Private labeling is a business arrangement where a product is manufactured or developed by one company but sold exclusively under another company's brand. Unlike white labeling, which typically involves a generic product rebranded by multiple companies, private labeling usually implies an exclusive or semi-exclusive arrangement with product customization for the selling company.
In software, private labeling means the selling company gets a customized version of the product with their branding, custom features, and often exclusive access to certain capabilities. The level of customization distinguishes private label from white label, though the boundary between the two is not always clear.
Retailers have long used private labeling to offer store-brand products. In the SaaS world, the model is gaining traction as companies look to offer adjacent capabilities without building them in-house. A CRM company might private-label a marketing automation tool, customizing it to integrate deeply with their platform and selling it as a native feature.
Private label agreements are more complex than white label because they involve customization, exclusivity, and often joint product roadmap planning. The producer invests more upfront in creating the customized version, so they typically require longer contracts and higher minimum commitments.
For the selling company, private label provides control over the customer experience without the cost and time of building from scratch. For the producing company, a private label deal provides guaranteed revenue and a strategic partnership with a larger brand that can drive significant volume.