IFZA vs RAKEZ vs Meydan – A Detailed Comparison

IFZA, RAKEZ and Meydan are the three names that come up in almost every budget business setup conversation in the UAE. All three are legitimate free zones, all three allow full foreign ownership, and all three will give you a licence for far less than a mainland setup.

The real difference is not the headline licence price. It is what that price includes, what a visa adds, what renewal costs in year two, and which address ends up on your company documents.

This guide compares the three zones on those numbers, using published authority and partner list prices checked in November 2026.

Where published figures disagree, the guide shows the range and explains why, because the gap between a licence-only price and a real first-year cost is where most founders get caught out.

Prices change, so treat every figure here as a planning figure and get an itemised written quote before you pay.

The short answer first. If you want the lowest first-year cost with a residence visa, RAKEZ is the cheapest of the three. If a Dubai address matters and you need two or more visas, IFZA works out cheaper.

If speed matters most and you need zero or one visa, Meydan is the fastest. The tables below show why.

At a glance

	IFZA	RAKEZ	Meydan Free Zone
Location	Dubai, Dubai Silicon Oasis	Ras Al Khaimah	Dubai, Nad Al Sheba
Licence, no visa	AED 12,900 per year	AED 6,000 per year	AED 12,500 per year
Realistic year 1, 1 visa	AED 22,200 to 28,800	AED 14,000	AED 20,000 to 25,000
Visa allocations	0 to 6 standard	0 on Biz Starter, 1 plus up to 3 extra on SME	0 to 6
Activities per licence	3, from the same group	Up to 10, mix and match	Up to 3 activity groups
Office at entry level	Flexi-desk included	Coworking included	Flexi-desk included
Licence issue speed	A few days, through a partner	A few days	About 24 hours, or 60 minutes for Fawri
Licence renewal	About AED 12,900	AED 6,000 or AED 14,000, price guaranteed on SME	AED 12,500 flat
Best for	Dubai address with 2 or more visas	Lowest cost, with or without a visa	Fastest Dubai setup, 0 to 1 visa

The three zones in brief

IFZA, International Free Zone Authority

IFZA is a Dubai free zone based in Dubai Silicon Oasis, and it has become one of the most popular budget zones in Dubai for consultants, traders, e-commerce sellers and holding companies. Its selling point is breadth.

One licence covers a wide activity list, up to three activities from the same group, and a flexi-desk that satisfies the office requirement. Applications go through accredited IFZA partners, so you do not apply to IFZA directly, and the prices in this guide are the published partner list prices.

Ask your partner for the itemised quote in writing, because partner pricing can sit below the list price.

RAKEZ, Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone

RAKEZ is the government economic zone of Ras Al Khaimah, the emirate roughly an hour by road from Dubai. Its pitch is different from the Dubai zones. It competes on price and on bundling, not on address.

The Biz Starter package is a no-visa base at AED 6,000 a year with coworking access, while the all-in-one SME package bundles the licence and one residence visa for AED 14,000 a year with the same renewal price guaranteed.

If your customers are international and your team is remote, the Ras Al Khaimah address costs you nothing. If your customers expect a Dubai address on the invoice, it can cost you credibility, and that trade-off matters more than the price gap.

Meydan Free Zone

Meydan Free Zone sits at the Meydan Grandstand in Nad Al Sheba, about ten minutes from Downtown Dubai, and it is the most transparent of the three on pricing.

It publishes its fees line by line on its own website, it runs a fully digital portal, and its regular licence is issued in about 24 hours. Its Fawri licence is an instant licence for one-person companies at AED 15,000, issued in about 60 minutes.

Meydan suits founders who want a central Dubai address and a fast, no-negotiation setup, and who need zero or one visa rather than a large team.

Licence cost compared

Read this table in two rows, not one. The package row is what the zone charges for the licence itself. The realistic year 1 row is what a founder actually spends to hold the licence and one residence visa, including the visa stack.

Most comparison articles quote only the first row, which is why their totals look cheaper than the invoice.

Setup	IFZA	RAKEZ	Meydan
Licence package, 0 visas	AED 12,900	AED 6,000 (Biz Starter)	AED 12,500
Licence package, 1 visa	AED 14,900 (package only)	AED 14,000 (all-in)	AED 14,350 (package with allocation)
Realistic year 1, 1 visa	AED 22,200 to 28,800	AED 14,000	AED 20,000 to 25,000
Licence package, 2 visas	AED 16,900 (package only)	About AED 18,000 (SME plus 1 extra visa)	AED 16,600 (package)
Licence renewal	About AED 12,900	AED 6,000 or AED 14,000	AED 12,500

Two things jump out. First, RAKEZ is the only zone of the three whose headline one-visa price is also its all-in price, because the SME package bundles the visa stack. Second, the ranking flips at two visas.

