One store, one app, one AI concierge.
A D2C skincare brand in Dubai
38% higher conversion
Dubai, the UAE and the wider Gulf
A Mumbai studio on Dubai time.
Many of our Gulf clients found us while searching for a web and app development company in Dubai. What they found instead was a senior design and engineering studio in Mumbai, 90 minutes ahead of them, that designs, builds and looks after websites, apps, online stores and AI assistants inside the Gulf working day. We have no Dubai office and will not pretend otherwise. When a room helps, a partner flies over for the workshop.
Why a Mumbai studio
Why Gulf teams work with a studio in Mumbai.
Distance matters less than hours, habits and honesty. These are the reasons clients in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar give us when we ask why they stayed.
- 01
Your working day, not ours
Mumbai is 90 minutes ahead of Dubai. Our studio day, 10am to 7pm in Mumbai, runs from 8:30am to 5:30pm in Dubai, so a question sent after your morning meeting is answered before lunch and decisions are made the same day.
- 02
Built for how the Gulf buys
Gulf customers shop on their phones, pay with Apple Pay, split payments with Tabby or Tamara, still ask for cash on delivery and expect prices with 5% VAT already included. Above all, they message. We design for all of it from the first sketch, with WhatsApp treated as a real channel rather than a floating green button.
- 03
Senior people, honest numbers
A founder is involved in every engagement, and the people in the kickoff are the people who build. Mumbai economics let a small senior team cost less than a large junior one, and every estimate shows its assumptions in dirhams.
- 04
A short flight, when a room helps
Most of the work happens on calls, in a shared channel and in weekly demos. When a problem needs a whiteboard, a partner flies to Dubai for the workshop, on request. Mumbai to Dubai is about a three hour flight, so a workshop costs you a day, not a week.
- 05
Still here after launch
We started in 2018 as a hosting company, so uptime, security and speed are habits, not upsells. Our Dubai skincare client has been on a Care & Grow plan since the week it launched.
What Gulf teams ask us for
Everything a Gulf product needs, from one team.
Nine capabilities, one accountable relationship. Most Gulf engagements combine two or three of these, and the same designers and engineers carry them from the first workshop to the years after launch.
Web design and development
Company websites, portals and web apps that load quickly on a phone on mobile data, and that your marketing team can edit without calling us.
Mobile app development
iOS and Android apps for regulars, members and field teams, built in React Native or Flutter and designed around the customers who come back every week.
Ecommerce and Shopify
Shopify, headless and custom stores with Gulf checkout built in: Apple Pay, cards, Tabby, Tamara, cash on delivery and delivery slots across the emirates.
AI automation and WhatsApp chatbots
Assistants that answer from your own product and policy information on your website, in your app and on the WhatsApp Business Platform, and hand over to a person when they should.
UI and UX design
Research, UX and UI for products that must make sense on the first visit, whether the customer is a first time buyer in Sharjah or a procurement lead in Riyadh.
ERP, CRM and POS integration
Stores, tills, warehouse and CRM connected, so stock and customer records agree across every branch and your team stops retyping orders.
Cloud and hosting
Hosting, monitoring and care from a team that began in hosting, including UAE data centres on AWS or Microsoft Azure when your data should stay in the country.
Growth and digital marketing
Search, performance marketing, email and WhatsApp campaigns planned alongside the build and timed for Ramadan, Eid and the year end sales.
AR and VR
Augmented reality previews and virtual walk-throughs for the moments when seeing something at full size helps a customer decide, from a sofa to an apartment sold off plan.
Proof
Work we can show you.
Three projects that answer the questions Gulf briefs ask most. Can you sell to customers across the UAE? Can you run a marketplace with a hundred sellers? Can you move a live platform without anyone noticing? As the founder of the Dubai skincare brand put it, "D&C behaved like our own product team."
Made By Bharat: 100+ vendors and 1,800+ products, live in seven months
Made By Bharat
100+ vendors onboarded
Ekeeda: pages three times faster, and a cloud move nobody noticed
Ekeeda
3x faster page loads, 6.2s to 1.9s
The skincare brand is based in Dubai and is described by type at its founder's request. Made By Bharat and Ekeeda are Indian projects, shown here because a marketplace with 100+ vendors and a cloud move with zero downtime are exactly what Gulf briefs ask for. We also work with teams in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and can arrange a reference call once we have spoken.
Time zones
Mumbai is 90 minutes ahead of Dubai.
Our studio day runs from 10am to 7pm in Mumbai, which is 8:30am to 5:30pm in Dubai and 7:30am to 4:30pm in Riyadh and Doha. Almost your whole working day sits inside ours, so decisions happen the same day rather than overnight. For clients in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, where Friday starts the weekend, the weekly demo moves to Thursday. Chai at four in the studio is half past two in Dubai, which is usually when the quick afternoon calls land.
