The verdict in three sentences
For a Dubai group with 5 to 15 subsidiaries, a multi-site platform costs USD 45,000 to 135,000 in 2026 (roughly EUR 41,000 to 124,000) and ships in 4 to 7 months. The upfront premium over a single website is quickly absorbed: annual maintenance drops by 40 to 60% compared with ten independent sites built by different vendors. The heart of the project is a shared design system and a back office where each subsidiary publishes on its own, inside a frame that group communications controls.
Why Gulf groups are moving to multi-site
In many family groups and holdings across Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, each subsidiary built its website over the years: a WordPress site from a freelancer, a static site from an agency, sometimes just a LinkedIn page. The result is five slightly different logos, missing privacy notices, scattered hosting and maintenance invoices that pile up. The head of communications often discovers that no site is fully aligned with the UAE Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL).
A multi-site architecture reverses the logic: one technical core, one component library, one secure hosting stack, and separate editorial spaces per subsidiary. Each subsidiary keeps its own domain (for example subsidiary-logistics.ae), its content and its news, while brand, performance and security are managed at group level.
| Item | 10 independent sites | Multi-site platform |
|---|---|---|
| Total build cost | USD 70,000 to 150,000 | USD 45,000 to 135,000 |
| Annual maintenance | USD 22,000 to 38,000 | USD 11,000 to 19,000 |
| Hosting accounts to manage | 6 to 10 | 1 (single cluster) |
| Time to launch a new subsidiary | 6 to 10 weeks | 1 to 2 weeks |
| Brand consistency | Weak, checked by hand | Guaranteed by the design system |
| Security updates | Per site, often forgotten | Centralised, once for all |
Recommended architecture and what it costs
The typical core is a headless CMS (Sanity, Strapi or Payload) paired with a Next.js front end. One codebase serves every site and the subsidiary is detected from the domain name. The back office enforces per-subsidiary rights: the communications officer of the industrial subsidiary only sees their pages, while headquarters approves sensitive publications (financial announcements, hiring campaigns).
| Work package | Scope | 2026 price (USD, excl. VAT) | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scoping and audit of existing sites | Inventory, group sitemap, governance | 4,500 to 9,000 | 3 to 4 weeks |
| Shared design system | Web brand guide, 40 to 70 components, colour variants per subsidiary | 11,000 to 26,000 | 5 to 8 weeks |
| Group site (corporate showcase) | 20 to 40 pages, investor area, press | 9,000 to 22,500 | 6 to 8 weeks |
| Multi-site back office and rights | Roles, approval workflow, EN/AR multilingual | 11,000 to 34,000 | 6 to 10 weeks |
| Subsidiary rollout | 5 to 15 sites from templates | 1,100 to 3,000 per subsidiary | 1 to 2 weeks each |
| Hosting and maintenance | CDN, backups, monitoring, patches | 900 to 1,600 per month | Recurring |
Right-to-left (RTL) support for Arabic usually adds 10 to 15% to the design system package, because each component must be tested in both directions. It is an investment to make from day one: retrofitting it later costs twice as much.
The trade-offs that move the bill
Three choices drive the gap between USD 45,000 and 135,000. The first is the level of subsidiary autonomy: fixed templates cost far less than a free page builder. The second is the number of languages: English only, EN/AR or EN/AR/FR. The third is integrations: a careers form connected to an HRIS, a supplier area, news feeds pushed to social networks.
| Option | Budget impact | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed templates per page type | Baseline | Fits 80% of groups |
| Block-based page builder | +15 to 25% | If subsidiaries publish a lot |
| Third language (French) | +8 to 12% | If North or West African operations |
| Group careers portal | +USD 7,000 to 15,000 | Worth it above 50 hires per year |
| Investor area and reports | +USD 4,500 to 11,000 | For listed groups or groups raising capital |
Mini case study
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Layla, head of communications for a food and construction group in Dubai, manages 8 subsidiaries. Her 8 current sites cost USD 27,000 a year in maintenance and hosting, plus occasional redesigns (about USD 11,000 a year on average). She launches a multi-site platform at USD 82,000: core, EN/AR design system, group site and 8 subsidiaries.
Maintenance falls to USD 14,000 a year. Annual saving: 27,000 + 11,000 - 14,000 = USD 24,000. Payback arrives in just under 3.5 years, and each new subsidiary launches for about USD 1,900 instead of USD 9,000 for a standalone site.
FAQ
Can each subsidiary keep its own domain name?
Yes, the platform maps each domain (.ae or .com) to a dedicated space. Setup costs around USD 150 to 300 per domain, SSL certificate included.
How long until the first site goes live?
The group site is usually live between month 3 and month 5. Subsidiaries follow at one or two per week, bringing the full project to 4 to 7 months.
Can the platform be hosted in the UAE?
Yes, local hosting in a UAE cloud region is available to meet data residency expectations, with a CDN for delivery. Expect 15 to 30% more on hosting than a standard international cloud plan.
Who publishes content day to day?
Each subsidiary appoints one or two editors, trained in a single day. Headquarters approves sensitive content, which takes less than 24 hours on average with a well configured workflow.
Can we migrate content from the old sites?
Yes, automated migration recovers 70 to 90% of pages and news. The rest is rewritten or archived, for USD 2,000 to 7,000 depending on volume.
Let's scope your project. Send us the list of your subsidiaries and current sites and we will price the core, the design system and the per-subsidiary rollout, with an indicative budget and a week-by-week plan. 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.
