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Once a residence visa is included, Ajman Free Zone comes in under every Dubai and Sharjah zone in this comparison. It sits about 45 minutes north of Dubai, the authority (AFZA, at afz.gov.ae) runs its own cost calculator, and unlike many competitors it offers an installment plan — two, three, or six payments on the full setup fee. That installment option alone is worth a few thousand dirhams in cash-flow terms for a bootstrapped founder.
One thing to clarify before you read any headline price elsewhere. “Ajman Free Zone” (AFZA) is the main authority. “Ajman NuVentures” and “Ajman Media City” are separate, newer zones inside the emirate with their own pricing. The famous AED 4,888 headline you will see on some consultancy pages belongs to Ajman NuVentures, not AFZA, and we flagged this same distinction in our full AFZA overview guide. When you compare, make sure you are comparing the right zone — everything below refers to AFZA proper.
This is AFZA’s floor for a UAE free zone trade licence that lets you invoice clients, open a business bank account, and operate legally. No residence visa for you, no employees, and a coworking lease rather than a desk of your own. The price below is AFZA’s own all-inclusive package rate, not a sum we assembled from separate fees.
| What AFZA’s zero-visa package includes | AED |
|---|---|
| Business licence, up to 10 mixed activities (General Trading excluded) | included |
| Lease agreement for coworking space | included |
| Memorandum and Articles of Association | included |
| Commercial Registry Certificate and Certificate of Incorporation | included |
| Up to 10 shareholders | included |
| Add-on: General Trading activity | +2,000 |
| Package total, 1 year | 5,565 |
There is no establishment card at this tier. AFZA includes it only in the visa packages, so it arrives with your first visa rather than as a separate bill today.
Who this works for: a founder already on a spouse visa, a golden visa holder, or someone testing a side business before committing to full residency. If you do not need UAE residency through the company, this is the cheapest AFZA route to a UAE business licence.
The trap: you cannot open most business bank accounts without a residence visa attached to the signatory. If you are a non-resident hoping to bank remotely, budget extra weeks for the account to be approved — some banks will decline outright.
Don’t want to figure this out alone? Sarmat is a KHDA-certified training provider and registered typing centre in Deira, Dubai. Message us on WhatsApp — we answer questions like this every day.
This is the most common setup for a freelance consultant, marketing specialist, IT professional, or small service business — one visa for the owner, licensed to issue invoices, working from a coworking lease rather than a private office.
| What AFZA’s 1-visa package includes | AED |
|---|---|
| Everything in Package A | included |
| Establishment card and eChannel registration | included |
| Investor security approval | included |
| UAE residence visa, medical test, Emirates ID and status change | included |
| Not included: health insurance for the visa holder | from an authorised insurer |
| Not included: medical test taken in Dubai instead of Ajman | +105 |
| Add-on: General Trading activity | +2,000 |
| Package total, 1 year | 13,141 |
This is the “ajman free zone license with visa cost” number that most competitors refuse to state. If a site tells you a 1-visa AFZA setup “starts from AED 5,500,” it is quoting the zero-visa tier. AFZA’s own gap between its zero-visa package (AED 5,565) and its 1-visa package (AED 13,141) is AED 7,576 — the establishment card, eChannel, security approval and the visa itself.
Renewal is at the same package price every year, so budget AED 13,141 for year two as well. Some guides quote a cheaper second year; AFZA’s own package list states annual renewal at the same package price.
A small trading or commercial company with the owner plus two employees. Typical use cases: import-export, e-commerce fulfilment, a small agency with a couple of staff. AFZA prices this two ways, and the office choice costs more than any single extra visa.
| Visas | Virtual office (coworking lease) | Physical office (Al-Jurf) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 13,141 | 21,760 |
| 2 | 17,181 | 24,760 |
| 3 | 23,242 | 29,760 |
| 4 | 26,272 | 35,510 |
Two things change the usual advice. First, AFZA lets you hold all three visas on a virtual office package — you do not have to rent a physical office to sponsor staff. Moving from the virtual track to a physical office in Al-Jurf adds AED 6,518 at three visas. Second, the steps between visa tiers are uneven: AED 4,040 for the second visa, AED 6,061 for the third, AED 3,030 for the fourth. Get the exact tier quoted instead of multiplying a per-visa figure.
Both tracks include up to 10 shareholders and up to 10 mixed activities, with General Trading AED 2,000 extra; the physical-office packages swap the coworking lease for an office lease agreement and also list a share certificate. Health insurance for each visa holder is extra on every tier, and renewal is at the same package price. For comparison, RAKEZ’s all-inclusive coworking package reaches three visas at AED 22,000 — AED 14,000 with one visa plus two add-on visas at AED 4,000 each — about AED 1,200 below AFZA’s virtual track, though RAKEZ’s page does not say whether the medical test and Emirates ID for the add-on visas are covered by the AED 4,000. If you are genuinely three people on day one, the real decision is whether you need a physical office, not which free zone.
