Order form templates

[endreottem]

I don't want to start a WHMCS vs HostBill thread, and I'm sorry if this question has been answered elsewhere already.

 

Anyway, we currently hold 3 WHMCS licenses (1 owned and 2 leased). Earlier this year we decided to buy a HostBill license as well, and was blown away by the nice client area and order form templates, and also how easy it is to translate the system to other languages. I'm sorry to say that we are actually considering cancelling all of our licenses with WHMCS and replacing them with HostBill licenses. Before doing so, we would like to know if WHMCS are planning any major changes to the templates included in WHMCS or not?

 

We only sell domains, cPanel and Plesk hosting, SolusVM VPSes and SSL certificates. As far as I can tell, HostBill seem to have a much better built in integration with these panels, and especially the cPanel module in Hostbill is absolutely fantastic as most customers can do everything they need directly from the HostBill client area instead of logging in to cPanel. Do you plan on making something similar for WHMCS?

 

I'm sure WHMCS has a lot of functions that HostBill doesn't have (and vice versa), but for the things we use, HostBill currently has the edge. At the same time, we have put a lot of time and effort into our WHMCS sites, and would rather not do it all over again - but we need to know that WHMCS is actually planning on making some real progress.

 

I really hope this thread isn't deleted because it is pro HostBill. Instead, think of it as an oportunity to give me and all the other indecisive souls out there a reason to wait for your next move.

[EksoKen]

Thats NOT true, why does so many people/companies sell their hostbill licences? including my self.

Its very easy to buy a cheap discounted second hand Hostbill license, its acctually the system its easiest to find as second hand for sale on WHT etc.

I purchased a owned unbranded hostbill license for going back to whmcs 6 days after, hostbill has better interface and ordering if you ONLY sell vps or dedicated servers or Globalsign SSL but when you also sell shared hosting, reseller hosting etc. whmcs easy smack down hostbill.

[druptech]

Yes I also agree with EksoKen, I have tried lots of time but at last stay with WHMCS, but WHMCS team should be think about integration implements, No matter paid or bundled free for vps and cloud providers. Hostbill have nice and more power full modules for Solusvm, onapp, cPanel etc.. for clients as well as admin users.

 

and also think about order form configurations options slider implements like hostbill.

[EksoKen]

Yes hostbill has a lot of nice features but its still not in the near of better than whmcs as long as you don't only sell dedicated servers or vps.

 

WHMCS team can do a lot of things better but its still a better software for shared hosting than other variants.

 

I dont understand why people is sitting here and complain if they think awbs, hostbill, phpcoin, whoiscart or whatever is better, why dont people just change and dont post a lot of crap comments.

 

I dont think they care if they loose 3 licences when the customer is just posting complaints over whats better with another products. Its 3 choices if your not satisfied, write the mods or hire someone to write what you need to improve, write your own system or change to another system its alot of them so its very easy.

 

Sorry for this comment but i am so tired of reading complain posting all over.

[endreottem]

Guys, guys.. To be frank, if you haven't really tested both applications thouroughly, I'm not all that interested in your opinions about HostBill vs WHMCS. I am asking some specific questions. I have tried both HostBill and WHMCS in depth, and I know enough to make up my own opinion about how the two compares in my business. And EksoKen, you are actually missing my point completely. I am asking this particular question because I need to decide whether to keep my WHMCS licenses or not. I am not saying that HostBill is better than WHMCS in every respect, but it certainly has a client area that looks better, and is easier to use for our customers, which means both happier customers and less support requests asking for directions.

 

hostbill has better interface and ordering if you ONLY sell vps or dedicated servers or Globalsign SSL but when you also sell shared hosting, reseller hosting etc. whmcs easy smack down hostbill.

 

This actually makes me wonder if you have actually compared the two thoroughly at all. We find it to be the other way around. Currently, WHMCS seems to be a slightly better choice for VPS hosting, simply because of the great v.3.x of the SolusVM addon (from SolusLabs, not WHMCS). To be specific, these four buttons make the whole difference: "Serial Console", "Root Password", "Console Password" and "Hostname". Available directly from the client area without having to log on to the VPS control panel. HostBill offers VPS control from the client area, but it lacks those buttons, which means the customer has to log on to the SolusVM control panel to perform basic tasks. On the other hand, the VPS module in HostBill actually ships with HostBill, you don't have to rely on a third party addon.

 

For cPanel hosting - HostBill is much, much better. How you have come to believe that WHMCS "smack down hostbill" in regards to shared hosting is really beyond me. For instance, have you seen or tried HostBill's Simple Hosting feature? I suspect you have not. This is exactly what our clients want, a way to perform the simple, day-to-day tasks directly from the client area without having to log into cPanel. I was looking for something like this for WHMCS. Turns out it does exist, but I have to buy it from a ModulesGarden or some other third party developer.

 

I dont understand why people is sitting here and complain if they think awbs, hostbill, phpcoin, whoiscart or whatever is better, why dont people just change and dont post a lot of crap comments.

