White-label web development: how agency partnerships work, what they cost and how to contract

The short answer

White-label web development means a partner builds the websites your agency sells, under your agency's name: you keep the client, the contract and the invoice, and the partner stays out of sight. Partners sell it three ways: per project, by the hour or by a monthly block of capacity, plus per-site plans for maintenance after launch. Published prices we read on 17 October 2026 run from USD 59 for an AI-assisted five-page site and USD 199 for a custom 15-page one to USD 80–120 an hour plus a 17.5% fee on a vetted marketplace, and from about USD 15 to USD 36 an hour once monthly capacity plans are divided by the hours they include.

Price is the easy part to compare. What protects your agency is the contract: a copyright assignment that can flow on to your client, a non-solicitation clause that covers accepting work as well as asking for it, accounts held in your name or your client's, and written QA and handover standards.

How white-label development works

The agency sells, scopes and manages the client; the partner designs or builds, tests and hands over; the client sees only the agency. Within that, the commercial model decides how risk is shared.

Many agencies combine them: per-project builds for new sites, then a per-site plan once each one launches.

Published prices from white-label providers

These are prices that providers publish on their own sites for agency or white-label work, read on 17 October 2026. Few providers publish anything; most quote after a call. The table isn't a ranking, and the units differ, so read the last column before comparing numbers.

Two things stand out. AgencyPlatform's custom 15-page site for USD 199, delivered within three business weeks with up to two design revisions, is priced for volume: its entry plan is pitched "for the plumber, salon or café". And maintenance is where publishing a per-site price is most common among the providers we read; it's repeatable work.

What the capacity plans cost per hour

Monthly plans sell hours per working day, so the hourly cost depends on the month. Assuming 21 working days:

• UnlimitedWP Starter: USD 747 for 21 to 42 hours, about USD 18 to 36 an hour. Pro: USD 1,497 for 42 to 63 hours, about USD 24 to 36. Business: USD 2,997 for 105 to 126 hours, about USD 24 to 29. Its hour buckets work out to USD 30 an hour.
• Delesign: USD 649 for 42 hours, about USD 15 an hour.
• Codeable: USD 80 to 120 an hour plus 17.5% is USD 94 to 141 an hour.

Take a build your team estimates at 120 hours. On Codeable it costs about USD 11,280 to 16,920 and starts when you hire the expert. On UnlimitedWP's Business plan, at 5 to 6 hours a day, it fits in roughly one month for USD 2,997. On Delesign's 2 hours a day it takes about 60 working days, three months, for about USD 1,947. The cheapest hour is also the slowest calendar, and none of these prices tells you the seniority of the person doing the work, how much QA is included or what happens when the estimate is wrong. Ask each finalist to quote the same written scope; our website brief builder produces one.

Dardo doesn't publish a white-label rate: each project gets a written quote with its scope and exclusions, so you can add your margin. Our other published starting prices are on the pricing page.

Who talks to the client

Decide this per project and write it into the statement of work, because it changes how much the partner can see, say and promise.

Providers that publish their approach describe the third setup in detail. WP Buffs connects one of your agency's email addresses to its help desk and sends weekly reports under your brand. GoWP's white-label add-on puts your branding, domain, sending address and support identity on the client-facing experience. AgencyPlatform says it never contacts your clients directly. Whichever setup you choose, the partner should never quote, invoice or pitch your client.

NDAs, non-solicitation, IP and invoicing

NDA

Sign a mutual NDA before you share client files: what's confidential, how long the duty lasts, and that client data is returned or deleted at the end. If the partner is an individual freelancer rather than a company, add one clause most templates miss. The Defend Trade Secrets Act requires a notice of whistleblower immunity in any contract with an "employee" that governs trade secrets or confidential information, and it defines employee to include individual contractors and consultants. Without the notice, you can't recover exemplary damages or attorney fees under the Act from that person.

Non-solicitation

Write it in both directions. The partner agrees not to solicit or accept work from the clients you introduce, for a stated period after the last project; your agency agrees not to hire the partner's staff, or to pay a placement fee if it does. "Or accept" matters: a client who finds the partner on their own and asks for a quote isn't being solicited, and a clause that only bans soliciting may not cover it. How far courts enforce these clauses depends on the state and on how narrow the clause is, so have counsel set the scope and duration.

