Web Design in Abu Dhabi

Fixed price for a defined scope (a 5-page site with listed features) protects both sides; hourly suits ongoing work and vague scopes. Standard payment structure is 30-50% deposit, remainder on launch — never pay 100% up front, and be wary of anyone who asks.

Domain renewal (a small annual fee), hosting (from a few dollars monthly for a brochure site), and optional maintenance. Maintenance retainers typically run 5-10% of the build cost per year and cover updates, backups and small edits. A static brochure site can genuinely run for years with near-zero maintenance.

You should. Insist that the domain is registered in YOUR name (not the designer's), you hold the hosting account credentials, and the contract transfers full rights to the design and code on final payment. Designer-owned domains are the single most common lock-in trap in this industry.

A 5-page small-business site takes 2-6 weeks with a responsive client; e-commerce adds 2-4 weeks. The most common delay is not the designer — it's the client's content. Have your text, photos and logo ready before kickoff and you'll cut the timeline roughly in half.

Freelancers charge roughly AED 150-450/hr; 5-page corporate sites commonly run AED 5,000-20,000 and e-commerce from AED 12,000. Free-zone agencies and freelancer-permit holders both operate legally — ask which licence the vendor holds.

Legally no for most private businesses — English-only is common in Dubai. Commercially, Arabic doubles your reachable audience and matters for government-adjacent work; budget RTL design properly rather than machine-translating an English layout.