How to choose a website partner for your software platform
Updated: 4 days ago
A product team at a property management software company decides its customers should be able to launch websites connected to their listings. The roadmap discussion that follows tends to land on three options: build it, license a white-label builder or partner with a website platform. All three can work. They ask very different things of your organization over the next five years.
Choosing a website partner for your software platform is less a feature comparison than an operating decision. The real question is how much of a website business you want to own.
In this article
Three ways to bring websites to your customers
Build it yourself
You get full control over the experience and full responsibility for it. Your engineering team owns the editor, hosting, security, templates, accessibility and every future capability customers ask for. For most software companies, that competes directly with the core product roadmap.
License a white-label builder
A white-label model lets you present a website builder under your own brand. You move faster than building from scratch, but your team still shapes, integrates and supports the experience around your product. As the offering grows, so does the work of customizing it, filling ecosystem gaps with third-party services and evolving it alongside your platform.
Partner with a website platform
In a partnership model, the website platform provides the infrastructure, editor, ecosystem and ongoing development, and works with you on packaging and rollout. Your platform stays at the center of the customer relationship, connected to each site through APIs and integrations, while customers launch and manage their own websites.
What your customers are actually buying
Your customers aren't buying a website feature. They're putting an important part of their business online, whether that's attracting applicants, booking patients or generating leads for an agency. That raises the bar on what sits underneath: design quality, performance, reliability and the business tools they'll want next.
It also raises a question many product teams overlook. A white-label model is designed to disappear behind your brand, so customers get no signal that a strong web platform supports their site. In a partnership model, your brand, product and customer relationship stay yours while the offering is backed by an established web platform.
Questions to bring to every vendor conversation
Site creation. How does a new customer site get created? Look for API-driven creation from a master template, connected to the customer's data, with no manual setup.
Data sync. What happens when listings, jobs, providers or products change in your platform? The site should stay current without your team stepping in.
Customer control. What can customers manage on their own? Design, content and everyday updates shouldn't route back to your support team.
Ecosystem. Which business capabilities, apps and integrations are included, and which would need third-party services to fill the gap?
Operational load. Who carries hosting, security, performance and new capabilities as you scale?
Launch support. Will the vendor shape packaging and rollout with you, or hand over documentation?
The roadmap test
A simple way to compare models is to project the offering three years out. Picture ten times the customer sites, the new capabilities customers will request and the support load that comes with both. Then look at which model keeps that growth off your core product roadmap. The answer usually points to the model where the website platform keeps evolving without your team rebuilding it.
FAQ
What is the difference between a white-label website builder and a website platform partner?
A white-label builder gives you software to rebrand and resell, and your team owns much of the customization, integration and support around it. A platform partner provides the infrastructure, ecosystem and ongoing development, connects to your software through APIs and works with you on the rollout, so your team stays focused on your core product.
How do software platforms connect customer websites to their data?
Through APIs and integrations. When a customer opts in, an API call creates their site from a master template and connects it to their data in your platform. Webhooks and sync keep that information current as it changes.
Should software companies build their own website offering?
Some do, typically when websites are the core product. For most software companies, building means taking on an editor, hosting, security, templates and a feature roadmap that competes with the product customers already pay for. Partnering adds the offering without turning your company into a website company.
Key takeaway
The right model is the one that gets your customers great websites without turning website technology into a second product your company has to own.
About Wix Enterprise
Wix Enterprise works with software platforms to offer professionally branded websites connected to their product. Customers launch, own and manage their own sites, starting from 2,000+ design templates, while APIs, webhooks and integrations keep each site connected to your platform. Wix provides the platform, infrastructure and ongoing expertise behind the offering, and approximately 10% of the internet is built on Wix's CMS platform. See how customer websites work with Wix Enterprise.
Talk to sales to explore a website offering for your platform.
