Why should I choose WHMCS over M*bill and AWBS?

[isdoo]

Hi,

 

My situation is I need convincing why WHMCS is better than M*bill and AWBS?

 

I use the following...

 

Nominet (registrar for Nominet)

WorldPay

Plesk *nix 8.2.1

Enom

Kayako for helpdesk etc.

 

That is it. Does it all work well on WHCMS?

 

Can we import easily from MB & AWBS?

 

Is WHCMS good for billing clients? Do they get reminded via email when their domains are due for renewal, and given the option to renew or cancel them?

 

Can WHCMS handle other invoicing such as internet and incidental bills not directly related to domains and hosting?

 

Thanks.

 

If the answer to everything is yes, we would like a price to purchase WHCMS, install (including Nominet keys) and import from both MB 4.x and AWBS.

 

 

Thanks.

[othellotech]

My situation is I need convincing why WHMCS is better than M*bill and AWBS?

So download it and try it.

Only you can determine if its right for your needs.

[isdoo]

So what is the point of a pre-sales forum then?

 

How can I see if emails are sent to clients reminding them that a domain is due for renewal and giving them an option to renew / cancel?

 

I was rather hoping for a more constructive response - but thanks anyway.

[impactgc]

Ok I moved from AWBS about 2 weeks ago.

 

There are some differences between how things are handled-- but for the most part you will have no problem using WHMCS.

 

There is a import tool for awbs to WHMCS -- works nice-- may need to fix some odd accounts.

 

I will agree- download the trial and use it-- try the import etc. You will find it is less confusing then AWBS for example.

 

I don' t know anything about MB -- but from this forum and others I don't see many people liking it:)

 

Good luck with your choice!

 

Thanks,

Adam

[Matt]

Hi Ian,

 

For specific questions like this when you want a response from us, it would be better answered through a support ticket. However, for the above.

 

Does it all work well on WHMCS? Yes, certainly does.

Can we import easily from MB & AWBS? Indeed, we can import from MB4 & 5 and AWBS and professional import services are available.

Is WHMCS good for billing clients? Well it's a billing system so sure hope so!

Do they get reminded via email when their domains are due for renewal, and given the option to renew or cancel them? Renewal reminders @ 60,30,15,7 & 1 days before expiry for domains is a new feature in 3.4 being released next week - currently it's just an invoice clients pay or don't.

Can WHCMS handle other invoicing such as internet and incidental bills not directly related to domains and hosting? Yes, you can manually raise invoices for clients with custom line items very easily.

 

Matt

[isdoo]

Many thanks.

 

Apologies assumed that this was the place to ask, rather than in a ticket.

 

Looking forward to 3.4 then As the biggest issue I have is clients not realising that their domains are due for renewal.

[joev]

WHMCS is lot better than ModernBill and lot less confusing than AWBS.

Download the trial and see the difference. I've switched to WHMCS after having 2 licenses of ClientExec, & 1 Copy of AWBS...nothing comes close to the simplicity & functionality of WHMCS.

[impactgc]

Matt - i would think this would be a great place for those questions -- less tickets you would have to deal with if everyone can find the answer here

 

Like I said I switched from AWBS -- it is simple to use and maintain - Although I like some features/the way they do things in AWBS. BUT I still made the switch .

 

Take the trial and run it!

[volusia]

WHMCS Just works. Also, I don't know of any company that listens to its clients like Matt does.

 

I for one know I have drove him up the wall a few times, lets not even bring up the Paypal Pro topic but I believe in the product.

 

Modernbill 'was' the big boy on the block, but the big boy is now fat, bloated, and slow. WHMCS is the new kid on the block bringing the ideas of a really smart programmer & a community of clients who actually use it everyday.

 

Give it a shot. I believe you'll love it!

[DaveDaveC]

Hi I am one of those just switch from MB to WHMCS last month Sepetmeber 2007.

 

WHMCS is so easy to use especially if you run cpanel & Helm 3, it save me a lot of works to import domain and hosting information.

 

If you run the latest MB, the order pages take at least a seconds to display no matter what hardware you run or traffic on your server.

