Is this Price hike real?

[UnwilfulExpenditure]

27 minutes ago, Kian said:

I'm not a big fan of making such comparison. It's obvious that secondary brands always play the "bro-card". Exhibiting a customer-friendly attitude is the minimum you can do to attract customers. Ages ago in this very community we had the staff partecipating and actually listening to people. This is no longer needed when you affirm yourself as the leading company. Especially when you made competitors irrelevant for more than a decade. Everyone eventually ends up doing it.

It's just a question of time (and money) before Blesta will turn into WHMCS. I've seen it happening countless of times. Every time a company increases prices or does something unpopular, a chunk of customers moves to the competitor that assures them they will never do that because they "highly value your feedback" or any other bull💩-catchphrases.  Few years later they manage to become relevant and end up taking almost the same decisions so the cycle repeats. Join, invest time, leave, repeat.

I've worked with hundreds - if not thousands - of providers and all these mass migrations to "copies of inverior value" never solved anything. The few that cyclically switch software because of things like price increase keep going backwards. Like it or not WHMCS is the best software to run a hosting business. Same goes for Plesk or cPanel. Every provider is free to move to competitors (Blesta, Direct Admin, ISPConfig... name one) but they're condemning themselfs to decline. I don't see how one can boost the growth of his/her business by constantly downgrading technology level and by using second-class solutions.

I'm not saying that one should stick to one software for the rest of his life. I'm saying that one should leave the boat only if it is sinking or is bringing you to the wrong place. If you don't see any future with WHMCS then leaving is not only fine but mandatory. On the other hand if one is leaving just for price increase convicing himself that Blesta is better or because their staff is more friendly or again because they promised you something, let me underline that:

• Fact: WHMCS is better
• Friendliness will go away when it is no longer needed
• When Blesta will need more funds, who you gonna call? Price increase!
• Be prepared to leave Blesta for HostBill followed by HostBill, Ubersmith, ClientExec...

In my opinion the real issue here is not if X is better or cheaper or friendlier than Y. You can take as granted that in this whole industry every software that counts costs you more and more. Or even worse wants a % of your revenue. This is the root of the issue. All software companies share the same needs (lot of funds) and adopt (or will adopt) the same revenue model. I don't see how bouncing between the same stuff can make a significant difference.

My 2 cent.

Only HB and WHMCS have put themselves in that exact position afaik in terms of billing solution, Others have had security issues (Think free ones... lol) But I agree, Sideways moves are counter intuitive and bad for business! I would never engage in one! I genuinely believe I'm upgrading for my use-case!  As an added bonus, We don't need to raise prices for new customers.... So double win for us! 

WHMCS can be the best, Depending upon your needs - If you need support, security or ability to change things then it isn't 😉

P.S. I wanted at least 3 cents 😉 

One piece of software i'm looking forward to is Leap - Interested to see what you come up with! 

[Evolve Web Hosting]

15 minutes ago, UnwilfulExpenditure said:

One piece of software i'm looking forward to is Leap - Interested to see what you come up with! 

Unless there's more than one LEAP Software company, their website says they make legal software.

[UnwilfulExpenditure]

17 minutes ago, evolve hosting said:

Unless there's more than one LEAP Software company, their website says they make legal software.

There's a man called Kian, Who lingers around here - Not so much anymore due to incompetence of whmcs....   that is making an opensource billing platform! If you scroll up you'll find him 😛 

https://github.com/Katamaze/Leap#readme

 

[bear]

18 hours ago, evolve hosting said:

I don't think this has been updated for years and is Blesta running this site or someone independent?

Mike Dance, a devoted Blesta fanboy, is behind that site, or at least was at some point. He sells it, moderates their community, actually works for them in some capacity (see his name on articles he's edited) and was behind several failed hosting companies and previous license selling sites (which also failed). 

I found the few times I looked at that bash site it was all about bashing WHMCS and elevating Blesta to the "end all be all", which it isn't.

[Bigol'tastynuggets]

Or comedy.... maybe... just maybe it's a laugh - I mean it raises valid points! 

But I think it was clearly made for comedic value! I don't think there is a big ol' secret meeting to subvert the masses through propaganda! 😛

I can't say I've read their articles though, I'll give them a whirl! Thanks for the heads up bear! 

