White-label marketplace app

About the project

The Crowdskills platform connects freelancers with businesses in need of their services and provides a lot of unique features. After running this platform for some time, the Crowdskills team noticed an avenue for further development: many entrepreneurs have ideas for freelancer marketplaces, but most lack the knowledge and resources to turn these ideas into reality.

In other words, our client had a ready platform that successfully served both buyers and sellers. Meanwhile, there were dozens of startup founders ready to pay to reuse that platform’s functionality. The next step was creating a white-label platform called Whitelance, and this is when Clockwise Software entered the game.

Solution developed

We assigned a strong AWS architect who later took over team lead responsibilities.

At the initial stage, our main task was to dive deep into the existing architecture, decompose it, and understand how every component works and how they interact. Later on, we rewrote every component from scratch to enable multi-tenancy.

As a result, each tenant receives a customized front end and a dedicated database while accessing a unified back end.

Tenants also get access to a default set of features and a large library of advanced functionality. In addition, the Whitelance team will create custom features upon request and for a cost.

What our client came with

Our client had a functioning web application. Our task was to rewrite its architecture from scratch to enable multi-tenancy — the ability for a single back end to serve multiple clients or tenants.

The existing app’s architecture was based on Amazon Web Services (AWS). We kept this technology since it offers a wide functionality for white-label products. Moreover, the product’s scalability and potential for customization ensure that the system can withstand rapid growth and a large number of users.

Solution developed

We assigned a strong AWS architect who later took over team lead responsibilities.

As a result, each tenant receives a customized front end and a dedicated database while accessing a unified back end.

Tenants also get access to a default set of features and a large library of advanced functionality. In addition, the Whitelance team will create custom features upon request and for a cost.

How does Whitelance work?

Steps to onboard a new tenant

1
Create a new tenant

2
Set up features for the tenant

3
Customize the front end

4
Develop requested features (optional)

5
Go live with the new freelancer marketplace

Requirements for new tenants:

New tenants must have ready marketing and brand materials to add branding to the front end of the application.

Developed functionality

Whitelance currently covers the needs of freelancer marketplaces offering basic functionality. Each tenant can choose from a rich library of features that can be turned on or off for specific tenants. Some are available as part of the basic package, while advanced features are paid. This enables Whitelance to satisfy clients with various requirements and budgets. The basic functionality offered by Whitelance is tailored to the needs of freelancer marketplaces. However, the presented features enable the company to support other types of platforms as well.

Key features of Whitelance

For companies:

Post jobs and receive applications from freelancers
Post private jobs that only invited freelancers can see and apply to
Post jobs anonymously
Set criteria like skills and location
Use filters and search for freelancers
Communicate with freelancers
Create flexible contracts with single or repeating milestones

For freelancers:

Create profiles and add a bio, skills, location, experience, and portfolio
Use search and filters to find jobs
Apply for jobs and send custom cover letters or quotes
Register various contractors (for agencies)

For marketplace admins:

Manage jobs, applications, profiles, payments, etc. through a dashboard
Enable and disable features
Edit the marketplace UI

Also, tenants can order the development of custom features at an hourly development rate. These features are then added to the library of paid features.

In this way, Whitelance promotes group effort: the number of available features grows as tenants order their development and the platform becomes more useful for new and existing clients.

AWS for multi-tenancy

Amazon Web Services is the number one tool for white label applications, enabling you to create robust systems for multiple tenants. These are the building blocks we used to create Whitelance:

Back end:

AWS Lambda

AWS API Gateway

Serverless

File storage:

AWS S3

Authentication:

AWS Cognito

Database:

DynamoDB

Infrastructure:

AWS CloudFormation

AWS CloudFront

AWS System Manager

AWS IAM

The AWS architecture is empowered by JavaScript.

Front end:

Back end:

We also created a continuous backup and restore system. To safely store data, we regularly back up and encrypt data from the DynamoDB database and user data from S3. As a result, data can be recovered to a specific point in time upon request.

With these tools we were able to completely rewrite the architecture and enable the connection of multiple frontends to a single multi-tenant API.

Multi-tenancy app architecture

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Project outcome and future plans

Our team managed to transform a working freelancer marketplace into a strong white-label product. First seen as just another source of income for our client’s platform, Whitelance has turned into a standalone business. The user base keeps growing as Whitelance helps to launch freelancer marketplaces all over the world.

Seeing huge potential in this business model, the Whitelance team in cooperation with Clockwise Software plans to work on new features to attract customers from various industries.

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