IFZA adds AED 2,000 per visa allocation to the package price, while Meydan charges per visa on top of a flat licence, so a two-visa company pays less at IFZA than at Meydan on most published builds.

At zero visas, Meydan undercuts IFZA by AED 400 and both sit far above RAKEZ.

What the headline price leaves out

A licence lets the company exist. A residence visa is a separate stack of government charges, and it is the stack that explains why one-visa totals differ by thousands of dirhams between sources.

The table below breaks the stack apart so you can see which line items your quote must include.

Visa stack item	IFZA	RAKEZ SME	Meydan
Establishment or immigration card	AED 2,000	Included	AED 2,000, AED 2,200 on renewal
Visa processing, per person	About AED 3,750	Included	About AED 3,500 employment, higher for investor visas
Medical test and Emirates ID	Separate, varies	Assistance included	About AED 2,250 to 4,500
Health insurance	Separate, mandatory	Confirm inclusion on your quote	Separate, mandatory
Status change, if already in the UAE	About AED 1,600	Not applicable on the bundled package	About AED 1,500

Worked through for IFZA, one visa looks like this. The one-visa package is AED 14,900, plus the establishment card at AED 2,000, plus visa processing at about AED 3,750, plus a status change at about AED 1,600 if you are already in the UAE.

That is AED 22,250 before medical, Emirates ID and insurance, which is why partner quotes that include those items land near AED 28,800. Neither figure is wrong. They simply include different lines, which is why you should compare quotes line by line, never headline to headline.

Meydan works the other way round. The licence fee itself does not rise when you add visas. You pay AED 12,500 for the licence, then AED 1,850 per visa allocation, then the visa processing, card, medical and Emirates ID lines on top.

A one-visa build therefore lands between about AED 20,000 and AED 25,000 depending on the visa type and what medical and insurance cost for you. RAKEZ avoids this entirely on the SME package by bundling the stack into AED 14,000, which is also why its renewal price can be guaranteed.

Year 2 and beyond

Year two is where cheap licences get expensive, so check renewal before you choose. IFZA renews at about the licence price, around AED 12,900, plus visa renewals as they fall due. Meydan renews the regular licence at the same flat AED 12,500, with the immigration card renewing at AED 2,200.

RAKEZ guarantees the same renewal price on the SME package, which removes the most common renewal surprise in this comparison.

Multi-year deals change the maths further. IFZA partners commonly offer 15 to 30 percent off two, three and five year licences. Meydan offers up to 15 percent off licences paid for two to six years.

A multi-year deal only makes sense if you are sure about the zone, because moving zones later means a fresh licence, fresh visas and a fresh bank account process. Do not buy five years of a zone you have not yet tested for banking.

Visas and office

Visa quota is the second decision after price. IFZA packages run from zero to six visa allocations as standard. RAKEZ Biz Starter carries no visa, while the SME package carries one visa plus up to three extra visas at about AED 4,000 each.

Meydan allows up to six visa allocations per licence. None of the three requires a physical office at entry level. IFZA includes a flexi-desk, RAKEZ includes coworking access, and Meydan includes a flexi-desk.

Meydan’s flexi-desk supports up to three visas, so a team larger than that needs an office upgrade, and that upgrade is the point where Meydan’s cost advantage narrows.

One practical note on visas. A visa allocation is not a visa. Allocation is permission to sponsor a person. The residence visa itself, with its medical test, Emirates ID and insurance, is a separate process with separate fees, and it is the step where timelines slip.

Budget two to four weeks for the full visa cycle even when the licence itself arrives in a day.

Activities and licence types

All three zones cover the usual founder activities, including consultancy, trading, e-commerce, media, IT services and general trading. The differences are in how activities are counted. IFZA allows up to three activities from the same group on one licence, with professional, commercial, industrial and holding licence types.

RAKEZ lets Biz Starter mix and match up to ten activities, which suits founders running two unrelated lines under one company. Meydan allows up to three activity groups from a list of more than 2,500 activities.

Regulated activities are the exception everywhere. Finance, healthcare, education and some trading activities need external approvals on top of the free zone licence, and those approvals add time and cost in every zone.

If your activity is regulated, confirm the approval route with the zone before you compare prices, because the cheapest licence for an activity you cannot get approved is worthless.

Where you can sell

A free zone licence covers business inside the zone and internationally. Selling directly to customers on the UAE mainland is a different matter. The established routes are a mainland branch, a mainland company, or selling through a mainland distributor, and the right route depends on your volumes and your customers.

