Branding cost in Dubai: logo, identity and strategy
A logo is a signature. An identity is a wardrobe. A strategy is the reason anyone recognises either. The published prices follow that split.
Short answer: logo design charges in Dubai are not branding cost Dubai. Husbar says a logo is typically AED 2,000 to AED 8,000, a visual identity AED 8,000 to AED 25,000, and strategy plus identity AED 25,000 to AED 60,000 or more. Branding Tatva gathers a wider published spread and says those figures are the firms' own, not an independent survey. None of them is a rate from this studio.
The expensive confusion is linguistic. Someone asks for a logo and means a system that can survive a sign, a menu, a uniform and an Arabic wordmark. Someone else asks for branding and is handed a file of initials. This page separates the three, then adds the only number here that comes from a government document: the UAE trademark fees in Cabinet Decision No. 20 of 2020. The work those fees sit beside is branding in Dubai, brand identity and brand strategy.
What are logo design charges in Dubai?
Husbar's table, published on its site, puts a logo-only package at AED 2,000 to AED 8,000, usually two or three concepts, revisions and final files. Branding Tatva, writing on 4 October 2026, says firms that publish prices place a logo alone at roughly AED 500 to AED 10,000, and that a logo from freelancers and small studios is often described in a band of about AED 2,000 to AED 10,000. Tatva says the floor of that range is what design platforms publish, and the rest is what studios print. Both pages are asking prices and commentary, not a census.
A logo-only price stops at the mark. Husbar says naming, packaging, Arabic versions and websites are usually extra. Tatva's point is the same: a logo leaves out positioning, messaging and, usually, the Arabic lettering. If the quote cannot name those omissions, it is not a small logo. It is an unfinished identity.
What is the difference between a logo, an identity and a strategy?
Husbar's image is the cleanest. The logo is a signature. The identity is how someone dresses and speaks. The brand is what people say when that person has left the room. Design expresses a position. It does not invent one.
- Logo. A mark that still reads at the size of a cup and the size of a shutter. Files you can actually use.
- Identity. The mark, the colours, the type, the templates and the rules, so the next person does not invent a second brand by accident. Husbar prices that band at AED 8,000 to AED 25,000.
- Strategy. Who it is for, why it is chosen, and the sentences people repeat. Husbar prices strategy plus identity at AED 25,000 to AED 60,000 or more, and says the strategy is the valuable part because a beautiful mark cannot rescue an unclear offer.
Branding Tatva describes the same split as the largest gap between two quotes. One price covers a logo and colours. The other also covers who the business is for. Tatva says published 2026 guides place a freelancer's starter identity at about AED 5,000 to AED 15,000, a studio identity for a small or medium business at about AED 15,000 to AED 40,000, and a full rebrand at about AED 40,000 to AED 150,000 and above. Tatva attributes those bands to the firms that printed them, including guides from Carril, Streetlevel and 247 Agency, and says no independent survey of Dubai branding prices was found.
Equinode presents four bands as published UAE rates, and says they are not Equinode's rate card: logo and basics AED 2,000 to AED 10,000, a core identity AED 10,000 to AED 25,000, strategy plus identity AED 25,000 to AED 60,000, and multi-market work AED 60,000 to AED 150,000 or more. Set Husbar, Tatva and Equinode next to each other and the middle of the map rhymes. The edges do not. That is what published guides do.
What does Branding Tatva say it charges?
Separate from the map of other people's pages, Branding Tatva publishes its own starting fees in US dollars. The Foundation engagement starts at US$2,800, which Tatva converts to about AED 10,300 at the peg it states, AED 3.6725 to the dollar. Tatva also lists a Full Brand System from US$6,500 (about AED 23,900 on that peg) and a monthly partnership from US$1,500 (about AED 5,500). Those conversions are Tatva's. The final fee, Tatva says, is set in a written proposal. They are not a Dubai average, and they are not ours.
What are the official UAE trademark fees?
Design fees and government fees are different bills. The figures below are from Cabinet Decision No. 20 of 2020, the PDF hosted on the Ministry of Economy and Tourism website, checked on 13 Oct 2026. They are fees in that decision, not a studio's quote.
- Item 32. Filing a request to register a trademark, or a group of trademarks, for goods, products or services belonging to one category: AED 750.
- Item 33. Registering that trademark for one category: AED 5,000.
- Item 46. Publication of a trademark in the trademark bulletin: AED 750.
Filing and registration are priced per category in those rows. The publication line is stated as AED 750. It does not, in the row itself, repeat the words "one category", so this page does not stretch it into a per-class claim the line does not make. Equinode summarises the same three amounts as official Ministry fees and describes the total as roughly AED 6,500 per class before any legal representative's fee. Use Equinode as a secondary reading. The decision is the source.
One practical limit. On 13 Oct 2026 the Ministry's HTML service card at the usual register-trademark address returned "not found", and the same address with a trailing space did not load. The PDF on moet.gov.ae did load. Re-check the live service card before you file, in case a later decision has changed a figure. This is a reading of a fee table, not legal advice. A representative's fee, if you use one, is theirs to quote.
The naming checks that sit in front of a filing are covered in how to choose a name you can own. Run them before the guidelines are printed.
Does Arabic change the branding cost?
Often, yes, and the reason is drawing, not a font menu. An Arabic wordmark is a second piece of lettering. It has to carry the same weight as the Latin mark under different rules. Layouts then have to live right to left. Tatva says one Dubai studio puts Arabic-and-English work at 15 to 25 percent more, and Tatva tells the reader to treat that percentage as a prompt to ask, not as a law. Husbar lists Arabic versions as usually extra. Equinode's version of the same warning is that retrofitting Arabic after the English system is locked costs more and usually looks like a compromise.
Dubai signage is where a Latin-only identity gets caught. If the mark has to live on a permitted sign, ask whether the Arabic lettering is in the quote, and who draws it. The longer treatment is the identity guide.
How do you compare two branding quotes?
Make them answer Tatva's five questions in the same words. Does the price include positioning, or does design start from a brief you already wrote? Who does the thinking, and will that person be in the room? Is Arabic drawn, or swapped? Which source files do you receive? How many rounds are in the number?
Husbar's brief is a good one to steal: who the best customers are, three competitors, every surface the brand must survive, the languages, and a budget and a date. A quote that arrives before that conversation is pricing a signature, not a brand.
Choosing who to trust with the work is a separate question from the price bands. The guide on how to choose a branding partner in Dubai stays on that, whoever you hire.
Key takeaways
- Husbar's split is the one to remember: logo, then identity, then strategy plus identity, at AED 2,000 to 8,000, 8,000 to 25,000, and 25,000 to 60,000 or more, on Husbar's page.
- Branding Tatva says the published bands are the firms' own figures, and that no independent survey was found.
- Cabinet Decision No. 20 of 2020 lists AED 750 to file and AED 5,000 to register, per category, and AED 750 to publish in the trademark bulletin.
- This page does not carry a branding rate of our own.
Written by Allen Antony James, Co-founder of Storytellers, a storyteller-first studio based in Dubai, telling stories worldwide. Want help putting this into practice? See Branding in Dubai or tell us about your business.
Sources
Every claim in this guide links to its source. All sources were checked on 13 Oct 2026.