[yggdrasil]

On 7/25/2021 at 11:26 AM, CDJ Hosting said:

Well I was thinking of returning to whmcs. I have an owned license. I was looking for an upgrade license as was previously the case but no, that option is no longer available. So I can install to the point where my last upgrade license expired or i can go monthly (whmcs 5 something ).

Well that answers the question at hand.. I will not be using WHMCS because I will not pay a monthly fee to use a product I already own a license for. So I am going to bite this bullet and cut my losses.

 

Bottom line is its time for me to, once and for all, say goodbye.

I suspect many people will find this out overtime if they want to use their purchased license in some future for some new project. 

Sadly, your owned license is worth 0$ now, because you can't sell it or use it. It has no value if you cannot have the latest security patches and updates. It's actually risky to use outdated software.

And buying a new leased licenses has the same cost for a new WHMCS customer as for those that purchased a license in the past, this is what I mean your owned license is now valued at 0$. I can just go to whmcs.com and activate a new monthly license, and it would cost me the same as upgrading an existing owned license to lease.

Actually, your owned license is worth -$ because you had unlimited users, and now you need to pay for every single active customer.

[UnwilfulExpenditure]

5 minutes ago, yggdrasil said:

I suspect many people will find this out overtime if they want to use their purchased license in some future for some new project. 

Sadly, your owned license is worth 0$ now, because you can't sell it or use it. It has no value if you cannot have the latest security patches and updates. It's actually risky to use outdated software.

And buying a new leased licenses has the same cost for a new WHMCS customer as for those that purchased a license in the past, this is what I mean your owned license is now valued at 0$. I can just go to whmcs.com and activate a new monthly license, and it would cost me the same as upgrading an existing owned license to lease.

Actually, your owned license is worth -$ because you had unlimited users, and now you need to pay for every single active customer.

A sad state of affairs! Ahh well onwards and upwards! 

[yggdrasil]

9 minutes ago, UnwilfulExpenditure said:

A sad state of affairs! Ahh well onwards and upwards! 

The biggest problem they will have is third party support by external providers.

One of the things most people did not discuss here yet is the value third party providers/resellers give to WHMCS. Tons of people purchased WHMCS because what they need to sell has an official WHMCS module/add-on. Or some things that WHMCS does not have out of the box, you can find it with some developer's add-on. Name it domain, or servers, or anything else. When it came to billing/automation, WHMCS always had a module first.

Would WHMCS have the same value for everyone if we take away that ecosystem?

Let's say something like Modules Garden does not even exist, or most of their modules are for Blesta. Or imagine if most vendors support something else first over WHMCS. This will be their downfall because WHMCS is underestimating that value. That ecosystem is being destroyed when they moved to an expensive leaded model.

Developers are already moving, and strangely I see some now support alternatives with far more effort than before. This is natural and the expected outcome where there is a drastic market shift. Just as with anything, companies move to where they can make more revenue. If more users ask them to support a specific cart or software, they will give it more preference. Most of those companies don't charge for those modules, they are free, but it still cost them money to develop. And nobody will invest in creating add-on or modules for a software that only a few are using.

[UnwilfulExpenditure]

44 minutes ago, yggdrasil said:

The biggest problem they will have is third party support by external providers.

One of the things most people did not discuss here yet is the value third party providers/resellers give to WHMCS. Tons of people purchased WHMCS because what they need to sell has an official WHMCS module/add-on. Or some things that WHMCS does not have out of the box, you can find it with some developer's add-on. Name it domain, or servers, or anything else. When it came to billing/automation, WHMCS always had a module first.

Would WHMCS have the same value for everyone if we take away that ecosystem?

Let's say something like Modules Garden does not even exist, or most of their modules are for Blesta. Or imagine if most vendors support something else first over WHMCS. This will be their downfall because WHMCS is underestimating that value. That ecosystem is being destroyed when they moved to an expensive leaded model.

Developers are already moving, and strangely I see some now support alternatives with far more effort than before. This is natural and the expected outcome where there is a drastic market shift. Just as with anything, companies move to where they can make more revenue. If more users ask them to support a specific cart or software, they will give it more preference. Most of those companies don't charge for those modules, they are free, but it still cost them money to develop. And nobody will invest in creating add-on or modules for a software that only a few are using.

