White label vs franchising: Which model is right for your mobility business?
April 25, 2025
min. read
White label vs franchising: Which model is right for your mobility business?
Starting a new mobility business comes with many decisions, but one of the most important is choosing the right model for growth. Whether you're thinking about launching an electric scooter fleet, a ride-hailing app, or car sharing in your city, there are two main paths to consider: joining a franchise or building your own brand using a white label solution.
Both models offer clear benefits – and both have downsides. What works best depends on your goals, experience, and long-term vision.
What is franchising in mobility?
Franchising means joining an existing brand and operating under their name, systems, and technology. For example, a local taxi fleet might become a Bolt ride-hailing partner, gaining access to Bolt's technology, user base, and reputation. Similarly, in the micromobility space, some brands allow local entrepreneurs to launch electric scooter or bike-sharing services as franchisees.
This model is popular because it can significantly reduce the time and effort needed to launch. Instead of developing your own technology, brand, marketing strategy, and operational systems, you get a package, a “ready to use” business, from a brand that already knows the ropes.
Franchising: Pros and cons
The main advantage of franchising is speed and simplicity. You don’t need to build everything from scratch. You operate under a recognized name, which can make marketing easier. Often, you also get operational support and a clear playbook to follow.
But there are also downsides. As a franchisee, you don’t fully control the brand, customers and the technology. You may have limited flexibility to experiment or adapt the service to your local needs. Franchise fees or revenue sharing models can also reduce your profit margin. And if the brand suffers reputational issues elsewhere, it can impact your local business – even if you’re doing everything right.
Real-world examples of successful micromobility franchises:
LEVY, an US-based electric scooter-sharing company, has successfully expanded through a franchise model by partnering with local operators across USA. Entrepreneurs can launch and operate Levy-branded services in their cities, leveraging LEVY’s tested software, hardware, and operational know-how. This model has helped LEVY scale quickly while maintaining a consistent brand and service quality.
Nextbike, based in Germany, is one of the world’s leading public bike-sharing providers. It works with cities and franchise-like partners to operate local services under the Nextbike brand. These partners handle operations on the ground, such as maintenance and customer service, while benefiting from Nextbike’s established platform, brand, and international experience. With a presence in over 300 cities, it’s a clear example of how a micromobility business can scale through distributed partnerships.
What is white label in mobility?
A white label solution allows you to launch your own mobility platform – under your own brand – using someone else's ready-made technology. This means you can create a ride-hailing app, car-sharing service, or scooter fleet that looks and feels 100% yours, but without needing to build the software from scratch.
If you’re not familiar with how white label works, here’s a good explanation.
With white label, you take ownership of your brand and operations, while leveraging reliable, tested software that’s been used in dozens of markets. You’re not just a local operator – you’re the brand owner.
White label: Pros and cons
The biggest benefit of a white label approach is independence. You control the brand, the marketing, pricing, partnerships, everything. You can build a unique business that reflects your vision and local market needs. There’s no revenue sharing or ongoing franchise fees.
However, white label also means more responsibility. You have to manage marketing, customer support, local partnerships, and operations yourself. While the software is provided, the business is yours to run. It requires more involvement but also brings more potential reward.
3 reasons to choose your own white label platform
- Complete control over everything: Unlike a franchise, where key decisions are made by its owner, you’re in charge of everything - from choosing the name, branding to allocating budgets and setting up a supply chain.
- Flexible operations: There’s no universal solution that works equally well for all entrepreneurs. By starting your own project, you can better adapt to the local market needs, customer requests, and even changes in legislation. To launch a new app feature or adjust pricing, you won’t have to go through layers of approvals - you are the only decision-maker.
- Faster growth opportunities: For example, by attracting investments, launching crowdfunding, increasing your fleet, making additional investments in advertising, or even launching your own franchise.
Choosing the right model for your mobility business
If you want a fast, low-risk way to enter the market with support and clear systems, franchising may be a good fit – especially if you’re new to mobility or want to test the waters.
If you want to build a long-term business under your own brand, with full control and higher potential margins, white label is likely the better option. It gives you room to grow and adapt without being tied to someone else’s rules.
Many successful businesses start with white label software to speed up their launch, then focus on building a strong local brand and user base. Over time, this approach can offer more strategic freedom and better returns.
