RAKEZ activity register
Services licence activities in RAKEZ
The short answer
RAKEZ — the Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone — issues its Services licence to a company carrying out services or consultancies across any industry, which is how the authority itself frames the category. RAKEZ files 447 named activities under this classification, out of 3,618 on the free zone's register as captured on 25 August 2026. It keeps Services apart from its Professional licence, which RAKEZ describes as being for individuals who provide professional services — issued to the practitioner rather than to a company — a 459-activity list that is easy to confuse with Services by size alone. The range inside Services runs from accounting and administrative consultancy through to agricultural advisory activities, which is the width RAKEZ built the classification to hold.
RAKEZ is the licensing authority for Ras Al Khaimah, running [its own multi-purpose free zone](/setup/free-zones/rakez) across commercial, industrial, educational and Services activity. A RAKEZ Services licence permits a company to conduct services or consultancies across any industry — a deliberately wide net, by the authority's own description, rather than a sector-specific one.
That width is also what tells Services apart from RAKEZ's other licence families. RAKEZ describes its Commercial licence as covering trading in services and goods — buying and on-selling, rather than performing the work directly — and its Industrial licence as manufacturing, importing, packaging and exporting. Professional licences are reserved for individuals who provide professional services, issued to the practitioner rather than to a company. Services sits for organisations delivering service or consultancy work in their own right, with 447 named entries against the Professional family's 459 — two lists built for different kinds of applicant, not two sizes of the same thing.
A typical applicant makes the distinction concrete. A small practice registering against an entry such as Administrative Consultancy and Studies bills clients for advice — reviewing processes, drafting policy, advising on how an organisation runs — rather than manufacturing anything, reselling stock, or providing that advice personally as an individual practitioner. That is the shape RAKEZ built the Services family to hold: the licence sits with the company, not with a named individual, which is what separates it from Professional even where two businesses look similar on paper.
RAKEZ offers flexi-desks, standard and executive offices, shell-and-core space, warehouses and land plots, and a Services licence is almost always taken against a desk or office package rather than warehouse space, since the activities on this list are advisory and service-based rather than physical production. Licence renewal, the company's immigration file and its corporate tax registration each recur on their own schedule — RAKEZ's own renewal checklists differ for a free-zone entity and a non-free zone one, and corporate tax sits with the Federal Tax Authority rather than with RAKEZ.
Velarozone advises on which RAKEZ entries describe the business and prepares the application; RAKEZ stays the licensing authority that reviews it, issues it and renews it every year. [How Velarozone works](/why-velarozone) sets out that division in full, and where [office or flexi-desk space](/services/office-space-and-flexi-desk) has to be arranged alongside the licence, that sits inside the same engagement rather than a separate one.
What the Services classification covers
Activities in this family describe work sold as a service: consultancy, training, installation and maintenance, agency work, logistics services, and operational support. Each register entry names a defined service line rather than a product.
Service activities vary widely in their conditions — some are open to any qualified applicant, while others touch a regulated field where a federal or emirate regulator's approval sits alongside the licence.
What a services licence here is structured for
A licence built from this family suits a business that invoices for expertise, time, or operational work rather than for goods — consultancies, agencies, technical services, and support operations.
The activity description should track the service you actually deliver. Advisers see the same failure repeatedly: a broad-sounding activity chosen for convenience, which then does not match the contract a client or bank is reading.
From the register
Activities in this family, by name
A sample of the 447 activities RAKEZ files under Services, exactly as the register names them. Activity names are the authority's own wording and are shown in English in every language; register codes are not published.
- Accounting & Bookkeeping
- Adaptive Learning & Skills Platforms
- Administrative Consultancy and Studies
- Advanced Agriculture For the grains crop and oilseeds
- Advanced Agriculture for vegetables and the melons and the roots and the tubers
- Advertisement Designing & Producing
- Advertising Researches & Consultancies
- Aerial Advertising Services
- Aerial photography by drones
- Aerial shows by drones
- Affective Computing (Vibe Coding) Lab
- Agent Safety Evaluation-as-a-Service
- Agentic CRM Automations
- Agricultural Projects Management
- Agricultural Research & Consultancy
- AI Agent Orchestration & Automation Services
- AI Content Studio (Responsible GenAI)
- AI Copilots for Back-Office
- AI in Human Resources (HR) Integration Services
- AI Safety & Red-Teaming Lab
- AI-Powered Cybersecurity Solutions
- AI-Powered Diagnostic Tools Development
- Air Cargo Services
- Air-conditioning, Cooling, Heating and Ventilation Engineering Consultancy
- Aluminium Installation Works
- Animal Etiquette & Behaviour Consultant
- API Platform & Integration Hub
- Application Security Program Office
- Applied Generative AI Studio
- Archeological Restoration & Conservation Engineering Consultancy
What this page does not decide
Decision factors
What changes the answer
What moves the answer for a RAKEZ Services licence is less the wording of the activity and more who is applying, which entries sit together, and whether another regulator has to sign off first.