There is a lot of movement on that front! I spoke with loads of 3rd party devs who've seen a drop in sales! It's sad for them! Hopefully they diversify before it dries up more! Add into that, some are only just realising the price change/"change of terms" (save another ban lol) for the owned license - then they'll continue to see drops/less renewals as people naturally do what's best for their business! OR people will use nulled versions and we'll see more of that nonsense! 

[yggdrasil]

On 7/26/2021 at 5:45 PM, bear said:

Mike Dance, a devoted Blesta fanboy, is behind that site, or at least was at some point. He sells it, moderates their community, actually works for them in some capacity (see his name on articles he's edited) and was behind several failed hosting companies and previous license selling sites (which also failed). 

I found the few times I looked at that bash site it was all about bashing WHMCS and elevating Blesta to the "end all be all", which it isn't.

The July update from Blesta has finally a proper domain manager and for my surprise it now also has conditional logic which people have asked WHMCS for years. Selling something as simple as a dedicated VPS or server is not possible with WHMCS because someone can select cPanel as control panel with a Windows Operating system. WHMCS still lacks this very basic configuration option to exclude or include options in the shopping cart out of the box, Hostbill already had this for years. Blesta also seems to do the currency and credits right, which WHMCS again has serious bugs for years and is an accounting mess.

They must be reading this community because they even added hCaptcha which people (including me) asked before as well for WHMCS.

Not saying it's an alternative to WHMCS at this point, but for $15 a month it does seem to deliver a good value. Compare that to thousands+ a month for WHMCS which would equal to the unlimited unbranded license...not even going to mention that you get full access to the code which is a serious huge + for developers.

My point is that they are actually adding slowly small features people are asking and are useful which also seem stable over WHMCS that is developing more gimmick on every release and removing stuff and introducing more bugs. Blesta was always very slow in development, but it seems they are speeding up now. It's still a very good value for the money.

Edited July 28, 2021 by yggdrasil

[UnwilfulExpenditure]

5 hours ago, yggdrasil said:

The July update from Blesta has finally a proper domain manager and for my surprise it now also has conditional logic which people have asked WHMCS for years. Selling something as simple as a dedicated VPS or server is not possible with WHMCS because someone can select cPanel as control panel with a Windows Operating system. WHMCS still lacks this very basic configuration option to exclude or include options in the shopping cart out of the box, Hostbill already had this for years. Blesta also seems to do the currency and credits right, which WHMCS again has serious bugs for years and is an accounting mess.

They must be reading this community because they even added hCaptcha which people (including me) asked before as well for WHMCS.

Not saying it's an alternative to WHMCS at this point, but for $15 a month it does seem to deliver a good value. Compare that to thousands+ a month for WHMCS which would equal to the unlimited unbranded license...not even going to mention that you get full access to the code which is a serious huge + for developers.

My point is that they are actually adding slowly small features people are asking and are useful which also seem stable over WHMCS that is developing more gimmick on every release and removing stuff and introducing more bugs. Blesta was always very slow in development, but it seems they are speeding up now. It's still a very good value for the money.

The conditional logic is leagues ahead! And hCaptcha is a marked step up! Much better than google and you get paid instead of selling customers down the google river! 

Yeah it's not quite a 1:1 product for some, For my needs it far exceeds WHMCS for all but one company! Again, we weren't in need of domains but I have played with it and now use it internally to manage our own domain renewals on a dev install (We asked if we could - they said "Sure, No problem as long as it isn't used publicly") So I do have the experience with it! 

Where they still don't meet my needs for our last business on whmcs, is compatibility for a niche product - Which we're building our own module and will release it for free to the community (I will offer the finished product to them to see if they want to integrate it as it doesn't change much).  That grows rapidly however and we're at the point now where 2 days of whmcs license is an owned license when we swap..... Crazy! When we do move, we can do so knowing we're protecting our pricing structure for future clients and not dealing with a company with such an immoral history! 

That being said, I do think some are put off by the more thought needed! Most people struggling are used to WHMCS and it's daft way of doing things! Also yeah hiring of new devs is really paying off now! Being able to see their sprint boards is cool! You know exactly where you stand with regards to release! That and they will actually discuss what's coming - (Hint... it's not more upsells or removal of features to become paid ones🤯)

Bottom line, I am extremely happy I moved and can't wait to move the last one away and can't see me ever looking back with regret! I would happily say so if I ever do! I feel like as an admin.... I've been allowed my keyboard back after years of whmcs taking it away. Truly remarkable feeling! 

