Custom vs white-label
Your marketplace in your buyers' and sellers' pockets, built to your brief
Very few builders will take on a whole marketplace as a custom native app and let the client pay for it monthly. Baal does, and the team building it is a message away on WhatsApp or Telegram. Buyer and seller apps on the platform you already run, or a new marketplace where there is none, published under your name, with checkout through your own gateways.
Flexible payment on every project: a low entrance fee, then monthly payments that suit a growing business, delivered in phases. We agree the terms around your budget.
Where your app is published
- Published under your Apple account
- Published under your Google account
- Bots, notifications and enquiries
- Cards and wallets worldwide
Store accounts are opened in your name and stay yours. Names and marks belong to their owners. We build with these tools; no partnership, endorsement or certification is implied.
Everything a marketplace needs, for buyers, sellers and you
This is what the big marketplace platforms run behind the scenes, and what the shopping apps your customers already use have taught them to expect. We build the app side of it around your marketplace.
Browse and search that converts
Categories, filters, saved searches and recommendations that surface the right listing fast.
Native checkout and payment
Cards, wallets and local methods through your own gateway, with split payments to sellers and no cut for us.
Order tracking and delivery
Status, notifications and delivery updates from order to doorstep, for buyer and seller alike.
Reviews and ratings
Verified reviews for listings and sellers, with moderation your team controls.
Buyer and seller messaging
Questions, offers and after-sales chat inside the app, with the order attached.
Wishlists, favourites and alerts
Saved items, price and stock alerts, and back-in-stock notices that bring buyers back.
A seller app that runs the shop
Listings, photos, stock, orders, fulfilment and payouts from a phone, wherever the seller is.
Seller onboarding and verification
Applications, document checks, approvals and tiers, so your marketplace stays trusted.
Commissions, fees and payouts
Your commission rules applied automatically, with statements sellers can check.
Disputes, refunds and protection
A dispute flow that follows your policies and keeps the record for both sides.
Promotions and featured listings
Vouchers, campaigns, boosts and sponsored placements you can switch on for a season.
Operations dashboard
Sales, sellers, categories, disputes and growth in one view for the team that runs it.
And whatever your marketplace model needs that the platforms do not do: auctions, bookings, rentals, subscriptions, B2B pricing. It is built for you, so it fits your market rather than the other way round.
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How you pay for it
The same monthly rhythm a platform would put you on, spent on something you own and can change. Ask for the terms; we set them around your budget.
A deposit to begin
A modest deposit and work starts. You are not asked for the full fee before anything exists.
Released in stages
The core goes live first and each stage adds what you asked for. Working software in the first weeks, not a reveal at the end.
The balance monthly
The rest is paid monthly as the stages land, on terms agreed in writing. When it is paid, it is yours. Nothing renews, nothing rises by contract.
Why build it with Baal instead of settling for a wrapper
The enterprise platforms run excellent back ends. These are the things they leave to you, and what we offer instead.
Start for a deposit, pay as it trades
A modest deposit starts the build, the buyer app trades early, and the balance is paid monthly as each stage lands. No percentage of your sales, ever, because payments run through your own accounts.
Talk to the team building it, any day
WhatsApp and Telegram reach the people writing your app. A question is answered when you ask it, and a change lands in days, not a release cycle.
Native apps built for your market
Real iPhone and Android apps, not a website in a frame: fast browsing, notifications, offline catalogue and native checkout, designed around your buyers and sellers.
Your listings, your code, your data. We keep none of it.
Published under your own developer accounts, connected to the platform you already run through its API. Code handed over on full payment and data in accounts in your name, so leaving us is a hand-over, not a rebuild.
Custom marketplace apps
The big platforms are not selling you a weak app. Several are not selling you an app at all. The rest wrap your web storefront and call it one. So operators with real budgets end up sourcing the mobile experience themselves.
That is the job we do. Real iPhone and Android apps for your buyers and sellers, sitting on the marketplace platform you already run. Nothing gets rebuilt.
Buyer app, seller app, or both. Connected to your back end for catalogue, orders, payouts and messaging, and published under your own Apple and Google accounts. Your checkout, your gateway, and we take no cut of anything sold.
A deposit starts the build. The first version trades early. The balance is paid monthly as each stage lands.
