Custom Apps vs. White-Label Apps: Pros and Cons

Choosing between custom-built apps and white-label solutions is an important question you might face in Tech business. And the decision of this question depends on your business needs totally. While mobile apps often outperform websites by offering faster, more personalized experiences and powerful tools like push notifications, building a custom app requires significant resources. White-label apps offer an affordable alternative by allowing businesses to rebrand and deploy pre-built applications, delivering a tailored user experience without heavy investment. However, white-label apps come with limitations in customization.

Custom app development explained

Developing a custom business app requires meticulous planning, technical expertise, and strong management. The process typically involves:

• Concept and Planning: Research your target audience, define a roadmap with milestones, budget, and other critical details.
• Prototyping and Design: Create wireframes, mockups, and prototypes to ensure a seamless user experience. Finalize a brand-specific design.
• Development: Backend and frontend developers code the app based on the selected tech stack and integrate third-party services if needed.
• Testing: Identify and fix bugs through thorough testing before the app’s release.
• Deployment: Launch the app for user access while ensuring adaptability to user preferences and quality updates.
• Post-launch Maintenance: Monitor performance, fix issues, and introduce new features to keep the app running smoothly.

This resource-intensive process requires a team of business analysts, project managers, developers, UI/UX designers, QA engineers, and DevOps specialists. Alternatively, outsourcing to an app development company can be a cost-effective option, saving on recruitment, salaries, taxes, and infrastructure. It also shortens the time-to-market—essential in competitive industries. Use a software development outsourcing guide for more details.

White-label app explained

A white-label app is developed by one company and sold to another, allowing customization, branding, and use for the buyer’s customers. Multiple businesses can use the same app, tailored to their specific brand needs.

White-label providers typically offer two options:

• Back-end only: Allows buyers to build their own front end, offering flexibility but requiring developers.
• Complete package (server and client): Minimal modifications needed, but limits customization and scalability. Expanding features or infrastructure may require a new solution.

Cost structures include:

1. One-time payment: Grants lifelong rights to the app without additional fees.
2. Subscription: Monthly, quarterly, or yearly payments.

Example:
Billzilla offers a white-label e-commerce app. A pet shop, Purrfect, uses it to provide online shopping. Billzilla customizes the app with Purrfect’s branding, adds loyalty rewards, and deploys it to app stores. Purrfect’s customers can shop online, view products, place orders, and make payments. Billzilla ensures maintenance and updates, which Purrfect’s app receives automatically.

White-label apps are a cost-effective way for businesses to establish an online presence with minimal development and maintenance efforts.

Pros and cons of white label vs custom-made apps

Now when you clearly understand how these two options work, it’s time to decide which one is the right choice for you. To help you make a well-informed decision, we prepared a comparative table of custom-made and white-label apps. Check it out:

Let’s dive deeper into each point.

Cons of white-label apps

❌ Limited customization options. Customization options in white-label apps are typically limited by branding and some minor adjustments. Incorporating advanced features can be costly or may not be available at all.

❌ Lack of uniqueness. White-label apps often lack a unique and recognizable identity because providers strive to build more generic and less personalized solutions in order to serve a wide range of customers.

❌ Limited scalability. When your business experiences rapid growth, your app needs to grow along with it. However, this can be challenging with white-label apps, as they may not easily scale to meet the growing load.

❌ Dependency on provider. Dependency on a provider and its decisions can have significant implications for a business, potentially affecting its ability to operate and compete effectively in the market. Therefore, it’s important for businesses to carefully consider the track record and reputation of the provider before committing to their app, particularly in reputation-sensitive niches such as finance.

Pros of white-label apps

✅ Quick launch. White-label apps are readily available, enabling you to go online within a few weeks.

✅ Lower cost. Opting for a white-label app is often more affordable compared to custom mobile app development.

✅ The provider handles support & maintenance. Maintenance and support for white-label apps are usually handled by the provider and included in the fee. There are no additional expenses involved.

Cons of Custom-Made Software

❌ Higher development cost. Compared to a white-label solution, developing a custom mobile app is a more expensive option. However, in the long term, this price difference is balanced out by the cost of customizing and adding advanced features to the white-label app when the need arises. In the long run, the cost of a custom app may actually be lower than using a white-label app for an extended period of time. Considering that you have long-term plans for the success of your business, it makes sense to invest in a custom app rather than opting for a white-label solution.

❌ Longer time-to-market. Building a tailored app that meets your business’s specific needs definitely requires more time than branding a white-label app.

Pros of Custom-Made Software

✅ Tailored solution that meets the business’s specific needs. Your application is carefully crafted from scratch, taking into consideration the specific requirements, preferences, and challenges that your business faces. It caters to the individual needs of your company, ensuring perfect alignment with your operations and setting the stage for sustainable growth.

✅ Flexibility. With a custom app, you have the flexibility and control to easily and quickly adapt to market changes and customer demands.

✅ Unique features that may serve as competitive advantages. In a crowded app market, offering unique features can differentiate your business from the competition. Users are more inclined to select and stick with an app that provides something they cannot find elsewhere, and with a custom app, you can introduce new features quickly.

✅ Scalability. Having a dedicated team that works on your custom app makes it easily scalable. On the other hand, with a white-label app, scaling usually takes time. Scalability allows for the efficient handling of increased user loads and peak traffic periods, ensuring a smooth user experience. It supports business growth and minimizes infrastructure costs by accommodating user and feature expansion. Additionally, scalability future-proofs the app, making it adaptable to evolving technologies and market trends, enhancing reliability and flexibility.

Summary

As you can see, both white-label and custom apps have their benefits and drawbacks. There is no single checklist that can help you determine which of two options will be more beneficial for your business. However, based on our experience, the current state of affairs is as follows:

• If you have a limited budget, need to roll out the app to users as soon as possible, and time-to-market is the most important metric, then choosing a white-label solution is your best option.
• If you are aiming for long-term, sustainable growth, we recommend you choose custom app development.

At Itexus, we understand that every business is unique, with its own goals and challenges. We believe that custom app development is the most effective way for businesses to establish an online presence. We craft each line of code with a specific purpose in mind, helping you maximize your returns on investments in technology. If this approach resonates with you and you are aiming for long-term success for your business, contact us to discuss collaboration.

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