Written by the DIJI.TECH team.
In the white label model, one company makes the product and another sells it under its own name; the customer sees only the seller's brand. Used in sectors from food to cosmetics, banking to software, it is sometimes described in everyday speech as an "unbranded" or "rebrandable" product. In tourism it is the way travel agencies offer their booking sites, sub-agency platforms and the travel portals they give their corporate clients under their own names.
What does white label mean?
White label is a branding model that separates the maker from the seller: the maker prepares the product unbranded or ready to rebrand, and the seller adds its own name, logo and packaging before presenting it to its customer. The name comes from the blank "white label" left for the seller to stick its own mark on.
The logic is a division of labour. The maker focuses on the product itself: its quality, development and scale. The seller invests in the customer relationship, sales and brand. The seller reaches the market under its own brand without carrying the time and risk of developing the product from scratch, and the maker reaches a wider market through many sellers instead of one brand.
In software, white label means the same platform is given to several companies with different brands, colours, domains and sometimes different sets of modules. Each company's customer sees a branded site or application of that company, while the infrastructure behind it is shared.
What is the difference between white label and private label?
The two concepts are often confused but describe different relationships. Private label is usually a product made specially for one retailer or brand and sold only under that brand. White label is the same base product offered to many sellers, each under its own brand. The difference lies in whom the product belongs to.
| Criterion | White label | Private label |
|---|---|---|
| Who is the product specific to? | The same base product at many sellers | Mostly specific to a single seller |
| Customization | Brand, colours, domain, choice of modules | The product itself can be designed to the seller's wishes |
| Time to start | Short, because the product is ready | Longer, because custom development is needed |
| Example in software | The same platform installed under different agencies' brands | Custom software built for a single company |
In software there is also a middle path: a ready platform is installed under your brand, and the source code is additionally bought so the company can develop it with its own team. This option is covered in the cost section below.
How does white label software work?
White label software generally runs on a multi-tenant architecture: one piece of software serves many companies, and each company is kept as a separate "tenant" with its own data, brand and settings. The customer enters through the seller's domain and sees only the seller's brand.
In a white label product, these layers are typically configured per seller:
- Brand: logo, colours, typeface, favicon, email sender name.
- Domain: the seller's own address; customers never see the provider's address.
- Content and legal text: terms of use, privacy and cookie notices in the seller's name.
- Modules: which products or features the seller opens.
- Commercial rules: pricing, payment methods, per-customer settings.
The advantage of shared infrastructure is that updates and security improvements reach all tenants together. The drawback is that the seller cannot set the product roadmap alone, so the relationship with the provider should be well defined on this point.
What does white label mean in tourism?
In tourism, white label means a travel agency uses a technology provider's booking infrastructure under its own brand. The agency sells flights, hotels or other products on its own site or portal; search, pricing, booking and document generation run on the provider's infrastructure. The same model takes three common forms.
| Form | Sold to | Typical content |
|---|---|---|
| B2C white label site | Individual travelers | A site to search and buy flights, hotels and tours |
| B2B white label platform | Sub-agencies | A panel in which the sub-agency sells to its own customers |
| Corporate white label portal | Companies and their employees | A travel portal with policy, approval, budget and reports |
The three serve different needs. B2C and B2B platforms are sales channels; a corporate portal is a system that lets a company manage its travel process. In the corporate channel the sale runs along the agency → company → employee chain, which is also called B2B2E.
What is a white label portal in corporate travel?
In corporate travel, a white label portal is the online booking and approval system that a travel agency or travel management company (TMC) offers its corporate clients under its own brand, domain and documents. A company's employees search for and request trips in the portal, managers approve, and finance follows budget and invoices. Throughout, the customer sees the agency's brand.
Kurumsal.pro is an example of this model: a corporate travel management software built on DIJI.TECH infrastructure that agencies offer their corporate clients under their own brands. Colours, typeface, logo, domain, support details, the TÜRSAB number (the registration number issued to licensed travel agencies in Turkey) and language-specific legal texts are set per agency.
Travel plans, e-tickets, vouchers and invoice PDFs are produced under the agency's brand, and corporate email templates are sent in Turkish and English with the site brand. From portal responses, supplier name, net price, markup, commission and profit fields are removed; a response that cannot be sanitised is never passed to the portal. The corporate client therefore sees the price and the service, not the agency's commercial structure.
To be fully transparent, the portal footer carries a small "powered by" note and the DIJI.TECH logo naming the infrastructure provider. The rest of the interface, the domain and the documents carry the agency's brand.
What are the advantages and limits of a white label portal for the agency?