How the marketplace platforms compare on mobile, from their own pages
One fact per platform from its own website or pricing page on the date shown. The pattern in this category is an absent or wrapped app rather than a locked one.
| Platform | Who owns the app listing | What their own material says | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mirakl | No mobile app mentioned. | Its Marketplace Platform product page describes catalogue, seller onboarding, order routing and payouts and mentions no iOS or Android app: the buyer-facing app is left to the operator. |
|
| Marketplacer | No mobile app mentioned. | Its homepage describes the marketplace platform and mentions no iOS or Android app. |
|
| Sharetribe | No app of its own; a third-party wrapper, or build your own on its API. | Sharetribe ships no app of its own. Its features page offers a third-party no-code wrapper (Twinr) around the web marketplace, and a headless API and third-party template for anyone who wants to build a native app themselves. |
|
| CS-Cart Multi-Vendor | App included; source-code access on higher plans. | Its Multi-Vendor page lists access to the mobile application source code as a feature of its higher plans, so owning the code of your own app is an upgrade. |
|
| Yo!Kart | Apps with source code included. | Its site says packages include customisable source code, and that it offers marketplace mobile apps. A fair reference point for what owning the code should look like. |
|
| Baal | Your own Apple and Google accounts, both platforms. | Native buyer and seller apps built on your existing marketplace back end, or a new marketplace where there is none. A deposit to start, the balance monthly as stages go live. Code, listings and data are yours on full payment, with no percentage of sales. | Our terms, and every quote we send. |
Every statement about another company is taken from that company's own published material on the date shown, and is written in our own words. Platforms change their plans and terms often; if you find a row that is out of date, tell us and we will correct it. No prices appear here: every job is quoted individually.
Why trust us with it
No borrowed logos. A team you can reach in a minute, decades of understanding how systems fit together, and everything agreed in writing before we start.
A team with decades between us
Baal is a growing team of around ten, in one office and expanding, with decades of collective experience across the internet, advertising, code and connecting systems. Generating code is easy now. Knowing what to build, and what breaks when it is wrong, is not.
We connect the whole thing
Apple and Google developer accounts, payment gateways, hosting, APIs and the platform you already run, set up in your name and joined together properly.
Everything in writing
Scope, fee, timescale and payment terms before work starts. Stages you can see and test. Code, accounts and data handed over on full payment.
Instant contact, fast changes
WhatsApp and Telegram go straight to the team. A question is answered when you ask it, and a change you want lands in days: not a ticket answered in three days and an upgrade scheduled seven weeks out.
Where the platforms are genuinely good
None of this is a criticism of the back ends. It is the reason the app is worth building on top of them.
Mirakl and Marketplacer
Enterprise-grade seller onboarding, catalogue, order routing and payouts. The app we build uses all of it through their APIs rather than replacing any of it.
Sharetribe
Its pricing page is unusually plain about what each plan includes, and its web marketplace is a solid base for a native app to sit on.
CS-Cart
It sells the marketplace and app outright rather than taking a percentage of sales, and offers the app source code on its higher plans.
How we work
- 01
Talk
You tell us what you need, on WhatsApp, Telegram or the form, and you are talking to the team from the first message. We ask questions until we understand the problem properly — usually the same day.
- 02
Quote
We put the scope, the fee and the timescale in writing before any work begins, with payment terms that fit your budget: staged, monthly or spread over time. No surprises later.
- 03
Build
We build in stages and show you working software as it progresses, not only at the end.
- 04
Support
After release we stay on for updates, fixes and changes as the business moves. Ask for a change and it lands in days, not a ticket answered next week and scheduled for next quarter.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Both expose APIs for catalogue, offers, orders and sellers. The app uses them directly, so your operations team keeps the platform and your buyers and sellers get native apps under your name.
A wrapper is quick, and for some audiences it is enough. It also loads like a website, cannot use the phone properly offline or for notifications, and tends to be rejected or rated poorly. A native app is the product your buyers compare you against, and it is what we build.
Yes. Published under your own Apple and Google developer accounts, code yours on full payment, hosting and data in accounts in your name. Leaving us is a hand-over, not a shutdown.
No. Payments run through your own gateway accounts. Our fee is a quoted project fee and an optional support plan, in writing: a deposit to begin, then monthly payments as the stages land. No percentage of sales, ever.
Yes. We build marketplaces from the ground up, or on an open platform where that fits, with the apps designed alongside from the start. Tell us the model and we will quote for it.
The timescale is agreed in writing with the quote. A buyer app on an existing platform is usually weeks rather than months; a full marketplace with both apps is staged so the first version trades early.
Other comparisons
Ready to build something?
Tell us what you need. WhatsApp and Telegram reach the team directly, we reply with questions, then a written quote — no obligation, nothing to buy here. Good work is priced properly, and paying for it is flexible: a low entrance fee, then monthly payments that suit a growing business.