The UAE Government portal sets out the free zone setup routes and the company types each zone can register, and it is the page to check before you assume a free zone licence covers mainland sales.

Dubai has also been opening permit routes for eligible free zone companies to operate on the mainland, so confirm the current position with the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism if mainland sales are core to your plan rather than occasional.

Corporate tax, and the 0 percent myth

The most repeated error in free zone comparisons is that a free zone company pays no tax. The UAE charges corporate tax at 0 percent on taxable income up to AED 375,000 and 9 percent above that, under Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022.

A Qualifying Free Zone Person can pay 0 percent on qualifying income, but that status has conditions, including qualifying activities, adequate substance in the zone, audited accounts, and a de minimis limit on non-qualifying revenue set at the lower of 5 percent of revenue or AED 5 million.

Fail a condition and the status is lost for that tax period and the four that follow. Every company must still register for corporate tax and file, even one that owes nothing.

Meydan Free Zone explains the qualifying conditions on its own tax pages, and your accountant should confirm your activity mix before you rely on the 0 percent rate. There is no personal income tax in the UAE, which is a separate point and does not change the corporate tax position.

Banking reality

No free zone guarantees a corporate bank account, and no zone opens one for you. The bank decides, and it decides on your licence, your memorandum, your passport and Emirates ID, your proof of address, and whether your stated business matches your licence activity.

Mismatches between activity and actual business are a common reason for delays and rejections, as are thin documents on source of funds. Digital-first banks generally open accounts faster and with lower or no minimum balance, while traditional banks ask for more documents and higher balances.

Apply for the account the week the licence is issued, not the week you need to invoice, because the account is the step most founders underestimate.

Who should pick which

If you	Pick	Why
Want the lowest year 1 cost with a visa	RAKEZ SME	AED 14,000 all-in with the renewal price guaranteed
Want the cheapest legal base and no relocation	RAKEZ Biz Starter	AED 6,000 a year with coworking included
Want a Dubai address and no visa yet	Meydan	AED 12,500 with the fastest issue
Want a Dubai address and 2 or more visas	IFZA	Per-visa cost falls as visas rise, undercutting Meydan
Want the fastest licence possible	Meydan Fawri	Instant licence in about 60 minutes at AED 15,000
Sell mainly to UAE mainland customers	Check first	A free zone licence alone may not cover mainland sales

If you are still weighing the wider market, our guide to the best business setup companies in Dubai compares the firms that handle these applications day to day, including what to check before you sign with any of them.

Documents and setup steps

The paperwork is the same across all three zones, and it is shorter than most founders expect. Gather these before you start.

• Passport copies for every shareholder and director
• Passport-sized photographs for every shareholder and director
• Two or three trade name options
• Your chosen activities
• A board resolution and attested company documents, for corporate shareholders only

Applications run digitally in all three zones. IFZA applications go through a partner portal with digital signing of the memorandum. Meydan runs through its own portal, and RAKEZ runs a fully digital registration and renewal process.

The typical sequence runs like this.

• Zone and activity selection
• Trade name reservation
• Document submission
• Licence issue
• Establishment card
• Visa, medical test and Emirates ID
• Bank account

Licence issue is fast in all three zones, from about a day at Meydan to a few days at IFZA and RAKEZ.

The full setup is not the licence. The visa cycle and the bank account are what stretch a setup to several weeks, so start those the day the licence lands.

Mistakes that cost money

• Comparing licence-only prices when you need visas. Compare all-in year 1 totals, line by line.
• Buying visa allocations you will not use. Allocations are paid for whether or not the visa is processed.
• Ignoring renewal. A licence that is cheap in year 1 and repriced in year 2 is not cheap.
• Choosing a zone for price when your customers need a Dubai address. Address is a business decision, not a vanity one.
• Assuming 0 percent tax. Confirm Qualifying Free Zone Person status for your actual activity mix with an accountant.
• Starting the bank account late. Apply in the first week, because invoicing waits for the account, not the licence.

Verdict

There is no single cheapest zone, only a cheapest zone for your visa count and your address needs. RAKEZ wins on pure cost, with or without a visa. Meydan wins on speed and on a central Dubai address for zero or one visa.

IFZA wins for a Dubai address with a growing team, because its per-visa maths improves as headcount rises.

Pick the zone that fits the company you will run in year two, not the cheapest headline you saw this week, and get the full year 1 and renewal figures in writing before you pay.

Prices in this guide reflect published authority and partner list prices checked in November 2026. Free zone authorities change fees and promotions during the year, and your final figure depends on your activities, visa count and office needs. This guide is general information, not legal or tax advice.

Confirm your structure with the zone authority and a qualified adviser before you commit.