[bear]

5 hours ago, yggdrasil said:

you get full access to the code which is a serious huge + for developers

Most of the code, but definitely the most relevant bits for modification of the script.

[UnwilfulExpenditure]

15 minutes ago, bear said:

Most of the code, but definitely the most relevant bits for modification of the script.

All but the license files (3 files) so I believe 

[yggdrasil]

10 hours ago, bear said:

Most of the code, but definitely the most relevant bits for modification of the script.

I think it's only the license files, I cannot confirm this since I never used the software, but if this is correct I seriously have no issue with that. I actually stated here more than once that WHMCS and other developers abuse Ioncube. The idea is only to protect some files, not every single file in your software. Some developers even encode .html and .txt and eve JavaScript files by mistake.

I don't need to tamper with the core or licensing in any software. I think developers have the right to protect their work. And even if WHMCS only encoded the core, this would be fine, if the code was truly separated from the frontends, but this not the case here. WHMCS has hard coded text strings, logic, and even HTML output inside encoded files. The whole GUI both in the admin and end user frontend have almost everything inside encoded files which are not accessible for modification. They even have paths and links required in templates now behind encoding. WHMCS was almost fully customizable until version 5. In version 6 they started to do very nasty things with Ioncube, and remove code from template files. This is not a mistake and I said this tons of times and nobody from WHMCS has ever denied this because they can't. It's very obvious what they are doing on every release. They are closing the software down to avoid people from doing modifications they can't control because in the end they are moving to SaaS and you will not have access to most files on that service. The logic thing to do is to close everything down from modifications and then only allow some changes' through some web interface. WHMCS is turning into a boxed solution that looks and works the same for everyone.

Just imagine the following case. Some API messages that come from registrars are hard coded and cannot be translated. This means WHMCS is not truly multi-language. Assuming you had access to the code, this is very simple to intercept since the code returned by the API is always the same, and you can just replace it with the locale strings. Another issue, changing links and path names on WHMCS is again not possible in the latest versions. Assuming Blesta is only encoding 3 files, this means in the worst case scenario, you can fix a bug or have a developer do it, or the community if they are not quick enough, in fact this makes the whole community and software better as they can submit patches to the developer, and they can later include them. This is a big plus because you have now hundreds or thousands of eyes looking at the code. Some people said before WHMCS is siphoning data from installations, but nobody can prove it because we have no way to check the code or if they are GDPR-compliant. Having full access to the code means you can build on top or use code others submit with add-on, fixes or new features.

For anyone that needs to customize their installations or build custom services on top of what the software does out of the box, having access to the code is a huge bonus point. This also means Blesta can't ever pull what WHMCS did. Because people would realize this if they started to silently encode more files on each release.

Edited July 28, 2021 by yggdrasil

[yggdrasil]

11 hours ago, UnwilfulExpenditure said:

The conditional logic is leagues ahead! And hCaptcha is a marked step up! Much better than google and you get paid instead of selling customers down the google river! 

Yeah it's not quite a 1:1 product for some, For my needs it far exceeds WHMCS for all but one company! Again, we weren't in need of domains but I have played with it and now use it internally to manage our own domain renewals on a dev install (We asked if we could - they said "Sure, No problem as long as it isn't used publicly") So I do have the experience with it! 

Where they still don't meet my needs for our last business on whmcs, is compatibility for a niche product - Which we're building our own module and will release it for free to the community (I will offer the finished product to them to see if they want to integrate it as it doesn't change much).  That grows rapidly however and we're at the point now where 2 days of whmcs license is an owned license when we swap..... Crazy! When we do move, we can do so knowing we're protecting our pricing structure for future clients and not dealing with a company with such an immoral history! 

That being said, I do think some are put off by the more thought needed! Most people struggling are used to WHMCS and it's daft way of doing things! Also yeah hiring of new devs is really paying off now! Being able to see their sprint boards is cool! You know exactly where you stand with regards to release! That and they will actually discuss what's coming - (Hint... it's not more upsells or removal of features to become paid ones🤯)

Bottom line, I am extremely happy I moved and can't wait to move the last one away and can't see me ever looking back with regret! I would happily say so if I ever do! I feel like as an admin.... I've been allowed my keyboard back after years of whmcs taking it away. Truly remarkable feeling! 

