Dubai formation packages are advertised as a single price, and the single price is almost never the cost of having a working company. That is not always dishonesty — a licence genuinely does cost what they say. It is just that a licence is one item on a list of eight, and the other seven arrive as invoices later.
What a headline package price typically covers: the trade licence itself, the registration fees, and sometimes a flexi-desk or virtual office. What it typically excludes: the establishment card, the visa allocation and its per-person cost, the medical test, the Emirates ID, the medical insurance every visa requires, the refundable deposits some free zones take, the attestation of documents, and anything involving a notary.
There is also a second, quieter cost: the licence that was cheap because its activity list was narrow. When the bank asks what you actually do, or when you want to invoice for something adjacent, you amend the licence — a fee and a wait that nobody put in the comparison table.
So our answer on packages is deliberately unfashionable: we do not publish a price list, because we would have to make one up. The cost of your company depends on jurisdiction, activity, how many visas, whether you need real office space, and whether your shareholders are individuals or companies. What we commit to instead is that the quote you get names every line, including the ones that are not ours, and says which numbers are fixed and which are authority fees that can change.
The lines a complete quote should contain
Licence and registration
The headline number — usually the only one that gets advertised.
Establishment card
Required before any visa step. Small, mandatory, routinely omitted.
Visa allocation and per-person cost
Entry permit, medical test, Emirates ID — per person, every time.
Medical insurance
A condition of every residence visa, for each person including dependants.
Office or flexi-desk
Sometimes bundled, sometimes not, and it caps how many visas you may have.
Deposits and attestations
Refundable deposits and document attestation — real cash, rarely advertised.
How to compare two offers honestly
Ask both providers for the total cost of one shareholder plus two employee visas, including insurance and the establishment card, and ask which of those numbers are government fees. The gap between the headline and that total is the real comparison.
Ask what an activity amendment costs and how long it takes. The answer tells you how carefully the activity list was chosen for you.
Ask what happens after the licence. If bank preparation, accounting and visas are separate engagements with separate providers, your cheap package has simply moved the cost somewhere you have not counted yet.
We do not publish fixed package prices. Our written quote names every line, marks which are authority fees, and states what is not included — including the parts we do not provide ourselves.
Questions we get asked
Why is there no price list on this page?
Because a price list for company formation is either wrong or hedged into uselessness. Your cost depends on jurisdiction, activity and visa count. We quote your case in writing instead.
Does a free zone cost less than mainland?
Usually to set up, not always to run, and it restricts where you may sell. Cheap is the wrong first question — the right one is where your customers are.
What is the most commonly hidden cost?
The visa chain per person, and the medical insurance that goes with it. A licence price with no visas in it is not a company you can staff.
Are government fees fixed?
They change. We mark which lines in a quote are authority fees precisely so you know which ones we do not control.
Get a quote with every line named
Tell us the activity, the jurisdiction you are considering and how many visas you need. You will get a written breakdown, including what is not included.
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