How much does a website cost in Dubai? In 2026, most small and medium businesses pay between AED 4,500 and AED 40,000, and the spread comes almost entirely from what the site has to do rather than how it looks. This guide breaks prices down by type so you can match a quote to the kind of website you actually need.
The figures below reflect what independent developers and small studios, including CustomSiteBuild, charge for fixed-price projects in the UAE. Large agencies often quote two to three times higher for similar scope; template freelancers can be lower but rarely include SEO, speed work or an admin panel.
Running costs matter as much as the build. Hosting, licences and website maintenance continue every month after launch, so compare quotes on a two-year total, not the launch price alone.
Website prices in Dubai by type
| Type of website | Typical price (AED) | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Brochure / lead-generation site, 5–8 pages | 4,500 – 9,000 | 2–3 weeks |
| Same, bilingual English and Arabic | +2,000 – 3,500 | +1 week |
| WordPress site on a lean custom theme | 7,000 – 12,000 | 3–4 weeks |
| WooCommerce store, up to ~100 products loaded | 7,000 – 14,000 | 3–5 weeks |
| Custom platform with listings or bookings and an admin panel | 12,000 – 25,000 | 4–8 weeks |
| Custom e-commerce store | 18,000 – 40,000 | 4–10 weeks |
| Migration from WordPress or Shopify to custom | 15,000 – 30,000 | 4–8 weeks |
In US dollars, divide by about 3.67: a brochure site starts around $1,250 and a custom store around $4,900.
What pushes the price up
- Structured data. Vehicles, properties, products with variants or bookable time slots need a database and admin screens, which is where most of the build time goes.
- Two languages. Arabic needs its own URLs, right-to-left layout and translated content, not just a translation plugin.
- Integrations. Payment gateways, WhatsApp alerts, CRMs, delivery companies and accounting tools each add setup and testing.
- Custom design. A distinctive design built from scratch costs more than adapting a clean, proven layout.
- Content. If the developer writes the copy, sources images or loads hundreds of products, that is real work and should appear in the quote.
- Timeline. Launching in under two weeks typically adds 25–40% because other work is moved aside.
What does not change the price much is the number of pages on a simple site. Adding a sixth or seventh page to a brochure site is a small job; adding a booking calendar to one page is a large one. When you compare quotes, compare the features and integrations line by line rather than the page count.
What should be included at any price
Whatever the budget, a professional website quote in Dubai should include these, and it is worth asking if any are missing:
- Responsive design tested on real phones, since most local traffic is mobile.
- Technical SEO basics: page titles and descriptions, an XML sitemap, clean URLs and redirects from any old site.
- An SSL certificate and HTTPS, which browsers now expect by default.
- Forms that deliver reliably, with spam protection.
- Google Analytics and Google Search Console connected at launch.
- Handover of logins, files and, for custom builds, the source code.
The running costs most quotes leave out
| Item | Typical cost |
|---|---|
| Domain (.com or .ae) | AED 40 – 150 per year |
| Hosting (shared to small VPS) | AED 50 – 300 per month |
| Business email | Often included with hosting; Google Workspace is extra per user |
| Premium theme and plugin licences (WordPress) | AED 200 – 1,500 per year |
| Maintenance and updates | AED 400 – 900 per month |
| Payment gateway fees (online stores) | A percentage per transaction, set by the gateway |
A site with no maintenance plan is not free to run; it is simply a site where problems are found by customers instead of by someone paid to check. Expired certificates, broken contact forms and plugin conflicts are the most common, and each one usually costs more in lost enquiries than a year of monitoring would have. If you manage the site yourself, set a monthly reminder to check that forms still deliver, that backups exist, and that the site still loads quickly on a phone.
Three typical projects and what they cost
Ranges are easier to trust with examples. These are typical scopes for businesses in Dubai and what they usually cost as fixed-price projects.
- A consultancy or agency site. Six pages in English, a contact form that saves enquiries and emails the team, a short case-study section, basic SEO and analytics. Usually AED 5,000 to 7,500, launched in about three weeks.
- A bilingual clinic site with booking requests. Twelve treatment pages in English and Arabic, doctor profiles, a booking form that confirms on WhatsApp, and location pages for two branches. Usually AED 9,000 to 15,000, launched in four to five weeks.
- An online store for a growing brand. Around 150 products with variants, card payments, customer accounts, branded order emails, PDF receipts and a sales dashboard. On WooCommerce this often lands between AED 10,000 and 14,000; as a custom store, between AED 20,000 and 30,000.
In each case the biggest single driver is not the design but the data: how many pages, products or records the site holds, and how much the business needs to do with them after launch.
How to get an accurate quote
The fastest way to a reliable number is a short written brief: what the site must do, who it is for, how many pages or products, which languages, what you already have, and when you want to launch. Ask for a fixed price for that scope, a list of what is included, the payment schedule, and what happens if the scope changes. Two or three quotes built on the same brief are far easier to compare than three prices for three different ideas of your project.
If a quote is dramatically lower than the ranges above, check what is missing from it: usually the admin panel, SEO, speed work, or ownership of the code. If it is dramatically higher, ask which parts of the scope drive the price, and whether a simpler first version could launch sooner.
Finally, ask how changes after launch are priced. A fixed-price build with a clear rate for later work, or a monthly plan with a change allowance, is far easier to budget for than an open-ended hourly arrangement. The best time to agree that is before the project starts, when both sides have the same picture of the scope.
