The short version
In Dubai, you can get a website for the price of a dinner or the price of a car. A template site from a freelancer, a hand-built site from a small studio, and a large build from a full agency are three different products that happen to share a name. The price you should pay depends on one question: what does the website need to do for your business?
If it needs to make you look credible when a buyer googles you before a call, you need something different from a company that needs to sell forty apartments off-plan, which is different again from a company that needs an online shop.
What drives the price
1. Number of pages
A one-page launch site costs a fraction of a twelve-page company site. Most Dubai businesses need between five and eight pages: home, about, two to four services, work or projects, contact. More pages than that usually means the site is doing something a smaller site could do better.
2. Languages
A proper Arabic and English site is not twice the work, but it is more than one language. The extra cost is mostly the Arabic content itself and the care needed to make layouts mirror correctly. A site that is only English is cheaper to build and reaches fewer buyers; whether that trade is worth it depends on who your customers are.
3. Custom design versus template
A template is a layout someone else designed, sold to many businesses, with your logo and text dropped in. It is fast and cheap, and it looks like a template. Custom design means someone thought about your business and your buyer and designed the pages for that. It costs more and it is the difference between a site that gets enquiries and one that gets ignored.
4. Content
Who writes the words? Who takes the photos? Many quotes assume you will provide everything, and the project stalls for months because you are busy. Writing and photography are real costs, and good agencies will tell you up front whether they are included.
5. Features
Forms, WhatsApp integration, maps and a gallery are standard. Booking systems, property listings, member areas, payment and online shops are not, and each adds real work. Be suspicious of a low quote that promises all of them.
6. Who builds it
A freelancer, a small studio and a large agency carry very different overheads. The large agency is not necessarily better at your project; it is better at large projects. For most small and medium businesses in the UAE, a studio that does one thing well is the right size.
The hidden costs to ask about
- Monthly maintenance fees. Common with WordPress sites, because plugins and themes need updating. A hand-built site has nothing to update and should not carry a monthly fee.
- Hosting and domain. Should be a few hundred dirhams a year at most, in your name. If the agency owns your domain, you do not own your website.
- Licences. Premium themes, plugins and stock photos sometimes carry annual costs that appear after launch.
- Change fees. Ask what a small text change costs after launch. The answer tells you a lot about the relationship.
- Ownership. The design, content and code should be yours at the end. If the contract says otherwise, the price is not the price.
How to compare quotes
Put every quote through the same five questions:
- How many pages, and in which languages?
- Is the design custom or a template? Can I see it before I pay?
- Who writes the content, and is it included?
- What are the ongoing costs: hosting, maintenance, licences, changes?
- Who owns the domain, the design and the code at the end?
Two quotes that look far apart often become close once these are answered, and the "expensive" one is sometimes the cheaper one over two years.
What we think you should pay
We do not publish prices, because every site is different and a number without a scope is meaningless. What we do instead is design your homepage first, for free, and quote a fixed price only once you have seen it. That removes the biggest risk in the whole process: paying for something you have not seen.
If you want a sense of where your project sits before that conversation, send us your current site or a short brief on WhatsApp and we will tell you honestly, including when you do not need us.
Quick answers
Is a cheap website a bad idea?
Not always. A simple, fast one-page site that states what you do and how to reach you is better than no site, and better than an expensive site that is never finished. It becomes a bad idea when it looks like a template to the buyers you are trying to impress.
Why do agencies in Dubai charge monthly fees?
Usually because the site runs on WordPress or a page builder that needs plugin and theme updates to stay secure. A hand-built site does not need this. Ask what the fee covers.
Should I pay for Arabic?
If your customers include government, semi-government, local family businesses or Gulf consumers, yes. If you sell only to English-speaking expatriates or international companies, it can wait.
Can I see the design before I pay?
With us, yes, the homepage design is free and comes before any agreement. With others, ask. Many will show you a template; fewer will design for you first.
Send us your brief or your current site. We design the homepage free, show it to you on desktop and mobile, and quote a fixed price only if you like it. Request a free design preview or WhatsApp us.