Private Label Opportunities for Web Designers and Developers
Published in Web DevelopmentWeb designers have the opportunity to increase their income and to help brand their business by taking advantage of private label (or white label) options that are available. A private label means that you will be able to brand it as your own. For example, you can use a re-branded CMS that appears to clients as though it is your own system, rather than displaying the name and branding of the CMS.
In this post we’ll look at some of the leading private label options for web designers and agencies in a few different categories. We’ll look at content management systems, shopping cart/ecommerce systems, hosting, and email marketing.
Private Label Content Management Systems:
Most clients today want to be able to manage their content without paying a designer every time changes need to be made. There are a number of content management systems that offer private label options. A private label CMS could be a cornerstone for your business that includes residual income each month. Here are some of the leading options.
LightCMS
LightCMS is Element Fusion’s CMS that is created especially for designers. LightCMS aims to provide designers with a CMS that will provide clients with everything they need while not limiting the design, and also providing designers the opportunity to earn a residual income from monthly hosting fees. There is no cost for designers to become resellers, and you can determine the prices that your customers pay. Earlier this year we published a tutorial for setting up your first site with LightCMS.
Business Catalyst
Business Catalyst really could be included in any of the categories in the post because it is more than just a content management system. With Business Catalyst you can create sites that allow you clients to manage the content, sell online, take advantage of email marketing and more. Business Catalyst does not sell directly to end users, they work only through partnerships with designers and agencies. Prices are not listed on the website.
CushyCMS
CushyCMS is simple CMS that allows clients an easy way to update pages without a lot of more advanced features. The system is free to use and designers have the option of upgrading to a pro plan ($28 per month) to be able to brand it as their own CMS. In January we published a tutorial for setting up a client’s site to be editable with CushyCMS.
Surreal CMS
SurrealCMS is very similar to CushyCMS in that it provides a simple solution without all the extra features. You can manage up to three websites for free or you can upgrade to a designer’s account for $25 per month, which gives you the option of branding it as your own CMS. Spyre Studios recently published a tutorial for setting up a portfolio site on Surreal CMS.
PageLime
Like CushyCMS and Surreal CMS, PageLime aims to be a simple solution for designers, developers and clients. You can easily integrate PageLime into your sites very quickly and easily to make the content manageable. It offers features like editing in place on the pages, ability to create templates for creating new pages, RSS feeds, image galleries and more. You can manage up to three sites for free, 50 sites for $19 per month, and unlimited sites for $69 per month. Either of the premium plans allows re-branding. Nettuts has a video tutorial, Easy Website Updates with PageLime.
Monk Development
Monk Development offers a high-quality private label CMS. It is the same CMS that Monk Development uses for Ekklesia 360 for church and ministry websites. With Monk’s private label CMS you can become a reseller or a design parnter. As a reseller you will design and code sites for your clients, and as a design partner you will do the design work and Monk Development will do the coding.
Interspire Website Publisher
Interspire’s Website Publisher allows clients to manage their sites, including drag and drop layout customization. It offers all the typical features of a CMS plus options for creating lead capture forms, an image manager, threaded comments and more. Designers can purchase Interspire Website Publisher for $395 and re-brand it as their own.
Brightegg
Brightegg provides designers with the opportunity to get a private label CMS without the need to do any coding. You can do the design work in Photoshop and uplod the design to Brightegg to be coded. You can have control over the prices of your design services and you can determine how much you want to charge clients monthly for the hosting (you’ll keep the profit above their base prices).
Private Label Ecommerce:
For designers and developers who do a lot of work on ecommerce websites, private label options are available. Private label shopping carts also provide opportunities for residual income.
Interspire Shopping Cart
Earlier in this post we featured Interspire’s Website Builder, but they also have a brandable shopping cart. It provides all of the typical features of a shopping cart, plus a single page checkout, coupon code functionality, reporting and more. The Starter license allows you to sell ecommerce sites with your own branding and it costs $295. Professional and Ultimate licenses cost $995 and $1,795 respectively.
1ShoppingCart
As a private label partner of 1ShoppingCart you can earn 40% of the residual income for the life of your clients, and get support for you and your clients. There is a fee for setup and licensing, but it is not listed on the site.
Pinnacle Cart
Pinnacle Cart (a PHP-based shopping cart) allows to designers to re-brand their shopping cart without any upfront investment. You buy one site license at a time and have control over the prices that are charged to clients.
Reseller Hosting:
Many hosting companies offer reseller accounts. Here we’ll feature a few of the leading choices for setting up private label hosting services to host the sites of your clients.
Page.ly
Page.ly offers customers a service that includes hosting and automatic set up of WordPress. Customers can set up a new site in two minutes and Page.ly takes care of email setup, installation of popular plugins, nightly backups, and automated WordPress upgrades. Prices start at $14.98 per month with additional options of choosing a premium theme. White label resellers use a WordPress plugin to manage their reseller account right from their own site. If you get a lot of inquiries from clients with very low budgets, this may be a good option for you.
