Website design cost in the UAE: what drives the price

A website in the UAE costs what its scope costs: a few pages in one language sit at the bottom of any vendor's range, a bilingual Arabic and English company site with a control panel sits in the middle, and an online store sits at the top. If the site sells, the UAE adds its own items: a licence that covers e-commerce, TDRA approval and a clear digital invoice for every transaction. After launch, budget every year for domain, hosting, email and support, and check whether each quote includes 5% VAT.

Last checked: 6 November 2026

Three kinds of website, and what each includes

Most requests fall into one of three tiers. The tier matters more than the vendor, because it decides how much design, building and testing the project needs.

AED price tables on agency blogs mostly reflect what each agency sells; we found no independent survey behind them. A more reliable guide is to price your own scope with two or three vendors, using the comparison table further down. For the same tiers in another market, see what a company website costs in Egypt.

What moves the price

Within a tier, a few decisions explain most of the gap between two quotes:

• Design. A template adjusted to your colours costs less than an original design drawn for your brand and tested on phones first.
• Pages and page types. Ten pages built from two layouts cost less than ten pages that each need their own layout.
• Content. Someone has to write the text, translate it and source the photos. If the vendor does it, it should be a priced line.
• Control panel. Editing your own pages, projects and articles needs a content management system. Sites without one are cheaper to build and dearer to change.
• Forms and features. Booking, quote requests, careers pages, member areas and live chat each add design, building and testing time.
• Integrations. Sending leads to a CRM, orders to an accounting system or stock to a warehouse system is often the largest single line in a store quote.
• Speed and search. Compressed images, clean structure, titles and a sitemap take time; cheap quotes often skip them.

If you only need one page for an advertising campaign, that is a smaller project with its own rules; see what a landing page fixes when ads get clicks but no sales.

UAE items that belong in the quote

Arabic and English from the start

In the UAE, plan for both languages by default. Arabic is not a mirrored copy of the English site: it needs a right-to-left layout, Arabic fonts that stay readable on phones, and text written or checked by a person rather than a machine. Each language should have its own pages and addresses, so that search engines can show the Arabic page to Arabic searches. That matters because Google handled 95.42% of searches in the UAE in October 2026.

If the site sells online

The UAE government portal says that e-commerce is governed by Federal Decree-Law 14 of 2023, that sellers need a licence that includes e-commerce activity and approval from TDRA, and that every transaction needs a clear digital invoice. For the website, that means order confirmations and invoices the customer can download, generated by the store rather than typed by hand. Check your licence before the store is built, not after; our guide to the e-commerce licence for an online store in the UAE covers the steps.

A platform store means a lower build cost plus a monthly subscription; a custom store means more control and a larger build. We compare them in Shopify or a custom online store in the UAE.

Free zone or mainland

Free-zone companies operate under a different legal framework from mainland companies. According to the government portal, a free-zone company that wants to sell on the mainland needs a licensed mainland distributor or a mainland branch or company. Settle this first: it decides whose name sits on the checkout, the invoices and the gateway account.

Payments through a licensed gateway

Card payments should go through a licensed payment gateway, such as Network International, Telr or PayTabs, with the card details entered on the gateway's side. UAE sector rules require payment service providers to store personal and payment data in the UAE, and a store that never holds card data stays out of that problem. Budget for the gateway's setup and per-transaction fees, and allow time for the gateway's own approval of your merchant account.

Order invoices are not the new e-invoicing system

The UAE's e-invoicing system covers business-to-business and business-to-government transactions, through accredited service providers, from 1 January 2027 for businesses with revenue of AED 50 million or more and from 1 July 2027 for everyone else. Sales to consumers are excluded until the Minister decides otherwise. A store selling to the public still issues its own digital invoice under the e-commerce rules. Invoices to other businesses fall under e-invoicing on your group's date, usually issued from your accounting or ERP system rather than the website.

A privacy notice

The UAE's Personal Data Protection Law, Federal Decree-Law 45 of 2021, has been in effect since January 2022 on the mainland. It does not cover DIFC or ADGM, and ADGM has its own Data Protection Regulations. The PDPL's implementing regulations had not been formally issued as of September 2026. A site that collects names, phone numbers or orders should say plainly what it collects and why, so put the privacy notice in the scope.

Running costs every year

The build is paid once. These lines come back every year, and a quote that leaves them out is not cheaper, only incomplete.

Ask each vendor to list these with a yearly price, even when they are paid to someone else.

VAT and dollar quotes

This is general information, not tax advice; confirm the details with your accountant.

• VAT is 5%. Check whether each quote is shown before or after VAT, so you compare like with like.
• Free zones. The FTA's guide to designated zones says services supplied there are treated as supplied in the UAE and are liable to VAT at the standard rate.
• Suppliers outside the UAE. Under the FTA's e-commerce VAT guide, a non-resident supplier does not charge VAT to a VAT-registered UAE business; the business accounts for it itself under the reverse charge. Keep the supplier's invoice.
• Dollar quotes. The dirham has been pegged at 3.6725 to the US dollar since 1997, so a $1,000 quote is AED 3,672.50 and stays that way for as long as the peg holds.

How to compare quotes line by line

Ask each vendor the same questions. The cheapest total often hides the biggest gaps.

A quote far below the others usually leaves out content, Arabic, the control panel or the yearly costs. Ask for those lines before comparing totals.

How KF Tech Solutions builds websites

We design and build company websites, online stores and web apps in Arabic and English, with right-to-left layouts planned from day one, a control panel to edit your own content, SEO basics, speed work and analytics. At launch we set up the domain, hosting, SSL and Google Search Console in your company's name. A company site usually takes three to six weeks, depending on the number of pages and how ready the content is. We work with businesses in Egypt and the Gulf, remotely from Cairo, which is two hours behind Dubai in winter and one hour behind in summer. Projects start from $200 (about SAR 750 / AED 735); the final price depends on scope, with a fixed written quote after a free call. Read more about our website design and development and about working with clients in the UAE.

Common questions

How much does a simple website cost in the UAE?

A few pages in one language on a template sit at the bottom of any vendor's range. A second language, original design, a control panel, booking or a store each move it up. Ask for a quote that lists pages, languages and yearly costs.

Do I need my website in both Arabic and English?

It depends on who your customers are. In the UAE they may search in either language, and each language needs its own pages to appear in search. If your budget is tight, design the site for both languages from the start and launch the second one later; that is cheaper than rebuilding the layout.

Do I need a licence to sell on my website?

According to the UAE government portal, online sellers need a licence that includes e-commerce activity and TDRA approval, and every transaction needs a clear digital invoice. A company site that only shows services and collects enquiries is a different case. Check your own licence with the authority that issued it.

Can a company outside the UAE build my website?

Yes, through calls, a preview link and written feedback. A VAT-registered business accounts for the VAT itself under the reverse charge. Make sure the contract puts the domain, hosting and code in your company's name.

How long does a website take?

A company site usually takes three to six weeks. An online store takes longer, mainly because of products, payments, delivery and the licence checks, and its timeline should be agreed in writing with the scope.

Tell us what your site needs to do, and we will reply with a fixed written quote. Contact us or book a free call.

Sources

• UAE government portal: e-commerce
• UAE government portal: running a business in a free zone
• PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries: UAE other taxes
• FTA: E-Commerce VAT Guide
• FTA: Designated Zones VAT Guide
• Ministry of Finance: eInvoicing
• Ministerial Decision No. 244 of 2025
• Legal 500: UAE data and AI governance
• DLA Piper: data protection in the UAE
• ADGM: Office of Data Protection
• StatCounter: search engine market share in the UAE
• The National: the dirham's dollar peg