UAE Business Setup Advisor
Answer 5 quick questions to get a personalized recommendation on jurisdiction, license type, legal structure, and estimated first-year setup cost.
This tool gives general educational guidance from a rule-based engine, not a live AI model, and is not a substitute for advice from a licensed business setup consultant or lawyer. Confirm final requirements and pricing with your chosen free zone or DET before committing.
Step 1 of 5
What's your primary business activity?
Do you need to sell directly to UAE mainland customers or government?
How many visas will you need in Year 1?
What physical space do you need?
What's your rough setup budget?
Your Recommendation
Answer the questions on the left to see your personalized recommendation here.
How This Tool Reaches Its Recommendation
The advisor weighs your business activity, whether direct UAE mainland sales matter to your model, your Year 1 hiring plan, physical space needs, and budget priority — the same core factors that genuinely drive the mainland-vs-free-zone decision in practice, distilled from our own researched guides on UAE business costs and structures.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. This tool uses a hardcoded, rule-based decision engine, not a live AI/LLM API call — every recommendation traces back to fixed logic our team maintains, using figures grounded in our own researched articles on UAE business costs, license types, and free zone comparisons. This keeps the tool fast, free, and consistent rather than dependent on an external AI service.
No. This tool gives general, educational guidance to help you understand your options before a real conversation with a business setup consultant, free zone authority, or lawyer. Actual eligibility, pricing, and requirements can vary by your specific nationality, activity sub-category, and the exact free zone or authority you approach — always confirm final details directly before committing to a structure or paying any fees.
Free zone companies generally cannot sell directly to mainland UAE customers or take on government contracts without a local distributor or a separate mainland branch. If direct mainland access is central to your business model, a mainland license usually avoids that extra layer of complexity and cost from day one.
No — treat them as a realistic planning range, not a quote. Actual costs vary by specific free zone, exact business activity, office size, and current fee schedules, which change over time. Use this to understand the rough scale of investment involved, then get an exact quote from your chosen jurisdiction or a business setup consultant.
Free zones have always allowed 100% foreign ownership. Mainland companies gained the same right for most business activities following UAE legal reforms in recent years, though some strategic or regulated sectors may still involve specific ownership or local participation requirements — this tool does not check activity-specific ownership restrictions, so confirm this for your exact activity with DET or a consultant.
Many real businesses combine activities (e.g., a consultancy that also does e-commerce). Run the tool using whichever activity represents the majority of your revenue or your primary licensed activity, then discuss secondary activities separately with your chosen jurisdiction, since some combinations require additional approvals.
Yes — once you reach your results, click "Download PDF" to save a copy of your personalized recommendation and cost estimate, including the same disclaimer shown on this page.
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