The Best Website Design Agencies in Dubai - An industry biased yet competitor-unbiased review

Dubai is a tough place to do business.  In a city where businesses can engage with Web Design or Digital Marketing Agencies to create a corporate website for as little as AED 500 or as much as AED 200,000 (often for the same scope of work, it’s important to understand where these prices come from and the companies that you should work with to ensure that you receive the highest quality website with the best possible project management and for the most reasonable price.

The saying “you pay for what you get” might sound harsh, but its often the case that businesses who choose to invest in the cheapest service provider won’t receive the types of results that they expect.  Conversely, the same can also be said for businesses choosing the highest bidder and perhaps not receiving a product that matches the expectations set.  Either way, this article is designed to give you a better insight into the most dominant and reputable independent website design agencies in Dubai.  Although written by the team at Nexa, we’d like to be as transparent as possible and if any company that we mention, would like a revision to the below, please feel free to drop us a line.

Qualifying Criteria

We’ve tried to include what we believe are the best website design and development companies in Dubai within this list and have based inclusion on a number of different factors.  The first of these is experience and we’ve only considered companies that have been in existence in Dubai for the last 5 years.  The second criteria is client strength.  If the agency has a host of household brands as clients, we believe that this speaks volumes in terms of their credibility and ability to delivery projects.  Third, we’ve decided to list only independent agencies.  Finally, we considered management strength and continuity.  Warren Buffett uses the quality and experience of a company’s management team to make investment decisions, and we feel that this should also be a factor for company’s when selecting a website design agency for their projects.

In alphabetical order, here are the web design companies that you should consider using:

Blue Beetle

A team of 10 digital marketing specialists located in Dubai.  Headed up by CEO Mark Hirst, Blue Beetle was established in 2008 and have a range of clients that include Nexus, Property Matters, Plug-ins and Nikki Beach.  Blue Beetle offer a range of digital services not limited to web design.

Go-Gulf

Led by Karel Zeman, Go-Gulf’s Czech founder and CEO, Go-Gulf has been established since 2005 and has development offices in Europe and the Indian Subcontinent.  Their clients include V Kool, Du and Landmark Group.

Cacti Media

Founded in 2003, Cacti Media is one of the oldest web designing agencies in Dubai and is a neighbour of ours in Tecom!  Clients include Al Naboodah, MBC and Masdar.  They also work with the Irish Village (one my team are particularly jealous about!).   Cacti is led by Managing Partner, Michael Ilyas.

Nexa

It would clearly be wrong not to mention ourselves on this list!  Established in 2005 Nexa works with a host of top international and local brands including Hilton, TDIC, Al Gurg Group, Al Rostamani Group, ID Design and more.  Providing full digital marketing services, Nexa is also HubSpot’s only Gold Partner Agency in the entire GCC region.  Nexa also has a wealth of experience within its management team including Co-founder and CEO, Amit Vyas and Managing Director, Andrew Thomas.  Next also co-hosts the Dubai Eye Tech Talk Show each week with Andrew co-hosting this hugely popular show for the last 2 years.

Traffic

At the time of writing, Traffic's Founder, Johnny Huntington is conspicuous by his absence on the company’s website however with Dominic Gothard as Traffic’s CEO, they have a wealth of advertising agency experience at their helm.  

Established in 2009, Traffic have worked with a host of top brands in the region including Unilever, Vimto and the Dubai Mall offering a range of different services.

Whoever you choose to work with for your next website design project, our advice is simple.  Work with people you can trust, people who have the experience and know-how to deliver to your expectations and to manage your project professionally.  The companies above are a great place to start.

Also check out our free e-book, designed to help those building a new website in 2016: