Key takeaways
| Question | Short answer |
|---|---|
| What does the authority itself charge? | It sells premises with the licence attached. The entry package is a flexi desk at AED 18,000 for year one, with room for 2 visas |
| What does a company really cost in year one? | On a flexi desk with one investor visa, plan on AED 26,000 to 33,000, including a refundable AED 4,000 deposit |
| What about year two? | AED 18,000 to 24,000. No visa is due, but the audit and the corporate tax return arrive |
| And year three? | Year two plus the visa renewal, about AED 4,000 to 6,000 for each person on a visa |
| Is there a licence-only price? | Not from the authority. A standalone licence fee of about AED 12,000 circulates on agency pages. We have not confirmed it and do not build quotes on it |
| What makes the number move? | Premises first, then the licence type, then the number of visas |
| Is an IFZA quote at the same address comparable? | No. IFZA is a separate authority with its own licence and its own price list |
Search for the cost of a Dubai Silicon Oasis licence and most answers give you one number for the licence. The authority does not sell it that way. It sells a desk or an office, and the licence comes with it. Price the licence on its own and you are pricing something nobody can buy.
So the honest Dubai Silicon Oasis licence cost is a three-year figure built from the premises up. This page does that line by line: year one on the entry desk, year two when the audit arrives, and year three when the first visa renewal lands.
A word on where the figures come from. Package prices are the authority’s own, read from its websites in October 2026. Every other line comes from our expert team’s current quoting practice. Best Solution is a business setup consultant with no partner or agent status with the Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority. Most of our files in the zone are IFZA companies, and we say so wherever it matters.
How much does a Dubai Silicon Oasis licence cost?
A new Dubai Silicon Oasis company on the entry flexi desk, with one investor visa, costs about AED 26,000 to 33,000 in year one, including a refundable AED 4,000 deposit. Year two runs AED 18,000 to 24,000 with the audit included. Year three adds about AED 4,000 to 6,000 per person for the visa renewal.
Those figures assume a service licence, one visa and the smallest premises the authority publishes. A trade licence, more visas or an office all raise them, and the sections below show by how much. The authority behind all of it is the Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority (DSOA), which operates under the Dubai Integrated Economic Zones Authority (DIEZ).
The authority prices premises, not a licence
The DIEZA Implementing Regulations 2023 say a company must lease premises inside the free zone. The authority’s registration checklist puts it more simply: the licence is issued with a valid lease. That is why its own price list is a list of workspaces.
| Premises | Where | Visas | Published year-one price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flexi desk | DSO HQ Building, Dtec Technohub 1 or Dtec A5 Dubai Digital Park | 2 per desk | AED 18,000 |
| Fixed desk | The same three campuses | 3 per desk | AED 24,200 |
| Private office, furnished, 12 to 50 square metres | Coworking campuses | 2 per desk | From AED 47,820 |
| Private office, unfurnished, 12 to 50 square metres | Coworking campuses | By space taken | From AED 62,500 |
| Office elsewhere in the zone | DSO Headquarters from 160 square feet, TechnoHub 2 and other buildings | By space on the lease | No published tariff |
Source: dtec.ae coworking page and dso.ae co-working and office space pages, all read 6 October 2026. Each package price covers the workspace and company setup for year one. It is not the full cost of a company, which the next section builds out.
Two things in that table matter for your budget. First, the flexi desk is not a Dtec-only product. The authority lists three coworking campuses, its own headquarters building among them, so the entry desk is the entry price for the zone as a whole. Second, a flexi desk here is real premises. You receive a desk lease agreement, and immigration and banks both ask for it. The general rules are set out in our explainer on how a flexi desk works in Dubai, and desk prices across zones are planned as Flexi Desk Cost in Dubai: Free Zone Price Comparison.
Where the AED 12,000 figure comes from
Many agency pages quote a Dubai Silicon Oasis licence from about AED 12,000 a year. We could not find that figure, or any standalone licence fee, on the authority’s own websites. One ranking page publishes an older-looking schedule with an office licence at AED 15,000 and states that no physical office is required, which the 2023 regulations contradict.
Our position is simple. The figure may describe a licence fee inside an office-based quote, but it is not a price you can pay on its own, because the licence cannot issue without premises. If a quote leads with it, ask what premises it assumes and what the rent is. [NEEDS CLIENT INPUT: whether the AED 12,000 figure matches the standard licence fee the authority charges an office-based company, and how it compares with the licence line inside a desk package. Row 99 sheet Q1.]
