White-label WordPress pricing: costs, markup and margin

Choose a pricing model that matches the uncertainty

Your agreement with the partner and your agreement with the client can use different models. If you sell a fixed-price build while buying open-ended hours, your agency carries the difference when the estimate slips.

Fer Marketing's white-label web and WordPress development starts from $250 per project or retainer, with a fixed written quote before any work starts. The starting price is not a quote for every site; review the published pricing and submit the actual scope.

Calculate margin after counting your agency's work

Markup measures the increase over cost: (price - cost) / cost. Margin measures the share of selling price left after the counted costs: (price - cost) / price; multiplying either result by 100 expresses it as a percentage.

Example: a hypothetical 40% target margin gives $1,500 / (1 - 0.40) = $2,500. That leaves $1,000 after the counted delivery costs; simply doubling the $1,000 partner quote to $2,000 would leave $500, a 25% margin on the same full cost base.

EXAMPLE INPUTS BELOW ARE HYPOTHETICAL, NOT FER MARKETING RATES.
P = partner's fixed quote: 1000
A = agency hours x internal cost: (4 + 3 + 2) x 40 = 360
T = pass-through costs you pay: license 100 + hosting 40 = 140
R = explicit allowance for defined delivery risks: 0 in this example
C = P + A + T + R = 1500
m = target delivery margin as a decimal: 0.40
S = client price = C / (1 - m) = 2500
Check: (S - C) / S = 0.40; markup = (S - C) / C = 66.7% rounded
Use 0 <= m < 1. Recalculate when scope, hours or recurring costs change.
Actual margin = (actual revenue - actual counted costs) / actual revenue

Define the work before asking for a fixed quote

How to price a white-label WordPress job

1. Step 1

   Collect and confirm scope

   Complete the scope checklist with the client and save the approved version. Resolve missing assets and acceptance tests before promising a fixed delivery date.

2. Step 2

   Get the partner's fixed written quote

   Send the same scope to the partner and confirm deliverables, exclusions, revision rounds, QA and delivery conditions. Do not commit to a client price based on an unconfirmed starting price.

3. Step 3

   Add pass-through costs

   List licenses, hosting, migration tools and other project purchases you will pay for, with their covered period and renewal owner. Exclude items the client buys directly and avoid duplicating costs already in the partner quote.

4. Step 4

   Estimate your own hours at internal cost

   Count project management, QA, client calls, feedback consolidation and launch coordination. Multiply each role's hours by its internal cost and record the assumptions for later comparison.

5. Step 5

   Choose a target margin

   Add any explicit delivery-risk allowance to the cost base and calculate price = cost / (1 - target margin). Treat the resulting delivery margin as an input to your profitability review, with overhead and fees also considered.

6. Step 6

   Check the price against your market

   Compare the proposed deliverables, client budget, alternatives, urgency and value of the agreed outcome. If the price does not fit, reduce scope, phase delivery or decline rather than silently dropping QA.

7. Step 7

   Write the client quote

   Include line items, assumptions, exclusions, acceptance tests, revision rounds and a change policy. Match each client promise to something the partner has agreed to deliver or your agency has explicitly costed.

8. Step 8

   Set payment terms and authorize work

   Agree a deposit if appropriate, milestone invoices, due dates and what authorizes scheduling and launch. Check that client receipts can cover partner obligations, then obtain written approval before starting.

Use the cost calculation as a floor for a business decision

A partner's cost does not tell you what the client values or what your agency must provide. A client buying a booking workflow may need requirements gathering, staff training and coordinated launch support in addition to a working plugin.

• Compare the same deliverables

  Ask which alternatives the client is considering and compare scope, ownership, support and launch responsibilities. Record budget objections in your own quote history instead of treating an unrelated site's price as a benchmark.

• Make value concrete

  Describe a verifiable outcome, such as a booking request reaching the correct calendar. Use client-supplied business data for value discussions; do not promise revenue increases from a redesign.

• Offer meaningful scope choices

  Separate the required launch scope from optional integrations or later pages. Each option needs its own acceptance tests, cost and schedule so a smaller budget buys a clearly smaller commitment.

Keep acquisition and site delivery as separately scoped work when combining offers. Use the cold email guide for agencies to plan outreach or discuss client acquisition as a separate service; Fer Marketing quotes cold email after a short call.

Charge for changes without charging twice for the original promise

An in-scope defect fails an agreed acceptance test; a change adds to or replaces the approved requirement. Correct defects under the agreed responsibility and warranty terms, and treat a new booking integration or a newly requested layout as a scope decision.

