A custom business website in the UAE starts around AED 4,500 for a small brochure site and reaches AED 80,000 or more for a multi-language corporate platform with a CMS, integrations and Arabic SEO. Most SMEs in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah spend between AED 8,000 and AED 25,000 for their first proper site.
The reason quotes vary so wildly is that "a website" can mean ten different things. This guide breaks it down feature by feature, with real 2026 numbers from the UAE market and what each line item is doing for you.
What the quote should actually cover
A complete website quote in the UAE in 2026 should include:
- Discovery, copywriting input and information architecture
- Visual design (homepage plus inner page templates)
- Front-end build (responsive, mobile-first, Arabic RTL if needed)
- Back-end or CMS setup (WordPress, Webflow, headless)
- Domain, hosting setup, SSL, email
- On-page SEO (titles, meta, schema, sitemap, robots.txt)
- Basic analytics and consent banner
- One round of post-launch fixes
If any of these are missing from the quote, ask. Most "AED 5,000 website" offers in the UAE strip out everything past the design, leaving you with a half-built project two months later.
Website cost by type, with real UAE ranges
Brochure or one-page site: AED 4,500 to 12,000
Five to seven static pages. Homepage, About, Services, Contact, maybe a Blog. Built on Webflow, WordPress with a quality theme, or Next.js if you want speed and SEO baked in. Two to four weeks. Good for new freezone businesses and consultants.
Service business website: AED 8,000 to 22,000
Ten to twenty pages, lead capture forms, WhatsApp integration, contact map, Google Tag Manager, basic CMS so your team can edit content without a developer. Three to six weeks. This is the most common build for clinics, law firms, agencies and consultancies in the UAE.
Bilingual corporate site (EN + AR): AED 20,000 to 60,000
Same scope as above but doubled for Arabic. Includes RTL design, language switcher, professionally translated content, Arabic-specific typography, and Arabic SEO setup. Six to ten weeks. Required for any company doing real business with UAE government, Emirati customers or Saudi expansion.
Corporate or holding company platform: AED 50,000 to 150,000
Forty plus pages, role-based CMS, integrations with HR, recruitment, investor portals, news and press section, multi-language including Arabic, custom design system, performance-tuned hosting. Three to four months. Common for groups, conglomerates and family offices.
E-commerce website: AED 18,000 to 80,000
Covered in a separate guide because the pricing logic is different. The short version: AED 18,000 to 35,000 for a Shopify or WooCommerce build, AED 45,000 plus for headless or custom commerce.
Pricing by feature, what each one adds
Most UAE agencies estimate by feature on top of a base. Here is what each line item typically adds in 2026:
| Feature | Typical add | What it buys you |
|---|---|---|
| Arabic version with RTL | AED 4,500 to 10,000 | Full translation, RTL design audit, Arabic SEO |
| Custom blog or news section | AED 2,500 to 6,000 | Listing page, categories, individual post layouts |
| Booking or appointment system | AED 4,000 to 10,000 | Calendar, time slots, confirmation emails, admin view |
| WhatsApp Business integration | AED 800 to 3,000 | Click-to-chat with prefilled message and Meta API setup |
| Live chat or AI chatbot | AED 1,800 to 12,000 | Setup, training data, lead routing, transcript storage |
| Payment gateway (Mada, Telr, Stripe) | AED 3,000 to 8,000 | Merchant account, secure checkout, webhook handling |
| Member portal / login area | AED 6,000 to 20,000 | Auth, profile, account management, content gating |
| Custom illustrations or 3D visuals | AED 3,000 to 15,000 | Original artwork instead of stock |
| Animation and motion design | AED 2,500 to 10,000 | Hero animations, scroll effects, micro-interactions |
| Multilingual beyond EN+AR | AED 2,500 to 5,000 per language | French, Hindi, Urdu, Russian commonly requested |
What drives the base price up
Custom design vs theme. A Webflow or WordPress theme costs AED 200 to 1,500 and saves 30 to 80 hours of design time. A fully custom design from scratch can add AED 6,000 to 22,000 to the project. Good middle ground: theme as a starting point, customised for your brand.
Real performance work. Most UAE business sites fail Google PageSpeed because nobody budgeted for performance. A properly tuned site (Core Web Vitals all green) takes an extra 20 to 40 hours, around AED 1,500 to 3,500. Worth it for SEO.
SEO setup beyond the basics. Title tags and metas are table stakes. Real SEO setup includes keyword research, structured data, schema markup, sitemap submission to Google Search Console and Bing, and a content plan. Add AED 3,000 to 10,000.
Hosting tier. Shared hosting is AED 200 to 800 a year and fine for small sites. Managed hosting (Kinsta, WP Engine, Vercel) is AED 900 to 3,500 a year and worth it once your site earns real revenue.
Integrations. Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho, Bitrix, custom ERP. Every integration adds AED 4,000 to 20,000 depending on complexity.
Hidden and ongoing costs
A new website is not done at launch. Realistic UAE budgets include:
- Domain renewal: AED 50 to 400 per year depending on extension (.ae costs AED 220 to 400)
- Hosting: AED 200 to 3,500 per year as above
- SSL certificate: AED 0 (Let's Encrypt) to AED 1,500 (EV cert)
- Maintenance retainer: AED 700 to 2,500 per month for updates, backups, security patches and small content changes
- SEO content: AED 1,500 to 6,000 per month if you want organic traffic to grow
- CDN and image optimisation: AED 150 to 800 per month at scale
The honest math: budget the build cost, then add 25 to 40 percent of that across the next twelve months to keep the site alive and ranking.
How to control the budget
- Lock the page count before design starts. Scope creep is the number one budget killer in UAE web projects.
- Use a real CMS from day one. Editing copy through a developer at AED 250 an hour adds up fast.
- Ship in English first if your audience is bilingual. Arabic translation can come in version 1.1.
- Buy hosting yourself. Agency-managed hosting often has a 30 to 60 percent markup.
- Insist on access to everything. Domain, hosting, analytics, Search Console. Far too many UAE businesses cannot move their site because the agency owns the keys.
Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest credible website cost in the UAE? Around AED 4,500 for a small brochure site built on Webflow or WordPress with a quality theme, designed by a senior freelancer or small studio. Below that, you are usually buying a template install with no design or SEO work.
Is WordPress or Webflow cheaper in the UAE? Webflow tends to be cheaper for small marketing sites because designers ship faster. WordPress is cheaper for content-heavy sites once you have ten plus contributors. For headless and corporate work, Next.js with a headless CMS is the new standard.
Do I need an Arabic version for SEO in the UAE? Only if you want to rank for Arabic queries. Most B2B buyers in Dubai search in English. Most retail consumers, government audiences and Saudi-targeted brands need Arabic to compete.
How long does a website take to build in the UAE? Two to four weeks for a brochure site. Four to eight weeks for a service site. Eight to fourteen weeks for a bilingual corporate platform. Three to four months for a corporate or holding-company site.
What happens after the site launches? You pay for hosting, domain renewal, maintenance, and ideally a content plan that brings organic traffic. A site without ongoing work loses ranking inside six months.
Final word
A website is a multi-year investment, not a one-time invoice. The right budget question is not "what is the cheapest quote" but "what will this site cost me to own for three years and what will it return".
If you want a transparent, scope-first proposal for a website project in the UAE, talk to Skimbox. We work with everything from new free-zone businesses through to listed groups, and we price honestly, including the parts most agencies hide.
