Honest UAE Business Setup

The setup industry runs on hidden commissions. We don't.

Calvera Consulting helps founders launch their UAE business with honest advice, transparent pricing, and the structure that actually fits their goals, not whatever earns their consultant the highest commission from a free zone.

12+ years inside the industry 2,500+ companies launched 0 hidden commissions

Every day, serious founders walk into setup consultancies looking for honest advice. They want to know which structure fits their business. They want the real numbers. They want someone to tell them the truth.

Instead, they get a sales pitch. Pushed toward whichever free zone pays the highest referral fee. Hidden costs that surface months after the contract is signed. Bank account complications they were never warned about. This is the industry we built Calvera to replace.
01
Honest Recommendations

If a free zone is wrong for your business, we say so, even when recommending it would earn us more. If a competitor is genuinely better for your situation, we'll send you to them.

02
Transparent Pricing

Every quote is fully itemized before you sign. Every fee is explained with a reason. No "from AED X" ambiguity, you know the total before anything moves forward.

03
Real Expertise

12+ years inside the UAE setup industry. We've seen every edge case, every complication. You get judgment built from thousands of real setups, not a pitch deck and a phone script.

04
Disclosed Commissions

Other consultancies hide their free zone arrangements. We name ours. If we have a referral relationship, you know about it before we make any recommendation. Full stop.

0+
Years Inside the Industry
0+
Companies Launched
0%
Fee Transparency
AED 0
Hidden Fees. Ever.
How We Work

Three ways to work
with Calvera.

Every package is fully itemized before you sign. Choose the level of support that fits your situation, no upsell, no pressure.

◇
Strategy Session

A complete 60–90 minute advisory. We map your business, your goals, your visa needs, and give you a specific, honest recommendation, free zone vs. mainland, which jurisdiction, which activities, with a full cost breakdown. No upsell. If you proceed with setup, the fee is credited 100%.

AED 500 · credited 100% against setup
◈
Calvera Essential

License selection and registration, activity consultation, government fee processing, and one year of compliance reminders. For founders who know what they want and need expert execution from someone who's done this hundreds of times, without a visa.

From AED 12,000 · fully itemized
◉
Calvera Plus

Everything in Essential, plus: one residence visa, bank account opening support, bank meeting accompaniment, establishment card, and 6 months of WhatsApp advisory. For founders relocating to the UAE or who want the full first chapter handled cleanly, in one place.

From AED 24,000 · fully itemized
✦
Calvera Custom

Multi-visa setups, teams, complex activity structures, mainland operations, regulated industries, and long-term advisory relationships. Fully scoped. Fully transparent. For founders whose situation doesn't fit a package, and who want a partner for the long run, not just the paperwork.

Scoped per project · no hidden line items
Start with a Free Call Ask a Question →
Cost Estimator

Your setup cost, itemized.

Answer four questions and see a realistic breakdown, the same line items we put in real proposals. No email required to see the number. That's the point.

01 · Residence visas
How many people need a UAE residence visa under this company?
02 · Timeline
When are you planning to start?
Estimated breakdown, Dubai free zone
Estimated totalAED 12,500
Year-2 renewal AED 12,500, same price, no surprises

Typical Dubai free zone rates, mid-2026, for standard (non-regulated) activities. Emirates ID fees are additional and itemized in your proposal, as is Calvera's service fee, quoted separately, line by line. This is the transparent baseline no one else shows you; exact figures confirmed before you sign anything.

Get the Exact Quote, Free Call Send via WhatsApp →
Want this in writing? Get your breakdown plus our full 2026 Dubai price sheet, free, no obligation.
Company Name Check

Will your name pass?

Type your desired company name for an instant pre-screen against the UAE's official naming rules. Honest heads-up: final availability is confirmed by the free zone or DED authority, not by any website. We'll do that check for you, free.

Enter the distinctive part of the name. The legal ending (LLC, FZ-LLC, FZE) is added at registration.
Why Calvera Exists
"We trained the people who did this.
We built the scripts that made it work.
Eventually, we couldn't anymore."