Site5
Site5 offers reseller hosting starting at just $19.95 per month (other plans are available for $31.95 and $46.95 per month). Each plan includes all the features, including private nameservers, the disk space and bandwidth allowances are the only difference.
midPhase
A reseller account from midPhase is available for $24.95 per month. A reseller Max account with higher limits on disk space and bandwidth is available for $34.95 per month (prices based on a 12-month commitment).
Host Gator
Host Gator is one of the largest hosting companies and their reseller accounts start at $24.95 per month. Other plans with more disk space and bandwidth are available for $34.95 to $99.95 per month.
Hostway
Hostway’s hosting services include email marketing and a website builder for customers. Their reseller platform Tango allows private label partners to manage everything needed. Prices are not listed on the site.
Email Marketing:
Many of your clients may also be interested in email marketing. There are plenty of choices out there for these services, and a growing number of them are offering private label options for designers and agencies.
Campaign Monitor
Campaign Monitor is feature-rich email marketing software created specifically to be re-sold by designers and agencies. With Campaign Monitor you can determine your pricing and profit from the difference between Campaign Monitor’s base prices and your prices.
AWeber
AWeber, one of the leading email marketing options, offers a private label program for resellers. AWeber’s private label partners receive priority support, and get support for their customers through email, phone, and chat, plus their own toll-free phone number. Prices for the private label program are not listed on the site.
GetResponse
GetResponse is another leading email marketing option that offers private label opportunities. As a private label reseller you will earn 45% commission from your clients. Pricing details for the private label services are not listed on the site.
Interspire Email Marketer
Interpsire also offers email marketing software in addition to their CMS and shopping cart. To purchase the software that can be re-branded, prices start at $495 with no monthly or per-message fees (it runs on your own server).
CakeMail
CakeMail focuses exclusively on private label partners, they do not sell directly to end users. The Start Up Account sells for $150 per month, which allows up to 25,000 emails per month. Advanced plans require a customized quote.
BlinkCampaign
Like CakeMail, BlinkCampaign also focuses exclusively on private/white label partners. BlinkCampaign uses pay-as-you-go pricing. One cent each for the first 50,000 credits, with prices being reduced for greater volume.
Neteffekt
Neteffeckt is also dedicated to private label partnerships. Prices are not listed on the site.
Listrak
Listrak email marketing software provides a private label option for designers and agencies. Pricing details for the white label program are not listed on the site.
What’s Your Experience?
What is your experience with private label products and services? If you have any othe suggested services that were not mentioned here please leave a comment.
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38 Responses
gr8 list and some very good points … i wanted to ask if there’s any good reseller hosting giving unlimited space & bandwidth .. thnx
seriously good post. thanks for this. didn’t know some of those email biz did WL.
It is a mine to a small web designing company like us http://www.web-design-folkz.com/just to dig out the wealth. Thanks you so much
In our dealings, we were extremely impressed with the products and staff/support at LightCMS & Interspire.
Yeah I only knew of 2 of those. Good post
I think the whole white label partnership model can be expanded to lots of vertical markets within web development and design.
From a vendor stance, makes sense to give up branding if sales from a white label partner are high enough.
I’m actually looking at using lightCMS. I like the CMS, I like how easy it is to design for, I like all the free designs for use on the system (and they are pretty damn easy to modify)
but I’m hoping someone else will comment with more experience of the system, preferably someone from the UK… and I’d like to know if they use the client billing feature…
(BTW, any chance of moving the notify me of followup comments radio above the submit button?)
Wow! I did not knew such kind of Private labelling could be done on sites also. Felt nice reading the post. Will be using LightCMS for now since it is free
Great article!
Cake is a seriously good product. We’ve used it for over a year now and we have a lot of very happy clients. They are such a nice bunch of people to deal with too.
Good call on Hostgator too. After 3 bad experiences with other hosts, we settled on hostgator and haven’t looked back.
I have recently used PowerCMS a white label simple CMS solution – it’s kinda light weight but works really well http://www.webassist.com/php-scripts-and-solutions/powercms/
Cool as usual Steven. A quick sidenote: Business Catalyst is the well known GoodBarry
http://goodbarry.com/
Thanks so much for including Page.ly in your list. It’s an honor to be in good company with the other remarkable businesses. We truly appreciate it.
Elio,
Yes it is, but Goodbarry is no more (after the Adobe purchase).
You’re welcome Sally.
Steven,
Thanks. I’ll have to check out PowerCMS.
When I was looking at using WordPress, Magento, Vertical Response and PHPForum as solutions for my clients. I decided to look for a single system I could become good and proficient at and still provide all those solutions. I just felt it a little silly to have to learn and install 4 seperate solutions each time my clients needed it.
So in my research and demos of Element Fusion, Monk Dev and Business Catalyst, I decided on BC because it was the most complete. A year later, I’m glad a made the choice! Especially since the Adobe buyout.
