WHMCS Replacement - Which billing panel?

Micronode · November 2023

As WHMCS have decided that we don’t already pay them enough money for their bloated buggy billing system it’s time to move away.

Maybe with the savings we can add another location or two to our instances platform.

What panel do you recommend/like/have experience with?

Bonus points if it’s quick and simple to migrate from WHMCS.

Extra bonus points if it’s easy to port WHMCS modules over (I’ll have to rewrite the Micronode module regardless but I’m hoping some/most of the code can be reused)

Extra extra bonus points if a provider here can give us a licence for “X billing panel” for a reasonable cost - preferably billed annually.

Jab · November 2023

@Jord TIME TO SHINE

Jord · November 2023

@Jab said:
@Jord TIME TO SHINE

Thank you for the mention, I like to SHINE

I'm happy to see if we can help, feel free to DM me if you'd like. You can see our software/demo in the link in my sig.

bikegremlin · November 2023

c1vhosting · November 2023

@natvps_uk said:
As WHMCS have decided that we don’t already pay them enough money for their bloated buggy billing system it’s time to move away.

Maybe with the savings we can add another location or two to our instances platform.

What panel do you recommend/like/have experience with?

Bonus points if it’s quick and simple to migrate from WHMCS.

Extra bonus points if it’s easy to port WHMCS modules over (I’ll have to rewrite the Micronode module regardless but I’m hoping some/most of the code can be reused)

Extra extra bonus points if a provider here can give us a licence for “X billing panel” for a reasonable cost - preferably billed annually.

Clientexec.

yoursunny · November 2023

Buy NexusBytes VPS to run your main site and Blesta is free for the family!

Other providers that offer free Blesta include BuyVM and InceptionHosting.

Micronode · November 2023

Other providers that offer free Blesta include BuyVM and InceptionHosting.

I wonder what the terms are on this. If I was to buy a VPS from @InceptionHosting and claim the free Blesta Licence would it have to be hosted within Inception Hosting’s network to comply with the licence? Not that I’d be against that at all, I like to keep the control panel as far away from our network as possible.

Can I use the licence to sell services that are hosted outside of IHs network?

Surely there must be a catch as that is a very good deal.

host_c · November 2023

@natvps_uk

We have the same dilemma, alto, the price is not the issue, the bugs, oh man, the bugs, rats, and so on., and not necessarily of WHMCS, the modules on the marketplace, and here I am talking about the automation part. We were so naive to think if a software cost $ dollars, then it should work out of the box right? well, not quite....

If apps on the marketplace for WHMCS ( as of my knowledge the biggest for providers) are full of bugs, in light of this, how would the less known/spread billing systems behave? We have some friends, also in the provider sphere, they tried blesta, after a few months they moved back to WHMCS, either because they did not find the modules they wanted, or because it did not work out for them.

If you find something better, in terms of stability, functions, do not forget to post it here.

AuroraZero · November 2023

@natvps_uk said:

Other providers that offer free Blesta include BuyVM and InceptionHosting.

I wonder what the terms are on this. If I was to buy a VPS from @InceptionHosting and claim the free Blesta Licence would it have to be hosted within Inception Hosting’s network to comply with the licence? Not that I’d be against that at all, I like to keep the control panel as far away from our network as possible.

Can I use the licence to sell services that are hosted outside of IHs network?

Surely there must be a catch as that is a very good deal.

9 times out of 10 yes they are internal licenses. @hosteons had one on for BF

MikeA · November 2023

I think Clientexec is the most user friendly, both user and admin end, but it has some missing features. Better to custom develop stuff for it. Hostbill is fully featured, but admin UI sucks.

yoursunny · November 2023

@natvps_uk said:

Other providers that offer free Blesta include BuyVM and InceptionHosting.

I wonder what the terms are on this. If I was to buy a VPS from @InceptionHosting and claim the free Blesta Licence would it have to be hosted within Inception Hosting’s network to comply with the licence? Not that I’d be against that at all, I like to keep the control panel as far away from our network as possible.

Can I use the licence to sell services that are hosted outside of IHs network?

Surely there must be a catch as that is a very good deal.

@Francisco has clear rules on the DirectAdmin and Blesta licenses.
The license must be used in their VPS or shared hosting accounts; otherwise, it will be suspended.
There's no rules against selling things located elsewhere.

webcraft · November 2023

@natvps_uk said:

Other providers that offer free Blesta include BuyVM and InceptionHosting.

I wonder what the terms are on this. If I was to buy a VPS from @InceptionHosting and claim the free Blesta Licence would it have to be hosted within Inception Hosting’s network to comply with the licence? Not that I’d be against that at all, I like to keep the control panel as far away from our network as possible.

Does IH still ship any sort of licenses with their services?

Advin · November 2023

@natvps_uk said:

Other providers that offer free Blesta include BuyVM and InceptionHosting.

I wonder what the terms are on this. If I was to buy a VPS from @InceptionHosting and claim the free Blesta Licence would it have to be hosted within Inception Hosting’s network to comply with the licence? Not that I’d be against that at all, I like to keep the control panel as far away from our network as possible.

Can I use the licence to sell services that are hosted outside of IHs network?

Surely there must be a catch as that is a very good deal.

Yes, these providers have bulk licensing deals with Blesta to offer free licenses, but the catch is that it has to be on their network (internal licenses). The point of them giving out these licenses is to encourage people to purchase a VPS with them Blesta licensing is already really cheap, only $14.95/month and you can also buy owned licenses starting at $250 one time, so it wouldn't be a bad idea to just go directly with Blesta and then host it wherever you wish, especially if you already have an established business. They also have a 44% off discount on owned licenses at the moment, expiring in a few days (for Black Friday). One of the best benefits of Blesta is that I am pretty sure that they have a completely open code-base, meaning that you can modify the panel in any way you wish. The only files that are encoded are the files that are required for Blesta licensing.

