If you have asked three agencies in Dubai what a website costs, you have probably received three wildly different numbers and no explanation for the gap. One quotes AED 1,500. Another quotes AED 25,000. Both are describing something they call "a website."
This guide gives you the actual ranges in the Dubai market in 2026, what changes the price, what is quietly excluded from most quotes, and how to tell a fair proposal from a bad one. We publish our own pricing, so we will use real numbers rather than "it depends."
How much does a website design cost in Dubai?
A professional business website in Dubai costs between AED 3,500 and AED 15,000 for most small and medium businesses. A one-page landing site runs AED 1,500–4,000, a five to eight page business site AED 3,500–9,000, and an e-commerce store from AED 8,000. Below AED 2,000 you are buying a filled-in template.
Website cost in Dubai at a glance
These are the ranges we see across the Dubai market — from freelancers on marketplaces through to established agencies. Timelines assume you supply content and feedback promptly.
| Type of website | Typical price (AED) | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| One-page landing page | 1,500 – 4,000 | 3 – 7 days |
| Business website (5 – 8 pages) | 3,500 – 9,000 | 2 – 4 weeks |
| Corporate website (10 – 20 pages) | 9,000 – 18,000 | 4 – 8 weeks |
| E-commerce store | 8,000 – 30,000 | 4 – 10 weeks |
| Custom web application | 25,000+ | 8 weeks+ |
Not sure what your overall marketing budget should be? Try our free Dubai marketing budget calculator.
Most Dubai businesses reading this need the second row. A five to eight page site — home, about, services, portfolio, contact — covers what the overwhelming majority of SMEs actually require.
What you get at each price point
Price bands are not arbitrary. Each one buys a genuinely different process.
Under AED 2,000
A purchased template with your logo and text dropped in. Often built on a page builder by one person working quickly. It will look acceptable on a laptop and frequently break on mobile. No strategy, no copywriting, no SEO structure, and typically no support once you have paid.
This is not always wrong. If you need a placeholder online this week and you will rebuild properly in a year, it does the job. Just do not expect it to generate leads.
AED 3,500 – 7,500
The bracket most small businesses should be in. You get a custom layout built around your business rather than a stock template, proper mobile design, basic on-page SEO, a working contact or WhatsApp flow, and someone who answers when something breaks. This is where a website starts behaving like a sales asset instead of a brochure.
AED 7,500 – 15,000
Larger sites with more pages, custom photography or video, copywriting written for search intent rather than filler, integrations such as booking systems or CRM, and a measurable conversion strategy. Appropriate for established companies where the website is a primary lead source.
AED 15,000+
Complex builds: multi-language, e-commerce with heavy catalogue requirements, membership or portal functionality, or custom back-end development. At this level you should expect a discovery phase, wireframes, and a documented specification before anyone designs anything.
The seven things that actually move the price
When two quotes differ by AED 10,000, the difference is almost always in this list.
1. Number of pages
Each unique page needs layout, content and testing. A five-page site is not half the work of a ten-page site, but it is meaningfully less.
2. Custom design versus template
A template costs the designer nothing but a licence fee. A custom design means wireframes, revisions and a layout built around how your customers actually decide. This single factor accounts for the largest share of the gap between a cheap quote and a mid-range one.
3. Copywriting
Someone has to write the words. If the quote assumes you will supply them, the project stalls the moment you get busy — and you end up with placeholder text on a live site. Professional copy written for search intent is usually a separate line item, and it is worth paying for.
4. Photography and video
Stock images are free and look it. Original photography of your premises, team and products is one of the fastest ways to make a Dubai business look established rather than new.
5. E-commerce and payment gateways
Adding a store multiplies complexity: product catalogue, inventory, shipping rules, tax handling, and payment integration. UAE gateways each have their own onboarding requirements and integration work.
6. Integrations
Booking calendars, CRM connections, WhatsApp automation, live chat, multi-language. Each one is development time.
7. SEO foundation
Meta titles and descriptions, heading structure, schema markup, image compression, sitemap, page speed. A site built without these can rank, but it fights uphill for years. This is the item most often missing from a cheap quote, and the one you notice last.
Template versus custom — the honest comparison
| Template | Custom | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | AED 1,500 – 3,000 | AED 3,500 – 15,000 |
| Build time | 3 – 10 days | 2 – 8 weeks |
| Looks like competitors | Often | No |
| Speed on mobile | Usually poor | Controlled |
| SEO structure | Generic | Built in |
| Easy to extend later | Limited | Yes |
| Right for | Testing an idea | A business you intend to grow |
Neither is wrong. The mistake is paying custom prices for template work — which happens more often than most business owners realise, because from the outside the two look similar until you try to change something.
What is usually not included in the quote
The build price is rarely the whole cost. Budget for these separately.
| Item | Typical annual cost (AED) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Domain name | 50 – 400 | A .ae domain requires a UAE trade licence |
| Hosting | 400 – 2,500 | Cheap shared hosting is the most common cause of a slow site |
| SSL certificate | 0 – 700 | Often free and included; confirm it is |
| Maintenance and updates | 1,200 – 6,000 | Security patches, backups, plugin updates |
| Content updates | Varies | Ask whether you can edit it yourself |
Also confirm whether the quote includes 5% VAT. Some agencies quote excluding it and some include it, and on a AED 12,000 project that is a AED 600 surprise.
Why the cheapest quote usually costs more
A AED 1,500 website that generates nothing is more expensive than a AED 7,000 website that generates two clients a month. That is obvious written down and very easy to forget while comparing proposals.
