The verdict in three sentences
A MENA group headquartered in London, with subsidiaries in North Africa and the Gulf, must speak to three audiences with one site: international investors, French-speaking partners in the Maghreb and Arabic-speaking institutions. A trilingual EN/FR/AR website with proper right-to-left (RTL) handling costs 30,000 to 80,000 GBP in 2026, with a 20 to 35 % premium on front-end work for Arabic. Budgets rarely go wrong on development: they go wrong on an Arabic version that is poorly typeset, poorly indexed or never approved by the subsidiaries.
Why Arabic is more than a translation
The corporate communications team of a MENA group (industry, logistics, real estate, energy) often learns late that the Arabic version requires a full mirror of the layout: menus, arrows, carousels, tables, forms and charts flip. Numbers usually stay in Western digits, product names and technical references can stay in Latin script, and Arabic typography needs fonts designed for screens with more generous line height. A site simply flipped by an automatic stylesheet looks amateurish to Gulf partners.
| Technical point | EN/FR version | AR version | Indicative 2026 premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Layout | Left to right | Full RTL mirror, CSS logical properties | 15 to 25 % of front-end |
| Typography | Standard Latin font | Screen Arabic font (Noto, IBM Plex Arabic, Tajawal), adjusted line height | 1,000 to 3,000 GBP |
| Icons | Standard | Flip directional arrows only | Included if planned |
| Forms | Standard | RTL fields, mixed Arabic and Latin input | 800 to 2,500 GBP |
| Downloadable PDFs (brochures, reports) | Native layout | Dedicated Arabic layout | 600 to 2,000 GBP per document |
| QA | Common browsers | RTL testing on Android and iOS | 5 to 10 % of budget |
Budget for a trilingual corporate website in London in 2026
Translation is often the forgotten line. A corporate site of 25 to 40 pages holds 15,000 to 30,000 words per language. At 0.10 to 0.20 GBP per word for reviewed professional translation (the upper end for technical and legal content), expect 3,000 to 12,000 GBP for the two target languages.
| Item | 2026 range (GBP) | Indicative timeline | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strategy, sitemap and design | 5,000 to 12,000 | 3 to 4 weeks | Group, subsidiaries, investors, careers |
| Development and multilingual CMS | 12,000 to 32,000 | 6 to 9 weeks | Language management per page |
| RTL premium (20 to 35 % of front-end) | 3,000 to 10,000 | Within the plan | If planned from the design stage |
| Professional FR and AR translation | 3,000 to 12,000 | 3 to 5 weeks | 0.10 to 0.20 GBP per word |
| Multilingual SEO and hreflang | 2,500 to 6,000 | 2 weeks | URLs per language, sitemap, tags |
| Content approval by country and subsidiary | 2,000 to 5,000 | 2 to 3 weeks | Review workflow |
| Training and acceptance testing | 1,500 to 3,000 | 1 week | Two sessions |
| Total project | 30,000 to 80,000 | 12 to 16 weeks | Excluding hosting |
For comparison, an agency in Algiers or Casablanca quotes the same scope for a fraction of the price, roughly 8,000 to 25,000 GBP equivalent. The gap often justifies a team with in-house Arabic skills, provided you ask for live RTL references you can test on your phone.
Hreflang SEO and content governance
Each language needs its own URL (/en/, /fr/, /ar/), reciprocal hreflang tags and a sitemap that declares them. The classic mistake is translating pages without translating metadata, so the Arabic version never appears in Arabic search results. Governance matters just as much: define who approves the Arabic version (export director, Gulf subsidiary, legal counsel) and within what deadline, or Arabic pages fall 3 to 6 months behind the EN and FR versions.
Mini case study
Layla, head of corporate communications at a London-based building materials group (4 subsidiaries, exports to 9 countries), receives a quote of 62,000 GBP for a 35-page trilingual site, including 9,000 GBP of RTL premium and 7,200 GBP of translation (2 x 24,000 words at 0.15 GBP). The old bilingual site generated 6 export inquiries a month. After launching the Arabic version and a revised French one, she counts 15 inquiries a month, 5 of them from the Gulf and Libya. If one inquiry in 10 becomes a contract with 45,000 GBP of margin, the 9 extra inquiries represent about 40,500 GBP of expected monthly margin, which covers the project in under 2 months.
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FAQ
Should Arabic be planned at the design stage or added later?
At the design stage. Adding RTL afterwards costs 40 to 60 % more than planning it, because many components must be rewritten.
Can we use machine translation for the Arabic version?
For an internal draft yes, for publication no. Reviewed professional translation costs 0.10 to 0.20 GBP per word and avoids technical terminology errors that undermine credibility.
Which CMS suits a trilingual site with Arabic?
A CMS that manages language per page and text direction per language, with an approval workflow. Expect 12,000 to 32,000 GBP of development depending on templates and subsidiaries.
How do we check an agency really masters RTL?
Ask for 2 to 3 live Arabic sites and test them on mobile: flipped menu, forms, tables and carousels. A site that fails this 5-minute test is not a valid reference.
Is hreflang enough to rank in Gulf countries?
No, it only ensures Google shows the right language. Ranking requires content written for real Arabic search queries and 3 to 6 months of consistent SEO work.
Let's scope your project. Tell us the number of pages, subsidiaries and target countries: we will scope the trilingual site, RTL premium, translation and a 12 to 16 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.