The team behind Calvera spent 12+ years inside the UAE business setup industry, managing sales teams, building advisor training programs, and guiding thousands of founders through the process of launching their companies in the UAE.

The pattern repeated itself every week. Founders walking in trusting they'd receive honest advice. Walking out with setups designed around a consultant's commission structure rather than their business. Hidden fees surfacing months later. Free zones that didn't fit their operations. Visa packages purchased for capacity they'd never use. Banking complications they were never warned about.

Calvera Consulting is the firm that should have existed. Same expertise. Same network. Same access to every free zone in the country. Built around one principle: tell founders the truth, even when it costs you the deal.

The name comes from roots meaning "clear truth." That is the entire promise of this firm.

The Calvera Team
Talk to Us Directly
C
Calvera Consulting
UAE Business Setup Advisory · Dubai Downtown, UAE
Honesty over commission. If a free zone is wrong for you, we say so, even when recommending it would earn us more.
Transparency over confusion. Every quote is itemized. Every recommendation has a reason you can verify.
Expertise over salesmanship. We've done this hundreds of times. You get the answer that actually fits.
Partnership over transaction. Most clients return for visas, renewals, and expansions for years. That's the relationship we're building.
Disclosed arrangements. We name every free zone referral relationship we hold, before we make any recommendation.
What We Stand For

Our compass, in plain words.

Our Mission

To make UAE business setup honest: every fee itemized before signature, every commission disclosed before recommendation, every structure built for the founder, not for the consultant's margin.

Our Vision

An industry where founders never have to wonder whether their advisor is telling the truth. We intend to make transparency the standard, one setup at a time, until the hidden-commission model dies out.

The Process

From first call to
trading company in
4 to 6 days.

A clear process with no black boxes. You know what's happening, why it's happening, and what it costs at every stage.

Start the Process →
Step 01
Free Discovery Call, 15 Minutes

We hear your business, your goals, and your timeline. We tell you whether Calvera is the right fit, and if not, who is. No pitch. No commitment.

Step 02
Strategy Session, AED 500

A complete 60–90 minute advisory. We deliver a specific recommendation: free zone vs. mainland, which jurisdiction, which license type, with a full itemized cost breakdown. Credited 100% if you proceed with setup.

Step 03
Proposal & Agreement

A fully itemized proposal, every government fee, every service charge, every timeline milestone. You see the total before anything is signed. No "from AED X" ambiguity.

Step 04
License & Registration

We handle submission, approvals, and the back-and-forth with the free zone or DED. You receive updates at every stage. Typical license issuance: 4–6 days from submission.

Step 05
Visa & Banking (Plus & Custom)

Residence visa processing, medical, Emirates ID, and bank account support, including attending your bank meeting. We set honest expectations. No false guarantees on bank approval. Anyone who gives you one is misleading you.

Step 06
Handover & Ongoing Access

Your license, visa, and banking documents, organized and explained. Plus WhatsApp access for follow-up questions, renewal reminders, and ongoing advisory as your business grows.

Client Voices

From founders like you.

Real conversations, real setups, real outcomes. This is what working with Calvera feels like.

“

Two other consultants quoted me a "package" with no breakdown. Calvera sent an itemized sheet, every government fee listed, every service charge explained. The final invoice matched it to the dirham.

A
Ahmed R.
E-commerce founder · United Kingdom
“

They told me the free zone I'd already decided on was wrong for my activity, and recommended a cheaper one. A consultant talking me out of the more expensive option was a first.

E
Elena K.
Marketing consultancy · Germany
“

License in five days, visa stamped, and they sat next to me in the bank meeting. Every question I asked on WhatsApp got a straight answer, even the ones other firms dodge.

O
Omar S.
Trading company · Egypt
“

I asked directly: "Do you get commission from this zone?" They answered directly, told me exactly which arrangements they hold before making any recommendation. That's when I signed.

S
Sofia M.
Tech startup · Italy
Common Questions

Asked often. Answered straight.

