Who This is for
Consulting, software, trading, media, e-commerce and professional services delivered to clients abroad sit naturally in a free zone.
Media production, healthcare, education, commodities trading and financial services are licensed by particular zones acting as the regulator for that sector — the zone is not just an address, it is the authority that permits the activity at all.
Import, store, consolidate and re-export. Free zones sit outside UAE customs territory for duty purposes, so goods moving through without being sold locally are treated differently from goods cleared into the mainland.
A branch or subsidiary of a foreign parent, where the UAE entity fronts regional operations rather than being the group’s centre. The parent’s documents drive the file, and attestation is usually the long pole.
How the Zones Actually Differ
Fifty-plus zones sound like fifty-plus choices. They are not. They fall into four groups, and which group you belong in is settled by what your business does — usually before cost enters the conversation at all. The work is choosing within a group.
The four kinds
What separates zones inside a group
Each zone ties the number of visas to the premises taken: a desk package supports a small number, an office supports more. This is the constraint most often discovered too late, because it caps hiring rather than cost.
Zones maintain their own activity catalogues. An activity that exists in one zone’s catalogue may simply not exist in another’s — and the description on your licence governs what you may lawfully invoice for.
Some zones accept a shared desk indefinitely; others require physical office space once headcount or activity crosses a threshold.
Banks form views on zones, and those views are not published. A licence from a zone a bank is comfortable with clears onboarding on an ordinary file; a licence from a zone it is not can fail on a file that is objectively stronger. We do not name banks on this site — the current picture is the assessment, and it changes.
Filing, renewal and audit obligations differ between zones, and between licence types within the same zone.
Two licences that cost the same and read the same on paper can produce different outcomes at the bank, at the immigration department, and at the point where you try to add a shareholder. That is the whole reason zone selection is work rather than a price comparison.
The Local-market Restriction
A free zone company is licensed to operate within its zone and outside the UAE. It cannot invoice mainland customers directly for onshore supply as a matter of course — the single most misunderstood point in UAE company formation, and usually discovered after the licence is issued.
Changing the company
Keeping the free zone company
Four routes. The free zone entity stays the parent in each; they differ in how much physical presence and licensing you take on.
A registered branch holding its own onshore licence, run from a leased mainland office. Full local trade — consumer sales, storefront, stock. Rent and licensing to carry; the lease commits before approval.
A registered branch operating from your existing free zone premises, with no second office. Sells services and goods onshore, but no storefront or local warehousing. Roughly AED 10,000 a year.
A permission to serve onshore clients without establishing a branch at all. Narrower in scope and tied to defined activities. Availability and conditions vary by zone and are not universal.
No premises and no licence of your own. A local partner holds both and owns the customer relationship; you supply them. The cost is margin, and the structure stays as it is.
If your customers are UAE businesses and UAE consumers, none of these is cheaper than being mainland from the start.
What's Included
How it Works
Assessment
Activity, customer base, visa requirement and banking profile — producing a shortlist of zones rather than a single recommendation.
Zone and licence type confirmed
Activity codes checked against what you will actually invoice for.
Name, approval and documents
Incorporation documents and resolutions prepared and signed. Corporate shareholders supply attested and legalised documents — the item that usually sets the schedule.
Premises
The desk, office or facility taken, matched to the visa allocation confirmed at stage one.
Licence and establishment card
Then the immigration file opened and the visa sequence run.
Banking and tax
Application to institutions selected against your profile, and corporate tax registration.
What We Need from You
Most of this list is a scan and an email — none of it needs to be perfect before we talk, and we tell you exactly what is missing after the first review. The one thing to raise early: if a shareholder cannot be in the UAE to sign, say so at the outset. A power of attorney executed abroad has its own attestation chain, running through authorities in two countries, and it needs to start before the rest of the file — not alongside it — or every other step ends up waiting on one signature.
Timeline and Cost
Straightforward free zone formations are typically completed within about seven working days. That figure holds where the shareholders are individuals, the documents are ready, and the activity needs no external approval. Corporate shareholders, attested foreign documents, regulated activities or a zone that requires additional review take longer — and the delay is almost always document preparation rather than the registry.
Fees are fixed and agreed in writing against a defined scope before we start, anchored to the work rather than to the size of the business. Zone charges, visa costs and premises rent are third-party costs, shown separately at cost.
We will tell you at assessment if the zone you have in mind will make banking materially harder, or if we think the structure will not hold. That conversation is cheaper before incorporation than after.
Company Cost CalculatorWhere it Goes Wrong
The cheapest package is cheap because it comes with minimal premises, a restricted activity list and a zone that some banks treat cautiously. The saving is recovered several times over in the months spent trying to open an account.
A founder takes a desk package, then hires four people and sponsors a family. The allocation does not stretch, and the premises have to be upgraded mid-year — sometimes in a different zone.
Bank compliance reads the licence, then the transactions. A consultancy licence receiving payment for goods generates a query that is difficult to answer after the fact and easy to avoid at selection.
The 0% rate applies to qualifying income and the conditions must be met continuously — the status is maintained, not granted. Non-qualifying income is taxed at 9% without the AED 375,000 band.
The banking profile should shape the zone choice, not follow it. Once the licence is issued, the only variables left are which institution receives the file and what is in it.
Questions
Can a free zone company sell to customers in the UAE?
Not directly as a matter of course. It reaches the local market through a mainland distributor or agent, or a mainland branch. Where the onshore business is the main business, a mainland licence is the straightforward answer.
Which free zone is best?
There is no general answer, only a correct one for a given activity, visa requirement and banking profile. Any firm that recommends a zone before asking what you do and who pays you is selling a package.
Can I own 100% of a free zone company, and do I need an office?
Full foreign ownership is standard across the free zones. Premises depend on the zone, the licence type and the number of visas: flexi-desk arrangements satisfy many zones for small allocations.
Do free zone companies pay corporate tax?
They must register and file like any other taxable person. A qualifying free zone person may access 0% on qualifying income where the conditions are satisfied continuously; other income is taxed at 9% without the AED 375,000 band.
Does my free zone company need an audit?
It depends on the zone, the licence and the size of the business — there is no single rule across the UAE. We confirm the requirement for your zone at assessment.
Can you guarantee a bank account?
No, and nobody can — the decision belongs to the bank. What we control is which institutions see the file, how the profile is presented, and whether we tell you in advance that the profile will struggle.