The pattern we see repeatedly: a business buys the cheap site, discovers within a year that it loads slowly, cannot be edited, does not rank, and cannot be extended — then pays again for a rebuild. The total spend ends up higher than doing it properly the first time, and a year has been lost.
Ask one question of any cheap quote: what happens when I want to change something? If the answer is vague, you are buying a rebuild in eighteen months.
Freelancer, agency, or DIY builder?
| DIY builder | Freelancer | Agency | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | AED 500 – 1,500/yr | AED 1,500 – 6,000 | AED 3,500 – 20,000 |
| Your time required | High | Medium | Low |
| Design quality | Template-bound | Varies widely | Consistent |
| Copywriting | You write it | Rarely included | Usually included |
| SEO built in | Minimal | Sometimes | Expected |
| Support after launch | Help articles | Depends if they reply | Contracted |
| Risk | Time sink | They disappear | Overpaying for scope you do not need |
The freelancer risk is real and specific: the person who built your site stops answering, and nobody else can work on it because it was built in a way only they understand. Ask any freelancer what happens if they are unavailable for a month.
How long a website takes in Dubai
Roughly: one week for a landing page, two to four weeks for a standard business site, six to ten weeks for e-commerce.
The single biggest cause of delay is not development. It is waiting for content — your logo files, product photos, service descriptions, team bios. Projects that ship on time are the ones where the client blocks out two hours in week one to send everything at once.
Red flags in a website quote
- No breakdown. One number with no line items means you cannot tell what you are cutting if the budget is tight.
- No timeline or milestones. Open-ended projects drift.
- No mention of mobile. Most of your traffic is mobile. If it is not in the proposal, it was not planned.
- No portfolio of live sites. Screenshots are not proof. Ask for URLs you can open.
- Ownership unclear. You should own the domain, hosting account and site files. Get it in writing.
- Unlimited revisions. This sounds generous and usually signals no defined process.
- Payment in full upfront. Staged payments tied to milestones protect both sides.
Questions to ask before you sign
- Can I see three live websites you built for businesses like mine?
- Who writes the content — you or me?
- Will I be able to edit pages myself afterwards?
- What is included in support, and for how long?
- Is SEO structure part of the build or a separate cost?
- Who owns the domain and hosting account?
- What happens if I want a new page in six months, and what does it cost?
An agency that answers all seven clearly is usually worth more than one that is AED 2,000 cheaper.
What we charge
Most Dubai agencies will not show a number until you have sat through a discovery call. We publish ours. Website design and development starts at AED 3,500, with mid and larger tiers at AED 7,500 and AED 12,000 depending on page count, e-commerce and integrations.
Every one of our builds includes mobile-first design, on-page SEO structure, lead capture, and speed optimisation as standard rather than as upsells. You can see the full breakdown on our pricing and packages page, and judge the work itself on our portfolio — Cisnet Global, PayBetter, Hire Rightt, Intellize Trading and Zafrani Cafe are all live sites you can open right now.
How to get an accurate quote
Come to the conversation with four things and any competent agency can price it properly in one meeting:
- A rough page list — even five bullet points
- Two or three websites you like, and one sentence on why
- Whether you need to sell online
- Your realistic budget range
That last one is not a trap. Telling an agency your budget lets them scope to it honestly instead of guessing and quoting something you were never going to accept. If you would rather see numbers before you talk to anyone, they are on our pricing page.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a basic website cost in Dubai?
A basic business website of five to eight pages typically costs between AED 3,500 and AED 9,000 in Dubai. Below AED 2,000 you are generally buying a filled-in template rather than a designed site, which is fine for a placeholder but rarely generates leads.
Why do website quotes in Dubai vary so much?
Because 'website' describes very different products. A template with your logo dropped in and a custom-designed, SEO-structured, copywritten site are both called websites. The gap is usually custom design, copywriting, SEO foundation and post-launch support — items cheap quotes leave out.
How long does it take to build a website in Dubai?
About one week for a landing page, two to four weeks for a standard business site, and six to ten weeks for e-commerce. The most common delay is not development but waiting on content — logos, photos and service descriptions from the client.
What ongoing costs should I budget for after launch?
Domain (AED 50–400/year), hosting (AED 400–2,500/year), and maintenance covering security updates and backups (AED 1,200–6,000/year). SSL is often free. Confirm whether your quote includes 5% VAT.
Is it cheaper to use a freelancer than an agency?
Usually yes on the invoice — AED 1,500–6,000 versus AED 3,500–20,000. The trade-off is continuity and scope. Freelancers rarely include copywriting or SEO structure, and the main risk is that they become unavailable and nobody else can work on the site.
Do I need to pay extra for SEO on a new website?
On-page SEO structure — meta tags, headings, schema, sitemap, image compression and page speed — should be part of any professional build, not an upsell. Ongoing SEO, meaning content and link building to rank for competitive terms, is a separate monthly service.
Can I build a website myself with Wix or Squarespace?
Yes, and for testing an idea it is a reasonable choice at AED 500–1,500 a year. The costs are your time, template-bound design, and weaker SEO control. Most businesses that grow eventually rebuild, so factor that in if you plan to scale.
Who should own my domain and hosting?
You should, always. Register the domain in your company name and keep the login. If an agency holds your domain, changing providers becomes a negotiation. Any reputable agency will put ownership in writing without being asked.
Does a .ae domain cost more than a .com?
Usually, and it also requires a UAE trade licence to register. Many Dubai businesses register both — the .com for international reach and the .ae as a local trust signal — and point one at the other.
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