# White-Label Customization Guide for AcelleMail
> AcelleMail's Extended License allows full re-branding — every "AcelleMail" reference can be replaced with your brand name, every screen recoloured, every customer email sent from your domain. This guide walks every customisation point: branding settings, custom CSS, custom domain + TLS, transactional email templates, and the upgrade-safe pattern for layout/Blade overrides.
- Canonical URL: https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/white-label-customization-guide
- Author: Martin Keller, SaaS & Business Editor
- Category: SaaS & Multi-tenant — White-label, subscription plans, billing, tenant management, branding
- Content type: tutorial · Difficulty: intermediate
- Tags: Acellemail
- Published: 2026-05-25 · Last updated: 2026-08-15
- Reading time: 11 min
- Publisher: AcelleMail Knowledge Base, https://acellesend.com/kb
---
## What this is for
AcelleMail's [Extended License](https://codecanyon.net/item/acellemail-self-hosted-email-marketing-application/10149682) allows **full re-branding** — every "AcelleMail" reference can be replaced with your brand name, every screen recoloured, every customer email sent from your domain. The Regular License doesn't allow this.
This guide walks every customisation point in the order you'd typically apply them, ending with the upgrade-safe pattern for deeper Blade/CSS overrides.
**Before you start:** make a clone of your install (rsync to a staging server) and run customisations against the clone first. Some changes are subtle enough that you'll want to compare side-by-side with the original to confirm nothing broke.
**Prerequisite:** the [SaaS setup guide](https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/setting-up-acellemail-as-a-saas-platform) is the typical context for white-labelling. You can also white-label a single-tenant install if you want a custom internal tool.
## Step 1 — Branding settings (covers ~80% of the work)
These four settings cascade to every screen + every system email:
In **Admin → Settings → General → Branding**:
| Field | Format | Where it shows |
|---|---|---|
| **App Name** | Plain text, ≤ 60 chars | Browser tab, navbar logo (if no logo image), email subject prefixes, "Powered by..." in system emails |
| **Logo** | PNG or SVG, recommended ≤ 200×60px transparent | Top-left of every authenticated page; in email headers (if email template references it) |
| **Logo Light (for dark backgrounds)** | PNG or SVG | Email header on dark themes; login page if dark mode |
| **Favicon** | 32×32 ICO or PNG | Browser tab icon |
| **Primary Color** | Hex (e.g. `#0066CC`) | Button backgrounds, link color, active-state highlights, email CTA button color |
| **Secondary Color** | Hex | Sub-actions, secondary buttons |
| **Email Footer Text** | Plain text | Bottom of every customer-facing system email (welcome, password reset, billing receipt, campaign-status notifications) |
Save → reload the admin to confirm. Then log in as a test customer to verify the customer-facing screens picked up the changes (some are cached for 5 min).
**Logo tips:**
- Use SVG when possible — scales perfectly at every resolution.
- For PNG, export at 2× the displayed size (e.g. 400×120 for a 200×60 slot) to look crisp on retina displays.
- Light variant: needed if your primary logo is a dark color and your email templates use a dark header.
- Test the favicon at small size — letterforms that look fine at 200px can be illegible at 32×32.
## Step 2 — System emails (transactional)
The system-email templates control what your customers see when AcelleMail sends them welcome / password-reset / verification / billing emails. **These are seen by every paying customer in their first 5 minutes** — they're the highest-leverage white-label work.
In **Admin → System Emails**:
| Template | When sent | Customisation priority |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome | After successful signup + email verification | **High** — first impression |
| Email Verification | Right after signup | **High** — must look legit, not phishy |
| Password Reset | On "forgot password" | Medium |
| Subscription Created | After Stripe checkout success | **High** — confirms billing worked |
| Subscription Cancelled | On cancellation | Medium — opportunity for re-engagement |
| Payment Failed | After failed renewal attempt | **High** — dunning |
| Plan Upgrade / Downgrade | On plan change | Medium |
| Campaign Status (Sent / Paused / etc.) | When customer's campaign changes status | Low |
For each template:
- Subject line: write in your brand voice; mention your app name explicitly
- Body: use the WYSIWYG to set header logo + footer
- **Test by sending to yourself.** Most issues are visible only in the rendered email, not the editor preview.
