A DMCC company can be licensed from around AED 27,049. Add one residence visa and the figure rises to roughly AED 49,004. Both numbers are real package prices. Neither is the whole story. The cost most founders forget is the AED 50,000 share capital, which is your own money, not a fee. This guide breaks the DMCC company setup cost down to every line item. It shows what the entry licence buys, what the visa adds, and what your true first-year spend looks like. It also names the recurring costs that catch people out after year one.
Key takeaways
| Question | Short answer |
|---|---|
| DMCC licence only, no visa | From around AED 27,049 (zero-visa entry package, confirm current rate) |
| DMCC licence with one visa | Around AED 49,004 (DMCC Jump Start with one visa) |
| Share capital | AED 50,000 standard, your own working capital, not a package fee |
| Real first-year, solo + one visa | Roughly AED 50,000-55,000 to set up, plus the AED 50,000 capital |
| Real first-year, small trader, 2-3 visas | Roughly AED 65,000-95,000+, plus capital |
| Typical annual renewal | Roughly AED 30,000-45,000 for a one-visa flexi-desk company |
| The premium vs a cheaper zone | About AED 25,000-30,000 more than IFZA, bought mainly with bank acceptance |
All AED figures are indicative 2026 package and market estimates and should be confirmed for your exact activity, visa count and licence type at the time of quoting. See the tax and licensing note at the foot of this guide.
What the AED 27,049 DMCC entry licence actually buys
The entry package is built to get a company legally registered and addressed. It is not built to sponsor anyone yet. For around AED 27,049 you get the core of a working DMCC entity, with zero visa allocation.
In practice, that package covers:
- The DMCC trade licence, service or trading, with a standard set of activities under one licence (typically up to three related activities).
- A co-working or flexi-desk allocation that satisfies DMCC's mandatory registered-address requirement in Jumeirah Lakes Towers (JLT).
- The establishment card and immigration file setup, through DMCC's e-channel.
- Company registration with the Memorandum of Association (MOA).
This is the right number if you need a credible DMCC company and a bank account, but do not yet need residency. You can always add the visa later, as a separate step. The package does not include the AED 50,000 share capital. That sits outside any package, because it is your own money.
DMCC's own published schedule lists separate line items behind a package like this, including registration at AED 9,020 as a one-time fee, the licence at AED 20,285 a year, and the establishment card at AED 1,825 a year (DMCC, schedule of charges). A bundled quote folds these together so they are not bolted on afterward. For a plain-language primer on the zone itself, our DMCC free zone glossary entry sets out who it suits.
DMCC company setup cost: the full package breakdown
DMCC sells setup as packages, then prices individual services on top. The table below puts Best Solution's two quoted packages next to DMCC's own published standard packages, so you can see where the figures sit.
| Package | Price (1 year) | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Best Solution entry licence (0 visa) | from AED 27,049* | Licence + bank account, no residency yet |
| Best Solution Jump Start (1 visa) | around AED 49,004* | Founder who needs one residence visa |
| DMCC Basic Biz (published) | AED 35,484 | Individual shareholder, up to 3 activities |
| DMCC Jump Start, flexi desk (published) | AED 43,780 | Startups and SMEs |
| DMCC Jump Start, co-working (published) | AED 49,941 | Startups, SMEs, international firms |
| DMCC Prime Plus (published) | AED 40,145 | Medium to large enterprises |
*Best Solution package figures, indicative and promotion-dependent, confirm the live rate at the time of quoting. DMCC published figures from DMCC's schedule of charges (Feb 2026).
Two things stand out. First, Best Solution's entry licence undercuts DMCC's cheapest standard package, which is why it is worth confirming whether it reflects a current DMCC promotion. Second, the one-visa figure lands close to DMCC's own Jump Start co-working price, so the visa version is broadly in line with the zone's published rate.