IP: a chain from the partner's people to your client

Your client expects to own the site, so ownership has to pass through every link: from the people who write the code to the partner, from the partner to your agency, and from your agency to the client. Each link needs its own writing. The US Copyright Office's Circular 30 explains that a commissioned work is a work made for hire only if it falls into one of nine categories and both parties sign a written agreement saying so, and a website rarely fits. A transfer of copyright is valid only in a writing signed by the owner, under section 204 of the Copyright Act.

The partner agreement should:

• Assign the copyright in code, design files and documentation to your agency, with the right to assign it on to your client
• Confirm that everyone who works on the project, subcontractors included, has assigned their rights to the partner
• License, not assign, the partner's own pre-existing tools and code snippets, with a perpetual license your client can rely on
• List what stays under third-party licenses: open-source libraries, fonts, plugins, stock images
• Say when ownership passes, commonly on payment of each stage, and mirror that in your client contract

If the partner is abroad, the assignment also has to work under its country's law; our guide to nearshore web development in Latin America covers the local defaults.

Invoicing

The partner invoices your agency; your agency invoices the client. WP Buffs states the principle plainly: your clients pay you, you pay the partner, and payment stays separate to keep the white label intact. Set stages you can mirror in your own billing, the currency, and what happens if your client pays late. If you want the partner paid only when you're paid, say so in the contract and expect a higher price for carrying that risk.

This section is general information, not legal advice; have a lawyer review both the partner agreement and your client contract together.

QA and handover standards to write into the contract

"Pixel-perfect" isn't a standard. Write down what will be checked, against what, and who signs it off.

Automated accessibility checks are only a start: the W3C says evaluation tools can't determine accessibility, only assist. The criteria are in WCAG 2.2, and the Core Web Vitals thresholds come from web.dev. Add an acceptance window, such as five working days to report defects, and a warranty period in which the partner fixes defects at no charge.

Tools and access: accounts stay in your name or your client's

The partner should work inside your accounts, never the other way round. If the partner holds the hosting, repository or domain, ending the relationship becomes a negotiation.

• Code: keep repositories in your agency's or your client's GitHub organization and add the partner as outside collaborators with access to the repositories they need, not the whole organization.
• Webflow: Workspace plans let you add agency and freelancer guests without using paid seats, and an agency Workspace can join a client's Workspace as a guest, so the site can live with the client from day one.
• Figma: on a paid plan, every member or guest has a seat, and the seat type decides whether the partner can use Dev Mode. Budget it in the team that owns the files.
• Chat: in Slack Connect, each organization owns its channels and chooses what profile details the others see. If your client mustn't know about the partner, keep the partner out of channels shared with the client.
• Hosting, DNS and domains: in the client's name, with the partner on its own login and the lowest role that does the job. Remove access at handover, or keep it under a maintenance agreement.

Risks and how to contract for them

A checklist for choosing a white-label partner

1. They ask about your client's goals and constraints before quoting, and quote a written scope with assumptions and exclusions.
2. They name the people who will do the work, and you've spoken to the lead.
3. They'll sign your NDA and a mutual non-solicitation clause before seeing client files.
4. The contract assigns copyright to your agency with the right to pass it on, covering subcontractors.
5. They work in your accounts and repositories, under identities you assign.
6. They show a sample QA report and handover pack from a past project, with client details removed.
7. They state turnaround and response times, and their working hours in your time zone.
8. They explain how they handle a change request from your client.
9. They can show live builds you can test, even if white-label work stays under NDA.
10. A paid pilot, such as one template, is on offer before a larger commitment.

Next steps

Send two or three partners the same brief, ask each for a fixed quote and a sample QA report, and compare them against the checklist above. If you're weighing a freelancer against a studio for the partner role, our guide to freelancers versus agencies covers who carries which risk. Dardo is one option: a team of three in Bogotá that builds for agencies through white-label web development, to the same standards as our web development service.