The system emails support these **merge tags** (insert at appropriate spots):
```
{NAME} — customer's name
{EMAIL} — customer's email
{APP_NAME} — your branded app name (from Step 1)
{ADMIN_EMAIL} — your admin email
{LOGIN_URL} — link to login page
{VERIFICATION_URL} — for the verification email
{RESET_URL} — for the password-reset email
{PLAN_NAME} — current plan name
{CANCEL_URL} — link to cancel subscription
```
## Step 3 — Custom domain (per-tenant or app-wide)
There are **two distinct custom-domain features** in AcelleMail. Don't mix them up:
### 3a. Your white-label app domain (you operate)
Your SaaS app should live on **your** domain, not `app.acellemail.com`. If you've followed the [Ubuntu install guide](https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/install-acellemail-on-ubuntu-2404), your domain is already configured (the `server_name` in the nginx vhost). Verify it shows correctly in every email — Acelle uses `APP_URL` from `.env` for absolute links:
```bash
grep -E '^APP_URL' /var/www/acellemail/.env
# Should show: APP_URL=https://your-brand.com
```
If wrong, edit it and run `php artisan config:clear`.
### 3b. Per-customer custom domain (their customers)
Each paying customer can set up their own custom **tracking domain** (e.g. `click.theircompany.com`) — so tracking links in their campaigns show their brand, not yours. Enabled per plan via the `custom_domain_enabled` option (see [SaaS setup Step 3](https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/setting-up-acellemail-as-a-saas-platform#step-3--design-plans)).
The customer-facing flow:
1. Customer enters their desired subdomain in **Settings → Custom Tracking Domain**
2. AcelleMail tells them: "Add a CNAME from `click.theircompany.com` to `track.your-brand.com`"
3. Customer does it at their DNS provider; clicks Verify
4. AcelleMail attempts to provision a Let's Encrypt TLS cert (auto, via certbot)
5. On success, their campaign tracking links use `click.theircompany.com`
**Operational caveats:**
- Let's Encrypt rate-limits — at scale (100s of new custom domains/day) you may need a DNS-challenge setup or a wildcard. For Pro tier, single-domain HTTP-challenge is usually fine.
- If certbot fails (DNS not propagated, port 80 blocked), the customer sees a "Verifying..." spinner indefinitely. Add a status page or admin notification for this.
## Step 4 — Custom CSS (visual polish beyond Branding)
The Branding settings cover most visual customisation, but Acelle's Blade templates also support a **custom CSS file** for finer control.
Drop a `custom.css` file in `/var/www/acellemail/public/css/custom.css`. AcelleMail automatically loads it on every page (search `app.blade.php` for the `` include). Target Acelle's existing classes:
```css
/* Tighter navbar */
.navbar-main { padding: 8px 16px; }
/* Custom button shape */
.btn-primary { border-radius: 24px; }
/* Hide "Powered by AcelleMail" text in footer (Extended License only) */
.app-footer .powered-by { display: none; }
/* Email preview header — match your brand */
.email-preview-header { background: linear-gradient(135deg, #0066CC, #6633CC); }
```
After editing, hard-refresh the admin (Ctrl+Shift+R / Cmd+Shift+R) to bypass browser cache.
**For email-template CSS** (different from app CSS), edit the system-email templates directly in **Admin → System Emails** — inline styles per the email-rendering rules in [Understanding Email Client Rendering Differences](https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/understanding-email-client-rendering-differences).
## Step 5 — Upgrade-safe Blade overrides
When the Branding settings + custom.css + system-email templates aren't enough, you can override Acelle's Blade views. The trick is doing it in a way that survives `patch-x.x.x.bin` upgrades.