- A handful of Services activities need sign-off from a sector regulator outside RAKEZ before the licence is issued; which ones carry that requirement depends on the specific activity, not on the Services family as a whole.
- RAKEZ licenses a Services company in its free zone and, separately, as a non-free zone entity able to trade on the UAE mainland; the two carry different ownership and trading rules, decided case by case.
- More than one Services entry can sit on a single licence where the activities are genuinely related; RAKEZ decides which combinations it will file together, not the applicant.
- Visa allocation follows the office or flexi-desk package taken alongside the licence, not the licence type itself, so the workspace decision and the visa count are settled together.
- Licence renewal, the immigration file and corporate tax registration are three separate obligations on three separate schedules, not one bundled fee inside the original licence.
Where this family is a strong fit
- Accounting, bookkeeping and administrative consultancy practices serving clients across the UAE or overseas from a Ras Al Khaimah base.
- Edtech and adaptive-learning operators running platform-based skills or training services rather than a licensed teaching institute.
- Agricultural advisory and consultancy businesses working against entries such as Advanced Agriculture (grains/oilseeds) or Advanced Agriculture (vegetables/melons/roots/tubers) without farming the land themselves.
- Management, information and marketing consultancies that bill for expertise rather than for goods or production.
- A company for whom a flexi-desk or small office is enough infrastructure to run the service business, rather than a warehouse or an industrial plot.
Where it is the wrong family
- Businesses that physically manufacture, process or package goods — RAKEZ licenses that under Industrial, not Services.
- An individual who wants to provide professional services personally rather than through a company — RAKEZ licenses that as Professional, against its own 459-activity list.
- Businesses whose main activity is trading — buying and reselling goods, or acting as an agent or distributor for someone else's service — which RAKEZ licenses as Commercial rather than Services.
- Media production, broadcast or publishing businesses, which RAKEZ licenses separately under its Media classification.
About this listing
Questions
Frequently asked
- What is the difference between RAKEZ's Services licence and its Professional licence?
- RAKEZ describes Professional as being for individuals who provide professional services, issued to the practitioner rather than to a company. Services, by contrast, is for a company conducting services or consultancies across any industry. The two sit on separate lists: 447 entries under Services against 459 under Professional, as captured on the register.
- How does a Services licence differ from a Commercial licence?
- RAKEZ describes Commercial as covering trading in services and goods — buying and on-selling, including acting as an agent or distributor. Services covers a company performing the work itself, such as consultancy or advisory activity, rather than trading it. A business that genuinely needs both raises the combination with RAKEZ directly rather than assuming one licence covers both.
- Does a RAKEZ Services licence come with office space?
- RAKEZ issues the licence and the workspace separately. It offers flexi-desks, standard and executive offices, warehouses and land plots, and the package taken shapes the visa allocation that goes with the licence, so the two are decided together rather than the licence alone.
- Does every Services activity need approval from another authority?
- Not every one, but some do. A number of activities on the Services list need sign-off from a sector regulator before RAKEZ will issue the licence, and RAKEZ decides case by case which activities carry that requirement.
- Is RAKEZ a free zone authority or a mainland one?
- Both. RAKEZ licenses companies inside its free zone and, separately, non-free zone entities that can trade on the UAE mainland. A Services licence is available under either route, and the choice changes the company's ownership and trading rules.
- What happens when a RAKEZ Services licence comes up for renewal?
- Renewal is an annual RAKEZ process, run alongside the company's immigration file and its corporate tax position with the Federal Tax Authority. RAKEZ publishes separate renewal checklists for free-zone and non-free zone entities rather than folding every requirement into the original licence.
Sources
Official sources
Check where this activity can be licensed
Tell us what the business actually does and an adviser checks it against RAKEZ's live Services list, flags anything that needs another authority's approval, and confirms whether Services, Professional or another classification fits.
This page is general information about UAE business setup, not legal, tax, immigration, or banking advice. Rules, fees, permitted activities, and bank policies can change. Final eligibility depends on your facts and the applicable rules at the time of application.