The AED 49,004 Jump Start: what one visa really adds
Jump Start is DMCC's own package name, not a consultant label. It is the zone's mid-tier option, sitting between the licence-only entry and the larger office packages. It is the most-requested DMCC package in 2026 because it bundles the licence with one visa.
On top of the entry licence, the AED 49,004 Jump Start adds:
- A one-visa quota.
- The full visa processing chain: entry permit, status change, medical fitness test, Emirates ID, and residency stamping.
- The establishment and immigration card configured for sponsorship.
- The flexi-desk allocation that supports the visa.
So what is the roughly AED 22,000 gap between the two packages? It is mostly the visa, its processing, and the desk that supports it. One point on refunds: the visa medical and Emirates ID are spent fees. You do not get them back. The only money you keep is the separate share capital.
The number of visas a DMCC company can hold is tied to its workspace, on roughly a one-visa-per-nine-square-metre basis. Why DMCC has no virtual-office option and where flexi-desks start, DMCC Office Requirement: Why There Is No Virtual Option, is a separate piece .
The AED 50,000 share capital nobody quotes
This is the single most common DMCC cost surprise, and it is not a fee at all. DMCC sets standard share capital at AED 50,000, with a minimum of AED 10,000 per shareholder. General trading licences require substantially more, so confirm the figure for your licence type.
Here is what matters. The capital is your own cash, not a charge from DMCC or from us. It is deposited into the corporate bank account, usually within a few months of incorporation once the account is open. It is not locked forever and it is not lost. Once deposited, it becomes usable working capital to run the business. It demonstrates financial standing; it does not sit frozen.
Two myths cause the panic. The first is that AED 50,000 is an extra fee on top of the package. It is not. It is your money. The second is that it is blocked for good. It is not. You can spend it on the business. The deposit only happens once the bank account is live, and the account is the slowest step. So we line up the capital and the bank timeline together. That way, neither one holds up the other.
The full rule, including the 30-day deposit point founders miss, is covered in DMCC's AED 50,000 Share Capital Rule .
Your real first-year cost: two worked examples
Package prices are the start of the budget, not the end. Here are two honest all-in pictures for the first year.
Solo service company, one visa, flexi-desk
This is essentially the Jump Start at around AED 49,004, plus minor year-one items such as health insurance and the annual audit. Realistically, budget AED 50,000 to AED 55,000 to set up, and then hold AED 50,000 of your own working capital in the account. The shorthand: around AED 50k to set up, plus AED 50k you bring.
Small trading company, two to three visas
Here the licence steps up, because trading runs higher, and general trading higher still. You need two to three visas. Each one costs roughly AED 4,500 to AED 6,000 all-in. Three visas may push you past the flexi-desk into a real office, on the one-visa-per-nine-square-metre rule. So a realistic all-in setup lands around AED 65,000 to AED 95,000 or more. On top of that sits the share capital, which is higher for general trading. The two things that move the number are the general-trading licence fee and whether the visa count forces an office lease.
The hidden costs founders miss
A bundled quote exists so the extras are not sprung on you later. Most setup items are already inside the two packages. The genuinely separate things to budget in year one are:
- Share capital: AED 50,000 of your own cash, the biggest item people miss.
- Extra visas beyond the one in Jump Start: roughly AED 4,500 to AED 6,000 per person for entry permit, medical, Emirates ID and stamping.
- A dedicated office instead of a flexi-desk, if your visa count or activity requires it: materially more than the flexi rate, triggered by headcount.
- The annual audit: not a setup fee, but a year-one obligation to price in from the start.
- Health insurance for each visa holder, document attestation for corporate shareholders, and any regulated-activity approval.
Registration, name reservation and the immigration card are inside the package figures, so a good quote folds them in rather than surprising you at the counter.
DMCC renewal cost: what you pay every year after setup
Year two is cheaper than year one. The one-time company registration of around AED 9,000 drops out. The recurring base is still high, though. It covers the licence renewal, the flexi-desk renewal at roughly AED 15,000 to AED 20,000, the establishment-card renewal, and the annual audit. For a one-visa flexi-desk company, a realistic renewal sits around AED 30,000 to AED 45,000.
