Herein we report an alternative synthesis method for Zr-based UiO metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), namely dry-gel conversion (DGC). It was possible to synthesize nano- to microsized UiO-66, UiO-66-NH₂ and UiO-67 with high crystallinity, high surface area and increased yield using only one-sixth or less of the solvent volume compared to the solution synthesis on the same scale. Additionally, it is shown that solvent re-use is possible over at least five synthesis runs making the DGC method an ecological and extremely solvent-economical route to obtain Zr-based UiO-MOFs with reproducible results.