Mumbai
India
Studio and home
Dubai
UAE
Same working day · 9h shared
Riyadh
Saudi Arabia
Same working day · 8h shared
Doha
Qatar
Same working day · 8h shared
Pricing in AED
Starting points, in dirhams.
These are the figures Gulf engagements begin from. A launch site for a new café and a marketplace with vendor payouts are both called websites, yet their costs sit a long way apart, so every quote we send is built from your brief rather than a rate card.
We quote in AED or US dollars, whichever suits your finance team, with any taxes shown separately. Every estimate lists its assumptions so you can question each line. Defined work gets a fixed price; products that will keep changing run on time and materials with a monthly cap you set. For ranges by project type, read what a website costs and what an app costs in the UAE, India and the UK.
- Discovery Sprint from AED 15,000, three weeks to a tested prototype and a costed plan
- Product Build from AED 55,000, for a website, app or store designed and built end to end
- Embedded Team from AED 27,500 a month, designers and engineers working inside your roadmap
- Care & Grow plan from AED 1,800 a month, for hosting, support, speed and steady improvement
How it runs
How a Gulf project runs.
The same Ampersand Method we use everywhere, arranged around the Gulf week, the Gulf calendar and the fact that we are a short flight away.
The Ampersand Method- 01
A first call inside your day
Send a brief, a WhatsApp or an email. A founder replies within one working day, usually the same afternoon in Dubai, and the first call is about your business, not our portfolio.
- 02
Discovery Sprint, in the room if you like
Three weeks across Listen & Learn, Map & Measure and Sketch & Shape. The kickoff workshop can run in Dubai on request. You leave with a tested prototype and a costed plan, yours to keep.
- 03
Build & Break, a demo every week
Two week sprints and working software to click every week, on Friday in the UAE and on Thursday in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Decisions are written down the day they are made.
- 04
Launch & Land, on a sensible date
Performance, security and accessibility checks, training and a rehearsed go-live, timed around Ramadan, Eid and your big sales moments rather than in the middle of them.
- 05
Care & Grow, for as long as it helps
Hosting, monitoring, support with agreed response times and a quarterly roadmap review with a founder. During Ramadan we move calls earlier to suit shorter working hours.
FAQ
Questions we hear often
Do you have an office in Dubai?
No. D&C Studios works from Mumbai, and we would rather say so than rent a virtual address. Day to day, the work runs on video calls, a shared WhatsApp group and weekly demos inside your working hours. When a workshop or a launch needs people in the room, a partner flies to Dubai on request. The flight from Mumbai takes about three hours.
How do time zones and weekends work with the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar?
Mumbai is 90 minutes ahead of Dubai and two and a half hours ahead of Riyadh and Doha, so our studio day covers nearly all of yours and decisions happen the same day. Weekly demos move to Thursday for clients in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, whose weekend starts on Friday, and during Ramadan we bring calls earlier to suit shorter working hours.
Do you quote and invoice Gulf clients in AED?
Yes. We quote in AED or US dollars, whichever suits your finance team, with any taxes shown separately so nothing appears at the end. Starting points are AED 15,000 for a three week Discovery Sprint, AED 55,000 for a Product Build and AED 1,800 a month for a Care & Grow plan. Projects are billed by milestone, teams and care plans monthly.
Can you build a checkout with Tabby, Tamara and cash on delivery?
Yes. Gulf shoppers expect choice at checkout, and a store that offers only cards loses them. Our ecommerce development work covers Apple Pay, cards through gateways such as Network International or Stripe, instalments with Tabby and Tamara, and cash on delivery, with prices shown including 5% VAT. We set up delivery slots and courier updates too.
How do you handle customer data under UAE data protection law?
Your legal team decides which rules apply: the UAE's federal PDPL, the separate regimes in free zones such as DIFC, or Saudi Arabia's PDPL. We build to their advice. That means collecting only what you need, clear consent, access controls and audit logs, and hosting in AWS or Microsoft Azure data centres in the UAE when data should stay in the country.
Can you build a WhatsApp chatbot for our business in the UAE?
Yes, on the official WhatsApp Business Platform, never the unofficial blasting tools that get numbers banned. The assistant answers from your own product and policy information, takes orders or bookings, and hands a conversation to a person with a summary when it should. For a Dubai skincare brand it now resolves 41% of customer questions end to end. More on our AI automation page.
Tell us what you are building for the Gulf.
A rough idea is enough. A founder replies within one working day, which from Mumbai usually means the same afternoon in Dubai, with a suggested next step and an AED starting estimate.