1. Log

   Compare the request with the approved scope

   Save the requested behavior, scope version and affected acceptance test. Ask the partner to identify whether it is a defect, included revision or new work before quoting the client.

2. Estimate

   Cost the whole change

   Get the partner's fixed change quote, then add agency coordination, retesting, licenses and any rework of already approved items. Apply your chosen margin formula and state dependencies and schedule impact.

3. Approve

   Get a written change order

   Offer the added work, a scope swap or deferral. Record the new price and delivery conditions, and require approval of any extra charge before the changed work begins.

4. Verify

   Test and update the project record

   Run the new acceptance test and the affected existing journeys. Update scope, invoices and delivery dates so the agency, client and partner use the same approved version.

Project / change ID / date / original scope version: [fill in]
Request and reason: [new behavior or changed deliverable]
Classification: [defect / included revision / extra work, with reason]
Added work / removed work / unchanged deliverables: [list]
Acceptance tests and reviewer: [observable result and owner]
Internal costing, not client copy: [partner + agency time + purchases]
Client price / applicable taxes / payment due: [agreed amounts]
Schedule impact / dependencies / revised milestones: [fill in]
Approval: [authorized client name, written acceptance and date]
Partner authorization: [matching scope and written approval]

Write a quote the client and delivery team can both use

QUOTE: [project, client, agency, version, date, valid until]
Outcome: [agreed visitor task and business purpose]
Build: [pages, unique templates, content entry] | [amount]
Integrations / forms / store: [bounded workflows] | [amount]
Migration / QA / launch / handoff: [deliverables] | [amount]
Licenses / hosting: [included period, payer, renewal owner] | [amount]
Optional work: [separate items, excluded from base total]
Total / currency / applicable taxes: [amounts and treatment]
Assumptions: [approved designs, ready content, working access]
Exclusions: [copywriting, email move, extra workflows, as applicable]
Schedule: [milestones, asset deadlines, dependencies, delay policy]
Acceptance: [tests, browsers/devices, approver, review window]
Revisions: [number, definition of a round, submission channel]
Changes: [written estimate and approval before extra work]
Payment: [deposit, milestones, due dates, pause and launch conditions]
Ownership: [custom code, access, transfer timing, license restrictions]
Bug warranty: [start, end, covered defects, reporting and exclusions]
After launch: [hosting owner, maintenance scope or separate agreement]
Approval: [authorized name, signature or written acceptance, date]

Price ongoing care around the work and the promises

Fer Marketing's WordPress maintenance starts from $250 monthly per site, with agency volume pricing available, and can be resold under your brand. Site management starts from $250 for a monthly plan based on site size and expected request volume; confirm which ongoing content changes need that separate scope.

• Write the included work

  List updates, security, off-site backups, tested restores, uptime monitoring and the branded monthly report. Agree site-specific checks, frequency, access and exclusions with the partner; use the WordPress maintenance checklist as a starting point.

• Cost account support

  Add monthly client calls, report review, ticket triage, license renewals you fund and an explicit allowance for defined support risks to the partner cost. Calculate the resale price from that monthly total and revisit actual time by site.

• Set service boundaries

  Document support hours, emergency routing and response expectations separately from resolution. Confirm coverage for malware cleanup, compatibility work, content edits and out-of-hours incidents before making client promises.

• Plan onboarding and exit

  Audit the site before promising routine care and separately scope pre-existing faults if needed. Name the owners of hosting, licenses, credentials, backups and reports, with an agreed handoff and cancellation process.

Use the WordPress maintenance checklist to turn each included task into evidence the client can understand. Keep a monthly record of partner cost, agency hours, exceptions and billed revenue, then adjust future scope or renewal pricing through the agreed process.

Resell postcard campaigns with the same math

If you also sell client acquisition, the same formula applies. Fer Marketing's personalized postcards cost $10 per custom postcard, with a 50-card minimum ($500). For a first campaign, the intro pack is 100 custom postcards for $500 ($5 per card). Research, design, printing, USPS First-Class postage and the QR report page are included, under your agency's brand.

Sell acquisition and website delivery as separate scopes, so a campaign that wins a client does not turn into unpriced build work. The postcard campaign guide explains the method end to end.

What kills margin even when the partner quote stays fixed

Make the partner agreement support your client quote

The white-label WordPress process explains tickets, staging and handoff. For white-label web development, Fer Marketing works under your brand and provides a fixed written quote before work starts, from $250 per project or retainer.

Send the page inventory, designs, integrations, content status and target launch date when you contact Fer Marketing. That makes the partner quote something you can cost, review and translate into a clear client commitment.