You can even build your own franchise using ATOM white label
One advantage of choosing a white label provider like ATOM Mobility is that you’re not just building for yourself. With ATOM’s platform, you can also expand by inviting partners to operate under your brand in other cities or regions.
This means that you can launch as an independent operator and, over time, create your own franchise-style network. ATOM’s software allows you to add partners to your platform, assign them specific territories, limit access to data, and manage operations from one central system. Your partners operate under your brand – and you stay in control of the bigger picture.
This is exactly how several of our clients have grown. They started locally, proved the model, then expanded by partnering with others – all without giving up their brand or independence.
Both franchising and white label are valid ways to launch a mobility business, and both come with clear advantages. But if your goal is long-term brand ownership, flexibility, and the ability to scale on your own terms, white label is often the smarter path.
With ATOM Mobility’s platform, you can launch fast, operate efficiently, and even build your own network of partners under your brand – creating a franchise model that works for you.
Interested in launching your own mobility platform?
Click below to learn more or request a demo.
Blog
Unmet demand heatmap: Turn missed searches into measurable revenue growth
📉 Every unmet search is lost revenue. The unmet demand heatmap shows where users actively searched for vehicles but none were available - giving operators clear, search-based demand signals to rebalance fleets 🚚, improve conversions 📈, and grow smarter 🧠.
February 17, 2026
min. read
Fleet operators don’t lose revenue because of lack of demand - they lose it because demand appears in the wrong place at the wrong time. That’s exactly the problem the Unmet demand heatmap solves.
This new analytics layer from ATOM Mobility shows where users actively searched for vehicles but couldn’t find any within reach. Not guesses. Not assumptions. Real, proven demand currently left on the table.
What is the unmet demand heatmap?
The unmet demand heatmap highlights locations where:
- A user opened the app
- Actively searched for available vehicles
- No vehicle was found within the defined search radius
In other words: high-intent users who wanted to ride, but couldn’t. Unlike generic “app open” data, unmet demand is recorded only when a real vehicle search happens, making this one of the most actionable datasets for operators.
Why unmet demand is more valuable than app opens
Many analytics tools track where users open the app (ATOM Mobility provides this data too). That’s useful - but incomplete. Unmet demand answers a much stronger question:
Where did users try to ride and failed? That difference matters.
Unmet demand data is:
✅ Intent-driven (search-based, not passive)
✅ Directly tied to lost revenue
✅ Immediately actionable for rebalancing and expansion
✅ Credible for discussions with cities and partners
How it works
Here’s how the logic is implemented under the hood:
1. Search-based trigger. Unmet demand is recorded only when a user performs a vehicle search. No search = no data point.
2. Distance threshold. If no vehicle is available within 1,000 meters, unmet demand is logged.
- The radius can be customized per operator
- Adaptable for dense cities vs. suburban or rural areas
3. Shared + private fleet support. The feature tracks unmet demand for:
- Shared fleets
- Private / restricted fleets (e.g. corporate, residential, campus)
This gives operators a full picture across all use cases.
4. GPS validation. Data is collected only when:
- GPS is enabled
- Location data is successfully received
This ensures accuracy and avoids noise.
Smart data optimization (no inflated demand)
To prevent multiple searches from the same user artificially inflating demand, the system applies intelligent filtering:
- After a location is stored, a 30-minute cooldown is activated
- If the same user searches again within 30 minutes And within 100 meters of the previous location → the record is skipped
- After 30 minutes, a new record is stored - even if the location is unchanged
Result: clean, realistic demand signals, not spammy heatmaps.
Why this matters for operators
📈 Increase revenue
Unmet demand shows exactly where vehicles are missing allowing you to:
- Rebalance fleets faster
- Expand into proven demand zones
- Reduce failed searches and lost rides
🚚 Smarter rebalancing
Instead of guessing where to move vehicles, teams can prioritize:
- High-intent demand hotspots
- Time-based demand patterns
- Areas with repeated unmet searches
🏙 Stronger city conversations
Unmet demand heatmaps are powerful evidence for:
- Permit negotiations
- Zone expansions
- Infrastructure requests
- Data-backed urban planning discussions
📊 Higher conversion rates
Placing vehicles where users actually search improves:
- Search → ride conversion
- User satisfaction
- Retention over time
Built for real operational use
The new unmet demand heatmap is designed to work alongside other analytics layers, including:
- Popular routes heatmap
- Open app heatmap
- Start & end locations heatmap
Operators can also:
- Toggle zone visibility across heatmaps
- Adjust time periods (performance-optimized)
- Combine insights for strategic fleet planning
From missed demand to competitive advantage
Every unmet search is a signal. Every signal is a potential ride. Every ride is revenue. With the unmet demand heatmap, operators stop guessing and start placing vehicles exactly where demand already exists.
