How the numbers here are gathered
Each figure has a marker that opens the page it was copied from, and a date showing when we last looked. Where nothing is published, the page says so.
The site draws on 79 sourced figures: 50 from government or regulator pages, 24 from a free zone's own page for a fee that zone sets, and 5 that a free zone gives as an approximation or as its estimate of someone else's charge. We do not estimate any figure ourselves. Totals on the site are sums of these figures, and each page shows which lines went in.
Where the figures come from
- Government fees: the authority's own service page or published decision. Golden residence fees come from ICP and GDRFA Dubai, work permit fees and corporate tax from the UAE government portal, VAT and Small Business Relief from the Federal Tax Authority, Kuwaiti fees from KDIPA's ministerial decision, and Qatari fees from the Qatar Financial Centre's setting-up guide.
- Free zone prices: the zone's own website. A free zone sets its own licence fee, so its page is the primary source for that fee, even when the page reads like marketing.
- Free zone estimates: when a zone gives a rounded "around" figure, or estimates a charge it does not set, such as a medical test or bookkeeping, we mark it as the zone's estimate.
How the three kinds are labelled
The list at the foot of every page tags each figure as "Government page", "Zone's own page" or "Zone's estimate", so you can tell a tariff from a price list and a price list from a guess. Nothing is described as a government fee unless a government body or regulator published it.
What we could not confirm
On the following could not be read at an official source, so none of it appears as a figure anywhere on the site:
- Dubai mainland licence fees. The Department of Economy and Tourism's pages refused automated access.
- Prices for IFZA, DMCC and Shams, none of which prints a price list on the pages we checked.
- Visa and office costs at the Qatar Financial Centre, which its guide describes but does not price.
- Kuwait's Ministry of Commerce and Industry fees for the commercial licence and registration.
- An age-based work permit surcharge that is widely repeated online without a government source.
- Round "all-in" prices for free zone licences and golden visas that circulate on blogs without a source.
One source needs a warning of its own. Meydan Free Zone's running-costs article describes bookkeeping as a monthly cost in its text but counts it once in its first-year table. The hidden costs guide shows both readings rather than choosing one.
How the figures stay current
Every figure has an expiry date. Before each deploy a check lists anything past it, and a second check opens every source link to catch pages that have moved or disappeared. A figure is re-read at its source before it stays on the site. Free zone prices expire sooner than government fees, because promotions change faster than tariffs.
What this site is not
It is not a government service and has no link with ICP, GDRFA, MoHRE, the Federal Tax Authority, any free zone, the Qatar Financial Centre or KDIPA. Nothing here is legal, tax or immigration advice. Whether you qualify for a licence or visa is decided by the authority.
How the site will be paid for
We plan to pass quote requests to business setup consultants once the request service opens. Consultants may pay us a fee for an introduction; it doesn't change what you pay. We also offer a managed website plan for business setup consultants, which includes a listing marked as such beside the guides for the country a firm works in. This site may also show advertising. Neither ads, listings nor introduction fees change a figure: where a zone publishes nothing, the table still says so.
Corrections
Operator details are published here before this site launches. A contact address for corrections will be published with them. Until then, every figure links to its source, so you can check any number yourself.