With a mainland company you can trade across the full UAE market, engage directly with customers locally, and you’ll typically have fewer limits on visas or business activities. On the flip side there can be higher costs (office space, local compliance) and depending on the activity or location you might need additional approvals. Free-zone setups allow full foreign ownership (in most cases), streamlined licences, often lower initial overheads, and are great for international trade or export-oriented operations. But free-zone companies are usually restricted in trading directly into the UAE domestic market without going through a local distributor or partner.
Cost- and time-wise: you’re often looking at something from around AED 20,000–30,000 as a ballpark base when setting up a company in UAE, though it depends heavily on the emirate, licence type, office requirement and number of visas. Setup in a free zone can be quite fast (sometimes 1-3 weeks) whereas mainland might take closer to a month, especially if there are more regulatory approvals needed.
Things to watch out for: make sure your business activity and licence match what you actually intend to do (wrong licence = big trouble later), understand the office space or virtual office rules, check visa quotas and renewal obligations, and don’t assume “low cost” means all inclusive - many extras (renewals, visa costs, local sponsorship if needed) can add up. With the right planning, your UAE presence can be smooth and very beneficial. If you’d like, I can pull together a tailored checklist of steps for your specific business idea.Statistics: Posted by DavisAce — Tue Oct 28, 2025 12:37 pm
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