Year one on a flexi desk, line by line
Here is a Dubai Silicon Oasis company on the entry flexi desk, with a service licence and one investor visa, on our current figures.
| Line | Year one (AED) | Year two (AED) |
|---|---|---|
| Desk rent, VAT included | 5,250 to 7,350 | 5,250 to 7,350 |
| Service licence | 5,000 | 5,000 |
| Registration and processing, one time | 1,745 | None |
| Refundable deposit | 4,000 | Held, not paid again |
| Establishment card | 2,000 | About 2,000 to renew |
| Investor visa, all in | 4,600 to 7,250 | Not due |
| Audit | Not due | 4,000 to 7,000 |
| Corporate tax return | Not due | 1,500 to 3,000 |
| Our professional fee, plus 5 per cent VAT | 3,150 to 5,250 | Not included |
| Realistic total | 26,000 to 33,000 | 18,000 to 24,000 |
The AED 18,000 package and these lines describe the same company from two angles. The package is what the authority advertises for the workspace and setup. The table adds the lines the package leaves out: the deposit, the establishment card, the visa and our fee. There is no Knowledge and Innovation fee on a free zone file; that is a mainland charge.
One rule we hold to on every file: nobody pays desk rent or licence fees before initial approval is in hand. If a quote asks for full payment up front, ask what happens to the money if approval is refused.
The visa line, and why being in the UAE costs more
The investor visa line covers processing, the medical test, the Emirates ID and health insurance. Processing runs about AED 3,100 for a founder applying from outside the UAE and about AED 4,750 from inside, because the inside figure includes the change of status. The medical fitness test, Emirates ID and insurance add AED 1,500 to 2,500.
That gap surprises people. Being in Dubai on a visit visa when the company is formed saves travel, but it puts you at the top of the visa range, not the bottom. The residence visa itself is issued for two years.
The deposit you get back, eventually
The AED 4,000 deposit sits inside the year-one total because you pay it in year one. It comes back when the desk agreement closes, either when the licence is cancelled or when the company moves to an office. The refund follows a clearance: no unpaid rent, visas cancelled or moved, and no fines. It is paid by bank transfer, usually within 30 to 60 days.
What moves the year-one number
Four choices change the total more than anything else.
- The licence type. A trade licence instead of a service licence adds about AED 3,000 a year. A combined service and trade licence adds about AED 5,000. The difference between the two is explained in our guide to types of trade licence in Dubai.
- The desk. A fixed desk is AED 24,200 for year one against AED 18,000 for a flexi desk, and it carries 3 visas instead of 2.
- The number of visas. Each extra person adds a visa line of the same size as yours, up to the ceiling the premises allows. Your own visa counts against that ceiling. How premises set visa numbers across UAE zones is planned as Visa Quota: Flexi Desk vs Office vs Warehouse.
- An office instead of a desk. A furnished private office starts at AED 47,820 for year one. An office elsewhere in the zone is priced by floor area, and the authority publishes no tariff for it. [NEEDS CLIENT INPUT: the annual rent of the smallest office the authority accepts for a new licence, the lease term, deposit and insurance, and the year-one total for one investor visa. Open as DSO hub sheet Q5, Q6 and Q9.]
What does not move is just as useful to know. The licence, the establishment card, the visa, the audit and the tax return behave the same way on a desk and in an office, because it is the same licence on the same register. Rent is the line that moves, and it moves with floor area.
Year two: the audit arrives
Year two is the light year. The one-time registration and the deposit do not repeat, and no visa falls due. What you pay is the desk, the licence renewal, the establishment card renewal, the audit and the corporate tax return: AED 18,000 to 24,000 on the figures above.
The audit is the line most quotes leave out. Regulation 65.1 of the DIEZA Implementing Regulations 2023 requires every Free Zone Company to have its accounts audited and filed with the Registrar. We treat every Dubai Silicon Oasis company as needing audited accounts each year. For a small company with simple books the fee runs AED 4,000 to 7,000. We do not apply the simplified financial statement route that IFZA offers its small companies, because the DSOA rule is written for every FZCO.
The same accounts carry the tax position. A company that wants the 0 per cent rate as a Qualifying Free Zone Personmust keep audited financial statements, and it files a corporate tax return each year whatever the rate. Budget AED 1,500 to 3,000 for the return. Our external audit service can handle both, and registration itself is covered by our corporate tax registration team.
Why does year three cost more than year two?
Because the visa renews. A Dubai Silicon Oasis residence visa is issued for two years, so the first renewal lands in year three and adds about AED 4,000 to 6,000 for each person due. On a one-visa flexi desk company, year three works out at roughly AED 22,000 to 30,000.
That is our arithmetic: the year-two band plus one renewal. It is the number to put in a three-year plan, and it is the one most first-year quotes never show. If you sponsor dependants, they renew on the same cycle, so add a renewal line for each of them too.
| Year | One-visa company on a flexi desk (AED) | What drives it |
|---|---|---|
| One | 26,000 to 33,000 | Setup, deposit, first visa |
| Two | 18,000 to 24,000 | Renewal, audit, tax return |
| Three | About 22,000 to 30,000 | Year two plus the visa renewal |
Want your own three years priced?
