What makes a free zone cheapest
The cheapest free zone by entry price is cheapest for one year, while the decision commits you for several. You renew every year, hire on the zone's visa allocation, and build banking and contracts around it.
The setup fee against the five-year cost
The setup fee and the five-year cost rarely point at the same zone. Compare the five-year cost, because it carries every renewal.
Day one
What the headline shows
- The setup fee, paid once and quoted loudest.
- A starter visa limit that looks generous until you hire.
- A flexi-desk rate, before you read the renewal terms.
Five years
What actually decides it
- The renewal fee. Paid four more times. A low entry price with a higher renewal overtakes a pricier start before year five.
- The visa headroom. Grow past a lean limit and you pay for a larger desk, a new package, or a workaround.
- The banking fit. A zone that complicates an account carries a cost no price list shows, and it is the bank that decides it.
- The cost of being wrong. Moving means a fresh licence and a wind-down, a switching cost that can dwarf the saving that chose the zone.
When the cheaper zone costs more
A zone that wins on setup but renews higher, caps visas low and proves awkward for your bank loses the saving within a few renewals. One forced upgrade as the team grows, or one move to a better-fitting zone, and the lowest headline becomes the highest total.
A second setup What it takes to unwind the wrong zone. It commonly costs more than the setup saving it was meant to protect.
Your figure is case-specific. We set out the multi-year picture for your zones in a written scope before you commit.
We compare zones on multi-year cost and fit, and recommend the zone that stays cheapest and right for as long as you hold it.
We set out the renewal, visa headroom and banking fit before you commit, so the decision still holds in year five. The zones we work in are on the free zones page.
