White-label taxi app: your firm's own app for drivers and passengers

A white-label taxi app lets a small or mid-sized firm put its own name on a phone app without paying to build one from scratch. This guide explains what "white-label" really covers, why Apple and Google care whose account the app sits in, what the developer accounts cost, and the questions to ask before you sign with a supplier.

What is a white-label taxi app?

A white-label taxi app is a ready-made app that a supplier re-skins for each firm. The code underneath is shared. What changes is the name on the icon, the logo, the colours, the wording and the listing in the stores.

For a UK taxi or private hire firm that usually means one of two apps, or both:

• A driver app, so jobs reach your drivers on a phone with your name on it, not someone else's.
• A passenger app, so regulars and account customers can book, see the price and pay.

The appeal is simple. In published agency estimates a custom build runs to tens of thousands of US dollars and months of work (our guide to building or buying a taxi app sets them out). A white-label app spreads that cost across every firm the supplier serves.

The catch is that "your own app" can mean several different things, and the differences matter when something goes wrong or when you want to leave.

What does "your own branded taxi app" actually include?

A branded taxi app should give you your name and look on the phone and in the stores. Whether it also gives you the listing, the account and the data depends on how it's set up.

On the App Store the seller name is fixed by the account. Apple says an organisation's legal entity name is listed as the seller, and a sole trader's personal legal name is listed instead. So if the app sits in a supplier's account, the supplier's name appears as the seller under your logo.

Do you need your own Apple and Google developer accounts?

For an iPhone app in your firm's name, almost certainly yes. Apple's App Review Guideline 4.2.6 says apps "created from a commercialized template or app generation service will be rejected unless they are submitted directly by the provider of the app's content." It adds that these services "should not submit apps on behalf of their clients." For a taxi app, the provider of the content is your firm.

Guideline 5.2.1 points the same way: apps "should be submitted by the person or legal entity that owns or has licensed the intellectual property and other relevant rights."

Apple's own rules for enrolling as an organisation are strict:

• The firm must be a legal entity that can sign contracts. Apple doesn't accept trading names, so a limited company enrols under its registered name.
• You need a D-U-N-S number, a nine-digit business identifier from Dun & Bradstreet that Apple says is free in most places.
• You need a working public website on your firm's domain and a work email on that domain.
• The person enrolling must have authority to bind the firm.

A sole trader enrols as an individual, and Apple shows their personal legal name as the seller.

Google Play has two account types, personal and organisation. An organisation account asks for a D-U-N-S number, the organisation's name, address, phone number and website. A personal account created after 13 November 2023 has to run a closed test with at least 12 testers, opted in for at least 14 days in a row, before the app can go into production. That rule alone is a good reason for a limited company to open an organisation account.

How much do the Apple and Google developer accounts cost?

The Apple Developer Program costs 99 US dollars a year, and a Google Play developer account costs US$25 once. Apple charges in local currency where it can and shows the UK price during enrolment.

Google's help page warns that some third-party services try to charge "high administrative fees" for a D-U-N-S number. You don't need to pay one: apply to Dun & Bradstreet directly.

The supplier's own fee for setting up and maintaining the app is separate. Ask for it in writing, along with what happens to it if you stop.

Can the supplier publish the app under their account instead?

Yes, but then it isn't really your app in the stores. Apple's guideline 4.2.6 gives template providers one other route: a single app that hosts every client inside it, in a "picker" model, like a restaurant finder with a page for each restaurant. Your passengers would download the supplier's app and pick your firm from a list.

Google Play's spam policy has a related rule. It lists "creating multiple apps with highly similar functionality, content, and user experience" as a common violation, and suggests a single app that brings the content together instead.

That model can work for a driver app. For a passenger app it means your customers sit one tap away from every other firm in the same app, and the seller name is the supplier's. If being your own brand is the point, ask for the app in your own accounts.

What happens to the app if you leave the supplier?

Find out before you sign, because the listing, the reviews and the code can end up with different owners. If the app sits in your developer accounts, the listing is yours. The code that runs it usually stays the supplier's, so leaving can mean a new app built by someone else and uploaded as an update.

Both stores let an app move between accounts. Apple says a transferred app keeps its reviews and ratings and users keep getting updates, but the transfer has to be started by the sending account's Account Holder and accepted by the receiving one. Google Play says a transfer moves the app's users, statistics, ratings and reviews, and both accounts must be registered and active.

Your bookings and customer records are a separate question. Our guide to who owns your taxi booking data explains what to get in the contract.

What should you ask a white-label taxi app supplier?

Ask these before you sign, and ask for the answers in writing:

1. Which developer accounts will the driver and passenger apps be published from, yours or theirs?
2. Who pays the Apple and Google fees, and who is the Account Holder on Apple?
3. Who prepares the store listings, the privacy answers and the screenshots, and who answers Apple and Google if the app is rejected?
4. How often will the app be updated? Apple has required uploads built with Xcode 26 and the iOS 26 SDK since 28 April 2026, and Google requires new apps and updates to target Android 16 (API level 36) from 31 August 2026. A supplier who doesn't keep up leaves you unable to update.
5. If you leave, what happens to the listings, the reviews and your data, and how much notice do you give?
6. Which features work today, and which are on the roadmap?
7. What do your drivers and passengers see if the system behind the app goes down?

If you want the step-by-step version of getting through review, read our guide to getting a taxi app into the App Store and Google Play. If you're weighing up the driver side first, the driver app guide covers what drivers need on screen.

Where does Dispatch AI fit?

Dispatch AI is booking and dispatch software for taxi and private hire firms, and jobs go straight to your drivers on your own branded app. Apple and Google usually approve the app within one to two weeks, and the Dispatch AI prices page lists the plans.