If anyone is interested in going with BC, I can sign you up! Just drop me a line over at relevantmade.com
No doubt Cake is a great Software. Easy to deal with for even non technical persons.
Cool explanation as usual.
No problem, here’s the demo if u want to check it out http://powercms-demo.com/admin/users_login.php
Great resources. Didn’t even know this was possible.
Very good list! Never tried light cms but willing to give it a go very soon
Would you consider Expression Engine private label? I keep hearing good things about it, but have never used it personally.
Nice article, a good CMS system, I is nearly a try. Thank you.
You lose a lot of flexibility when you use a cms but with dynamic content you really must. Will be interesting to see if the increased importance of load times influence the more popular CMS systems.
Here’s another one for the list: DMXReady CMS.
You own the software, so there are no monthly fees, and it’s fully customizable right down to the code and database level. One of the best features (I think) is that it comes with a built-in database, so you don’t need to configure one on the server. It Microsoft Access, and though it’s perhaps not the most powerful database structure out there, it is fine for smaller business websites — what it lacks in power, it easily makes up for in ease of use. You can upgrade to MySQL or MS SQL if need be.
There is also a CMS Lite, a free version, that lets you demo it (unlimited time, limited functionality). DMXReady also has dozens of other apps that plug into it like Catalog Manager, Members Area Manager (security application), etc. to extend its functionality.
http://www.dmxready.com/dmxreadyv2/cms/cms.asp?page=catalog&product=cms
Plus, it really is Private Label software — if you are a web designer, you can buy the Developer’s License to use the software for an unlimited number of sites AND you can rebrand the whole software with your own logo and file structure.
http://www.dmxready.com/?page=license
I think that’s kinda cool, being able to give clients software with your own name on it…
~Graham
I really liked what the guys over at http://www.concrete5.org are doing. I found their CMS to be very easy to install and design for and was using it on a couple sites before I found BC.
It’s been awhile since I’ve used Concrete5 but I understand they now have an integrated shopping cart as well.
And for something a little bit different, but still design related, you could set up a fully white labeled print-on-demand merchandise store at Printfection (http://www.printfection.com)
Really very essential collection of information for every web designer….
Reselling means exactly that — you’d buy the software yourself, install it on your clients site, then use the private label option to remove our name from it. This allows you to set your own price. Some people even charge monthly fees, or bundle it with the website design & integration. Your customers don’t need to know that we exist.
Thanks of the article, thought provoking.
thanks for great idea
Nice list. I knew of LightCMS and Interspire, but not the others.
Good article, I think CMS’s are the way to go.
The business catalyst company gives the opportunity of web designers and developers in creating a websites in a simplest way.
I’ve used Pinnacle Cart before, I like how you can host it on your own server.
I’ve used a few of these, still shopping around for “the one”. In a previous business venture we used Business Catalyst, and it’s incredibly feature-rich, but actually a bit too much for the types of folks I tend to work with. Light CMS is attractive particularly for their marketing support materials, but a bit on the expensive side, and actually I don’t find the CMS as fool-proof as I’d like. I just love their video tutorials!
Great post, thanks!
I’ve been using Campaign Monitor for the past year, it’s an excellent product and very cost effective for my clients. Interspire is also very good but unless you’ve got the technical know-how, customising the layouts isn’t that simple.
We use Cakemail and very satisfied. Except CMS and Email marketing, there are sldo some survey management services which you can sell under your brand. About CMS, I think all mentioned services are great but anyway hosted solutions always have some limits. We are using Silverstripe CMS and extremely happy. It’s free, opensource and you can 100% rebrand it and use or even sell. After spending lots of years with products like Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, Expression Engine, Concrete5 etc, we stopped at Silverstripe and very happy. I am strongly recommending to anyone. If you had experience with Expression Engine, you can easily learn it and use it under your brand.
I’ve used Host Gator, (and their off-shoot service SEO Hosting). The former I’ve never had a problem with. The latter I was quite happy with until we started to out grow them then we had issues with more advanced technical issues and ended up switching to another service.
On the email side the comments on Cake are interesting. I’ve never used it, but glad for the reviews here!
Buzzr.com is a high-end SaaS private label website builder and CMS.
Buzzr provides a simplifies interface on top of 200 Drupal modules. It includes a point and click design suite, Quickstarts (websites with features, pages, and permissions for specific verticals),drag and drop layout with dozens of feature modules, a content management system, hosting, upgrades and high touch support. It is available in Spanish and English.
Buzzr and it’s private label clients have used the platform to power numerous Ace Hardware websites, as well as sites for churches, non-profits, lawyers, dentists, interior decorators, online magazines, architects, exhibits, hair salons, spas, restaurants, retail stores, real estate holdings, community groups, professional security services and even as a a multi-store intranet.
Learn more by e-mailing me — Ed Sussman, co-founder — at info@buzzr.com or check out http://www.buzzr.com/content/white-label-buzzr-ideal-multi-site-platorm