We Went Through the UAE Setup Grind.
Then We Built Something Better.
A few years ago, we were exactly where you are right now — staring at a screen full of Google results about "business setup in Dubai," trying to figure out which free zone was actually right for us, and slowly realizing that every single website we landed on was trying to sell us something instead of actually helping us decide.
We're a group of tech founders based in the UAE. Between us, we've set up companies in DMCC, SHAMS, Dubai Mainland, ADGM, and RAKEZ. We've gone through the visa runs, the bank account rejections, the surprise fees nobody mentioned, and the PRO service guy who stopped replying mid-process.
We've also built profitable businesses here, hired teams across multiple emirates, and navigated corporate tax registration, ESR filing, and UBO declarations before most people even knew those acronyms existed.
DubaiForm came out of a very specific frustration — and a very specific realization.
The Moment We Realized Nobody Was Actually Helping
Here's what happened. One of our co-founders was helping a friend from London set up a consultancy in the UAE. Simple brief — professional license, one visa, virtual office, lowest possible cost. She called three business setup companies.
Three consultants. Three completely different answers. Three different price points with a 3x spread between cheapest and most expensive. And when she pushed back on each of them — asked why they didn't recommend the other options — the answers were vague. "That zone is slower." "The banking is harder there." "Trust me, this one's better."
She eventually went with SHAMS. Paid about AED 14,000 all-in for the first year including one visa. It took four days. Banking took three weeks. The whole thing was fine.
But it left us with this question that wouldn't go away: why was it so hard to get straight answers? Why did every advisor push a different zone? Why did nobody just show her all the options side by side with real numbers?
We knew the answer, obviously. Commissions. Business setup consultants earn different referral fees from different free zones. Some zones pay AED 1,500 per formation. Others pay AED 5,000. When your revenue depends on which zone the client picks, your "recommendation" follows the money, not the client's needs.
And look — that's not evil. That's how most referral businesses work. But it means the person setting up their company — the one making one of the most important financial decisions of their entrepreneurial life — is getting advice shaped by someone else's incentive structure. That didn't sit right with us.
We knew there had to be a better way.
So We Built the Thing We Kept Wishing Existed
DubaiForm is a comparison platform. Full stop. We mapped out every free zone and mainland jurisdiction in the UAE — all 56 of them, across all seven emirates — and built a structured database of their pricing, visa rules, facility options, license types, compliance requirements, and setup timelines.
Then we built tools on top of that data. A cost calculator that shows you actual line-item breakdowns across every zone, not "starting from" prices that leave out half the fees. A quiz that matches you to the right zones based on what your business actually needs. And side-by-side comparison pages where you can put any two zones next to each other and see exactly where they differ.
The pricing data on DubaiForm is pulled from official fee schedules. We've got over 10,000 individual pricing data points in the database. That's not a vanity number — it's what happens when you track 100 separate fee line items for 56 jurisdictions.
Registration fees, license fees, visa costs broken down to the medical test and Emirates ID, facility costs from virtual offices to warehouses, establishment card fees, health insurance estimates, audit fees, government levies — all of it, for every zone.
We also pre-compute four cost scenarios per jurisdiction — a solo founder with no visa, a solo founder with one visa, a small team of five, and an enterprise setup with twenty-plus employees. These give you instant ballpark numbers without having to run the full calculator. They're the backbone of our comparison pages.
We're Not Advisors Looking In. We're Founders Who've Lived It.
We've personally set up companies in the UAE. Multiple companies, across different jurisdictions, over several years. We've experienced the DMCC registration process firsthand — the AED 9,020 registration fee, the mandatory flexi desk, the AED 50,000 share capital conversation, the audit requirement that nobody tells you about until renewal.
We know what it feels like when your PRO service provider tells you they need "one more document" for the sixth time. We know what a status change visa fee is, because we've paid it. We know the difference between the advertised price and the actual price because we've watched the gap grow in real time on our own bank statements.
You can read a hundred blog posts about UAE business setup. But there's a difference between someone who's researched a topic and someone who has credit card statements from the process. We have the credit card statements.
How We Actually Get Our Numbers
Our primary sources are the official published fee schedules from each free zone authority and government department. We extract every line item from these sources and store them individually. Not as a paragraph summary — as discrete data points that can be queried, compared, and calculated against.
Every jurisdiction in our database follows the same structure: core information, benefits and USPs, license type availability, legal entity structures, facility options, visa and immigration details, compliance and tax obligations, setup services and timelines, document requirements, government approval requirements, fee schedules, business activities, pricing packages, cost scenarios, discount programs, and enriched market intelligence.
We run a full data verification cycle quarterly. Between cycles, when a free zone announces new packages, price changes, or policy updates, we update the affected records within 48 hours.
We Have Zero Affiliations. Here's Why That Matters.
Let us be direct about this because it's the most important thing on this page. DubaiForm has no partnership agreements, no affiliate contracts, no revenue-sharing arrangements, and no commercial relationships with any free zone authority or corporate service provider.
The standard playbook in this industry is to sign up as a partner with five or six free zones, build a website that looks like an information resource, and then funnel every visitor toward whichever zone pays the highest commission.
Here's how we actually make money: if you use our platform, find the right zone, and want help with the next step, we can introduce you to established corporate service providers who handle company formations. We also introduce people directly to free zone authorities. The distinction is this: we don't recommend a zone because it pays us more. We recommend whatever the data says is the best fit for your inputs.
We Got Lucky. We Want to Make It Easier for the Next Person.
We'll be honest — our own UAE setups worked out. Our businesses are doing well. The UAE has been very good to us. Dubai specifically has given us access to markets, talent, and infrastructure that we couldn't have found anywhere else in our price range.
The UAE is making an incredible push to attract entrepreneurs from around the world. The Golden Visa program, the freelance permits, the digital nomad visas, the 0% corporate tax for qualifying free zone businesses, the 100% foreign ownership reforms — all of these are genuinely world-class policies.
We think the UAE's business ecosystem deserves better tooling. Not another consultancy website with a contact form. An actual data platform that respects the entrepreneur enough to show them everything and let them decide.
Questions People Ask Us
Everything you need to know about how DubaiForm works and why we built it.
Ready to Find Out Where You Belong?
We built DubaiForm so you wouldn't have to go through what we went through. The tools are free, the data is real, and nobody's going to call you after you use them.
Or just browse — start with the free zone directory and see what catches your eye.
Get In Touch
General questionshello@dubaiform.com
Data correctionsdata@dubaiform.com
Media and presspress@dubaiform.com
Partnershippartners@dubaiform.com
The Legal Stuff
DubaiForm is an independent platform. We are not a government entity. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or commercially partnered with any UAE free zone authority, mainland licensing department, or corporate service provider. The data on this platform is compiled from publicly available official sources and is provided for informational purposes.