Emiratisation note: MOHRE’s Emiratisation quotas already apply to mainland companies with 20–49 employees since 2024 (a fixed-hire target — at least one UAE citizen in 2024 and two by 2025 across 14 covered sectors), and higher percentage quotas kick in at 50+. Free zone entities are generally exempt, but that rule shifts as policy evolves and it is worth checking the current position before you hire. For a deeper look at overall Dubai costs across both mainland and free zone, our Dubai-specific business setup cost breakdown runs the numbers side by side.
The cheapest advertised free zone licence in the UAE is Ajman NuVentures (ANCFZ) at AED 4,888 — but that is a zero-visa price. The same zone’s own all-inclusive package with a residence visa starts at AED 10,800. That pattern holds across every zone whose headline sits under AED 6,000: adding one residence visa more than doubles the advertised entry price. Above that line the multiple narrows — IFZA adds about 47 per cent, not 100. Meydan is the one zone where the honest answer needs a caveat: the visa allocation alone adds AED 1,850, but once residency processing is priced in a realistic single-visa Meydan setup lands nearer AED 20,000. Comparison articles quote the first number and stop. Here are both, with the “from” price taken from each zone’s own package price list, except IFZA and SHAMS, which do not publish a fixed price list.
| Free zone (emirate) | Advertised entry price (zero visa) | What that price actually buys | All-in with 1 residence visa |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ajman NuVentures / ANCFZ (Ajman) | AED 4,888 | Licence only, up to 10 activities, unlimited shareholders, lease agreement — no visa allocation, no establishment card | from AED 10,800 (zone’s own 1–10 visa all-inclusive package, includes Emirates ID, medical, e-channel, establishment card) |
| SRTIP (Sharjah) | AED 5,500 | Licence only, up to 5 activities mixed across trading, consultancy and services | AED 13,990 (zone’s published One Visa package — Emirates ID, e-channel, 5 activities; two-visa AED 17,795) |
| UAQ FTZ “LYTE” (Umm Al Quwain) | AED 5,500 | Licence, coworking access, bank account opening assistance | AED 12,500 (UAQ START — the zone’s published visa-inclusive package: residence visa, medical, Emirates ID, establishment card, insurance) |
| AFZA / Ajman Free Zone (Ajman) | AED 5,565 | Zone’s own zero-visa package: licence with up to 10 mixed activities, coworking lease, MOA, commercial registry — no establishment card until you add a visa | AED 13,141 (zone’s own 1-visa virtual office package: establishment card, eChannel, visa, medical, Emirates ID, status change) |
| SHAMS (Sharjah) | AED 5,750 | Licence only, up to 5 activities; no visa allocation and no immigration card | ~AED 13,420 |
| Meydan Free Zone (Dubai) | AED 12,500 | Digital licence, flexi-desk, up to 3 activity groups, up to 6 visa allocations available | AED 12,500 + AED 1,850 per visa allocation + residency processing priced separately |
| IFZA (Dubai) | AED 12,900 | Zero-visa licence, Dubai address. Unlike every other row here, both IFZA figures are market-observed: IFZA publishes no price list and quotes only through its partners, and independent 2026 breakdowns disagree, putting a realistic first year with one visa anywhere from AED 17,000 to AED 22,000 | ~AED 19,000 |
Read the table by column, not by row. On the advertised column Ajman NuVentures wins outright at AED 4,888 and the two Dubai zones look expensive. On the all-in column the gap between the two Ajman zones stays modest — NuVentures at AED 10,800 against AFZA at AED 13,141 is a difference of about AED 2,300, and on the advertised column it is just AED 677.
A note on the two Dubai zones, because founders ask about them constantly. Meydan publishes AED 12,500 for licence plus flexi-desk plus three activity groups, then charges AED 1,850 for each visa allocation with residency processing quoted separately — so a realistic single-visa Meydan setup sits meaningfully above the headline. It buys a genuine Dubai address and a same-week licence, which for some businesses is worth the premium and for many is not. We coordinate Meydan incorporations alongside AFZA, IFZA, DMCC and JAFZA, so if you want the two costed side by side against your actual activity list rather than against a brochure, ask us for the comparison.
