The verdict in three sentences
For a corporate law firm in Dubai advising Gulf groups, European investors and French-speaking North and West African clients, an Arabic, English and French website is not a luxury: it is what gets you taken seriously from the first search. UAE agencies charge roughly AED 25,000 to 50,000 for a bilingual Arabic and English site and AED 40,000 to 80,000 for a trilingual build with proper right-to-left layout, before legal translation at AED 0.30 to 0.50 per word and two rounds of review. The most underestimated line is not development but the quality of the Arabic and French copy, which carries the firm's credibility.
What a trilingual website costs in the UAE
The gap between bilingual and trilingual is not only the extra language. Arabic requires a mirrored (RTL) layout: menus, alignment, directional icons, forms and tables must be designed both ways. An agency that drops translated text into an English template produces an Arabic site that looks patched together, and a general counsel in Riyadh or Doha notices at once. Adding French then means a third set of copy to keep consistent.
| Item | Bilingual AR/EN | Trilingual AR/EN/FR with RTL |
|---|---|---|
| Agency design and build | AED 25,000 to 50,000 | AED 40,000 to 80,000 |
| Time to launch | 5 to 7 weeks | 6 to 10 weeks |
| Templates to design | Both reading directions | Both directions, three content sets |
| Fonts | Latin + Arabic family | Latin + Arabic family, French diacritics checked |
| Legal translation (12,000 source words) | AED 3,600 to 6,000 | AED 7,200 to 12,000 |
| Review by a native-speaking lawyer | 1 language | 2 languages |
| Editorial upkeep | Each article published twice | Each article published three times |
Agency figures are 2026 orders of magnitude seen in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Freelancers go lower, but rarely with real RTL expertise.
At Kolonell, the starting point is the website grid: Starter 800,000 to 1,200,000 FCFA (1,220 to 1,830 EUR), Growth 1,200,000 to 2,000,000 FCFA (1,830 to 3,050 EUR), Premium 2,000,000 to 3,500,000 FCFA (3,050 to 5,340 EUR). The number of languages, the Arabic layout and translation coordination are quoted separately, because they depend on page volume and the share of legal content.
Translation and two-step review: the real budget
A corporate law firm site typically holds 12,000 words in English: firm overview, practice areas (corporate, M&A, arbitration, tax, employment), partner profiles, publications. Every technical term must be exact in all three languages: "shareholders' agreement", "arbitration clause" or "transfer of a going concern" leave no room for approximation.
| Step | Volume | 2026 market rate | Budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legal translation into Arabic | 12,000 words | AED 0.30 to 0.50 per word | AED 3,600 to 6,000 |
| Legal translation into French | 12,000 words | AED 0.30 to 0.50 per word | AED 3,600 to 6,000 |
| Review by an Arabic-speaking lawyer | 8 to 12 hours | AED 500 to 900 per hour | AED 4,000 to 10,800 |
| Review by a French-speaking lawyer | 8 to 12 hours | AED 500 to 900 per hour | AED 4,000 to 10,800 |
| Final sign-off by the responsible partner | 4 to 6 hours | Internal time | Not billed |
| Total translation and review | AED 15,200 to 33,600 |
One point often missed: the site's Arabic should be Modern Standard Arabic in a legal register, readable by a Gulf reader and a Moroccan reader alike. Strongly dialectal turns of phrase should be avoided.
Multilingual SEO: hreflang and sitemaps
A badly configured trilingual site competes with itself in Google. Three technical rules prevent it: a distinct URL per language (/ar/, /en/, /fr/), reciprocal hreflang tags on every page with an x-default version, and one sitemap per language submitted in Search Console. Arabic pages must carry dir="rtl" and the correct lang attribute, otherwise screen readers and search engines misread them.
On compliance, the contact form collects personal data: the UAE Personal Data Protection Law applies, or the DIFC or ADGM data protection regimes if the firm is licensed there. Lawyer marketing is also regulated: keep the site factual and informative, without solicitation or promises of outcome.
Mini case study
Need a professional website?
Kolonell builds websites that attract clients, optimized for the Sénégalese market. Free quote in 2 minutes.
Omar, managing partner of a six-lawyer corporate firm in Dubai, wants to win mandates from Moroccan, Senegalese and Ivorian groups expanding into the Gulf. He budgets a trilingual agency build at AED 60,000, translation at AED 0.40 per word on 24,000 words (AED 9,600) and 20 hours of review at AED 700 (AED 14,000). Total: AED 83,600.
A single market-entry mandate for one of those groups brings the firm around AED 150,000 in fees. The site is therefore covered by 0.56 of a mandate. Even with just one new file a year coming from the website, the three-year return is more than five times the initial outlay.
FAQ
Can we launch in Arabic and English and add French later?
Yes, provided the site is built for three languages from day one. Adding a language to a site not designed for it often costs 40 to 60% of the original price, against 15 to 25% if it was planned.
Is machine translation enough for legal Arabic or French?
Not for published pages. It can produce a first draft, but a native-speaking lawyer must review each page: 8 to 12 hours per 12,000 words remain essential.
How long does the whole project take?
6 to 10 weeks for a trilingual site, including 2 to 3 weeks of translation and review run in parallel with development.
Should we use a .ae or a .com domain?
The .ae reassures local clients, the .com suits international ones. Many firms keep both, one redirecting to the other, for a few hundred dirhams a year in total.
How do we publish news without tripling the work?
Set an editorial rule: in-depth publications go out in all three languages, short local updates in Arabic and English only. That cuts annual translation volume by roughly 40%.
Let's scope your project. A trilingual Arabic, English and French website with right-to-left layout and a legal review workflow can be scoped in one call and launched in 6 to 10 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.
