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How to choose a Shopify development company in Dubai: questions to ask and what a fair proposal contains

A step-by-step way to choose a Shopify company in Dubai: verify the license and VAT details, check live stores, ask the right questions and read the proposal.

ESTASOFT
11 min read
Checklist cover for choosing a Shopify development company in Dubai: who does the work, license and VAT, live stores, the proposal and red flags.
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      When you choose a Shopify development company in Dubai, the pitches can sound alike and the quotes are hard to compare. It is also hard to tell who will still answer your messages after launch. You need checks you can run yourself.

      This guide gives you those checks in order: who you can hire, how to confirm a Dubai company is real, how to read a portfolio, what to ask, what a fair proposal contains and which warning signs to stop on. Our article with seven questions to ask before hiring a web agency covers the general side, so we do not repeat it here. We checked the sources listed at the end on 3 November 2026.

      Who you can hire

      You will meet agencies, freelancers and companies that call themselves Shopify Partners. The first two describe size. The third describes a link with Shopify, and an agency or a freelancer can have it. Shopify's Help Center says you can browse its Partner Directory and filter by services, location, languages, industry, price range and partner tier. You can also sort by average rating.

      Tiers need care. Shopify's Partner Program page says every partner starts as Registered and can move up to Select, Plus, Premier or Platinum. The Help Center says small and medium businesses typically prefer Select partners, and mid-market and larger businesses typically prefer Plus partners. Shopify's tiering guide for service partners (labeled Q4 2026) bases tiers on revenue and the number of new merchants, and says credentials are waived for 2026. So a tier mainly shows how much business a partner does through Shopify. It is not a grade for the quality of the work, so still check the work itself.

      Names change too. The same Partner Program page says the Shopify Experts brand and its marketplace ended in December 2023, and the separate Plus Partner program ended in December 2024. If a site uses the old Experts name, or only says it is a Plus Partner, ask which tier it holds today and look for its directory profile.

      Directory reviews have a minimum bar. Shopify's pages say a partner must have had collaborator access to your store for about a week or more before you can review them, and reviews come from merchants on a paid plan. A missing profile is not a warning by itself. Shopify says directory profiles are offered by invitation and depend on tier, so a capable freelancer may not be listed.

      Also decide which job you are hiring for. Shopify's own guide to agencies separates development and build agencies (site structure, themes, custom integrations, migrations) from marketing and growth agencies (paid media, SEO, email) and full-service firms that combine both. Most of this article is about the build side.

      Confirm the company is real and licensed in Dubai

      Ask for the trade license number, the authority that issued it and the company name exactly as printed. Then check it yourself.

      • Mainland company: the UAE government portal lists two searches run by Dubai Economy and Tourism, one for business names and one for license information. That government page was last updated on 27 October 2026.
      • Free zone company: a separate page on the same portal says a free zone license is applied for through that free zone's own authority. The page on checking licenses does not mention free zones, so ask which free zone and ask that authority how to confirm the license.
      • Matching details: the legal name on the license should match the name on the proposal, the contract and the invoice. The licensed activity should cover software or web work. Ask for an explanation of any difference.

      Then look at tax. In general terms, the UAE VAT executive regulation (Article 59, as hosted by the Ministry of Finance) says a full tax invoice must show the words Tax Invoice, the supplier's name, address and tax registration number, an invoice number, the issue date, a description of the supply and the tax amount in AED, among other details. The Federal Tax Authority's public clarification on tax invoices also lists the words Tax Invoice and the supplier's name, address and registration number. Ask for a sample invoice or the registration number before you sign. Check that the quote says whether VAT is added. If a company adds VAT but cannot show a registration number, ask why.

      ESTASOFT has an office in Dubai and a Clutch 2026 ranking as a Top Shopify Company in Dubai (see our Shopify solutions). A ranking is a starting point, not proof. Run the same checks on us.

      Check the portfolio properly

      • Ask for live store addresses, not screenshots. Open them on your phone, on mobile data. Add a product to the cart and go as far as the checkout.
      • Ask what the agency built and what the theme did. Many good-looking stores run on a theme anyone can buy. Shopify notes that a Theme Store theme is licensed only to the store that bought it. Ask which sections, features and integrations were custom work and which were settings.
      • Ask for a reference you can call, from a store that has run for a while after launch. Ask what happened when something broke.
      • Ask who built the work you are looking at. That person should be on your project.

