Insights
What nobody tells you before you sign.
What is covered here
Practical guidance for anyone buying software or AI in the United Arab Emirates: why the same brief gets quoted at wildly different prices, how to choose between an agency, a freelancer and an offshore team, which AI projects actually pay for themselves, and how to check that you own the code you paid for.
Every figure is sourced
- GoodFirms
Mid-range business app build cost and agency pricing tiers
- Quantalent
UAE engineering salary bands for build-versus-hire comparison
- RemotePass
Statutory on-costs added to a UAE salary
- Decipher Zone
Full build cost range from proof of concept to enterprise platform
- Skyline Advanced Technology
AI tool and LLM/RAG build costs by category
- Innovatrix Infotech
AI automation engagement models and SME price bands
- ToXSL
WhatsApp and conversational chatbot build costs
- reconn
PDPL statutory reference, data subject rights, cross-border transfer rules and breach notification
- Netguru
Data protection compliance as a flat build line item, Dubai hourly rates by seniority, published bands by app complexity, annual maintenance as a share of build cost, platform developer fees and marketing as a share of development cost
- Riseup Labs
Published Dubai AI hiring bands for freelance, agency and in-house engagement
- HireDeveloper.ae
Freelance AI developer hourly rates quoted in USD for Dubai
- Skimbox
Published bands by app complexity, UAE day rates by vendor type, and the VAT treatment of a Dubai agency invoice
- Cloudflare
Free-plan daily request allowance, paid-plan base price and the per-million request overage rate
- Vercel
Pro platform fee, included monthly usage credit and the per-seat price for additional deploying members
- Supabase
Managed Postgres plan list prices from free tier through team tier
- Apple
Apple Developer Program annual membership fee
- Google
Google Play Console one-time developer registration fee
- Central Bank of the UAE
The dirham's dollar peg, used to convert vendor list prices to AED
- 01 · 8 min
What does software cost to maintain after launch in the UAE?
What software actually costs to run once it is live
Everyone quotes maintenance as 15–25% of build cost per year. That is a budgeting shortcut, not a quote. What the floor is really made of, and when it is closer to zero.
Read → - 02 · 7 min
Should we hire an AI developer or commission the build?
Hiring an AI developer in Dubai, or commissioning the build
What the published Dubai rates actually say, why an AI system's asset is not the model, and the specific conditions under which hiring beats commissioning.
Read → - 03 · 6 min
What does UAE data protection compliance require of our software?
UAE data protection is engineering work, and almost nobody quotes it
What the UAE Personal Data Protection Law requires from your product rather than your paperwork, which features it forces into scope, and what that adds to a build.
Read → - 04 · 6 min
Which payment gateway should we use in the UAE?
Which payment gateway should a UAE platform integrate?
The practical differences between Network International, Telr, PayTabs and Stripe for a UAE product, and the integration work each one actually costs you.
Read → - 05 · 5 min
How long does it take to build an app?
How long does it take to build software? Why nobody can tell you upfront
Anyone quoting a duration before reading your requirements is guessing. What actually drives a timeline, and how to get a date you can plan around.
Read → - 06 · 6 min
What should a UAE software development contract include?
What to put in a software development contract in the UAE
IP assignment, acceptance, holdback and exit. The handful of clauses that decide whether you own what you paid for, and what happens when a project goes wrong.
Read → - 07 · 5 min
Should a UAE B2B business use Shopify or build custom?
Shopify or custom: what a UAE B2B seller should actually build
Shopify handles retail well. B2B ordering breaks it in specific, predictable places — account pricing, credit limits and approval flows. How to tell which side you are on.
Read → - 08 · 7 min
Should we use an agency, a freelancer or an offshore team?
Agency, freelancer or offshore: choosing for a UAE software project
The three ways to get software built in the UAE, what each actually costs, and the specific way each one fails.
Read → - 09 · 6 min
Why do UAE software quotes vary by so much?
Why the same software brief gets quoted at AED 40,000 and AED 300,000
A breakdown of what actually drives software build cost in the UAE, and how to make five incomparable quotes comparable.
Read → - 10 · 7 min
Which AI projects actually pay for themselves?
AI projects that pay for themselves in a UAE business, and the ones that don't
A practical filter for AI spend in a UAE SME: which projects return their cost inside a year, which quietly never do, and how to tell in advance.
Read → - 11 · 5 min
How do I make sure we own the software we paid for?
Who owns the code: what to check before signing with a Dubai dev agency
Five contract and access checks that decide whether you can leave your software vendor, and what each one looks like when it is wrong.
Read →
Start here
Have a question none of these answer?
A scope call, then a written scope and one fixed price against it. 20% of that price is held back until you accept the finished build, and the scope is yours to take elsewhere either way.
- Who reads it
- Alexandre Arnaud, Founder & Engineer. Not a coordinator, not an inbox.
- What happens
- A 20-minute call to pin the outcome, then a written scope and one fixed price against it.
- What it costs
- Nothing to get scoped and quoted. The quote is free and the scope is yours to take elsewhere.