These are the questions founders ask us most. We answer them the same way we answer everything: directly, without a sales agenda, and with the nuance the question deserves.

If yours isn't here, ask us directly.

Most setup consultancies operate on hidden referral commissions from free zones, meaning their advice is shaped by which option pays them most, not by what fits your business. Calvera was built specifically to remove that conflict of interest. We tell you which setup is right for you, we itemize every fee before you sign, and we disclose every referral arrangement we hold. If a competitor is genuinely better for your situation, we'll say so.
It depends on three things: who your customers are, what activities you'll perform, and your visa needs. Free zones are typically better for international trade, e-commerce, media, technology, and consulting with overseas clients. Mainland is often necessary for selling directly to UAE-based businesses, retail, government contracts, and regulated activities. There's no universal answer, which is why we spend 90 minutes in the strategy session mapping your specific situation before making any recommendation.
The free 15-minute call is a discovery conversation, we understand your business, your goals, and your timeline, and we tell you honestly whether Calvera is a fit. The AED 500 strategy session is a complete advisory deliverable: a 60–90 minute session where we give you a specific recommendation with jurisdiction, license type, activities, and a full itemized cost breakdown. If you proceed with a setup package, the AED 500 is credited 100% toward your fee, so it's effectively free if you move forward.
No, and any consultant who makes that guarantee is misleading you. UAE banks have their own approval criteria and have become significantly stricter since 2022. What we can do is prepare your application properly, select a free zone with strong banking relationships, coach you on the bank interview, and attend your bank meeting with you. We set realistic expectations. We will not promise you something we cannot control.
No. Every package comes with a fully itemized quote before you sign, every government fee, every service charge, every third-party cost is listed. The "From AED X" starting prices on our site reflect the minimum for the simplest configuration. Your actual quote may vary based on your free zone, activities, and visa needs. All of that is explained line-by-line in your proposal before anything is signed.
License issuance typically takes 4–6 days after submission, depending on the free zone and activity type. Visa processing and bank account support run in parallel, so a complete setup, license, residence visa, and banking, typically takes 1–2 weeks end-to-end. Complex activities, regulated industries, or additional compliance checks can extend this, and we tell you upfront when they will.
We disclose every referral arrangement we hold before making any recommendation. In cases where a referral fee exists, we tell you upfront, and you decide whether that affects your confidence in our advice. Our business model is built on client fees, not zone commissions, which means we are financially indifferent to which free zone you choose. That is the foundation of why our recommendations can be trusted.
Insights

Read this before you sign anywhere.

The same advice we give on paid calls, free. Real costs, real comparisons, no commission bias.

Radical Transparency
What a Dubai business license actually costs in 2026

The four cost layers of every setup, why "from AED 5,750" is never your price, and the 60-second test that exposes an incomplete quote.

Read the guide →
Founder's Compass
Free zone or mainland? Wrong question.

The generic pros-and-cons table is a decade out of date. Three questions, customers, activities, visas, decide this.

Read the guide →
Free Zone Comparison
IFZA vs Meydan: an honest comparison for 2026

Costs, visas, offices, banking, compared by consultants who disclose their arrangements and don't care which one you pick.

Read the guide →
The Truth About Banking
Why UAE bank accounts get rejected, and how to prepare

No one can guarantee approval, anyone who does is misleading you. What compliance actually checks in your file.

Read the guide →
All guides →
The Second Opinion

Already have a quote from someone else?

Send it to us. We'll review it line by line and tell you what's fair, what's inflated, and what's quietly missing, free, with no obligation, even if you never set up with us. Consider it a sanity check before you sign anything.

No obligation. No sales pitch. Just a straight read of the numbers.

Get in Touch

Fifteen minutes that could
save you thousands.

Book a free 15-minute call, or send a message. You'll get a direct answer, even if that answer is that we're not the right fit for your situation.

Email founder@calveraconsulting.com
WhatsApp +971 50 991 61 71
Location Dubai Downtown, UAE
Book 15-min free discovery call →
Book Free Call WhatsApp