Narrowing to the like-for-like case, on the four zones founders shortlist most often. Same assumptions for all four — 1 owner visa, 1 licence, the zone’s entry-level shared workspace. AFZA and RAKEZ figures are the zones’ own package prices, verified September 2026; SHAMS and IFZA are market-observed, because neither publishes a fixed price list.
| Zone | 1-visa bundled rate |
|---|---|
| AFZA (Ajman) — AFZA’s own 1-visa virtual office package | AED 13,141 |
| IFZA (Dubai) — zero-visa license AED 12,900 + visa bundle; quote-only zone, figure is market-observed rather than published | ~AED 19,000 |
| SHAMS (Sharjah) — top of published 1-visa range; SHAMS quotes through its own calculator rather than a fixed schedule | ~AED 13,420 |
| RAKEZ (Ras Al Khaimah) — RAKEZ’s published all-inclusive package: 1 visa, up to 10 activities, up to 50 shareholders | AED 14,000 |
Outside General Trading, which costs AED 2,000 extra on every AFZA package, AFZA wins a like-for-like 1-visa setup by roughly AED 300–6,000, with the biggest gap against IFZA Dubai and a narrower margin against SHAMS and RAKEZ.
If a Dubai mailing address is non-negotiable — clients will not take you seriously without one, or your industry expects it — IFZA is the cheapest Dubai free zone for most founders at roughly AED 19,000 all-in for 1 visa. That is still about 45% more than AFZA. Before you commit, check the Dubai-specific breakdown linked above to see whether the premium genuinely translates into more revenue for your business. For a lot of consultants and e-commerce founders, it does not.
Yes — and this is the differentiator most comparison articles skip. AFZA lets you split the setup fee across 2, 3, or 6 installments depending on the package you choose. On Package B that means rather than writing a single AED 13,141 cheque, you can pay roughly AED 6,570 now and AED 6,570 in 90 days, or stretch to six monthly payments of around AED 2,190. For a founder pre-revenue, that cash-flow cushion is real money.
Beyond the package price itself, budget for: a business bank account set-up fee (AED 1,500–5,000 depending on bank), optional professional indemnity or commercial insurance (AED 1,000–3,000/year), notarisation of shareholder agreements if you have partners (around AED 500 per document), and MOHRE labour contracts if you are hiring staff. None of these sit inside the AFZA headline price, but they are real spend in your first 90 days.
Low all-in cost, up to 10 activities and 10 shareholders in the base package, and visas on a virtual office without renting a physical one. Wins for bootstrapped founders, consultants, small traders, and e-commerce operators who do not need a Dubai postcode.
Dubai address, premium pricing. Wins when your clients are Dubai-centric and the location itself is a sales asset.
Geared toward media, creative, and broadcasting activities with sector-specific licences. Wins for content creators and agencies.
Industrial and warehousing-friendly with larger land allocations. Wins for light-manufacturing and logistics.
You can read every pricing page on every free zone website, run the calculator five times, and still arrive at day one of trading holding the wrong licence category for your actual activity. That is the single most expensive mistake a cost-focused founder makes — paying for a professional license when commercial was needed, or the other way round, and then paying to amend it six weeks later.
Sarmat has helped 5,000+ clients including founders set up in the UAE across 12+ years, with a KHDA-certified team that handles the AFZA application, visa processing, and bank introduction in one sitting. If you would rather spend three days learning the entire process yourself — license categories, visa stamping, Emirates ID, MOHRE contracts, tax registration — our 100-Step Business Accelerator walks you through it with live mentorship from someone who has run 100+ company setups.
Ready to move? Send your activity and visa headcount to our team via business setup consultation or WhatsApp us at wa.me/971506395245 for a same-day itemized quote. No “from” pricing — just the number you will actually pay.
On advertised price the cheapest UAE free zone in 2026 is Ajman NuVentures (ANCFZ) at AED 4,888 for a zero-visa licence, with its all-inclusive package starting from AED 10,800 once one residence visa is included. Ajman Free Zone (AFZA), the older zone in the same emirate, charges AED 5,565 for its zero-visa virtual office package, AED 13,141 with one residence visa and AED 23,242 with three, all at AFZA’s own all-inclusive package prices, with renewal at the same price each year. Health insurance for each visa holder is extra on every AFZA package.
AED 13,141 for AFZA’s one-visa virtual office package, at the zone’s own package price. That covers the business licence with up to 10 mixed activities, a coworking lease, the establishment card, eChannel registration, investor security approval, the residence visa, medical test, Emirates ID and status change. Not included: health insurance for the visa holder, AED 105 if you take the medical in Dubai, and AED 2,000 more for a General Trading activity. With a physical office in Al-Jurf instead, the one-visa package is AED 21,760. Renewal is at the same package price each year.
On a like-for-like one-visa setup, yes, though narrowly against two of them. AFZA’s one-visa virtual office package is AED 13,141, against roughly AED 13,420 for SHAMS in Sharjah (top of the published 1-visa range), AED 14,000 for RAKEZ’s all-inclusive package and roughly AED 19,000 for IFZA in Dubai (market-observed; IFZA publishes no price list). That is about AED 300 cheaper than SHAMS, AED 900 cheaper than RAKEZ and AED 6,000 cheaper than IFZA. It is not the cheapest zone overall: with one visa, Ajman NuVentures starts from AED 10,800 and UAQ’s START package is AED 12,500.
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