A website that fails in Arabic fails half your market.
Websites and web apps for UAE businesses: Arabic first, built to follow the UAE data protection law (PDPL), and secured by a team that breaks into systems for a living. Dubai and Abu Dhabi to the wider Emirates and Gulf.
Built for the UAE
In the UAE, your website is where personal details come in: every enquiry form, checkout and login collects data that Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021 on the Protection of Personal Data (PDPL) exists to protect. If you operate in DIFC or ADGM, a separate set of rules applies, closer to Europe's GDPR. IKZERO treats permission, where your data lives, and a proper Arabic experience as part of the job from the start, not extras added at the end, so you can launch with confidence in any emirate.
PDPL & Free-Zone Rules, Built In
- Forms that ask permission first, built to what Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021 asks for
- Cookie choices, and clear privacy notices in Arabic and English
- Free-zone rules covered: DIFC (Law No. 5 of 2020) and ADGM 2021
- Logs that help if data leaks, and safeguards when data leaves the UAE
Arabic-First & Bilingual
- Real right-to-left (RTL) Arabic layouts, not a translated add-on
- Arabic and English content planned in from the start
- Correct type, numerals and date formats for each language
- Designed for how people in the UAE and the Gulf read and buy
Regional Hosting & Speed
- Hosting that can keep your data in the UAE or the Gulf
- Quick to load for people in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah
- Delivery and caching tuned for Gulf networks
- Data encrypted on the move and in storage (in transit and at rest)
Local Payments & Commerce
- Take cards through Network International, Telr, PayTabs or Checkout.com
- Apple Pay and Google Pay at checkout
- Priced and settled in dirhams, so you lose nothing on conversion
- Card details tokenised, following card rules (PCI)
What We Build
Websites
- Built on Next.js, with a simple screen for editing your own content
- Loads fast on a phone: Core Web Vitals above 90, the speed score Google measures
- Findable on Google, and usable by people with disabilities (SEO and WCAG 2.1 AA)
- You can see what visitors do, and test what works better
Web Apps and Portals
- Software your customers log into and pay for
- Dashboards and portals for staff or customers
- Sign-in, with each person seeing only what their job allows
- Locked-down connections to your other systems
Online Shops
- A shop built to load fast and be easy to buy from
- Card payments handled to the PCI DSS card-industry rules
- Every page tuned for speed, because slow pages lose sales
- A checkout that makes life hard for card fraudsters
Security Built In
- Covered against the ten most common web attacks (the OWASP Top 10)
- Servers set up tight from day one
- The outside code we use is checked for known holes
- We try to break in ourselves before you go live
How We Engage
Discover
We agree the goals, the audience and the must-haves, and how someone might attack it.
Design
We make it look right, feel quick, and work properly on a phone.
Build
We build it with the security checks running on every change.
Launch
We try to break in, fix what we find, put it live, and keep watching.
We use AI to move faster on the build and the words. Then we attack the result the same way we would attack any client's site, so what we hand over has already survived us.
Human-led, AI-accelerated: every finding is validated by a certified expert.Frequently Asked Questions
How do you build for the UAE PDPL?
Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021 (the PDPL) covers businesses in the UAE that handle personal data, and companies outside the UAE that handle data about people in the UAE. Any site with a contact form, accounts or a checkout collects personal data, so we design permission, privacy notices and data handling to match the PDPL from day one. If you are in DIFC or ADGM, we build to the separate rules there too, which follow Europe's GDPR closely.
Do I need cookie and consent banners on a UAE site?
For analytics and marketing cookies, we build one as standard: an opt-in banner, a clear cookie notice in Arabic and English, and a way for people to change their mind later. Article 6 of the PDPL asks for consent given in a clear, simple, unambiguous way, and for a controller to be able to show it was given, so we build it that way: nothing tracks a visitor until they say yes.
Do UAE websites have to be in Arabic?
Arabic is the official language, and for government services and most customer-facing businesses, Arabic and English together is simply what people expect. Even where it is not strictly required of a private company, an Arabic-first, right-to-left site reaches far more people and earns more trust across the Emirates. We build genuine right-to-left layouts and real bilingual content, not a machine translation bolted on at the end.
Should my site follow accessibility standards?
Yes. The UAE's National Policy for Digital Accessibility (TDRA, March 2024) puts federal government public service sites at WCAG 2.1 Level AA, and the UAE Design System holds federal entities to the same AA bar; private-sector entities are asked to take the policy into account and make their best effort rather than made to comply. The market now treats that bar as the mark of a good site, so we build to WCAG 2.1 AA (keyboard navigation, colour contrast and screen-reader support in both Arabic and English), so People of Determination and older visitors can use your site too.
Can you take AED payments and where do you work in the UAE?
Yes. We connect UAE gateways such as Network International, Telr, PayTabs and Checkout.com, plus Apple Pay and Google Pay, with prices and settlement in dirhams (AED) so you are not losing money on currency conversion. We work with clients across the UAE (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and beyond) and the wider Gulf.
Ready to build a secure, PDPL-ready site in the UAE?
Tell us about your project: a bilingual brochure site, or a full web app taking payments in dirhams. We'll build it secure, Arabic first, and in line with the PDPL from the first line of code, wherever you are in the Emirates.
Get My Arabic-First Quote