Tell us your activity and how many people you need on visas over the first three years. We will price the desk or office that fits, line by line, with the audit and the year-three renewal in it.
Moving up from a desk: what the step costs
Most founders start on a desk. When the team outgrows it, the move to an office inside the zone is not a new company. It is a change of premises, handled as a licence amendment, and the licence number stays. Upgrading from a flexi desk to a fixed desk mid-year works the same way, at the pro-rata rent difference plus the amendment fee.
On our planning ranges, the step costs:
- Licence amendment: AED 1,000 to 2,500.
- Establishment card amendment: AED 1,000 to 2,000, typing included. The card number stays the same. A larger visa quota is a separate application, not automatic with the new address.
- The new lease: its own rent and its own deposit. The desk deposit does not roll across, so for a few weeks you pay both. A two-founder software company moving from a desk to an office would need roughly AED 8,000 to 10,000 in deposits at the same time.
Existing visas and Emirates IDs are not re-issued, because the sponsor and the licence number do not change. Allow 7 to 10 working days from signing the new lease to the amended licence, and about a week more for the card. Then tell your bank: most banks ask for the amended licence and new lease within 30 days. Our office setup service can find the space, and the card itself is explained in our guide to the establishment card in Dubai.
How many visas each kind of premises carries is the subject of Dtec or DSO Office: Same Licence, Different Visa Ceiling. Get the visa quota for any office in writing before you sign, and treat it as the deciding number, ahead of rent.
What happens to the price after year five?
The company can stay where it is. What ends after year five is the startup-rate licence, so plan for a higher licence fee from year six, about AED 3,000 more a year on our working estimate. That figure is not published by the authority, and we have no client who has passed year five on a desk.
The practical step is to ask for the year-six licence fee in writing before you commit to a multi-year plan around a desk. If the answer changes your sums, compare it with the cost of an office at that point rather than assuming a move is forced. It is not.
Five lines to look for before you sign a quote
Dubai Silicon Oasis licence cost quotes vary widely, mostly because they leave different lines out. Before you compare two, check that each one shows:
- The refundable deposit, as its own line, with the refund conditions.
- The visa line for where you are now, inside or outside the UAE, not the lower figure by default.
- VAT on the professional fee, which is small but often missing.
- Year two with the audit and the corporate tax return in it.
- Year three with the visa renewal, for every person on a visa.
A quote that leads with a licence fee and no premises fails the first test before any of these. So does a quote for a different authority at the same address. IFZA, for example, has its offices in Dubai Silicon Oasis but issues its own licence under its own rules, which is set out on our page on the IFZA free zone in Silicon Oasis.
When IFZA is the better-priced route at the same address
Founders who ask us for Silicon Oasis often end up comparing three things: a desk with the Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority, an office in the zone, and an IFZA licence. IFZA prices by visa allocation rather than by the desk you sit at, and its year-one figures are on our page on IFZA licence cost. How its packages map to visa numbers is covered under the IFZA visa quota.
When a technology founder asks us to choose, this is the rule we apply:
“Tech founder, two or three visas, wants the campus or has an investor asking for Dtec: Dtec. Lowest cost, more visas, or a non-tech activity: IFZA. Lab, hardware or a team above desk limits: DSOA office.”
Drawing on more than 5,000 formations, the visa count in year one decides most cases before price does. The full comparison is planned as Dubai Silicon Oasis vs IFZA for Tech Companies, and costs across the wider market sit in our guide to the cost of starting a business in Dubai.
Price the visas first, then the premises
A Dubai Silicon Oasis licence has no price of its own. It comes attached to a desk or an office, and the desk sets the entry figure. So start with the number of people you need to sponsor in the first two years, choose the premises that carries them, and only then compare rent. Add the deposit to year one, the audit to year two and the visa renewal to year three, and the quote in front of you becomes comparable with any other.
Best Solution has formed companies in the UAE since 2014. Our free zone company formation service covers Dubai Silicon Oasis, IFZA and the other Dubai zones, and our UAE residence visa service takes the file on to the visas. When the licence is due, our licence renewal team handles it with the audit in view.
For the wider picture, Dubai Silicon Oasis Free Zone: The Licence Needs a Lease covers every route at the address. Dtec Dubai Silicon Oasis: A Licence That Comes With a Desk covers the campus licence in full, and Dubai Silicon Oasis Company Formation: The Steps walks through the filing. If you are building software, our guide to starting a software company in Dubai compares Silicon Oasis with the other technology zones. For the done-for-you route, Dubai Silicon Oasis Setup Services: DSO and Dtec is planned as our service page, and our business setup in Dubai team can start today. Book a free consultation on +971 52 233 0011 or connect@best-solution.ae.
