How to Choose a White Label Web Development Partner

To choose a white label web development partner, ask twelve questions before you sign. Judge every answer with one test: is it specific, and will they put it in the contract? Vague answers on confidentiality, code ownership or bug fixes turn into arguments later, often in front of your client.

Below are the questions we would ask in your place and what a good answer sounds like. Each one ends with how SoftVolt AI answers it, taken from our own published terms.

12 questions to ask a white label web development partner

Ask them on a call, then ask for the answers in writing. A partner who answers well on the phone but will not write it down has given you a sales answer.

1. Will you sign a mutual NDA before I share the client’s name?

You will share client names, plans and sometimes customer data before any contract exists. So the NDA has to come first, not with the proposal.

A good answer: “Yes, a mutual NDA, on our template or yours, before you send the brief.” Be wary of a one-way NDA that only protects the partner, or a request to see the brief first.

Our answer: We sign a mutual NDA, on our template or yours, before you share a client’s name. Ask for it in your first message and it arrives before we discuss anything else.

2. Will you ever contact my client?

A good answer: “Never, and the contract says so, including after the project ends.” The clause should cover marketing to your client, quoting for them and taking work from them directly. Ask about portfolio use and credit links too, because both can reveal you.

Our answer: We will not approach, market to, quote for or accept work from your client, during the project or after it. We add no footer links, watermarks or “built by” credits. If your client asks a technical question, we write the answer for your account manager to send.

3. Who owns the code, and when does it pass to us?

Paying for code does not automatically make it yours. The UK Intellectual Property Office says a contractor usually keeps the copyright in their work unless a contract says otherwise. See the IPO guidance on who owns copyright.

US law lists nine kinds of commissioned work that can count as “work made for hire”, and software is not one of them. The Copyright Office explains this in Circular 30 on works made for hire. Either way, you want ownership settled in writing.

A good answer: “The contract assigns the code to you or your client, and we move the repository into your account at handover.” Ask your solicitor to read the clause, because this article is not legal advice.

Our answer: Your agency or your client owns the code, whichever you decide. We transfer the repository and all credentials at handover. Theme and plugin headers name your agency, not us.

4. What does your QA cover, and can I read the checklist?

A good answer: a written checklist they use on every build, covering browsers, real devices, accessibility and page speed. They should also check each page against the approved design. “We test everything” with no document behind it is not an answer.

Our answer: Every build passes our published QA checklist before you see it: cross-browser, real-device, accessibility and Core Web Vitals checks. We compare each page with your Figma frames before it reaches you.

5. When are you online, and how does that match my day?

A good answer: working hours in your time zone, the hours of overlap and the name of the person who replies during them. A partner in another time zone can work in your favour when you plan the hand-offs.

Our answer: The team works from Dhaka (UTC+6, no daylight saving) and covers 09:00 to 23:00 local time. Dhaka afternoons overlap the UK working day, evenings overlap East Coast mornings in the US and Canada, and mornings overlap the Sydney afternoon.

Brief us at 5pm London and review the work at 9am. A named producer answers in your shared Slack Connect or WhatsApp channel.

6. How do you price work, and what changes the price?

A good answer: a fixed price against a written scope, or a monthly plan with clear limits, plus a written process for changes. Open-ended hourly billing moves the risk onto you. Ask whether they add a margin to hosting, plugins and licences.

Our answer: You get a written scope and a fixed price within two business days of the brief. Nothing starts until you approve it.

If your client asks for something new, we write the change down with a price before anyone builds it. We bill hosting, plugins and licences at cost, or you hold them in your own accounts.

7. How many of our projects can you run at once?

A good answer: a number. “As many as you need” means nobody has planned for your busy month. Ask what happens to briefs above that number and how they handle a rush.

Our answer: Essential (from £500 a month) runs 1 active project at a time. Growth (from £1,200) runs up to 3, Premium (from £2,400) up to 6, and Enterprise has no limit and a custom quote. You can queue as many briefs as you like, and our rates page lists what each plan includes.

For rush work, we tell you the cost if we can hit the date. If we cannot, we say so instead of taking the work and missing it.

