Decision guide

White label, turnkey,
or a platform you host yourself?

Every poker launch picks a deployment model before it picks a game. A white label rents you a finished room under your brand. A turnkey platform gives you a room of your own, run by the vendor. Self-hosted puts the software on servers you control. Here is what each means in practice.

The comparison Request a demo

The short answer

Which to choose

Choose a white label if

Speed matters most: you want a room open in weeks, under your brand, without running anything.
You are testing whether poker works for your players before committing to a platform.
You accept the provider's games, rules and lobby, and a revenue share for as long as you stay.

Choose turnkey if

You want a room of your own — your licence, your brand, your configuration — without a server team.
You are content for the vendor to decide where the platform runs and when it is upgraded.
Your contract gives you your player data, in a form you can take elsewhere.

Choose self-hosted if

Your regulator wants the servers in the market, or your data must stay in your own estate.
You have, or will hire, people who run production systems around the clock.
You want the platform to stay where you put it, whatever happens to the vendor.

Whichever you choose, ask

Whose licence the room trades under, and who answers to the regulator for what.
Where the servers run, and whether your regulators accept that location.
How player accounts, balances and history leave with you if you move.

Side by side

The comparison

Who runs the servers
White label
The provider, on its own platform, usually shared with its other brands.
Turnkey
The vendor, on an instance it runs for you.
Self-hosted
You: your cloud, your data centre, or a hosting partner you choose.
Whose licence
White label
Often the provider's, or the provider's alongside yours; it depends on the market.
Turnkey
Usually yours, with the vendor holding the supplier licence the market requires.
Self-hosted
Yours. Some markets also register the software supplier, as Ontario's regulator does.^[4]
Time to launch
White label
Weeks. One white-label vendor advertises about four weeks.^[1]
Turnkey
Months, set mostly by licensing, payments and integrations.
Self-hosted
As turnkey, plus the time to build, secure and prove your own infrastructure.
Brand control
White label
Your logo and colours on the provider's lobby and client.
Turnkey
Your brand and lobby, within what the vendor's client supports.
Self-hosted
Your brand throughout, as far as the software allows reskinning.
Games and rules
White label
The provider's game list, table rules and schedule.
Turnkey
Configured for you, often by request to the vendor.
Self-hosted
Configured by your own team, market by market.
Player accounts and data
White label
Often in the provider's database. Read the export terms before signing.
Turnkey
In a database the vendor runs for you; the contract sets access and export.
Self-hosted
In your own database, under your own retention and residency rules.
Compliance work
White label
Shared, and often led by the provider.
Turnkey
Yours, with the vendor's tools and the vendor's hosting controls.
Self-hosted
Yours, including the infrastructure: where it runs, change control, security audits.
Cost shape
White label
Low setup, then a share of revenue. Surveys quote $5k–$50k setup, $2k–$15k a month and 15–30% of GGR.^[2]^[3]
Turnkey
A setup fee, then a licence fee or revenue share. Often not published.
Self-hosted
A platform licence, plus your own infrastructure and the people who run it.
Scaling
White label
The provider's capacity, shared with its other brands.
Turnkey
The vendor's capacity planning, at the vendor's pace.
Self-hosted
Yours to plan, buy and run.
Liquidity
White label
Sometimes a pool shared with the provider's other brands; otherwise your own players.
Turnkey
Your own players, unless the vendor also runs a network.
Self-hosted
Your own players.
Switching away
White label
Hardest. The brand moves; accounts, balances and history may not.
Turnkey
Depends on the data-export terms in the contract.
Self-hosted
Easiest on data: the database is already yours. The software is what you replace.