 

So you rather nobody told WHMCS and HostBill what works and what doesn't? You don't want any new functions? At all? You would be happy if WHMCS published nothing but security fixes in the future? What I don't understand, is why someone always has to hijack these threads, praising WHMCS without really knowing a whole lot about the competition. You may think you know how HostBill and WHMCS compares, but based on your comments, I'm quite certain that you really don't. I love the fact that software like WHMCS and HostBill exists, but there's still a lot to be desired from both. At the time being, HostBill seem to be the best choice for us simply because it shines where it has to shine, while it comes short in some areas which is much less important. WHMCS has the edge where it really doesn't matter to us, while it leaves something to be desired in some very important areas. HostBill simply seem to make better priorities.

 

I dont think they care if they loose 3 licences when the customer is just posting complaints over whats better with another products. Its 3 choices if your not satisfied, write the mods or hire someone to write what you need to improve, write your own system or change to another system its alot of them so its very easy.

 

I don't think they care if they loose three licenses. I'm quite sure they don't. I mentioned our licenses to explain our situation.

 

We developed our own billing and automation software for years, and we're certainly capable of writing addons to both WHMCS and HostBill - and for some of our needs, we will. However, when it comes to order forms and client area pages for VPS and shared hosting, this is areas where we expect a billing automation software for hosting companies to really deliver. Currently, we feel that WHMCS doesn't. Also, it would be much easier for WHMCS to fix this little "issue" than it is for us to be writing new forms and pages to replace the existing ones (and what do we need WHMCS for then)?

 

I'll tell you another thing, EksoKen - since you are so tired of reading "complaints". How do you decide which application is best for your business? The backend GUI, because you want to be working in something that looks great to you? Or do you think that the more important thing is what your clients think - you know, the ones actually paying your bills? Since we run a quite large business, we tend to do things a bit different than the smaller hosting companies. We actually have a test panel. I'm not kidding. We develop web applications ourselves and have found this to be the best way to test new software and functions. So we invite users, both experienced and inexperienced, to give us their honest feedback. Some weeks ago, we decided to have them test ordering domains and webhosting in WHMCS and HostBill, and to tell us which was better and why. They both received positive as well as negative feedback, but HostBill was preferred for the order forms and for the client area in general.

 

This was actually expected, since the order forms in both WHMCS and HostBill basically show the same information and works in much the same way. The only difference is that HostBill's forms looks better (almost all of our test users favoured the HostBill order forms). As for the client area, HostBill seems to have arranged icons and links in a way that users find more user friendly. And despite what many seem to think, the users don't actually care if you offer cPanel, Plesk or what-ever. They prefer to do as much as possible from the client area, instead of having to log on to a separate control panel.

 

Note: The test panel was testing WHMCS v.5.0.2, not v.5.1.

 

So EksoKen, I'm just wondering.. How come my post is "crap comments", and your's is not. Are my opinions crappy simply because I find HostBill better than WHMCS in some (important to me) areas? Considering that you don't seem to really know the differences between HostBill and WHMCS, I don't find your arguments very convincing.

 

I simply want to know if WHMCS plan on doing something similar to HostBills "Simple Hosting" and if we can expect a nicer looking client area and order forms in WHMCS sometime soon. I'm not bashing WHMCS. I'm actually saying that I would consider staying with WHMCS, but I need to know that they are planning to keep up with HostBill. I know I was not the only one hoping for something better when WHMCS 5 was released, and I don't want to hold on to my licenses just to find that WHMCS 6 doesn't bring something really new to the table. Simple as that..

 

Sorry for this comment but i am so tired of reading complain posting all over.

 

Why don't you try to understand the differences and similarities between the various applications then, rather than getting upset over something you clearly don't know enough about. If there's one thing that annoys me, it's all the "what I use is best because it just is, and everyone uses it so all the others must be stupid"-comments.

[druptech]

HostBill offers VPS control from the client area, but it lacks those buttons, which means the customer has to log on to the SolusVM control panel to perform basic tasks.

 

In this section you are wrong, Seems didn't try new Solusvm module in hostill

[EksoKen]

If you you are capable to write your own add ons as you are mentioning over its really easy to create your own orderforms suiting your needs with the API, then your orderforms problem is gone.

 

I havent tested the cpanel intergration as we dont use cpanel.

 

But i know for sure that hostbill is better taken from user when its comming to vps and dedicated servers and whmcs have a lot more satisfied users when its shared hosting.

 

I dont want to start a battle of this with you but i answered you in frustration in a day where i was so tired of reading "crap posts" when i think people should just switch system or create their own instead of posting bad boring posts of all they are not satisfied with whmcs since none of the developers is coming to answer it anyway i think and suspect.

 

I think its a lot of help needed for those who want help from other users here but its has gone that way so many are posting only their bad experience and nobody has been forced to use the system i think

 

I am sorry for starting a battle that was never my point but i hope its possible to use this forum to something creative instead of posting bad experience and promotion for other systems.