White-Label Taxi Apps: What You Actually Get

Every dispatch vendor now claims white-labelling. The term covers everything from a genuinely separate app published under your own developer account to a colour variable swapped in a shared app, so it is worth being precise about what you are buying.

The three levels of "white label"

The difference between the second and third rows is the one that matters commercially, and it is almost never discussed in a demo. It comes down to a single question: whose Apple and Google developer account is the app published under?

What passengers should never see

The test for a proper white-label setup is simple: a passenger should be able to book a taxi, take the journey, pay, and get a receipt without ever encountering the software vendor's name. That means:

• The store listing, app name and icon are yours.
• The splash screen, colours, typography and map pins are yours.
• Push notifications come from your firm — "Your driver is 2 minutes away", not "Vendor X: your driver is 2 minutes away".
• Booking confirmations, SMS and emailed receipts carry your name, your VAT number and your contact details.
• The booking website runs on your domain, not a vendor subdomain with your logo on it.

That last point is the one most often missed, and it has an SEO consequence as well as a branding one: a booking page on yourfirm.co.uk builds your domain's authority, while one on yourfirm.vendorplatform.com builds the vendor's.

What it costs

Branded apps are commonly quoted as a separate build — £1,000 to £5,000 up front is a normal range in this market, sometimes with an annual maintenance fee attached. There are also unavoidable platform fees: Apple charges $99 a year for a developer account and Google a one-off $25.

The maintenance point is worth pressing on. Apple and Google change their requirements every year, and an app that is not updated eventually stops being accepted. Ask who is responsible for keeping the app compliant with new OS versions and store policies, and whether that is included or billed.

With Cabica the branded passenger app and booking website are included on every plan, from £100/month, with no separate build fee — the full breakdown is on the pricing page, and the wider market context is in our guide to what dispatch software costs.

The driver app matters too

White-labelling discussions focus on passengers, but drivers install an app as well, and a driver app carrying a vendor's name quietly undermines the impression that they work for you. It also makes poaching easier: a driver who knows the platform name knows exactly who else uses it.

Questions to ask before signing

1. Whose Apple and Google developer accounts are the apps published under? Get this in writing.
2. If we leave, what happens to the app listing, and can a new vendor take it over?
3. Who submits store updates, and what is the turnaround when Apple rejects one?
4. Is the booking website on our own domain, with our own SSL certificate?
5. Does anything a passenger receives — push, SMS, email, receipt — mention your company name anywhere?
6. What does it cost to change our branding after launch, if we rebrand or refresh colours?

Is a branded app worth it for a small fleet?

For a firm doing most of its work by phone, an app is not going to transform the business in month one, and it is worth being sceptical of any projection that says it will. What it does is stop the slow leak — the regular passengers who drift to a national app because booking with you means a phone call at 11pm.

The realistic case is defensive and it compounds: passengers who install your app book with you more often, cost nothing per booking, and are not being shown a competitor's cars while they wait. Whether that justifies the cost depends entirely on whether the app is a line item at £3,000 or included in a plan you were buying anyway.

If you are weighing up the whole platform rather than just the app, the 24-point checklist covers what to test across dispatch, drivers, payments and contracts.