White label, turnkey or self-hosted poker platform?
	White label	Turnkey	Self-hosted
Who runs the servers	The provider, on its own platform, usually shared with its other brands.	The vendor, on an instance it runs for you.	You: your cloud, your data centre, or a hosting partner you choose.
Whose licence	Often the provider's, or the provider's alongside yours; it depends on the market.	Usually yours, with the vendor holding the supplier licence the market requires.	Yours. Some markets also register the software supplier, as Ontario's regulator does.^[4]
Time to launch	Weeks. One white-label vendor advertises about four weeks.^[1]	Months, set mostly by licensing, payments and integrations.	As turnkey, plus the time to build, secure and prove your own infrastructure.
Brand control	Your logo and colours on the provider's lobby and client.	Your brand and lobby, within what the vendor's client supports.	Your brand throughout, as far as the software allows reskinning.
Games and rules	The provider's game list, table rules and schedule.	Configured for you, often by request to the vendor.	Configured by your own team, market by market.
Player accounts and data	Often in the provider's database. Read the export terms before signing.	In a database the vendor runs for you; the contract sets access and export.	In your own database, under your own retention and residency rules.
Compliance work	Shared, and often led by the provider.	Yours, with the vendor's tools and the vendor's hosting controls.	Yours, including the infrastructure: where it runs, change control, security audits.
Cost shape	Low setup, then a share of revenue. Surveys quote $5k–$50k setup, $2k–$15k a month and 15–30% of GGR.^[2]^[3]	A setup fee, then a licence fee or revenue share. Often not published.	A platform licence, plus your own infrastructure and the people who run it.
Scaling	The provider's capacity, shared with its other brands.	The vendor's capacity planning, at the vendor's pace.	Yours to plan, buy and run.
Liquidity	Sometimes a pool shared with the provider's other brands; otherwise your own players.	Your own players, unless the vendor also runs a network.	Your own players.
Switching away	Hardest. The brand moves; accounts, balances and history may not.	Depends on the data-export terms in the contract.	Easiest on data: the database is already yours. The software is what you replace.

What the three words mean

Vendors use these words loosely, so ask what sits behind them. The useful questions are who runs the servers, whose licence the room trades under, and where the player data lives.

White label: a finished room under your brand, on the provider's platform and often its licence. You bring marketing and players.
Turnkey: a platform of your own, configured for you and run by the vendor. You hold the licence and run the business.
Self-hosted: the same platform on infrastructure you control. You run the servers as well as the business.

PokerEnginePro runs both ways

PokerEnginePro is self-hosted or hosted, from one release. Self-hosted, it installs on any Kubernetes cluster — in any cloud or data centre — from one Helm chart, isolated from every other operator. Hosted, we run it for you, with your brand, your games and your rules.

Both run the same code: a self-hosted deployment is one tenant of the same platform. Each operator's players sit in its own data, with export and erasure per player. Where a market wants the servers inside it, the platform runs there. Either way, the licence stays with the operator.

Self-hosting, done properly

Self-hosted does not mean small. Some self-hosted poker servers are licensed for play money only: Poker Mavens, a Windows server sold from $39.95 to $499.95, is one. A real-money room needs a ledger, compliance and certification evidence as well as tables.

It also needs operations. PokerEnginePro is built to make that work routine: upgrades during play, autoscaling on connections, workloads spread across zones, and built-in observability. Your team still owns the on-call rota.^[5]

Questions

Asked and answered

Is a white label the same as a turnkey platform?

No. A white label is the provider's room under your brand, usually on the provider's platform and often its licence. A turnkey platform is your own room, under your own licence, which the vendor runs for you.

Who holds the gaming licence?

With a white label, often the provider. With turnkey or self-hosted, usually the operator. With PokerEnginePro, the licence always stays with the operator; the platform is configured per market.

Can I host PokerEnginePro myself?

Yes. It installs on any Kubernetes cluster, in any cloud or data centre, from one chart. Or we host it for you.

Can I start hosted and move to self-hosted later?

Yes. Hosted and self-hosted run the same release, so a move changes where the platform runs, not what runs. Your player data comes with you.

What does self-hosting ask of my team?

People who run Kubernetes in production, an on-call rota, and the security controls your regulator audits. The platform ships with the chart, the upgrade path and the monitoring.

Method

Facts about other companies come from their own pages and from trade press, listed here with the date each was last checked. Facts about PokerEnginePro describe the platform itself. Where a company does not publish something, the page says so instead of guessing. Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we will correct it.

Last reviewed 7 October 2026

Sources

[1]White label poker software — Creatiosoft, checked 7 October 2026
[2]White label poker software providers and solutions — Source Code Lab, checked 7 October 2026
[3]Best white label poker software — Gitnux, checked 7 October 2026
[4]iGaming suppliers — Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, checked 7 October 2026
[5]Poker Mavens: purchase — Briggs Softworks, checked 7 October 2026

Creatiosoft, Source Code Lab, Gitnux and Poker Mavens are named for their published figures and remain the property of their respective owners. PokerEnginePro is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by any of them.

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White label, turnkey,or a platform you host yourself?