The main advantage of a white label portal is that an agency can give its corporate client a system under its own brand without developing software. The main limit is that the product roadmap is set together with the provider. Weigh both sides when deciding.
| Advantage | Limit or point to watch |
|---|---|
| No time or risk of building software from scratch | New features depend on the provider's development plan |
| Customer relationship and brand stay with the agency | Brand settings are limited to the options the provider offers |
| Updates and security improvements come from the shared infrastructure | If the provider changes, a migration plan is needed |
| Modules are opened as needed | Supplier agreements and payment infrastructure remain the agency's responsibility |
Most of the limits can be managed through the contract and the choice of provider. The source code option is an alternative for agencies that want to set their own roadmap with their own team.
What items make up the cost of a white label travel portal?
The cost of a white label travel portal is not a single licence fee; the items on the software side and on the agency's own commercial side should be considered together. Prices in the market vary widely with scope, number of modules and licence model, so a meaningful comparison can only be made item by item.
| Item | What it includes | On whose side? |
|---|---|---|
| Licence model | Rental (software as a service) or buying the source code | Software provider |
| Modules | Flights, hotels, transfers, car rental, bus, tours, villas, yachts, activities, visas | Software provider |
| Set-up | Brand, domain, module activation, first administrator | Software provider |
| Usage-based services | Components whose use is metered, such as an AI assistant | Software provider |
| Supplier agreements | Airline, GDS, hotel, transfer, car and bus providers | Agency |
| Virtual POS | Collection of card payments (3D Secure) | Agency |
| Accounting and e-documents | e-Invoice / e-Archive document issuer and ledger transfer | Agency |
| Domain | The address the portal runs on | Agency |
| Legal prerequisite | A TÜRSAB licence to sell travel in Turkey | Agency |
| Internal cost | The operations and sales team that serves corporate clients | Agency |
The approved information on the DIJI.TECH side is: the infrastructure is offered with a rental or source-code purchase option, set-up takes about 1 week on average, activating an additional module takes 1 working day, and the price is given only by individual quote. The items that shape a quote are detailed on the pricing page.
White label or build your own software?
The decision depends on whether the agency sees software as a tool or as its own product. For an agency that wants to start fast and keep its team focused on sales, white label rental suits; for an organization that wants to own the product and develop it with its own team, source code or its own development is the fit.
An agency that builds its own software from scratch has to write and maintain not only the interface but also supplier integrations, pricing rules, the policy and approval engine, payment and accounting connections, security and authentication. In corporate travel this list is far longer than for a consumer sales site. We compared a ready product with source code in advantages of cloud-based SaaS corporate travel technologies.
Which questions should you ask a white label provider?
When choosing a provider, how the product carries the agency's business model matters more than how the demo screens look. The questions below help you compare different offers by the same yardstick.
- Does the portal open to your customer with your brand, your domain and your TÜRSAB number? In whose name do documents and emails go out?
- Are supplier names, net prices and your profit hidden from the customer?
- Can a per-client service fee, hidden markup and commission be defined?
- Are travel policy, approval flow, budget and reporting in the same product?
- Can you use your own supplier accounts and your own virtual POS?
- How long does set-up take, and how quickly can a new module be opened?
- Is the licence model rental only, or is source code possible too?
- Which languages does the portal support, and does it work in a mobile browser?
The Kurumsal.pro answers to these questions are on the white label corporate booking tool for TMCs page, and the agency's back-office tools on the corporate travel agency software page.
How does a white label portal work in Kurumsal.pro?
In Kurumsal.pro the DIJI.TECH platform administrator sets up the portal; the agency does not open a portal from its own panel, and after set-up it manages its corporate clients from its own panel. The steps of set-up and day-to-day operation are in how a white label corporate travel platform works.
To evaluate how a portal under your brand would look to your client, you can ask the DIJI.TECH team for a demo.
Frequently asked questions
What does white label mean?
White label is a model in which the company that develops a product or software stays in the background and the selling company presents it to customers under its own name and logo. The end user sees the selling brand, not the original maker.
What is the difference between white label and private label?
Private label is mostly a product made specifically for one retailer or brand and sold only under that brand. White label is the same base product offered to many sellers, each under its own brand. In software, white label means the same platform is provided to different companies with different brands and domains.
What is a white label travel portal used for?
It lets a travel agency offer a booking or corporate travel portal under its own brand without building software from scratch. The agency concentrates on customer relationships, pricing and supplier agreements, while development and maintenance of the software stay with the provider.
How is the cost of a white label travel portal determined?
By the licence model (rental or source code), the modules to be opened and the scope of set-up. To these are added the agency's own supplier agreements, virtual POS, accounting software and domain costs. DIJI.TECH gives prices only by individual quote.
Does the customer see the underlying software provider in a white label portal?
In the Kurumsal.pro portal the interface, domain, emails and PDF documents carry the agency's brand; supplier names, net prices and the agency's profit are not shown to the customer. The footer carries a small 'powered by' note and the DIJI.TECH logo naming the infrastructure provider.
Does the agency set up the white label portal itself?
That depends on the provider. In Kurumsal.pro the DIJI.TECH platform administrator sets up the corporate portal; the agency does not open a new portal from its own panel. DIJI.TECH states that set-up takes about 1 week on average.