The independent free zone around Al Maktoum Airport, built for logistics, trading, aviation and e-commerce. Fallback gets you licensed here in about a week, 100% owned, flexi-desk to start. Then we build your tech AI-native from day one and put our agents to work on marketing, growth and operations.
Dubai South is its own free zone, run by its own authority, built around Al Maktoum Airport (DWC) and sitting next to Jebel Ali. It runs on a civil-law framework and covers logistics, aviation, e-commerce, exhibitions, humanitarian work and trading, with 1,331 licensed activities in total. Trading is the largest group.
It fits founders who move physical goods or want to sit close to the airport and the port. As a designated customs zone, it is set up for import, export and re-export. Costs land in the budget-to-mid band, so you are not paying a premium name for the address.
Two things to know going in. Selling into the UAE mainland is indirect here, so you work through a distributor or agent. And 0% corporate tax is possible through QFZP status, but only if you qualify and pass the audit, never by default.
100%
Foreign ownership
You own it outright, no local partner.
~1 week
Setup time
Flexi-desk
Minimum presence
Scale up to office, warehouse, or land.
Indirect
Mainland trade
Needs a mainland distributor or agent.
0% via QFZP
Corporate tax
If you qualify and pass an audit.
1,331
Licensed activities
Trading is the largest group.
By category
A few real examples
489 of the 1,331 activities need a third-party approval before you can trade, from authorities like Dubai Municipality, the UAE Media Council, the RTA, Dubai Sports Council, or the Central Bank. If your activity is one of them, we will tell you which approval you need, and roughly what it involves, before you pay for anything.
Dubai South companies can qualify for QFZP status, the Qualifying Free Zone Person status that carries 0% corporate tax, if you meet the conditions set for it. It is not automatic and it is not a given. Keeping that status requires an audit, so treat 0% as something you qualify for and maintain, not a perk that arrives with your licence.
If tax treatment is central to your decision, tell us your activity and how you plan to trade, and we will walk you through whether QFZP realistically applies to you.
It fits you if
It might not be your best fit if
Not sure Dubai South is your best fit?
Tell us what you are building. If another zone suits you better, we will say so honestly and point you there. If Dubai South is right, you can move straight to setup.
A basic trade licence with a flexi-desk and 100% ownership starts around AED 12,500. A small company with one visa typically lands near AED 15,000 to 20,000 a year. These are current market figures, not our quote. Dubai South does not publish one fixed price, so your real number comes down to four things.
Tell us your activity and visa count and we will source current Dubai South pricing and give you a real, itemised quote. No fake headline, no guessing.
Get my Dubai South quoteCompanies set up before 2022 are now paying to fix their tech. What worked then looks old after the rise of AI, and they are spending real money trying to retrofit systems that were never built for it. You are not carrying that weight.
When we establish your Dubai South company, we also build the tech the business actually runs on, wired into our department brains and agents from the first day. Your systems and your operators work together because they were built together, not bolted on two years later.
You start where older firms are trying to get back to.
A Fallback agent gets its skill from something real. Each one is built on years of research, the industry-leading books in its field, and the input of people who actually do the work, so a marketing agent understands marketing and a growth agent understands growth.
They run across the business, marketing, growth, operations and more, on the same tech we built for you. Nothing is stitched together after the fact. The agents already know your setup because they helped run it from the start.
This is what turns a new licence into a working company.
Establishing through Fallback connects you to other founders who set up the same way, so you learn from people a few steps ahead instead of guessing in isolation.
It also opens the door to vetted experts and mentors, real people in the fields that matter to your business, on hand when a decision is bigger than a quick answer.
Tell us your idea or your activity
Not sure which activity or structure fits? Our idea validator recommends a jurisdiction and licence for what you are actually building.
We confirm the details
Activity, any third-party approval, workspace, visas, and whether QFZP is realistic for you.
You choose your route
Move fast with an instant trade licence and self-serve checkout, or speak with an expert first on a live call.
We source pricing and set it up
We source current Dubai South pricing and give you an itemised quote. Setup runs about a week once everything is in.
Not directly. Trade with the mainland is indirect, so you would appoint a mainland-registered distributor or agent to sell there. For exporting, re-exporting, and international or online sales, you are fine to trade directly.
You can, through QFZP status, if you meet the conditions for it. It is not automatic, and holding the status requires an audit. If tax is your main driver, we will check whether it genuinely applies to your activity before you decide.
About a week once your details and any required approvals are in place.
Partly. Some steps can be handled remotely, but not all, so expect at least some to need you or a representative here.
Dubai South does not publish one fixed price. As a guide, a basic trade licence with a flexi-desk and 100% ownership starts around AED 12,500, and a small company with one visa is typically AED 15,000 to 20,000 a year. Those are current market figures, not our quote. Your real number depends on your activity, workspace, visa count, and any third-party approvals, so we source current pricing and send an itemised quote.
The minimum is a flexi-desk, which keeps your starting cost down. You can move up to a private office, warehouse, or land as you grow, which is one of the real advantages of this zone.
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ReadTell us what you are building. If Dubai South fits, we will set it up in about a week, then build your tech and put the agents to work. If it does not, we will point you somewhere better.
