WHMCS ever going to a cloud based system?

[Hyperlinks Media]

Does WHMCS have plans on moving to a cloud based system?  I know this has been talked about for many years and I have heard nothing more about it in several years.   We no longer want all the hassles of a "self hosted" billing system and are looking at alternatives.  I would rather stay with WHMCS, however, we would like a cloud based option.     

[Jafar Muhammed]

For me, WHMCS is not just a billing software.
I wish to use WHMCS locally, not on anyone else's server, including WHMCS operated.

[brian!]

https://www.whmcs.com/hosted

[yggdrasil]

1 hour ago, brian! said:

https://www.whmcs.com/hosted

I'm not sure why they didn't just partner with some hosting companies to offer that model. It does feel a bit awkward that WHMCS sells hosting for software companies and now they also host services directly as well.

[AALayer]

1 hour ago, yggdrasil said:

I'm not sure why they didn't just partner with some hosting companies to offer that model. It does feel a bit awkward that WHMCS sells hosting for software companies and now they also host services directly as well.

Why give the money to other hosting companies when you can grab it all yourself?

[yggdrasil]

14 minutes ago, AALayer said:

Why give the money to other hosting companies when you can grab it all yourself?

Because they are not a hosting company? You know how the phrase goes, jack of all trades master of none.

It Its a very different business than software developing. They can potentially lose customers if the service is not top-notch (SLA uptime), support (replied instantly...). That sort of customer expects something very differently, even support that WHMCS does not have today.

You don't try to cover all things that shine under the sun if you want to be successful. The big example is how WHMCS also offers custom development yet Modules Garden is far more successful not only making modules but taking all the work away from WHMCS when it comes to custom software because they only focus on development and nothing else while WHMCS tries to focus on other stuff as well.

The second argument is maybe because WHMCS is a b2b business that sells to hosting companies and service providers?

Imagine the following situation. A hosting company offering a reseller plan but then competing directly with its own customers or trying to sell directly to their customers. How many people do you think would actually want that service? When you do B2B you usually try your users and customers to trust you, not alienate them.

This is why the marketplace was not very well-received either. Imagine if you are a company selling something like Weebly or SSL and you are a WHMCS customer, now suddenly they add your competitor in your control panel and to all other WHMCS users which would mean management would probably say "We should drop WHMCS" as they are promoting our competitors right in our the interface.

This is no different from putting up a shoe store with Shopify, and they then add banners in your store to Amazon Shoes trying to divert your customers to their own affiliate program. There are some things you usually don't cross when you do B2B, that means you are selling to other business or people that sell to end customers. WHMCS never sold to end users. They sell to people that usually provide a services or products to others. Even if you are a developer or web designer.

[ramf]

On 11/21/2020 at 11:04 PM, yggdrasil said:

The big example is how WHMCS also offers custom development yet Modules Garden is far more successful

As far as I know WHMCS do not offer custom development for a very long time now (several years at last) - ans in  any case most of  Modules Garden's modules are quite expansive and not to mentioned that some of then should be an integral part of WHMCS and not a separate module (in my opinion)

 

On 11/21/2020 at 11:04 PM, yggdrasil said:

The second argument is maybe because WHMCS is a b2b business that sells to hosting companies and service providers?

I think the idea here is not so sell hosting to end users - the idea is to host WHMCS on the cloud (on WHMCS servers) instead on our server. It will still be a b2b operation and it will work the same as today - but instead of having the WHMCS on our server is will be on WHMC one.

Don't get me wrong - I really don't like that Idea. I like that I have WHMCS on my server with only me responsible for it. 
I have a lifetime licence and I'm really worrying that WHMCS will focus on  their WHMC hosting system and will abandon the stand alone servers.

 

[wsa]

Yes I like on my own server also

[yggdrasil]

3 hours ago, ramf said:

As far as I know WHMCS do not offer custom development for a very long time now (several years at last) - ans in  any case most of  Modules Garden's modules are quite expansive and not to mentioned that some of then should be an integral part of WHMCS and not a separate module (in my opinion)

 

I think the idea here is not so sell hosting to end users - the idea is to host WHMCS on the cloud (on WHMCS servers) instead on our server. It will still be a b2b operation and it will work the same as today - but instead of having the WHMCS on our server is will be on WHMC one.

Don't get me wrong - I really don't like that Idea. I like that I have WHMCS on my server with only me responsible for it. 
I have a lifetime licence and I'm really worrying that WHMCS will focus on  their WHMC hosting system and will abandon the stand alone servers.

 

Hosting applications is one type of business that hosting companies  do. Of course, I understand this is their own software but still, its still hosting. Some companies offer managed WordPress hosting, some Drupal, while I don't think anyone offers WHMCS (because of the license cost) its still moving from a software selling company to a service company hosting. I don't care if WHMCS does this, I'm more concerned about what I said in another post. Eventually they will stop letting you host WHMCS all together on your own server, they are moving towards that. First by not selling owned licenses anymore, then moving to a recurring model, then changing that model based on the number of active accounts, and the next move is moving to a cloud service. If this works great for them what makes you all here think they are not going to stop offering the self-hosted version in some future. Kayako did the same. Now it's hosted on their servers only. Even if they don't, they will focus more on adding new features that makes their own cloud service more interested vs adding features on the self hosted version. This is already happening, like the marketplace which is basically a service for reselling WHMCS services vs selling them on your own.

[bear]

18 minutes ago, yggdrasil said:

Kayako did the same. Now it's hosted on their servers only.

This is incorrect. Kayako wanted to do that, but the owned license users rebelled. to placate them, while not totally abandoning the plan, they raised the ongoing price to untenable levels, choking off the desire to own it. It can still be had, but the price is very high.

[yggdrasil]

33 minutes ago, bear said:

This is incorrect. Kayako wanted to do that, but the owned license users rebelled. to placate them, while not totally abandoning the plan, they raised the ongoing price to untenable levels, choking off the desire to own it. It can still be had, but the price is very high.

You mean you can still buy self-hosted from them today?

Edited November 28, 2020 by yggdrasil

[bear]

Yes, but they will most likely try really hard to talk you out of it. It's from 20 agents and up (each $35/m I believe) and "contact us" to buy.
https://www.kayako.com/classic

[yggdrasil]

1 hour ago, bear said:

Yes, but they will most likely try really hard to talk you out of it. It's from 20 agents and up (each $35/m I believe) and "contact us" to buy.
https://www.kayako.com/classic

Which makes no sense as that model is far more profitable as customers deal with their own hardware and computing resources vs them having to pay all that plus support.

[bear]

11 hours ago, yggdrasil said:

Which makes no sense as that model is far more profitable as customers deal with their own hardware and computing resources vs them having to pay all that plus support.

I agree, but they don't want to have to support them all, even if it's profitable. With the SAAS model, they have one known environment and software, not to mention the ability to shut you off for non-payment more easily (or mistakenly delete your data if they got something wrong about which account was delinquent). This narrows support to mostly user error and they don't have to beg or cajole for server access to fix problems which they did all the time when I'd asked for help way back when. First thing asked, in fact. I notice WHMCS tends to ask for that as well in my experience.

For the vendor, it's a desirable choice. For the user, it can be, since it absolves any responsibility for updates and security. For myself, I simply don't trust the safety/security of such systems. Sensitive info is often passed in it, and I'm at the mercy of the vendor. For a billing system like WHMCS, that concern goes far higher, since it involves more detailed customer data and billing as well as server access (multiple servers, in fact). Worries me to the point that if this goes in that direction only, we'd be forced to seek alternatives.