The legacy tech address — Google, Microsoft and most regional HQs sit here. Licences are tied to real offices and priced accordingly; startups usually enter via in5 incubators or choose cheaper zones until enterprise clients demand the address.
LAST VERIFIED: 21 JUL 2026 · The authority publishes no public tariff — figure is a market-indicative estimate, confirmed in writing on application.
Dubai Internet City is not a starter address. It is the emirate's legacy technology cluster inside TECOM at Al Sufouh — the place Google, Microsoft and a long line of regional technology headquarters keep their Gulf base. That concentration is the product: you are buying proximity to enterprise customers, partners and talent, plus an address procurement teams recognise on sight.
It fits funded scale-ups, regional headquarters of established software vendors, and companies whose clients or investors expect a serious physical presence. It does not fit a bootstrapped solo founder, a freelance developer, or a cost-sensitive startup still testing an idea. Those profiles pay for prestige they cannot yet convert — and reach the same 0% corporate-tax and full foreign ownership in a cheaper free zone. Many teams start elsewhere and move to DIC only once an enterprise contract makes the address worth it.
The headline is a licence fee band for an IT/software activity. The number that actually drives your budget is the office. DIC does not sell flexi-desk or virtual packages the way IFZA or Meydan do; a licence here is tied to a real leased unit, and the rent — priced by the floor area you take — is usually the largest single line on your first-year invoice.
| Cost line | What to expect |
|---|---|
| Licence (IT/software) | from AED 18,000 / year |
| Office lease | real unit, priced per m² — usually the biggest line |
| Establishment card + immigration registration | added on top |
| Per visa (medical, Emirates ID, stamping) | per person |
Because DIC requires a real office, your visa allocation is driven by the floor area you lease rather than a flat cap — more space, more quota — which is why the spec table shows no fixed number. That suits a team genuinely hiring on the ground. It works against a company that wants many visas on a minimal footprint; a flexi-desk zone stretches further per dirham there.
The real-office requirement is also an advantage for tax substance. Qualifying free-zone income taxed at 0% depends on adequate substance — real premises, staff and spend inside the zone — and DIC gives you that by default. Whether your specific IT income qualifies for that treatment still turns on what you do and who you bill, so check corporate tax before assuming 0%.
Dubai Media City is the sister TECOM cluster next door — same landlord, same pricing logic — but built for media and marketing rather than software. If your work is content or agency-side, that is the more natural home. For pure cost, IFZA and Meydan deliver the same federal free-zone benefits with flexi-desk pricing and no real-office demand, at a fraction of the entry cost — the right call until an enterprise client specifically asks for the DIC address.
Regulated fintech is a different question entirely: activities that need a financial-services licence belong in DIFC, not DIC. The honest rule is to let the client and the activity choose the zone — not the logo on the door.
Pick licensed activities and reserve a trade name. Activity choice drives approvals, banking and whether your income can be QFZP-qualifying.
Passports, application forms and a clean source-of-funds story. No local sponsor is needed — free zone companies are 100% foreign-owned.
The zone issues your licence (typically 10–14 business days), then the immigration establishment card that unlocks visa processing.
Entry permit, medical, Emirates ID for each visa holder; corporate account opening runs in parallel — this is usually the slowest step.
We reply with numbers — a line-by-line setup estimate for your case. Not a call script, not a brochure.