Reseller vs White Label: Which Model Fits Your Business?
By Ganpat Godara · Managing Director, Wappblaster
Short answer: A reseller sells someone else's product under the maker's name, usually for a commission or margin. A white label partner sells it under its own name, sets its own price and owns the client relationship. Reselling is faster to start; white label builds a brand you keep.
Key takeaways
- Reselling borrows the maker's brand; white labelling builds the partner's own.
- Resellers usually earn a commission or margin on a set price; white label partners set their own price.
- Clients of a reseller often know the maker; clients of a white label partner normally see only the partner.
- Reselling is easier to start; white label takes more work but leaves the partner owning more.
- Many partners resell first, learn the product and buyers, then launch their own brand.
A reseller sells a product under the maker’s brand; a white label partner sells it under its own. The product behind both can be exactly the same. What changes is whose name the client sees, who sets the price, and who owns the relationship when the year ends.
Both models are common in business software, and neither is better in general. They suit different people at different stages, and many software partners use them in order.
Reseller vs white label at a glance
| Reseller | White label partner | |
|---|---|---|
| Brand the client sees | The maker’s | The partner’s own |
| Price to the client | Usually set by the maker | Set by the partner |
| How the partner earns | Commission or margin | The difference between its price and the partner cost |
| Client relationship | Often shared with the maker | Held by the partner |
| Store listing | The maker’s | The partner’s, on its own account (with some makers) |
| Effort to start | Low: brand and demos exist | Higher: brand, listing and material to build |
| Best for | Testing demand, freelancers, consultants | Firms with an existing client base or brand |
How the reseller model works
A reseller signs up with a software maker, gets a demo account and sales material, and introduces the product to its contacts under the maker’s name. When a client buys, the reseller earns a commission or a margin on the price. The maker’s brand does much of the convincing: its website, reviews and store rating are already there.
The trade-off is ownership. The client knows the maker, may call the maker for support, and could renew without the reseller. If the reseller stops, the clients usually stay with the brand they know.
How the white label model works
A white label partner takes the same kind of product and puts its own name on it: app name, icon, colours, store listing and web login. It sets its own price, invoices its own clients and gives first-line support under its own brand. The maker stays in the background, hosting and updating the product.
The trade-off is effort. The partner must build the brand that the maker’s name would otherwise carry, from the store listing to the first reviews. In return, the relationship belongs to the partner, and the brand grows in value with every client.
Reseller vs white label: which fits your business
Choose reselling if you are testing whether your contacts will buy, if you have no brand of your own yet, or if you want income without building marketing material. Freelancers, sales consultants and new firms usually start here.
Choose white label if you already sell services to businesses under your own name, if your clients trust your support more than any unknown software brand, or if you plan to build a software business you can one day sell. IT service firms, digital agencies and accounting practices usually fit here.
A path many partners follow
Many software partners do both, in order. They resell first, under the maker’s name, to learn the product and find out which clients buy and why. Once they have a handful of clients and know what to say in a demo, they launch their own brand and move new clients onto it.
RMDialer is set up for that path. The CRM reseller program lets partners sell RMDialer by name on commission, and the white label route gives partners their own app on their own Google Play developer account, with their logo on the Web CRM. Partners can move from the first to the second.
An example: a sales consultant in Accra
Picture a sales consultant in Accra who trains the sales teams of property firms and insurance brokers. Clients kept asking which calling app to use, so the consultant started reselling one under its maker’s name, earning a commission on each team signed.
After a year and a dozen client teams, the consultant had a reputation of her own in the city’s sales circles. She launched the same product under her consultancy’s name, so the app her clients’ teams opened every day now carried her brand, and her training and the software were sold as one package. The consultant is an illustration, not a named partner.
Questions to ask before you choose
- Does the maker offer both routes, and can I move from one to the other?
- In the reseller route, who owns the client if I stop?
- In the white label route, whose store account is the app published on?
- Who gives first-line support in each route?
- Can clients export their data in both?
For the terms to compare across white label programmes, see the white label reseller program checklist. For the software a white label partner runs its business on, see white label reseller software.
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