      Questions to ask a Shopify company in Dubai

      Put these in writing and ask every company the same ones.

      • Scope and people. Who does the work, and who is my contact? Do subcontractors or a team abroad do any part? What do you need from me, and by when?
      • Arabic and right to left. Shopify says Arabic has translations for checkout and for the default text of themes built by Shopify. It says the latest versions of themes in its Horizon family support right-to-left languages, and that for any other theme you must confirm support yourself. Which theme do you propose, and how did you confirm its right-to-left support? Our guide to Arabic and English on one store lists what to plan and what to ask a designer.
      • Payments. Shopify lists the United Arab Emirates among the countries where Shopify Payments is supported. Its UAE page describes card payments and accelerated checkout payments, and says you might be asked to verify personal and business information. Shopify can change this, so ask which payment methods you will have on the day of the quote. Do I need Shopify Payments approval, another provider, cash on delivery or a local method, and who connects each one? Who tests refunds?
      • Delivery and tax. Which couriers and delivery rates will you set up? How is VAT shown in prices and at checkout? Does the quote cover a link to my invoicing system? The Ministry of Finance published UAE e-invoicing guidelines (version 2.0, dated 26 October 2026). They cover business-to-business and business-to-government transactions, with go-live dates from 1 January 2027 for businesses with annual revenue of AED 50 million or more and from 1 July 2027 for smaller ones. These dates can change. Our guide to selling to the UAE and Saudi Arabia covers the detail. Ask your accountant whether the rules apply to you, then ask the agency what the work would involve.
      • Testing. Which devices and browsers do you test on? Will you place test orders with every payment method, in both languages? Who signs off, and what counts as done?
      • Handover. Which accounts will I own on day one? Will you train my team? Which documents do I receive?
      • Support after launch. For how long do you fix defects at no charge? How do I report a problem, and how fast do you reply? What does ongoing support cover?

      What a fair proposal contains

      A proposal is fair when you can set it beside another one and see what you get for the money. Look for these items, in writing:

      1. Scope and exclusions. What is built and what is not. Exclusions matter as much as scope.
      2. Deliverables. A list: theme and sections, pages, apps to set up, product import, translations, redirects, training and documents.
      3. Timeline. Dates tied to what you must supply, such as content, photos and approvals. Late content should move the dates, and the proposal should say so.
      4. Milestone payments. Each payment linked to something you can check, such as an approved design or a working checkout on a test store. Shopify says partners bill you directly, outside your Shopify invoice, so agree amounts and timing before work starts.
      5. Who owns the store account. You should. Shopify's collaborator accounts let a partner work in your store with limited permissions, and collaborators cannot receive store ownership or the Administrator role. Be wary of a store opened under the agency's own account or a request for your owner login.
      6. Who owns the domain and the code. The domain in your company's name. Code and design files assigned to you in the contract. Our guide on who owns the code in a software project has the clause list, so we do not repeat it.
      7. Third-party costs listed separately. Your Shopify plan, apps, theme license, domain, payment fees, translation and photography, each with who pays and who renews.
      8. Change requests. How a change is asked for, priced and approved before work starts.
      9. Acceptance tests. A list of checks, a test period and what happens when a check fails.
      10. Support period. A number of days of fixes after launch, with reply times.
      11. VAT shown. Whether prices include VAT, the VAT amount in AED and the supplier's tax registration number.

      Red flags

      • A guarantee of results or rankings. Shopify's agency guide lists guaranteed rankings or results as a warning sign.
      • Pressure to decide fast. The same guide lists pressure to move fast.
      • A long lock-in with no clear exit terms. The guide lists this too.
      • Vague or templated reports.
      • No Shopify work to show, or nobody who can explain what they built.
      • No trade license to show, or VAT charged without a tax registration number.
      • A request for your owner login, or a store opened in the agency's name.
      • A price far below the others with a short scope. Ask for the scope list line by line.
      • No named person responsible for your project.

      This is general information, not legal or tax advice. Check the current rules or ask a qualified adviser before you decide.

      Need a hand?

      ESTASOFT provides Shopify solutions, and you can read about them on our Shopify solutions page. If you are comparing providers, send a short brief on the contact page. To plan your budget first, see what a Shopify store costs for a Dubai brand, in AED.

      Sources

      Written by
      ESTASOFT

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