Cost guide
How Much Does a Website Cost in Dubai in 2026?
Real AED ranges for business websites and online stores in the UAE, what actually drives the price, the costs that appear after launch, and how to tell a fair quote from a bad one.
AED 4k–15k
template-based site
The usual range for a small business site in Dubai in 2026
AED 8k–40k
custom design
What an established company pays for a bespoke corporate site
AED 15k–60k
online store
Catalogue size and payment setup drive this more than design does
5%
UAE VAT
Added where it applies; most quotes here are shown before VAT
The short version
Key takeaways
- A template-based business site is usually AED 4,000–15,000; a custom-designed corporate site AED 8,000–40,000; an online store AED 15,000–60,000.
- Price follows the number of unique page designs, not the number of pages.
- Content and Arabic are the two costs that surprise people most, and both are usually excluded from cheap quotes.
- Who you buy from moves the price more than what you buy: the same brief can be AED 3,000 from a freelancer or AED 45,000 from a large agency.
- Budget for year two from the start: hosting, maintenance, content and advertising.
- UAE VAT is 5%, and e-invoicing becomes mandatory in phases from January 2027 — relevant if your site will issue invoices.
What is on this page
The short answer
In Dubai in 2026, a small business website on a customised template costs roughly AED 4,000 to 15,000. A custom-designed website for an established company usually runs AED 8,000 to 40,000. An online store lands between AED 15,000 and 60,000 depending on catalogue size and payment setup, and a large custom build with integrations starts around AED 20,000 and climbs past AED 80,000.
That range is wide because “a website” describes anything from five pages on a bought theme to a bilingual platform connected to a CRM and a delivery system. The rest of this guide explains which of those you actually need, and what you are paying for in each case.
For comparison, our own published packages start at AED 4,700 for a bilingual five-page site and AED 9,900 for a fifteen-page business site, with online stores from AED 16,500.
Those ranges are wide because “a website” describes anything from five pages on a bought theme to a bilingual platform wired into a CRM and a delivery system. The rest of this guide explains which of those you need, what each part of the work costs, and how to read a proposal so you are comparing the same thing twice.
Dubai website prices by type
These are the ranges quoted publicly by UAE agencies in 2026. They are a guide for budgeting, not a promise from any specific supplier.
| Type of website | Typical range (AED) | Typical timeline | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Landing page | 1,500 – 5,000 | 3 – 10 days | One campaign, one offer, one form |
| Template-based business site | 4,000 – 15,000 | 2 – 4 weeks | New companies and professional practices |
| Custom-designed corporate site | 8,000 – 40,000 | 4 – 10 weeks | Established firms competing on brand |
| Online store | 15,000 – 60,000 | 6 – 12 weeks | Retail and D2C brands |
| Custom platform or portal | 20,000 – 80,000+ | 3 – 6 months | Booking systems, portals, marketplaces |
Two numbers matter more than the headline price: what the quote includes, and what happens in year two. A cheap build with no content, no Arabic and no support is not cheap once you add those.
The Dubai price ladder at a glance
The same information as the table above, in the shape people actually think in: how far your budget reaches.
If your budget sits between two bars, the honest answer is usually to buy the smaller scope properly rather than the larger scope cheaply. A five-page site with real content beats a fifteen-page site padded with filler, and it can grow later without being rebuilt.
Where the money actually goes
Clients assume they are paying for design. In a typical AED 12,000 custom build, design is under a third of the work.
This is why “just make it look like this site” rarely saves money, and why supplying your own finished text in both languages is the single most effective way to reduce a quote. It is also why the cheapest quotes are cheap: they exclude the four bars that are not design.
What moves the price, and what you can do about it
Six things explain almost every difference between two quotes for the same brief. The third column is what you can actually control.
| Factor | Why it costs | How to spend less on it |
|---|---|---|
| Pages and unique layouts | Ten pages sharing two templates cost far less than six bespoke pages | Reuse layouts for service and location pages |
| Content | Research, copywriting and Arabic writing, per page | Supply finished text, or start with fewer pages |
| Arabic | Mirrored layouts, typography, translated forms and menus | Plan it from day one — retrofitting costs more |
| Features | Booking, calculators, member areas, filters, dashboards | Phase them: launch without, add when they pay for themselves |
| Integrations | CRM, ERP, accounting, courier or payment systems | Confirm the API exists before signing anything |
| Photography | A shoot versus stock imagery | Use stock for launch, shoot later with real customers |
| Migration | Moving content and preserving existing search rankings | Insist on a URL map; it protects traffic you already have |
Notice what is missing from that list: the agency’s office, its awards and the number of people in its slide deck. Those affect the price you are quoted, but they do not affect the website you receive.
What actually moves the price
When two quotes differ by AED 20,000, it is almost always one of these six things rather than the quality of the design.
Unique page designs
Price follows the number of distinct layouts, not the number of pages. Twenty pages sharing three templates is cheaper than eight pages that each need their own design.
Arabic
A genuine bilingual build means mirrored right-to-left layouts, Arabic typography and translated menus, forms and error messages — not a translation plugin. Budget for it from the start; retrofitting Arabic later costs more.
