An agency reselling white-label SEO or web development typically keeps a 50–70% gross margin on the resold price, which works out to a 2–3× markup on what the delivery partner charges. That is the industry-standard band, and it holds across the US, Canada and Australia with small local variations. On our own wholesale rate card, the arithmetic puts a partner's margin in the 55–65% range on a build, with retainers usually leaving more room. The rest of this post shows where those numbers come from, what quietly erodes them, and the handful of contract terms that keep them intact.
The model: cost-plus, with you setting the price
White-label delivery works on a cost-plus basis. The delivery partner quotes its price for the work; the agency adds its own margin and sells the finished job to the client under the agency's brand. The agency owns the relationship, the pricing conversation and the invoice; the partner owns delivery and stays invisible. Agencies prefer this to a fixed resale price for an obvious reason — the margin is theirs to set, client by client, and a rate card from the partner is a reference point rather than a ceiling.
The reason the model exists at all is the gap between offshore delivery cost and onshore agency retail. A fixed-fee white-label web or software build in 2026 typically runs $3,000 to $25,000, against $15,000 to $150,000 and beyond for the same scope delivered by an onshore team. That gap is what an agency's margin is carved out of, and it is why the arithmetic works even after a generous markup.
A worked example
Take a business website. On our rate card the wholesale price is ₹55,000 to ₹1,80,000, and the typical resale price a Western agency charges its client for the same scope is $2,500 to $6,000. An agency buying at roughly the midpoint of our range and selling at roughly the midpoint of the market's — a little over $1,200 in, around $4,250 out — keeps about 71% gross margin on that job. That sits at the top of the 50–70% band, which is the honest reading of the whole rate card: on builds, the margin is there, and it is not tight.
| Service | Wholesale (what you pay us) | Typical Western resale |
|---|---|---|
| Business website | ₹55,000 – ₹1,80,000 | $2,500 – $6,000 |
| Shopify / ecommerce build | ₹1,10,000 – ₹3,50,000 | $4,000 – $12,000 |
| SEO retainer, per month | ₹28,000 – ₹95,000 | $1,500 – $4,000 / month |
| Custom software / AI build | from ₹2,80,000 | $12,000 and up |
| WhatsApp automation setup | ₹25,000 – ₹80,000 | $1,200 – $3,500 |
The dollar equivalents of the rupee column, at the exchange rate the partners page uses, are shown live there; every job gets a fixed quote before it starts, so you never quote your client against a moving number.
Why retainers leave more room than builds
On a build, the margin is fixed on the day the quote is signed. On a retainer it widens over time, because the wholesale price stays flat while the client's monthly fee is set against their market, not ours. An SEO retainer is the clearest case: our wholesale rate is ₹28,000 to ₹95,000 a month, US small-business retainers typically bill $1,500 to $3,200, and Australian agencies resell white-label SEO at two to three times wholesale while keeping 45–65% of the fee. Canadian resellers work to a similar two-to-two-and-a-half-times markup on SEO, or 50–60% gross. A retainer also renews, which turns one sale into predictable revenue for both sides — and that predictability is the real reason a partner has no incentive to go round you.
What quietly eats the margin
The gross number above is not the number that reaches your accounts. Four things erode it, and all four are manageable if they are planned rather than discovered:
- Revision rounds — the single largest leak. Uncapped revisions on a fixed-price build turn a 65% margin into a 40% one. Budget a buffer of around 20% for revisions on any client who has not worked with you before, and cap the rounds in both contracts
- Rush work — turnaround under half the standard timeline carries a rush fee of 25–40% at the wholesale end. Pass it through to the client or absorb it knowingly; never let it surprise you
- Your own management time — the hours you spend briefing, reviewing and relaying. A partner with clean async communication and a weekly written update costs you far fewer of these hours than one you have to chase
- Rework from a bad brief — the cheapest fix is a written scope, agreed by all three parties, before the first hour is billed
The terms that protect it
Agencies evaluate white-label partners on four things: proven expertise in the specific work, the ability to scale with fluctuating demand, tooling that fits the agency's stack, and — most decisively — clear communication and reporting. The contract terms that keep a margin intact follow directly from those:
- A fixed quote per job, before you quote your client — a rate card is the reference, the quote is the commitment
- A response-time commitment — one business day is the standard — and a defined escalation path
- Revision rounds capped and written down, with a price for extra rounds
- Async-first communication in a shared channel, with a weekly written update even in a week with nothing to report
- An NDA and non-circumvention agreement, signed before the partner sees a client's name
- Branded deliverables — the partner's name appears nowhere client-facing, and any portfolio mention needs your written permission
- Client-call presence set to invisible by default, with a silent-on-call option when a technical question needs a direct answer
Non-circumvention is the term agencies ask about first, and it deserves a plain answer. We sign it before we see a client name — no approach, no quote, no work from them, during the engagement or after. The contract is the smaller reason to trust it. Partner work is repeat, predictable revenue from someone who already trusts us; one stolen client ends that permanently, and word travels fast in a small industry. The maths has never been close.
Who owns what
A white-label build should be set up so that the agency owns the relationship and the client owns the asset. Hosting, domain, repository and analytics sit in accounts in the client's name from day one, with the agency as the administrator and the partner as a collaborator whose access can be revoked at handover. Intellectual property is expressly assigned on final payment. That structure protects the agency twice: the client can never be held hostage by a vendor they have never met, and the agency is never the bottleneck when the client wants to move something. Our security and data handling page sets out how we run access and offboarding on every job.
Time zones, from the agency's side
For a US agency, our afternoon covers your morning — roughly 8am to noon Eastern — and the rest of the day runs on a written update. For a UK agency the overlap is most of the working day, and for Canada it is your morning across both coasts. The practical effect on margin is that work briefed at the end of your day is usually waiting at the start of the next one, which shortens client timelines without adding hours to your side. It is worth planning around rather than fighting: a partner that answers overnight is a different product from one that answers in the meeting, and both have their place.
How to check a partner before you resell them
- Run one small paid job first — a technical audit or a single landing page — before you put a client in front of them
- Ask for the rate card in writing and check that the fixed quote matches it
- Ask what a weekly update looks like, and ask to see one
- Ask who else has access to client credentials, and how access is removed at the end
- Ask what they do not do — a partner who says "we will not take that on" is more useful than one who takes everything
Our partners page carries the full wholesale rate card, the commitments above in contract-ready form, and the process for a first job. The margin is yours to set; the arithmetic that makes it work is published so you can check it before you pick up the phone.