The zone you pick decides what the company can do for the next ten years.

Sharjah Media City. Media, content, e-commerce and remote consulting. Flexi-desk included, up to five activities on one licence, and renewal is price-locked for life — written into the zone's own terms rather than left to current policy. Not a VAT Designated Zone. Fine for services, wrong for warehousing or physical trade.

The only low-cost zone that serves both a solo consultant and a real factory. One licence takes up to ten activities and fifty shareholders, across six specialised parks including three industrial. Renewal at the same price. Flexi-desk is capped at a single visa by the zone's own FAQ — the strictest here. Seventy-five to ninety minutes from central Dubai.

The cheapest headline in the country and the widest activity list — over 3,500 — with purpose-built hubs for e-commerce, freelancers and AI robotics. The zone publishes no prices at all, and banks are the least comfortable with it of any zone on this page. Medical testing must be done in Ajman.

Licence in about an hour where the documents are in order, entirely online. Flexi-desk and lease included, three activity groups, 2,500+ activities available. The only zone here where a flexi-desk still carries the full six-visa quota — if you are hiring, that is the whole argument. 12,500 is the bare licence. Visa, immigration card, medical and Emirates ID are extra — budget around 20,000 for a first year with one visa.

The cheapest mainstream Dubai licence, sold entirely through partners, fully remote. Crypto trading and brokerage available as a licensed activity. You never deal with IFZA itself, and partner quotes for the identical licence vary by 20–70 %. Get three before committing. Financial statements have been compulsory since September 2025.

No separate office required, and it sits on the Al Maktoum airport land alongside the Mohammed bin Rashid Aerospace Hub — the only aviation MRO cluster in Dubai. Forty minutes from Downtown, and the current setup platform only launched in September 2025. Worth it for logistics and aviation; a long drive for anyone else.

Built inside Sharjah International Airport with its own customs post. Re-export trade, freight forwarding, light assembly, and a dedicated Jewellery Park. It is a VAT Designated Zone, which matters for physical goods. The zone's own price page still shows rates marked "effective April 1 – June 30, 2020". Most figures circulating online for SAIF trace back to that 2020 schedule. We quote only after writing to the zone.

Software, AI, cyber security and fintech. Through the Dtec incubator route you get a desk, a service licence covering five activities and two visa slots, with Oraseya Capital in the same park. Entering through the main park instead of Dtec means a compulsory 13.5 m² office. Licence 12,000 plus office rent 28,392 plus deposit 2,704 plus a visa at about 8,000 lands at roughly 51,000 — against an advertised "from 12,000". It is the largest gap between advertised and landed cost on this page.

Pharmaceutical cold chain, electronics, jewellery, luxury goods and aircraft parts. A VAT Designated Zone next to the DXB cargo terminals, and it operates a Dual Licence scheme, under which you can hold a mainland DET licence alongside it without renting a separate mainland office. Three activities per licence, all in one category — the tightest here. Registration alone is 7,000. General Trading needs 50 m² and AED 500,000 paid up. If your goods do not fly out of DXB, you are paying for an address you cannot use.

Gold, diamonds, precious metals, tea, coffee, agricultural commodities, crypto and Web3. Named global free zone of the year by fDi Magazine, part of the Financial Times Group, for nine consecutive years — with the best bank acceptance on this page and the most transparent published tariff. There is a cheaper route: the Jump Start package, which includes a three-year residence visa, is 43,780. The 45,285 floor is licence 20,265 plus registration 9,020 plus a compulsory desk from 16,000 — there is no virtual office. AED 50,000 of capital must be paid up within thirty days. Every activity outside your category needs a second licence at full price.

The ninth largest container port in the world and the largest bonded area in the Middle East on one licence. Real import, export, transhipment, warehousing and manufacturing, with a General Trading licence carrying an unrestricted activity list. Published agent quotes for the licence alone range from 5,500 to 15,000 — a threefold spread — so we quote only from the zone directly. That figure is not the landed cost: registration is 5,000 on top, and a facility lease is compulsory, which is what puts a real JAFZA setup above 40,000. Seven to fourteen working days. For a pure services or e-commerce business this is money burnt.