Who writes the content
Copywriting and product descriptions are often the largest hidden line. Supplying finished text lowers the quote; asking the agency to research and write it raises it.
Features beyond pages
Booking, member logins, calculators, multi-step quoting, search filters and dashboards each add development time and testing.
Integrations
Connecting a CRM, an ERP, an accounting system or a courier is invisible on the screen and usually the slowest part of the project.
Photography and video
Real photography of your office, team or products changes how a site looks more than any design choice. Stock images are free-to-cheap; a shoot is a separate budget.
Who you buy from changes the price more than what you buy
The same fifteen-page bilingual website can be quoted at AED 3,000 or AED 45,000 in this city, and both suppliers are being honest about their costs. The difference is who is doing the work.
- Freelancers on marketplaces: cheapest, fastest, and fine for a simple site — but usually one person, often no Arabic, and no cover when they are unavailable
- Small local agencies: a team, a contract and accountability; mid-range pricing and the option to meet in person
- Large Dubai agencies: strategy, brand work and big-client experience, with office and account-management costs built into the price
- Offshore and remote studios: agency process at lower overheads; the questions to ask are time zone, Arabic quality and how they handle support
- In-house or a friend: no invoice, but the real cost is the months it takes and who maintains it afterwards
We are in the fourth group: an agency team working from Istanbul on Gulf hours, which is how our prices sit below most Dubai studios for the same standard of work. What matters is not the category but the evidence — ask any supplier for three live sites they built and one client you can call.
One practical test cuts through all of it. Ask each supplier for three websites they built that are still live, and one client you can call. A freelancer with three good live sites is a safer bet than an agency with a beautiful deck and nothing you can check.
The costs that appear after launch
Budget for the running costs from the start. They are modest, but a surprise renewal invoice is how a good project ends badly.
Domain
A .com is typically USD 10–20 a year. A .ae domain costs more and has its own registration rules, which is why most UAE businesses use a .com and point a .ae at it.
Hosting
Shared hosting is roughly USD 60–150 a year; managed WordPress hosting with backups and support runs USD 200–600 a year. A store or a busy site belongs on the higher tier.
Maintenance
Updates, backups, security and small content edits. Expect AED 250–1,500 a month depending on how much work is included, or pay per change.
Content and SEO
A site that is never updated stops earning traffic. Whether you write it yourself or pay for it, plan for new pages and articles every month.
Paid traffic
A new website has no audience of its own. Most Dubai businesses spend on Google or social ads while search rankings build.
Third-party tools
Payment gateways, booking systems, live chat, email marketing and premium plugins each carry their own monthly fee. Ask for the list before you sign.
VAT, invoices and e-invoicing in the UAE
Two tax questions come up on every quote. This is general information, not tax advice — check your own position with your accountant.
- UAE VAT is 5%, administered by the Federal Tax Authority. Registration is mandatory once taxable turnover passes AED 375,000 in twelve months, and voluntary from AED 187,500.
- Quotes in this market are normally shown before VAT. Ask every supplier whether their number includes it.
- If you buy from an agency abroad that is not UAE VAT-registered, a VAT-registered UAE business normally self-accounts for the VAT on that invoice under the reverse-charge mechanism, in the same return.
- E-invoicing is not mandatory yet. A voluntary pilot began on 1 July 2026, with the phased mandate starting 1 January 2027 for businesses above AED 50 million and 1 July 2027 for smaller ones.
- On domains: a plain .ae, managed by the .aeDA registry, does not require a trade licence (only .co.ae does) and costs roughly AED 120–145 a year, which is why many businesses hold both a .com and a .ae.
None of this changes the price of the website itself, but it changes the invoice, and it decides whether your online store has to issue compliant invoices later. If you are selling to Saudi Arabia as well, the rules there are stricter and already in force — see the Saudi cost guide.
“The cheapest quote and the most expensive quote are usually for different projects. Compare what is excluded, not what is promised.”
Why Dubai prices are higher than the region
Dubai has the most crowded web design market in the Gulf, and it is still one of the most expensive. Office rent, visas and salaries all sit inside the hourly rate, and agencies here compete for clients who are themselves spending heavily on marketing, which pulls the whole market upward.
Competition also means choice. There are agencies for every budget, and the gap between them is not always visible in the proposal. A AED 6,000 quote and a AED 30,000 quote can arrive with similar-looking page lists; the difference shows up in whether anyone researched your customers, whether the Arabic reads naturally, and whether the site is fast on a phone on a weak connection.
There is a second, less obvious reason. Dubai agencies sell to clients who are themselves spending heavily on marketing, which raises the expected standard of everything: photography, motion, copywriting, the speed of replies. That standard is real work, and it is priced in whether or not your project needs it.
It also means the market is unusually segmented. There is a genuine AED 3,000 tier, a genuine AED 40,000 tier, and very little in between that is honestly described. The middle is where most businesses actually belong, and it is the hardest part of the market to shop in — which is why we publish our prices rather than making you ask.
