Every app builder has a page called “reseller programme”, and behind that phrase sit four genuinely different commercial arrangements. The feature lists look alike. The economics do not.
Here is what is actually published, what is deliberately not, and the questions that decide this more than price does.
A reseller programme is not an app builder plan
Worth separating, because the pricing pages blur it. A normal plan lets you build apps with the vendor's name on the dashboard. A reseller programme adds the parts that make it a business: your brand on the panel, your own clients as separate accounts, your prices, and usually your own billing.
The gap between the two is large — often ten times the monthly price — and it is where the whole decision lives.
The four pricing shapes
- Flat monthly fee, sometimes with a cap on client apps.
- Platform fee plus a charge per active app, so your cost tracks your client count.
- A one-time buy-out of the same hosted platform.
- A self-hosted licence — you buy the software and run it on your own server.
A programme's shape tells you more about your third year than any feature comparison will.
What is published, as of October 2026
List prices from the vendors' own pages. Note the currencies differ, and these move — check before you plan against them.
| Platform | Published reseller price | Shape |
|---|---|---|
| AppInstitute | $599/month, or about $4,999 a year | Flat monthly, up to 50 client apps, 7-day trial |
| GoodBarber | €280/month, or €215/month billed yearly (€2,580). Buy-out: €12,000 | Flat monthly or one-time licence, unlimited white-label apps |
| GoodBarber (with eCommerce) | €380/month, or €290/month yearly (€3,480). Buy-out: €16,000 | As above, shop features included |
| BuildFire | Not published — quoted | Platform fee plus a fee per active app |
| Mobiroller | No reseller tier published; standard plans from $10–$50/month | Enquiry |
| Siberian CMS | Free (open source); paid editions for added modules | Self-hosted |
| Flangapp AI | $25 regular licence on CodeCanyon, plus your hosting | Self-hosted, one-time |
We sell the last one, so read the rest of this with that in mind. The numbers above are theirs, not our characterisation of them.
The most informative number on that table
GoodBarber's €12,000 buy-out. Not because you should pay it, but because of what it reveals: the vendor has calculated what the recurring relationship is worth to them and priced the exit at roughly four to five years of subscription.
That is a fair deal on both sides and it is also the clearest statement anyone in this market makes about the real cost of renting. When the vendor themselves values the stream at five figures, you know what the monthly fee compounds to.
It is also worth noticing which price is not published. A quoted platform fee plus a per-app charge is the hardest shape to compare, and the one where your cost grows fastest with success.
What to check that is not price
Ask all of these before signing anything. Vendor marketing answers roughly two of them.
- Whose name is on the store listing? If the apps publish under the vendor's developer account, they hold the client's app, not you. This matters most on the day you want to leave.
- Who owns the client relationship? Do your clients log into something with your domain and your logo, or do they see the vendor? Do they get the vendor's marketing email?
- Is there an app cap? Fifty sounds generous until it is a ceiling you hit in year two and the next tier is a renegotiation.
- Can you set your own prices and bill directly? Some programmes are affiliate schemes with a white-label coat of paint. If the money goes through the vendor's checkout, you are a salesperson, not an owner.
- What happens to live client apps if you stop paying? Get this in writing. Your clients' businesses depend on the answer and you will be the one explaining it.
- Where does customer data sit, and under whose jurisdiction? Depending on who you sell to, this is either paperwork or a dealbreaker.
- What is the support path for your clients? Do they reach the vendor directly, or does everything come through you? Both are workable; only one of them is a job you need to staff.
Which shape fits which situation
Flat monthly, if you are still finding out whether you can sell this. You get a support desk, somebody else's uptime and an exit that costs nothing. Two or three months of a reseller tier is a cheap answer to the only question that matters at the start.
Per-active-app, if your client count is small and stable. It is the friendliest shape at three clients and the most expensive at fifty. Model it at your target scale, not your current one.
A buy-out, if you want hosted convenience without the meter. Five figures is real money, and it buys a platform you still do not host or control. Sensible for an established agency with a book of clients; hard to justify before that.
Self-hosted, once you have proof and want the margin. Your cost per client stops rising, nobody can reprice you, the client list is in your own database. In exchange you operate the server, apply the updates and answer the 3am problem yourself — which is a genuine cost, just not a recurring invoice. What that involves is in self-hosted app builder.
The thing that is not on anyone's comparison table
Most of these platforms were built before AI assistants were a normal way to configure software. The client-facing experience is a settings panel: fifty fields, and a small business owner who closes the tab.
That is the part we built differently — the client describes what they want and the assistant sets up navigation, design, permissions and texts, with a live preview of the real app. It is the reason a non-technical client finishes onboarding without you on a call. Whether that matters more than a staffed support desk depends on how many clients you intend to have and how much of your week you want spent on setup.
The full rent-versus-own arithmetic, with break-even, is in rent the platform or own it. The six questions to ask about any “white label” claim are in white label app builder.