**Wrong way** (will get overwritten by every upgrade):
```bash
# Don't do this:
vi /var/www/acellemail/resources/views/auth/login.blade.php
```
**Right way** — publish to a vendor-specific override directory:
```bash
mkdir -p /var/www/acellemail/resources/views/vendor/overrides
# Copy the file you want to override
cp /var/www/acellemail/resources/views/auth/login.blade.php \
/var/www/acellemail/resources/views/vendor/overrides/auth-login.blade.php
# Edit the copy
vi /var/www/acellemail/resources/views/vendor/overrides/auth-login.blade.php
```
Then in your custom `AppServiceProvider` (or by patching the views finder), tell Laravel to look at the overrides directory first:
```php
// In a custom service provider's boot()
$this->loadViewsFrom(
resource_path('views/vendor/overrides'),
'overrides'
);
// And then in routes/web.php (or a router override), point the login route at:
Route::get('/login', fn () => view('overrides::auth-login'));
```
**Document every override** in a `OVERRIDES.md` file at the repo root:
```markdown
- /resources/views/vendor/overrides/auth-login.blade.php
- Replaces /resources/views/auth/login.blade.php
- Changes: removed "AcelleMail" wordmark, added custom social-proof block
- Last reviewed against Acelle vN.N.N: 2026-05-16
```
When AcelleMail releases a new version, diff `auth/login.blade.php` against your override and re-apply any structural changes. Painful but unavoidable for deep customisations.
## Step 6 — Removing "Powered by AcelleMail" mentions
Under the Extended License, you can remove every reference. The places to check:
- ✅ App footer — Branding setting (Step 1)
- ✅ Email footer — Branding setting (Step 1) + System Email templates (Step 2)
- ✅ Page titles — Branding's App Name
- ⚠️ HTML `` — search `resources/views/layouts/app.blade.php`
- ⚠️ Email `X-Mailer` header — search `config/mail.php` and `app/Library/Mailer/`
- ⚠️ `.htaccess` / `robots.txt` comments — search for "AcelleMail"
- ⚠️ Any inline help links pointing to `acellemail.com/docs` — replace with your own KB
The `⚠️` items aren't user-visible to your customers but show up in source-view / email-headers / WHOIS-style checks. Audit twice if you're competing with AcelleMail-flavoured competitors.
```bash
# Quick audit grep:
sudo grep -rEi "acelle[a-z]*\\.com|powered.by.acelle" /var/www/acellemail/{resources,config,public,app} \
| grep -v '/vendor/' | head -40
```
## Step 7 — Browser tests
After all of the above, run through this checklist:
- Open an incognito window → does the login page show your brand only?
- Sign up as a test customer → does the welcome email look like it came from your company?
- Verify the email → does the verification email look right?
- Log in → does the dashboard navbar / footer / colors all match?
- Trigger a password reset → does the reset email look right?
- Cancel the test subscription → does the cancellation email look right?
- View page source on dashboard → search for "acelle" — nothing should appear in user-visible text
- View email headers — `X-Mailer` should not say AcelleMail
## Common issues
| What you see | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| New logo not appearing | Browser cache | Hard-refresh (Ctrl+Shift+R); also clear AcelleMail cache: `php artisan cache:clear` |
| Email logo broken / shows alt text | Logo URL is relative; emails need absolute URL | Ensure `APP_URL` in `.env` is set to `https://your-brand.com`; re-clear config cache |
| Custom domain TLS provisioning hangs | Customer's DNS not propagated, or port 80 blocked | Check DNS: `dig +short click.theircompany.com`; check certbot logs at `/var/log/letsencrypt/letsencrypt.log` |
| Blade override not taking effect | `loadViewsFrom` not registered, or wrong namespace | Verify by `php artisan view:cache` and re-test; check `resource_path('views/vendor/overrides')` exists |
| Brand color not applied to buttons | Primary Color setting cached | Clear cache + hard-refresh; check the rendered `