Meydan Free Zone Licence Cost in 2026

A Meydan Free Zone licence starts at AED 12,500. That figure buys a trade licence, three business activity groups and a flexi-desk – and nothing else. Every visa, every activity past the third, and every square metre of real desk is priced separately. This page lists what Meydan publishes, what it does not publish, and what the total actually looks like once a founder adds the parts they will need. All prices are Meydan’s own, checked on 8 August 2026. Free zone tariffs change; the date matters.

Source: Meydan Free Zone cost breakdown, checked 8 August 2026. The AED 2,500 difference buys speed and costs 700 activities: Fawri suits a solo founder who knows exactly which activity they need. If the activity list decides the licence type, Regular is the wider catalogue.

What is not in the AED 12,500

This is where the published “from” price stops being the price.

Source: as above, checked 8 August 2026. Note the visa arithmetic, because it is the part founders get wrong: an allocation and a visa are two different charges. One employment visa is AED 1,850 for the allocation plus AED 3,500 for the visa itself, before the AED 2,250 medical and Emirates ID step.

Three worked totals

Meydan’s own figures, added up. If a line is not published, it is not in the table.

The “from” price and the realistic first-year price differ by a factor of roughly 1.6 to 2.3. That is not a Meydan quirk – it is how every UAE free zone quotes – but it is the single most useful number on this page. Meydan also advertises up to 15% off multi-year setups, which only matters once the renewal question below is answered.

Meydan Free Zone setup, step by step

The order below follows what Meydan publishes on its own site: the free tools it offers before any fee is due, then the charges in the order they fall. Meydan publishes no processing time for any step except Fawri issuance.

1. Check the company name first. Meydan runs a free name-check tool, so the name is settled before money moves.
2. Pick the activities. Regular carries a catalogue of 2,500+ activities and Fawri 1,800+; both include up to three activity groups, and a fourth costs AED 1,000. Our Meydan activity list sets out how that catalogue is organised.
3. Choose the package. Regular at AED 12,500, or Fawri at AED 15,000 issued in under 60 minutes with one free amendment in year one.
4. Apply and pay through the Meydan portal. Applications run through the zone’s own portal, not a counter.
5. Take the licence and the flexi-desk. Both packages include the flexi-desk. A dedicated desk is AED 3,500 a month, a shared office AED 15,000 a year.
6. Buy a visa allocation before any visa. An allocation is AED 1,850 and one licence holds at most six. This is the step founders misread: the allocation is not the visa.
7. Process the visa itself. AED 3,500 for an employment visa, around AED 4,000 for an investor or partner visa, then AED 2,250 for the medical test and Emirates ID assistance.

Prices: meydanfz.ae, checked 8 August 2026; the AED 12,500 and AED 15,000 headline figures re-checked 14 August 2026.

What a Meydan Free Zone licence does not give you

Each line below is either stated by Meydan or missing from everything Meydan publishes. It is the half of the decision the zone’s own pages leave you to work out.

• A Meydan Free Zone licence does not include a visa. The allocation at AED 1,850 and the visa from AED 3,500 are separate charges on top of the licence, and one licence holds at most six allocations.
• A Meydan Free Zone licence does not come with a real desk. The flexi-desk is included; a dedicated desk is AED 3,500 a month, a shared office AED 15,000 a year and a dedicated office AED 30,000 a year.
• A Meydan Free Zone licence carries no published renewal price. As of 8 August 2026 no renewal figure appears on the cost pages, so year two is unpriced until you get it in writing.
• A Meydan Free Zone licence does not open a bank account. No zone controls that; the bank decides on its own timetable. Meydan sells bank account assistance as an add-on at AED 1,500.
• A Meydan Free Zone licence does not make the company a Qualifying Free Zone Person. Corporate tax treatment turns on conditions the licence alone does not satisfy; see the Qualifying Free Zone Person test.
• A Meydan Free Zone licence is not a mainland licence. If the plan is to sell directly into the UAE local market, read mainland vs free zone vs offshore before choosing the zone.
• A Meydan Free Zone licence does not cover a fourth activity group. Three are included; each one past the third is AED 1,000.

What Meydan does not publish

Stated plainly, because every competing article glosses over it:

Meydan Free Zone against comparable zones

Entry price only, because that is the number every zone advertises and the one that misleads: each row buys a different bundle. Meydan sits in the middle: roughly twice the Sharjah zones, roughly a third of DMCC.

Each figure is the zone’s own, recorded on the page linked in the first column. Entry price does not settle the comparison: visas are charged separately in every zone, and at different rates, which is why a Sharjah licence at half the Meydan price does not stay at half once two people need residency. Consultants who handle this are listed under free zone company formation.

How many consultants here actually work with Meydan

From the Emirae directory, measured 8 August 2026.

Meydan is the joint second most declared free zone in this directory after DMCC. A cheaper Sharjah alternative exists at roughly half the entry price; company formation is the service both sit under.

How Meydanu2019s AED 12,500 compares with the cheapest entry price published anywhere in the country is set out in UAE free zone company setup cost.