The verdict in three sentences
A Dubai law firm advising foreign investors needs a bilingual Arabic and English website, often with French or Russian landing pages, built with a genuine right-to-left (RTL) layout rather than machine translation dropped onto a generic theme. With a local agency, budget 25,000 to 90,000 AED depending on page count, plus a 20 to 35% surcharge for Arabic and a separate legal translation budget. A realistic timeline is 7 weeks, provided a partner signs off every page against the professional conduct rules that apply to your licence.
What a bilingual law firm website costs in 2026
The first trap is comparing quotes that do not cover the same scope. A 10-page English site and a 30-page bilingual site with RTL templates are different projects, even if the design looks similar.
| Item | 2026 range (market estimate) | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| English-only brochure site, 10 to 12 pages, Dubai agency | 25,000 to 40,000 AED | Custom theme, contact form, basic SEO |
| Arabic and English site, 25 to 35 pages | 50,000 to 90,000 AED | Dedicated templates per language |
| Arabic RTL surcharge (mirroring, typography, testing) | +20 to 35% of design and build | Often missing from entry-level quotes |
| Legal translation into Arabic | 0.15 to 0.25 EUR per word | 20,000 words = 3,000 to 5,000 EUR |
| Review by an Arabic-speaking lawyer at the firm | 1 to 2 partner days | Internal cost, but essential |
| Hosting, backups and updates | 400 to 1,500 AED per month | Depends on host and support level |
| Kolonell option, Premium tier | 2,000,000 to 3,500,000 FCFA (3,050 to 5,340 EUR) | Bilingual, RTL, CMS editable by the firm |
RTL is more than right-aligned text. Navigation, arrows, breadcrumbs and forms must be mirrored, you need a readable Arabic typeface such as IBM Plex Sans Arabic or Noto Naskh Arabic, and bidirectional text must be handled: an Arabic page cites article numbers, Latin company names and amounts. Without mobile testing, brackets and numbers end up scrambled. That work is what justifies the 20 to 35% surcharge.
Pages per language and practice areas
A foreign investor reads English first, while a local family group or a government counterpart often reads Arabic. Not every page needs both languages on day one.
| Page or practice area | English | Arabic | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home and positioning | Yes | Yes | Entry point for every audience |
| Company setup: mainland versus free zone | Yes | Yes | Main inbound demand from investors |
| Corporate, mergers and acquisitions | Yes | Yes | High-value mandates |
| Commercial litigation and arbitration | Yes | Yes | Reassures foreign counterparties |
| Corporate tax (9% regime since 2023) and VAT | Yes | Yes | Recurring investor question |
| Employment and expatriate staff | Yes | Not at launch | Mostly English-speaking demand |
| Partner profiles (admissions, languages, background) | Yes | Yes | Number one selection criterion |
| Insights and legal updates | Yes | Partial | Build up over 12 months |
This split gives roughly 12 English pages and 11 Arabic pages, plus optional French or Russian landing pages. On 18,000 words of source content, plan for 15,000 to 18,000 words to translate.
Professional conduct: what the site may say
Legal advertising is regulated in the UAE. Keep the site informative: practice areas, languages, admissions, contact details. Avoid promises of outcome, comparisons with other firms, client names without written consent and published fee scales. Check the final version with your licensing authority, the Legal Affairs Department of the Government of Dubai for onshore firms or the DIFC registry for firms practising in the DIFC, before going live.
The contact form collects personal data: it must carry a notice consistent with the UAE Personal Data Protection Law (Federal Decree-Law 45 of 2021), or the DIFC Data Protection Law No. 5 of 2020 for DIFC firms, state the purpose and limit fields to name, email, phone and subject. Never ask for case documents through the form.
Typical 7-week plan: week 1, sitemap and content inventory; weeks 2 and 3, English and Arabic mock-ups; weeks 3 to 5, build and copywriting; weeks 4 to 6, translation and partner review; week 7, RTL testing on mobile, compliance sign-off and launch.
Mini case study
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Omar, managing partner of a 9-lawyer firm in Dubai (illustrative example), targets European and Asian investors. He picks a 30-page site at 70,000 AED, RTL included, and 17,000 translated words at 0.20 EUR, which is 3,400 EUR or roughly 13,600 AED. Total budget: about 83,600 AED.
Conservative assumption: the site brings 2 qualified enquiries a month, and one in six converts into an average mandate of 60,000 AED in fees. That is 4 mandates a year, or 240,000 AED. The site pays for itself in about four months, and still in under a year if the real conversion rate is half as high.
FAQ
Do we really need Arabic at launch if our clients are foreign investors?
For key pages, yes: local partners, family groups and authorities check the Arabic version. You can launch with 10 Arabic pages and add Arabic insights over 12 months.
Can we use machine translation for Arabic?
For a first draft, yes, but review by an Arabic-speaking lawyer is mandatory. A terminology error on a corporate law page costs more than the 0.15 to 0.25 EUR per word of professional translation.
How long until the site is live?
Allow 7 weeks for 25 to 35 bilingual pages. The bottleneck is almost always partner availability for reviews, not development.
Can we list client references?
Only with written client consent and without presenting any result as guaranteed. Many firms describe deal types instead, for example a 40 million USD acquisition in logistics, without naming parties.
What monthly budget should we plan after delivery?
Between 400 and 1,500 AED a month for hosting and updates with a local agency. At Kolonell, maintenance runs from 35,000 to 120,000 FCFA a month (50 to 180 EUR) depending on support level.
Let's scope your project. Send us your practice areas and target languages: we will price a bilingual RTL site on the Kolonell Premium tier of 2,000,000 to 3,500,000 FCFA (3,050 to 5,340 EUR), delivered in 7 weeks. Detailed quote within 48 h. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.
