The Unpleasant Side of White Label Mobile App Development

When the world went online and digital, non-tech businesses also faced a challenge- how to provide users with an application that has minimum possible investment? Soon enough, white-label mobile apps emerged as a lucrative solution. 

However, similar to any other tech innovation, this one too has its own limitations and cons. So, here’s a detailed guide of the challenges associated with white-label mobile app development. 

What is a white-label mobile application?

A white-label mobile app is a generic application built by an agency with an intent to resell it to a range of other businesses that, in turn, can rebrand the app as their own and use it.

The concept of such apps emerged as a quick solution to assist startups and small-sized businesses to have their own mobile app with the least possible expenses.  

For instance, let’s say a white-label app development Company ‘X’ can build a generic app for the food & restaurant industry. Most food delivery businesses need a similar set of features if they want to launch their own app. So, instead of building a new application from scratch, multiple businesses can buy one from Company ‘X’, personalize a bit, and rebrand it as their own mobile app. 

This way, Company ‘X’ can resell its app framework to as many businesses and garner more revenues. The resellers usually have an extensive network of software and mobile app development agencies that can build such industry-specific apps.

How are white-label apps developed?

There are two primary ways how white-label apps can be built:

1. Where you re-use the codes of backend but change the frontend code in order to give it a different look
2. Where an application is developed with a fixed set of attributes and sold to XYZ companies with the liberty to edit or add a few more features. This is mainly used by agencies that have a SaaS working model.

Disadvantages of white-label mobile applications

Despite the availability and cost-efficiency of white-label applications, there is a myriad of businesses that continue to invest in native & custom mobile apps. It is because of these ugly sides of white-label apps:

Also Read: Flutter Is Setting A New Trend In The Sphere Of Mobile App
Limited scope for customization

The biggest con of white-label app development is that there is very little to almost negligible scope for customization.

As mentioned earlier, white labeling agencies create these applications as generic & industry-specific solutions for startups. So they only add basic and standard features in the app that are relevant to that particular business sector. 

On the other hand, custom native or hybrid mobile apps are built keeping your unique business objectives and services in mind. Even smaller attributes & functionalities play a bigger role in such apps. 

Custom mobile app development is more likely to satisfy your users’ needs and therefore provides a good retention rate to your app.

Brand identity overlap

It is true that a white-label app enables you to add your own elements of branding and identity to the user interface. However, businesses that opt for buying these apps also have similar kinds of placements of their brand elements.

Significantly, the user interface and the app design mostly fail to differentiate between your brand from other brands in the industry.

On the other hand, in custom mobile app development, you can create an entire app interface from scratch while maintaining your existing brand tonality.

High Chances of App Store Rejection

Remember the times when Apple banned the publication of white-label mobile apps on the App Store? But eventually, that decision was taken aback contemplating how many startups and small businesses would be affected and lose their apps.

However, if you still take a detailed look into the new App Store guidelines, you’d notice that a ‘copycat’ app is still likely to get removed. Even the Google Play Store is extremely specific about businesses that seemingly copy and use designs from other mobile applications and publish their own apps.

Summing Up

While you can easily get white-label mobile apps in fewer bucks but they won’t significantly help you in building a credible brand image or generate higher revenues. In case you are having long-term business goals, we would highly recommend opting for custom mobile app development services to maximize your mobile app outreach and app/play store downloads.

If you are looking to develop an intuitive mobile app with custom UI/UX, feel free to drop us a line.