What a cheap website really costs
There is nothing wrong with a small budget. There is something wrong with a small budget spent on the wrong things, and in Dubai the AED 1,500–3,000 tier almost always means the same package:
- A pre-bought theme with your logo dropped in, which a hundred other businesses in the region are also using
- English only, or Arabic produced by a translation plugin that reads as machine output to any native speaker
- Text copied from a competitor or generated without anyone learning what you actually do
- Hosting inside the supplier's own account, so you cannot move without their cooperation
- No tracking, so you never learn which pages or campaigns produce enquiries
- No support arrangement, so the first plugin conflict becomes an emergency
The real cost arrives in year two, when the site has to be rebuilt and the rankings, content and hosting have to be recovered from someone who has stopped answering. A smaller site built properly — five pages, real content, your own hosting — costs more on day one and less over three years. That is the trade we recommend to anyone choosing between the two.
How to compare quotes properly
01
Ask for the same scope
Send every supplier the same page list and feature list. Otherwise you are comparing prices for different projects.
02
Ask what is excluded
Content, Arabic, photography, hosting, plugin licences and post-launch support are the usual exclusions. Get them in writing.
03
Ask who owns what
The domain, hosting account and website files should be in your name from day one, with the logins handed to you.
04
Ask about year two
Find out the cost of maintenance, of a small change, and of adding a page, before you commit rather than after.
05
Check the exclusions twice
Content, Arabic, photography, hosting, plugin licences and support are the usual exclusions. A quote that lists them is more trustworthy than one that does not mention them.
Related reading
If you are pricing a project across more than one market, or want to see how these decisions play out in practice:
- What a website costs in Saudi Arabia — where Salla and Zid subscriptions and ZATCA e-invoicing change the maths
- Website costs in Qatar and Kuwait — smaller markets, tighter price clusters, no VAT
- Our Dubai web design service — how we work, and what is included at each package level
- E-commerce development — what changes when you are selling rather than informing
- A Dubai case study — how one operator's site is structured, and what it measures
- Our published prices — fixed packages in AED, SAR, QAR and KWD
Speed deserves a mention here too, because it affects both rankings and the cost of every click you buy. Google’s Core Web Vitals guidance treats 2.5 seconds as the threshold for a good Largest Contentful Paint; a well-built business site should be comfortably under that, and a cheap template build frequently is not.
Common questions
How much does a basic website cost in Dubai?
A small business website on a customised template typically costs AED 4,000–15,000 and takes two to four weeks. Anything under about AED 3,000 is usually a stock template with your logo added, English only, and hosting you do not control.
How much does an e-commerce website cost in the UAE?
Most online stores land between AED 15,000 and 60,000. The catalogue size, the number of payment methods and whether you need bilingual product content move the price more than the design does.
Is it cheaper to use a freelancer?
Usually yes, by a wide margin, and for a simple five-page site it can be the right choice. The trade-offs are availability, Arabic quality and what happens when something breaks in six months.
Do I need an Arabic version?
Arabic is the official language of the UAE and the language of government business, so for public-sector work or Emirati and wider Gulf customers it matters. It also puts you in Arabic search results, where far fewer agencies compete than in English.
What is a fair price for a five-page bilingual site?
In this market, AED 4,000–9,000 from a small agency is reasonable for a genuinely custom design with Arabic included. Our own Starter package is AED 4,700.
How long should it take?
Two to four weeks for a small site, four to ten weeks for a custom corporate site, six to twelve weeks for a store. Delays are usually caused by content, not development.
Should I pay monthly instead of upfront?
Monthly website plans exist and can suit a very small budget, but you often stop owning the site if you stop paying. Read what happens at the end of the term before you sign.
Can I pay in instalments?
Most agencies, including us, split the fee: half to start and half before launch, with larger projects spread across milestones.
Do I need a Dubai-based agency?
Not for the work itself. A local agency helps if you want in-person meetings or highly local brand knowledge. What you should insist on, wherever they are, is Gulf working hours, real Arabic, and references you can check.
Will a cheap site hurt my Google ranking?
Not because of its price, but cheap builds often ship the same problems: slow pages, thin content, no Arabic version and no proper page structure. Those do hurt rankings.
Do website prices in Dubai include VAT?
Usually not. Most quotes are shown before VAT, and 5% is added where it applies. Always ask, and get it in writing on the proposal rather than discovering it on the invoice.
What should I budget for year two?
Hosting (roughly USD 60–600 a year depending on tier), maintenance if you want it (AED 250–1,500 a month), content, and advertising. Hosting and maintenance are small; content and advertising are what decide whether the site earns anything.
Is a .ae domain necessary?
Not necessary, and not a ranking factor on its own. Most UAE businesses use a .com and add a .ae. A plain .ae does not require a trade licence; .co.ae does.
Can I get a website for AED 1,000?
You can get a theme with your logo on it. You cannot get original design, written content, Arabic or support at that price from anyone who intends to still be trading next year.
How do I know whether a quote is fair?
Ask three suppliers for the same page list and feature list, then compare exclusions rather than totals. The fair quote is usually the one that names what it does not include.
Want a real number for your project?
Send us your page list and we will send back a fixed written quote in AED within three working days, with everything that is included and everything that is not.