Hostbill is OK, but they charge an extremely high upfront cost, and I am pretty sure that everything is encoded unless you pay a ton of fees. HostBill also charges for each support ticket that you open, and will charge for certain integrations unless it's bundled in your plan. It's extremely expensive upfront and you may get eaten by fees (i.e. for opening tickets), but in the long term it might end up being worth it.

crunchbits · November 2023

@Jord said:

@Jab said:
@Jord TIME TO SHINE

Thank you for the mention, I like to SHINE

I'm happy to see if we can help, feel free to DM me if you'd like. You can see our software/demo in the link in my sig.

You know, I do have a free BillingServ premium license @natvps_uk

1 lucky Crunchbits customer can get it

adly · November 2023

Maybe support FOSSBilling and forever avoid price gouging?

AuroraZero · November 2023

@adly said:
Maybe support FOSSBilling and forever avoid price gouging?

And lose all your hair fixing shit

adly · November 2023

@AuroraZero said:
And lose all your hair fixing shit

To be fair, it’s come a long way since BoxBilling and is being improved regularly. Though, admittedly there’s still quite a bit to do…

MikeA · November 2023

@adly said:

@AuroraZero said:
And lose all your hair fixing shit

To be fair, it’s come a long way since BoxBilling and is being improved regularly. Though, admittedly there’s still quite a bit to do…

I'm not familiar with it. Is FOSSBilling a spin off of BoxB?

Edit: Nvm, I see it is.

Joseph · November 2023

@c1vhosting said:

@natvps_uk said:
As WHMCS have decided that we don’t already pay them enough money for their bloated buggy billing system it’s time to move away.

Maybe with the savings we can add another location or two to our instances platform.

What panel do you recommend/like/have experience with?

Bonus points if it’s quick and simple to migrate from WHMCS.

Extra bonus points if it’s easy to port WHMCS modules over (I’ll have to rewrite the Micronode module regardless but I’m hoping some/most of the code can be reused)

Extra extra bonus points if a provider here can give us a licence for “X billing panel” for a reasonable cost - preferably billed annually.

Clientexec.

Why not Blesta or Hostbill?

Otus9051 · November 2023

just use email
pretend its the 80s

sh97 · November 2023

@crunchbits said:

@Jord said:

@Jab said:
@Jord TIME TO SHINE

Thank you for the mention, I like to SHINE

I'm happy to see if we can help, feel free to DM me if you'd like. You can see our software/demo in the link in my sig.

You know, I do have a free BillingServ premium license @natvps_uk

1 lucky Crunchbits customer can get it

Count me in!

@natvps_uk you can get Blesta license from @hostEONS . They even mentioned in their welcome mail that it can be hosted outside, as long as blesta is routed through their network.

wagumaxida · November 2023

where is your offer? I want to buy buy buy

webmash · November 2023

Both Blesta and CE are great, CE needs to roll out version 7 though as its backend is ugly, and clunky. Both have good integration with most hosting panels, and billing providers and the communities on both are starting to become a lot more active with people leaving WHMCS/WebPros. Its down to personal preference and cost, ours for now is Blesta.

legendary · November 2023

Blesta is half baked panel without proper domain management. Yes, you can modify it, but codebase also very complicated.

Clientexec promises v7 ages ago. No delivery. Indicates bs.

Hostbill is viable solution as price is one-time and you pay for support and updates only.

skhron · November 2023

At scale any PHP solution will suck (and even more if it is using ioncube). My vote for own in-house solution which does exactly what you want in a way you would like it to.

webmash · November 2023

@legendary said:
Blesta is half baked panel without proper domain management. Yes, you can modify it, but codebase also very complicated.

Clientexec promises v7 ages ago. No delivery. Indicates bs.

Hostbill is viable solution as price is one-time and you pay for support and updates only.

CE is dragging its feet I must admit, the current backend is awful. We've found Blesta okay in terms of making changes we need and support is pretty good. Hostbill is very good, but might be outside of some peoples price points.

stablecloud · November 2023

I've also heard that Upmind is gaining popularity but it's not self-hosted, looks like it's still free during the BETA period although I haven't seen it in the wild yet https://upmind.com/industries/web-host-billing-system

webcraft · November 2023

Is paymenter still in beta or are the v0.x releases a working version?

yoursunny · November 2023

@Otus9051 said:
just use email
pretend its the 80s

Just let customers come to sales office.
Pretend it's the 60s.

DYK yoursunny summer host has a sales office?
We are conveniently located across the street from Starfleet Headquarters.

c1vhosting · November 2023

@Joseph said:

@c1vhosting said:

@natvps_uk said:
As WHMCS have decided that we don’t already pay them enough money for their bloated buggy billing system it’s time to move away.

Maybe with the savings we can add another location or two to our instances platform.

What panel do you recommend/like/have experience with?

Bonus points if it’s quick and simple to migrate from WHMCS.

Extra bonus points if it’s easy to port WHMCS modules over (I’ll have to rewrite the Micronode module regardless but I’m hoping some/most of the code can be reused)

Extra extra bonus points if a provider here can give us a licence for “X billing panel” for a reasonable cost - preferably billed annually.

Clientexec.

Why not Blesta or Hostbill?

I love how Clientexec and their support works

adly · November 2023

@skhron said:
At scale any PHP solution will suck (and even more if it is using ioncube). My vote for own in-house solution which does exactly what you want in a way you would like it to.

I think you're vastly over estimating the scale if you think simply by using PHP, the solution won't scale well enough to serve any web hosting provider.

WHMCS Replacement - Which billing panel?

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