8. Can I see work you have built?

A good answer: live sites you can open yourself, with the partner’s role stated honestly. A good white label partner cannot show agency work without permission, so a short portfolio is fine. A portfolio full of other agencies’ client sites should make you ask whether yours will join it.

Our answer: Partner work only appears with the agency’s written permission, and then under the agency’s brand. Instead we show live builds our founder delivered before SoftVolt AI, such as the Heat Pumps 4 Pools WooCommerce store.

Our founder, Md Alamgir Hossen, has nine years of PHP, WordPress, WooCommerce and Elementor work for agencies in the UK and Bangladesh. Most recently he led the WordPress team at a UK agency.

9. Where will my client’s logins and data live?

A good answer: a shared password vault, the lowest access level the work needs, two-factor authentication and access removed at the end. For personal data from UK or EU clients, add a data processing agreement and a lawful transfer route.

If the partner works outside the UK and EU, ask which transfer route they use. The ICO explains the UK IDTA and Addendum for international transfers. The European Commission lists the countries with an EU adequacy decision.

Our answer: Credentials live in a shared 1Password or Bitwarden vault, never in email or chat. We ask for a scoped role, such as a limited WordPress role, instead of the owner’s login. Every workstation is disk-encrypted and every account we hold uses two-factor authentication.

Bangladesh is not on the EU adequacy list. So we sign an Article 28 data processing agreement and work under the UK IDTA or Addendum and EU Standard Contractual Clauses. Our security and confidentiality page lists every practice.

10. What do we get at handover?

A good answer: a list, not a promise. Expect the repository, credentials, documentation and an editing guide your client can follow. You should also get every plugin with its licence holder, plus written confirmation that the partner’s access is gone.

Our answer: You get the repository, a handover document, an editing guide in your brand and a plugin list with licence holders. We remove our access and confirm it in writing. We keep staging sites password-protected and noindexed, and remove them within 14 days of launch unless you ask us to keep them.

11. Who pays when something breaks after launch?

A good answer: the partner fixes defects in the agreed scope at its own cost. Ask how they tell a defect from a new request, and how long the cover lasts.

Our answer: If it was in the agreed scope and it breaks, we fix it at our cost, with no invoice. New requests get a written price first. For updates, backups and monitoring, our maintenance plans run under your brand, and you can resell them as your own care plan.

12. How do we end it if it does not work?

A good answer: monthly or project-by-project terms, no exclusivity, and a clean handover whatever the reason. The promise not to contact your client should outlast the contract.

Our answer: Plans run month to month with no long-term contract, and you can move up or down as your workload changes. We ask for no exclusivity and no minimum spend. A project ends when you sign the handover, and our promise not to approach your client continues after we stop working together.

A scorecard to take into the call

Tick each row as you go. If two or more answers land in the right-hand column, keep looking.

Topic	Listen for	Walk away if
NDA	Mutual, signed before the brief	They want the brief first
Client contact	Never, in writing, after the project too	The clause ends with the project
Code ownership	Written assignment and the repository transferred	They keep the repository
QA	A checklist you can read	“We test everything”
Time zones	Hours and overlap in your time zone	“We are flexible”
Pricing	A fixed price per scope, changes priced first	Open-ended hourly billing
Capacity	A number of parallel projects	“As many as you need”
References	Live sites with an honest role	Other agencies’ clients on show
Security	A vault, least access and a DPA	Passwords sent by email
Handover	A written list of what you receive	“We’ll send the files”
Defects	Scope defects fixed at their cost	Every fix is billable
Exit	Monthly terms and a clean handover	A long lock-in or an exit fee

Try us on one project

A partnership with SoftVolt AI starts with one real brief, not a long contract. There is no onboarding fee and no minimum, so you can judge the scope, the communication and the delivery on that project. Our partner programme page explains how it works.

See the platforms we build on and how a project runs on our white label web development service page. When you are ready, send us a brief and ask for the NDA first. You get a written scope and a fixed price within two business days.

Related guide: White label WordPress development: the agency guide