White-Label Web Development for Design Studios: How It Works

White-label web development means a development studio builds a site that your design studio sells and delivers under its own name. You keep the client, the relationship and the invoice. The partner builds from your Figma files, signs an NDA, hands over the code and stays out of sight. At Écrin Digital, we work with design studios on a fixed price per project, and the studio keeps the client.

Updated 10 November 2026. By Alexis Chân Gridel, founder of Écrin Digital and member of the Awwwards Young Jury 2026.

This guide is for brand, identity and product design studios that sell websites but do not want a full in-house engineering team. It explains the three ways to work with a development partner, what the handoff needs, how pricing works and what to write in the contract. Public data on margins is thin, so we say where a point is our own practice.

Why do design studios lose the build after the design?

A studio wins a brand project and delivers a beautiful identity. The client then asks for the website. Three things tend to happen.

1. The build goes to someone else. The client asks a freelancer or a template agency, and the design gets simplified.
2. The studio says yes without capacity. The build runs late, motion is cut, and the studio explains the gap.
3. The studio says no. The build revenue goes elsewhere, along with the chance to keep the client for the next phase.

Each case costs the studio money and, more often, control over how its design looks in the browser. A development partner solves this if the arrangement is clear from the start.

What are the three models: referral, named partner, white label?

The models differ on three questions: who talks to the client, who invoices, and who carries the risk.

Referral. You pass the lead to a developer and step back. You usually earn a fee or nothing. It is the lowest effort and the lowest control. The client may end up working with the developer for later phases.

Named partner. The developer is introduced, credited on the project and sometimes present in calls. The studio keeps the lead role. This suits studios that want to show who built the site, and clients who value a visible technical expert.

White label. The partner is invisible to the client. Emails, staging links and repositories use the studio's name. This offers the most control and the most responsibility: you promise the client delivery, so you need a partner you can rely on.

Whatever the model, agree the client contact rule in writing before work starts. A developer who emails your client directly, or a partner's name that appears in a repository, can cost you the relationship. Bytesicht, an independent developer, makes the same point in its vetting checklist for studios.

How does the handoff from Figma work?

A developer can only build what is specified. Figma's Dev Mode gives the tools: you mark frames "ready for dev", add annotations, and the developer inspects spacing, colours, variables and styles, downloads assets and compares versions when a design changes. In practice, we ask for these items:

• Desktop and mobile frames for every page template, marked ready for dev.
• A component library with variants and states: hover, focus, error, empty.
• Variables and styles for colours, type scale and spacing, not loose values.
• Motion notes. For each animation: trigger, duration, easing and the end state. A short screen recording of a prototype is often enough.
• Real content or realistic placeholders, and the fields a CMS needs.
• Assets: fonts with licences, optimised images, logo files, video.
• One contact on your side who answers questions and approves.

Late design changes are the main source of overruns. Figma's version comparison helps, and a rule helps more: changes after approval are priced as changes.

How are white-label projects priced, and what margin is typical?

There are two common structures. In a fixed price per project, the partner quotes a price for a defined scope, and the studio sells to the client at its own price. In a day rate or retainer, the partner bills time. Fixed pricing protects the studio's margin, because the cost is known before the client signs.

On typical margins, we found no reliable public data. The ivector blog, a white-label supplier, notes that markup and margin figures vary widely between sources and are rarely backed by data. So we do not quote a percentage. Our practice: the studio sets its own price to the client, and we invoice the studio our fixed price. The difference is the studio's, and it pays for the client relationship, the scope negotiation and the risk of non-payment.

Which stack suits motion-heavy designs?

Ambitious studios design motion: scroll-driven animation, page transitions, sometimes real-time 3D. The build needs to carry that without slowing the page.

• Astro. It renders pages to HTML and CSS and, according to its documentation, strips client-side JavaScript by default. Only components you mark as islands load JavaScript. The page stays light and the animation code does not compete with a heavy framework.
• Next.js. The right choice when the site shares accounts or data with a product. See our Next.js agency page.
• GSAP and Three.js. GSAP handles scroll and timeline animation. Three.js, often through React Three Fiber, handles real-time 3D. We use both.
• Sanity. A headless CMS so the client edits copy and case studies without touching the code.

Our own site is built with Astro and Sanity. As an example of a studio collaboration, we built Viewz, a fintech site, with Astro, GSAP and Sanity, from a partner designer's work, and shipped it in 4 weeks. See it in our work.

What can go wrong, and which clauses should you write down?

The ivector blog lists the usual failures: weak vetting, missing ownership assignment, client contracts that forbid subcontracting, and dependence on one supplier. A published white-label subcontract template from StudioPartner, with a disclaimer that no lawyer has reviewed it, shows what a full contract covers. Write down at least these points, and ask a lawyer in your country to review them.

1. Ownership. Code, designs and repository history transfer to you, or to your client, once the project is paid. Name the licences of third-party components and any tools the partner owned before.
2. Credits. Who is named on the site, in the footer, in case studies and award submissions. Agree it before launch.
3. Client contact. Whether the partner ever speaks to the client, and what happens if the client calls the partner.
4. Revisions. How many review rounds are included at design and staging stages. Further rounds are changes with a price.
5. Acceptance. What "done" means, and who signs it off.
6. Warranty and maintenance. A bug-fix period after launch, then a separate maintenance plan.
7. Subcontracting. Check your own client contract. Some clients forbid or limit subcontracting.
8. Handover. Code, access, documentation and a list of third-party licences.

How does Écrin Digital work with design studios?

We work behind or beside the studio, as you prefer. The studio keeps the client. We quote a fixed price per project and sign an NDA before seeing designs. Credits are as agreed, and we do not contact your client unless you ask. Payment follows three steps: 40% at signature, 30% at design approval and 30% at launch. You own the code. Prices are in euros, excluding VAT, from our public grid.

See our pricing page for details, or contact us to discuss a first project.

Frequently asked questions

What is white-label web development? A partner builds a website that you sell and deliver under your own name. The client deals only with you, and the partner stays invisible.

Who owns the code in a white-label project? It should transfer to you or to your client once the project is paid. Put it in the contract, with the list of third-party licences.

Can I start with a small project? Yes. We recommend a first project with a clear scope, then a longer relationship if it works. A paid Roadmap from €1,500 can scope the build first.

Do you work from Figma files? Yes. We need ready-for-dev frames, components, variables, motion notes and one contact. We will tell you what is buildable before quoting.

Can you be credited on the site? It is your choice. We work white label or as a named partner, and credits are agreed in writing before launch.

Sources

• ivector, White-label software development: the economics, 6 August 2026.
• StudioPartner, White label subcontract agreement template, version 0.1, 1 October 2026.
• Bytesicht, How to vet a white label development partner, 27 October 2026.
• Figma, Guide to Dev Mode.
• Astro, Islands architecture.