Three things catch people out. The first is the audit, which they do not budget. The second is the flexi-desk renewal. People assume the licence renews, but forget the desk renews on its own line. The third is visa renewals, which run on a multi-year cycle, so a renewal year is a spike. The fix is simple. Map every renewal date onto one calendar: the licence, the flexi-desk, the establishment card, each visa, and the audit deadline. Then year two holds no surprises.
The mandatory annual audit and your 0% tax
Every DMCC company must file audited financial statements each year, even a dormant one. For a small company, budget roughly AED 2,500 to AED 5,000 a year for the audit, prepared by a firm on DMCC's approved list.
The audit does two jobs. It is required to renew your licence. It is also a condition of the 0% tax rate. That rate is open to a Qualifying Free Zone Person under the UAE Corporate Tax law (Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022). Skip the audit and you risk both your renewal and your 0% rate. Building bookkeeping in from day one turns the audit into a formality, not a year-end scramble.
Why even an AED 1-turnover company must file to keep its 0% rate is covered in full in DMCC's Mandatory Annual Audit .
Is DMCC worth the premium over a cheaper zone like IFZA?
Be honest about the gap first. A one-visa IFZA setup lands around AED 20,000 to AED 25,000 all-in, with no paid-up capital. DMCC's one-visa package is around AED 49,004, plus the AED 50,000 capital you must show. So on day one, DMCC costs roughly AED 25,000 to AED 30,000 more to set up. On top of that, you hold AED 50,000 of working capital that IFZA does not ask for. For a cost-driven founder, that is the real headline.
What the premium buys is specific:
- The highest bank-acceptance rate of any UAE free zone, the single biggest reason to pay it, because a DMCC licence opens accounts a budget zone can stall.
- A prestige JLT and Dubai address that carries weight with clients and counterparties.
- More than 900 business activities across 20 sectors, with specialist ecosystems in commodities, gold, diamonds and crypto (DMCC).
- Global credibility as one of the world's leading free zones, with over 26,000 member companies.
The honest rule we use: if you need DMCC's banking, ecosystem or credibility, the premium pays for itself. If you are a straightforward service or e-commerce business that just needs a Dubai licence and a visa, a cheaper zone does the job for far less. The full trade-off, when the JLT address and bank acceptance beat IFZA's lower price, Is DMCC Worth the Premium, is a separate piece . When you are ready to compare licences directly, our free zone licence service page lays out the options.
Get a real DMCC number, capital and audit included
We quote the operational figure, not the paper one, and put the AED 50,000 capital on page one. Book a free consultation and we will price your DMCC setup for your exact activity and visa count.
Costing your DMCC setup the honest way
The DMCC surprise is rarely the licence. It is the capital and the audit nobody mentioned upfront. One recent founder set up a management-consultancy company on a service licence with one visa and a flexi-desk. The setup quote came in exactly as expected. What caught him out was the AED 50,000 share capital, money he had not ring-fenced because he treated the package price as his total. Because the capital was on the table at the first quote rather than at the bank stage, he planned for it and the setup ran clean.
That is the whole point of costing DMCC properly. Start from the package: AED 27,049 without a visa, or around AED 49,004 with one. Then add the AED 50,000 capital you bring, the per-visa cost for any extra people, and the audit you repeat every year. Now decide whether the bank acceptance and the JLT address are worth the premium for your business. If they are, DMCC is one of the strongest setups in the UAE. If they are not, we will tell you so, and set you up somewhere cheaper.
Best Solution has formed more than 5,000 companies and confirms the live DMCC promotion before quoting, so you get the real rate on the day, not a stale figure. To see how this spoke fits the wider picture, our DMCC free zone setup hub overview, DMCC Free Zone Setup: JLT Company Formation, gathers every step in one place.
