New Web Host Questions

[mrachal]

Hello All,

 

Our business is planning to start doing hosting. We have been looking around at solutions and have some questions.

 

First off we will have only a couple of servers to start with and they are Linux-based. Is WHMCS an end-to-end solution, or is it a manager that sits on top of some other control panel?

 

If it sits on top of a series of control panels, can anyone recommend some? We are a very small, self-funded organization and budget is somewhat of a concern. We have been looking at ZPanel to start with, but would like to move to cPanel in the future if control panels are required in addition to WHMCS.

 

We are familiar with setting up our own Linux servers for single websites, but are less so for a hosting environment. Some questions may sound silly, but we are trying to get a feel for how this is going to work for us.

 

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

[penguin]

WHMCS is a customer management & billing solution - you still need a control panel on your servers to manage hosting accounts. WHMCS will however integrate with most control panels and aloow for automatic provisioning of accounts, etc

 

If you're considering cPanel (which is certainly a good choice), I'd consider going straight for that as otherwise you will have to deal with the additional work and likely inconvenience for your clients by moving them between systems.

[And then there was one les]

I have to agree with penguin, cPanel should definitely be a first point of call. As stated whmcs works with many control panels it works well and can handle all of the provisioning and management.

 

You must note however that it is not simply a cPanel hosting service that your want but at minimum (should you choose cpanel) a cPanel "Reseller" hosting, this gives you WHM which is the administration system that cPanel runs on.

 

Consider it a multi-layered system one sitting on top of the other as follows.

 

WHMCS

Cpanel Software (Client side)

WHM Software

Server Software

Operating System

 

If you are able to have the choice of operating system and many do allow this these days, I would opt for CentOS 5 or 6, that is my personal preference but others are available also. Also depending on your requirements with cPanel DNS Only (this is free) you can set up custom dedicated name servers a couple of small VPS and free up a little resource on your web servers in the process.

[openmind]

My advice would go against the recommendations above. Do NOT dive in with your own server. Instead get a reseller account with a company that knows what they are doing for your customers and then maybe a VPS so you can "play" with it and actually learn what is going on.

 

The fact that you were not aware of the difference between a billing system and server platform is enough to tell me you are not ready to go anywhere near your own dedicated box and provide a high level of support to your customers.

[Alex - Arvixe]

Considering you are on a tight budget you should go with a reseller hosting provider to start with (at maxmimum a VPS). This will save you a lot of money in a long run (until profitable) and will give you the ability to invest in better places, later on you can upgrade to a dedicated server.

 

cPanel is the leading control panel and is preferred by many, especially online. With a reseller account you are able to not only save money but also easily integrate WHMCS into your cPanel reseller account to completely automate the process of everything (account creation, suspension, termination, invoicing etc....).