 

I have a dual xeon server which only run MB, my customer asked why it is so slow to change page to page during order.

 

You can try their demo site, you will see what I mean.

 

The decision is yours...Good day.

 

I also think Matt is very nice and helpful guy if you have any technical problems on the software.

 

WHMCS....Simply the best

[Baja]

I Know this will sound sad , on my part, but I worked on my site for about 9 months off and on with AWBS and never finished it. I won't bad mouth the system, but it is a bit too complicated for what I needed.

 

So finally I decided I wanted something simple that I could just make work, so I made the swicth. Its been heaven, you can see I only have about 20 or so posts, including this one, as I write this so I have not been here for long and I am now almost ready to launch my site.

 

Its way simplier but don't get me wrong, I don't mean simplier as in cheap, simplier as in it just works. The template system is divine and the support here rocks even with some of the stupidiest questions I have to throw at them.

 

I am very excited.

 

Baja

[apollo1]

I would also like to ask a question with respect to AWBS and WHMCS.

 

I am presently running a trial of both of these products, and I am having a difficult time deciding which billing system to go with.

 

Its obvious that AWBS offers more functionality where the domain registration services are concerned.

 

But the reason I like WHMCS is that the interface is much cleaner, and it is not as buggy. With AWBS I am getting nervous because I keep running into problems and it is still only my trial period.

 

I like that AWBS is cheaper, but I am not entirely comfortable with the random bugs here and there. Also, I don't like that there are 500,000 %@! files and directories in the average AWBS template.

 

I found a bare bones theme template, and it allows me to use my existing site. So at this point the only thing that makes me consider AWBS is that it domain registration functionality is more mature.

 

So I would like to know -- does WHMCS have plans to expand on the enom module so that people may one day be able to administer their domains from our own sites (like AWBS allows you to). AWBS also allows more domain services to be sold rather than just registrations and transfers.

[impactgc]

Pertaining to AWBS -- I ran it for about a year or so.. I didn't see that many bugs in the program.

 

The reason I left and came to WHMCS was manly for the useablity of it and the ease of design.

 

AWBS in my mind is not a bad product.

 

Just have to think -- do you need all that functionality? I thought I did and went with them -- but then found out.. I wasn't using it all.

 

I do have to say I love the way they do their domain setup/registration.

 

Good luck choosing.

 

Adam

[Matt]

So I would like to know -- does WHMCS have plans to expand on the enom module so that people may one day be able to administer their domains from our own sites (like AWBS allows you to). AWBS also allows more domain services to be sold rather than just registrations and transfers.

WHMCS already allows nameserver changes, WHOIS contact info changes, DNS Management & Email Forwarding Configuration with Enom.

 

In the order process you can have ID Protect, DNS Management & Email Forwarding as addons. And Domain Renewals can be ordered any time from the client area.

 

There isn't really anything missing for domain services there!

 

Matt

[impactgc]

DNS management - do you mean if directi is holding the dns? or do you mean nameserver changes? Or are the expamples you use for Enom only?

 

Thanks,

Adam

[apollo1]

So I would like to know -- does WHMCS have plans to expand on the enom module so that people may one day be able to administer their domains from our own sites (like AWBS allows you to). AWBS also allows more domain services to be sold rather than just registrations and transfers.

WHMCS already allows nameserver changes, WHOIS contact info changes, DNS Management & Email Forwarding Configuration with Enom.

 

In the order process you can have ID Protect, DNS Management & Email Forwarding as addons. And Domain Renewals can be ordered any time from the client area.

 

There isn't really anything missing for domain services there!

 

Matt

 

Ohh, ok then that's great! I didn't know you could do all those things as well with WHMCS. Thank you, that will definitely help in my decision now.

[percentjeff]

I tried to install AWBS on my server. It required a php accelerator. I couldn't make it work during the trial period. Their support team was responsive but the issue was never resolved.

 

I had one install issue regarding the cron setup with whmcs. The response from support to upload a new cron.php file was fast and solved the problem.

 

I'm still working on the setup but WHMCS looks like it will meet my needs.

 

Jeff