👉 If you want to see how unmet demand can unlock growth for your fleet, book a demo with ATOM Mobility and explore how advanced heatmaps turn data into decisions.
Blog
🚀 New feature alert: Web-booker for ride-hailing and taxi operations
🚕 Web-booker is a lightweight ride-hail widget that lets users book rides directly from a website or mobile browser - no app install required. It reduces booking friction, supports hotel and partner demand, and keeps every ride fully synced with the taxi operator’s app and dashboard.
February 9, 2026
min. read
What if ordering a taxi was as easy as booking a room or clicking “Reserve table” on a website?
Meet Web-booker - a lightweight ride-hail booking widget that lets users request a cab directly from a website, without installing or opening the mobile app.
Perfect for hotels, business centers, event venues, airports, and corporate partners.
👉 Live demo: https://app.atommobility.com/taxi-widget
What is Web-booker?
Web-booker is a browser-based ride-hail widget that operators can embed or link to from any website.
The booking happens on the web, but the ride is fully synchronized with the mobile app and operator dashboard.
How it works (simple by design)
No redirects. No app-store friction. No lost users.
- Client places a button or link on their website
- Clicking it opens a new window with the ride-hail widget
- The widget is branded, localized, and connected directly to the operator’s system
- Booking instantly appears in the dashboard and mobile app
Key capabilities operators care about
🎨 Branded & consistent
- Widget color automatically matches the client’s app branding
- Feels like a natural extension of the operator’s ecosystem
- Fully responsive and optimized for mobile browsers, so users can book a ride directly from their phone without installing the app
📱 App growth built in
- QR code and App Store / Google Play links shown directly in the widget
- Smooth upgrade path from web → app
⏱️ Booking flexibility
- Users can request a ride immediately or schedule a ride for a future date and time
- Works the same way across web, mobile browser, and app
- Scheduled bookings are fully synchronized with the operator dashboard and mobile app
🔄 Fully synced ecosystem
- Country code auto-selected based on user location
- Book via web → see the ride in the app (same user credentials)
- Dashboard receives booking data instantly
- Every booking is tagged with Source:
- App
- Web (dashboard bookings)
- Booker (website widget)
- API
🔐 Clean & secure session handling
- User is logged out automatically when leaving the page
- No persistent browser sessions
💵 Payments logic
- New users: cash only
- Existing users: can choose saved payment methods
- If cash is not enabled → clear message prompts booking via the app
This keeps fraud low while preserving conversion.
✅ Default rollout
- Enabled by default for all ride-hail merchants
- No extra setup required
- Operators decide where and how to use it (hotel partners, landing pages, QR posters, etc.)
Why this matters in practice
Web-booker addresses one of the most common friction points in ride-hailing: users who need a ride now but are not willing to download an app first. By allowing bookings directly from a website, operators can capture high-intent demand at the exact moment it occurs - whether that is on a hotel website, an event page, or a partner landing page.
At the same time, Web-booker makes partnerships with hotels and venues significantly easier. Instead of complex integrations or manual ordering flows, partners can simply place a button or link and immediately enable ride ordering for their guests. Importantly, this approach does not block long-term app growth. The booking flow still promotes the mobile app through QR codes and store links, allowing operators to convert web users into app users over time - without forcing the install upfront.
Web-booker is not designed to replace the mobile app. It extends the acquisition funnel by adding a low-friction entry point, while keeping all bookings fully synchronized with the operator’s app and dashboard.
👉 Try the demo
https://app.atommobility.com/taxi-widget
Want to explore a ride-hail or taxi solution for your business - or migrate to a more flexible platform? Visit: https://www.atommobility.com/products/ride-hailing
Driver App demo credentials - Email: test@atom.com, Password: driver
