've quoted the article numbers from the 2021 text. Check the current wording, because Federal Decree-Law 20 of 2025 amended the law.
Use this table as a first guide to what a label on a quote probably means.
| Label | Usual meaning | Where a zone uses it in its own documents |
|---|---|---|
| FZE | Free zone establishment, one shareholder | Jafza; Ajman Free Zone, SAIF Zone and Hamriyah list it beside FZC |
| FZCO or FZC | Free zone company, two or more shareholders | Jafza (FZCo), DMCC (FZCO, from one shareholder), Ajman Free Zone, SAIF Zone and Hamriyah (FZC) |
| FZ LLC | Free zone limited liability company | RAKEZ, written FZ-LLC, for one to fifty shareholders |
Treat the middle column as a starting point only. For your licence, a label means whatever the zone's regulation says it means.
FZE company: one shareholder
Jafza, the Jebel Ali Free Zone, defines an FZE as a company with a single shareholder (Jafza company-formation page, as of October 2026). It sets no minimum share capital, the money the owners commit to the company, for an FZE or for an FZCO. You'll still find guides that say an FZE needs AED 1,000,000. According to the same Jafza page, that figure describes the rules before 2017.
Ajman Free Zone, SAIF Zone (Sharjah Airport International Free Zone) and Hamriyah also list FZE among their company forms, going by their websites in October 2026.
One thing worth checking early is whether the single shareholder may be a company or has to be a person. The answer changes which ownership papers the bank will want from you.
Dubai Airport Freezone and Dubai Silicon Oasis come under the Dubai Integrated Economic Zones Authority (DIEZ). These zones define their forms in their own implementing regulations. We haven't reviewed those regulations for this guide. If a quote for one of them offers an FZE or an FZCO, ask to see the regulation behind the label.
FZCO and FZC: two or more shareholders
At Jafza, an FZCo has between two and fifty shareholders. DMCC (Dubai Multi Commodities Centre) uses the word differently. Its setup page says a free zone company (FZCO) needs at least one shareholder.
Capital rules vary just as much. Jafza sets no minimum, and DMCC leaves the minimum to its Registrar, the official who keeps the zone's company register. SAIF Zone's FAQ gives AED 150,000 for an FZE or FZC. That page has a 2020 footer and we read it in October 2026. Confirm any capital figure with the zone before you plan around it.
FZ LLC meaning and how it differs from a mainland LLC
RAKEZ, the Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone, calls its free zone company an FZ-LLC and allows one to fifty shareholders (RAKEZ, as of October 2026). A single owner and a group of partners both end up with the same label. Meydan and SHAMS (Sharjah Media City) license their companies as LLCs. Meydan's instant licence, called Fawri, is only open to an LLC with a single shareholder.
What sets a free zone LLC apart from a mainland one is the rule book. By mainland we mean any part of the emirate that isn't inside a free zone. A mainland LLC is one of the CCL forms. It has two to fifty partners or a single owner, a memorandum of association (the founding contract between the owners) in Arabic, and an auditor every year. A free zone LLC follows its zone's regulation, and that regulation makes its own rules on capital, audits and shareholders.
For the mainland side, see the guide to the LLC in the UAE. If you're thinking about a one-person business, the guide to sole establishment versus LLC compares the two.
Which label each zone uses
When a quote names a zone, look it up here to see which label that zone uses in its own documents. The table reflects the zones' pages in October 2026.
| Zone | Label in its own documents | Shareholders or capital | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jafza | FZE, FZCo, branch, public listed company | One; two to fifty | Jafza company-formation page |
| IFZA | Not defined in its website terms (operator: IFZA FZCO) | Not stated | IFZA terms |
| Dubai Airport Freezone and Dubai Silicon Oasis | Set by DIEZ regulations | Check with the zone | DIEZ |
| Meydan | LLC | One for Fawri | Meydan site |
| SHAMS | LLC | Bands of 1 to 10 or 11 to 20 | SHAMS calculator |
| RAKEZ | FZ-LLC | One to fifty | RAKEZ site |
| Ajman Free Zone | FZE, FZC, branches | Not stated | AFZ site |
| DMCC | FZCO | At least one shareholder | DMCC setup page |
Where a cell says not stated, the zone's page gives no number. The quote should then supply one and name the regulation it comes from. Brochures and quotes don't always use the zone's own label either. The label that counts is the one on the licence, and it should match the zone's regulation.
Before you pay, put these questions to the zone. Each answer changes what you sign, or what the bank and the visa office will want to see:
- which form it issues for a single shareholder, and which for several;
- which regulation defines that form;
- what the capital rule is, and what proof of the capital it wants;
- whether another company can be a shareholder;
- what happens to the form if the number of shareholders changes.
Visa allowances depend on the licence and the package you buy, and the guide to free zone visas explains them. If you plan to sell online, have a look at the guide to the e-commerce licence in the UAE as well.
Why banks and visa officers care about the label
A bank looks past the label to the people who own the company. The Central Bank's customer due diligence guidance, its rules on how banks check who their customers are, is listed as in force from 7 November 2025. It tells banks to identify and verify each customer and each beneficial owner, and to keep the records for at least five years. The rulebook was updated in April 2026, and it's worth checking what changed.
A beneficial owner is the real person at the end of the ownership chain, the one who owns or controls the company. Cabinet Decision 109 of 2023 sets the threshold at 25% or more of the capital or the votes. For an FZE, that means one set of ownership papers at the bank. An FZCO or FZ LLC with several shareholders brings a set for each of them.
The form matters for visas too. Meydan's FAQ (October 2026) links investor and partner visas to share capital of at least AED 50,000. Whatever capital your company documents record will count at the visa stage as well as at the bank.
Before you accept the label in a quote, find out what the zone really issues and which bank and visa rules follow from it. Getting this wrong can mean forming the company again.
Switching the form later
Say your FZE takes on a second shareholder. Jafza tells its two forms apart by the number of shareholders, which means the form itself may have to change. Find out whether the zone treats this as an amendment or as a conversion, and what it costs.
Jafza's fee schedule shows AED 3,000 for converting an offshore company into an FZE, FZCO or PLC (public listed company). An offshore company here is one registered with Jafza that doesn't trade in the UAE itself. The AED 3,000 is only the offshore company Registrar fee, set in Schedule 2 of the Offshore Companies Regulations 2023. Fees for the onshore forms come from the zone.
Federal Decree-Law 20 of 2025, issued on 1 October 2025, adds an article on re-domiciliation. That means moving a company's registration from one emirate to another, or between a free zone and the mainland, without winding the company up first. It still depends on implementing rules (Ministry of Economy and Tourism, January 2026). An adviser can tell you how the amended law would treat your company.
If changing form looks awkward, a branch or a subsidiary may do the job instead. The guide to branch, representative office or subsidiary compares them, and the full set of costs is in the guide to what a UAE company costs.
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