Key takeaways
White label in IT is a model in which a technical team delivers a project under the agency’s brand — the agency’s client talks to the agency, not to the subcontractor.
An agency can’t transfer more copyright to its client than it has acquired from the subcontractor, so the contracts along the chain must be consistent with each other.
An NDA, a non-compete covering the agency’s clients, and a non-solicitation clause are the foundation — but they need to be specific about scope and duration.
The most common pitfall is inconsistency: the agency promises its client terms that aren’t written into its contract with the subcontractor.
What white label means in IT
White label is a cooperation model in which an agency sells a technology service to its client under its own brand, while an external team delivers it. The agency’s client has a single partner — the agency — and often doesn’t know that someone else is doing part of the work. It doesn’t need to know, as long as the agency takes full responsibility for the result.
It differs from classic outsourcing in who is the “face” of the project. With outsourcing, the client usually knows it’s working with an external company. In a white-label model, the subcontractor stays in the background: it works in the agency’s tools, under its name, and according to its communication standards.
The model is popular with marketing agencies, design studios, and smaller software houses that receive commissions beyond their skills or capacity — for example, an app, an integration, or infrastructure maintenance.
Three models of agency–IT vendor cooperation
They differ in how visible the subcontractor is to the end client:
Full white label
The subcontractor is invisible. All communication with the client goes through the agency, and the technical team works only with the agency.
A team under the agency’s brand
The subcontractor’s specialists take part in client meetings but appear as part of the agency’s team — in its communication channels and under its name.
Open partnership
The agency introduces the vendor as its technology partner and owns the relationship, while the vendor is directly responsible for the technology.
When it pays off for an agency
The most common reason is simple: the client wants more than the agency knows how to deliver or has capacity for. Instead of turning the work down or sending the client to another company, the agency expands its offer without hiring new people.
No fixed costs. The technical team only costs money when there’s a project. The agency doesn’t keep developers on the payroll during periods without commissions.
Access to specialized skills. Mobile apps, integrations, DevOps, or AI implementations are skills that would take an agency years to build — and wouldn’t always make sense for a few projects a year.
Control over the client relationship. The client stays with the agency, and the agency earns on the full scope of the project, not just its marketing part.
The model stops paying off when technology projects become the agency’s main source of revenue. At that point, it’s worth considering building your own team — at least for the most frequently needed skills.
How cooperation works, step by step
A typical course of a project delivered on a white-label basis:
Brief from the agency
The agency passes on the client’s requirements, business context, and constraints. The better the brief, the fewer questions end up going back to the client.
Quote for the agency
The subcontractor quotes its work to the agency, and the agency sets the price for the client. With an uncertain scope, it’s worth agreeing on the pricing model and buffer right away.
Contract
An NDA, a non-compete covering the agency’s clients, copyright consistent with the agency’s contract with its client, and service levels consistent with what the agency has promised.
Delivery in the agency’s channels
The team works in the agency’s tools and to its standards. It’s agreed who talks to the client and when.
Handover and maintenance
Acceptance, documentation, the transfer of rights and access, and — if needed — further maintenance under the same model.
Copyright along the subcontracting chain
This is the most important and most often overlooked element of the cooperation. An agency usually promises its client that once the project is finished, the code or system will belong to the client. Yet the author’s economic rights arise first with the people and companies who wrote that code.
The principle is simple: an agency can’t transfer more rights to its client than it has acquired itself. If the contract with the subcontractor transfers rights across narrower fields of exploitation than the agency’s contract with its client, the agency has committed to something it can’t deliver.
In practice, under Polish law, this means three things:
- The fields of exploitation in the contract with the subcontractor should cover at least those the agency lists in its contract with the client — and explicitly allow further transfer of the rights.
- Written form — transferring the author’s economic rights requires it at every link of the chain, or the transfer is null and void.
- The moment the rights pass should be synchronized: if the client acquires the rights upon paying the agency, the agency should acquire them from the subcontractor no later than that.
We cover the clauses on copyright, fields of exploitation, and source code in detail in what a software development contract must include. This is information only — for larger projects, it’s worth having the contracts reviewed by a lawyer.
What the agency–subcontractor contract must include
In addition to the standard clauses on scope and fees:
Confidentiality (NDA) — Covers information about the agency, its clients, and projects — including after the cooperation ends.
Non-compete covering the agency’s clients — The subcontractor doesn’t offer its services to clients it met through the agency. The clause should be defined in terms of clients, scope, and duration — an overly broad one is easier to challenge.
Non-solicitation of clients and employees — Separate from the non-compete: the subcontractor doesn’t start working directly with the client or recruit the agency’s people.
Copyright consistent with the client contract — Fields of exploitation, the moment rights pass, and consent to further transfer — consistent with what the agency promises its client.
Service levels consistent with the agency’s promise — If the agency guarantees its client a response time, the subcontractor must guarantee the agency at least the same.
Communication rules — Who talks to the client, in which channels, and under what name the subcontractor’s team appears.
The most common pitfalls
Most problems in white-label cooperation don’t come from the quality of the work, but from inconsistent arrangements:
Promises not backed by the contract
The agency guarantees its client a response time or a scope of rights that isn’t written into its contract with the subcontractor. At the first problem, liability stays with the agency.
Direct client contact without rules
A subcontractor’s specialist starts agreeing scope directly with the client. The agency loses control over the project and its margin.
Scope changes without a procedure
The client asks for “small tweaks,” the agency agrees, and the subcontractor sends an invoice. The agency’s margin disappears within a few weeks.
No plan for ending the cooperation
The code, access, and documentation stay with the subcontractor. The agency can’t move the project quickly, and the client doesn’t know.
Does your agency need technical backup?
Describe your client’s project. We’ll agree on the scope, pricing model, and communication rules so that the client stays yours.
How to price a project on a white-label basis
An agency has two basic options. Add a margin to the subcontractor’s quote and sell the project to the client as its own — the simplest model with a fixed price. Or bill the client for time at its own rate, and the subcontractor at its rate — which makes sense for long-term development and maintenance.
In both cases, remember two costs that are easy to overlook: the agency’s time spent managing the project and communicating with the client, and a buffer for scope changes. If changes have no procedure on the client side while the subcontractor bills for them as they go, the agency’s margin melts away.
We discuss choosing a pricing model in detail in fixed price vs. time & materials.
How we work with agencies
At Just Site, we work for agencies and software houses on a white-label basis — with an NDA and a non-compete covering their clients, including infrastructure maintenance as part of DevOps as a Service. The client remains the agency’s client.
Frequently asked questions
Will the agency’s client find out about the subcontractor?+
Who is liable to the client for the subcontractor’s mistakes?+
Is a non-compete clause in a B2B contract enforceable?+
How does an agency acquire copyright in the code from a subcontractor?+
Which IT projects are best outsourced on a white-label basis?+
Have a project in mind?
We’ll help you design and deliver it — from strategy to a finished solution.
