The short answer
- Write down what the site must do before you speak to anyone, so every company prices the same thing.
- Judge a portfolio on live websites you can open on your own phone, not on screenshots.
- Your domain, hosting and analytics accounts should be registered in your company's name from day one.
- Walk away from anyone who guarantees search rankings. Google says no one can guarantee a first-place ranking.
- Check that the name on the trade licence matches the name on the contract and the invoice.
Start with a written scope, not a shortlist
Most advice on how to choose a web design company in Dubai starts with portfolios. Start one step earlier. Write a single page that lists what the site must do: the pages you need, the languages, the systems it must connect to, who supplies the words and photographs, and your launch date.
Send the same page to every company you speak to. Their quotes then describe the same project, and you can compare them line by line. Without it, one company prices a template and another prices a custom build, and the gap between the totals tells you nothing. Our guide to website cost in Dubai explains why published prices vary so widely.
Ask each company to reply with a fixed price against that written scope. A good one will also question parts of your list. That conversation shows you how they think before you have paid anything.
Agency, freelancer or marketplace
The same website can be built by a studio, a single freelancer or someone hired through an online marketplace. Each can do good work. They carry different risks.
| Option | Suits | Check before you sign |
|---|---|---|
| Agency or studio | Sites that need design, build, testing and support from one supplier | Who will actually do the work, and whether any of it is passed to subcontractors |
| Freelancer | Smaller sites with a clear scope and a flexible deadline | What happens if they fall ill or take other work, and who holds the code and logins |
| Online marketplace | Small, well-defined tasks on an existing site | Whether the person has a UAE trade licence or freelance permit, and how disputes are handled |
Whichever you choose, ask for one named person who is responsible for your project and can be reached during UAE working hours.
How to check a portfolio and references
Screenshots show what a designer intended. A live site shows what was delivered. Ask for three live addresses of projects similar to yours in size and sector, and open them on your own phone.
- Speed. Run each address through Google's free PageSpeed Insights. It reports how the page performs on mobile and on desktop, including the Core Web Vitals, Google's measures of loading, responsiveness and visual stability.
- Arabic. If you need Arabic, open the Arabic pages. Check that the layout reads right to left, that the menus and forms work, and that the text reads as if written in Arabic rather than translated.
- Forms and checkout. Submit a test enquiry or add a product to the basket. Ask the company how long the site has been live and whether it still maintains it.
- Their role. Ask exactly what they did on each project. Design only, build only, or both.
Then ask for two references and call them. Ask whether the project finished on time and on budget, what went wrong and how it was handled, and whether they would hire the same company again.
How to verify a UAE company
Ask for a copy of the trade licence and check three things. The legal name should match the name on the proposal, the contract and the invoice. The licence should be in date. The licensed activities should cover web design or software development.
You can confirm a licence with the authority that issued it. For a mainland company, that is the economic department of the emirate where it is licensed. For a free zone company, it is that free zone's authority. Find the authority's own website or phone number yourself, rather than using a link sent to you by the supplier.
Ask whether the company is registered for VAT. According to the UAE Ministry of Finance, a business must register once its taxable supplies and imports pass AED 375,000, so a small studio or freelancer may not be registered and will not add VAT. Confirm any VAT question with the Federal Tax Authority.
Questions to ask every company
- Who owns the design, the code and the content once the final invoice is paid?
- Will the domain, hosting, analytics and search console accounts be registered in our company's name?
- Is the site built from a purchased theme or template? If so, which one, and is the licence in our name?
- How is Arabic handled: a separate design pass and rewritten copy, or a translation plugin?
- How will you test speed on a mid-range phone before launch, and what targets do you set?
- Which system will we use to edit the site, and will you train our team?
- How many rounds of design changes are included, and what does an extra round cost?
- What is the payment schedule, and what is delivered at each stage?
- What happens after launch: who fixes problems, how fast, and at what monthly cost?
Our Arabic and English website guide explains what a proper answer to the Arabic question looks like.
Red flags
- No written scope. A price without a list of pages, features and integrations is a starting point for arguments, not a quote.
- Accounts in the supplier's name. Under ICANN's rules, the registrant is the person or company that registers a domain and holds the contract with the registrar. If the supplier registers it, the supplier holds it. The same applies to hosting.
- A template sold as custom. Templates are fine when the price reflects it. Ask directly, and compare two of the company's portfolio sites for identical layouts.
- Guaranteed rankings. Google's own guidance says no one can guarantee a first-place ranking. A company that promises one is either misleading you or measuring something that does not matter.
- Full payment up front. Staged payments tied to delivered work protect both sides.
- No named person. If nobody can say who will build your site, you will not know who to call when it breaks.
Making the decision
Shortlist three companies. Set their answers to the questions above side by side with their quotes. The cheapest quote is rarely the cheapest site once maintenance, changes and a rebuild two years later are counted.
Choose the company whose answers were specific, whose live sites work on your phone and whose references would hire them again. Our own process sets out what we deliver at each stage, so you can hold us to the same checklist.