I have a hard time understanding their documentation. WHMCS has a full lists of hooks you can use with proper examples and the full index of all API calls. This makes WHMCS flexible in some ways before they add features. Example, before WHMCS even had metered billing, you could do this manually with the API.

I cannot seem to find this with Blesta. I really don't like their documentation. It seems way to orientated to developers, which is fine, but is not clearly explained for new people starting out with the software. I was not even able to find basic code for their templates, do they use Twig? Smarty? Could not find that either.

I don't think anyone will regret moving if the software is stable enough to do what they promise and bill accounts. Example, the latest WHMCS version again has a serious bug with Stripe that is not able to bill cards, I had this issue before, and they patched it, I'm still on 7 but reading the forums it seems that bug came back again for tons of users. For me, this is completely unacceptable. When WHMCS starts to fail in the billing or automation part, and they take months to fix it, then it means we are in serious trouble because in the past at least the billing part always worked fine.

Edited July 28, 2021 by yggdrasil

[UnwilfulExpenditure]

1 hour ago, yggdrasil said:

I have a hard time understanding their documentation. WHMCS has a full lists of hooks you can use with proper examples and the full index of all API calls. This makes WHMCS flexible in some ways before they add features. Example, before WHMCS even had metered billing, you could do this manually with the API.

I cannot seem to find this with Blesta. I really don't like their documentation. It seems way to orientated to developers, which is fine, but is not clearly explained for new people starting out with the software. I was not even able to find basic code for their templates, do they use Twig? Smarty? Could not find that either.

I don't think anyone will regret moving if the software is stable enough to do what they promise and bill accounts. Example, the latest WHMCS version again has a serious bug with Stripe that is not able to bill cards, I had this issue before, and they patched it, I'm still on 7 but reading the forums it seems that bug came back again for tons of users. For me, this is completely unacceptable. When WHMCS starts to fail in the billing or automation part, and they take months to fix it, then it means we are in serious trouble because in the past at least the billing part always worked fine.

All the docs are listed on their page - I only check here now and again but if you need help with anything ping me in their discord uk office hours and I can help you out! I certainly won't do it for whmcs now - I'm of the same opinion as most others that they need to earn their "support" charges 😂 

That being said, Yeah it's difficult to go from pre-set bits you're allowed to alter to having full control! It can seem overwhelming - My client base for one company remained the same, Support demand has decreased month on month now as I can fully edit ANY aspect I need! That is not to be underestimated! It's probably going to save me hiring another support staff and be able to hire someone to add more benefits to being a customer! Like actual benefits, Not shoving more upsells at them 😂 We have a cool idea for our clients based upon that alone Q1 22! Throw in licence savings and it's set to be a good financial year! 🙂

Last company left to move from whmcs in the next few months (Hit a couple of delays - Family related) and I'm well and truly free! No more WHMCS, No more Cpanel, No more Plesk and No more SolusVM! 

[Evolve Web Hosting]

On 7/26/2021 at 3:45 PM, bear said:

I found the few times I looked at that bash site it was all about bashing WHMCS and elevating Blesta to the "end all be all", which it isn't.

I agree

[brian!]

On 20/07/2021 at 00:33, UnwilfulExpenditure said:

Maybe when the lockdown is lifted, I can buy you a coffee at one of the conventions and come playfully ruffle those locks of yours to help get that brain engaged!

saw that gif in another community f o r u m, remembered your post and it made me smile. 😜

Edited July 30, 2021 by brian!

[UnwilfulExpenditure]

13 minutes ago, brian! said:

saw that gif in another community f o r u m, remembered your post and it made me smile. 😜

A playful hair ruffling is just what these youngsters need! I have a theory about the circulation of air! I think the excessive alternatively styled hair causes overheating in some! I wouldn't decorate my graphics card with my old mop so I don't understand the desire myself! Anyway, Hope you're enjoying your Friday brian!  Hows the self imposed freedom crusade coming along? I keep my eye out when I go to my local supermarket, But nothing has drastically improved there so I'm assuming you've chosen a new hobby or finally enjoying yourself mate? 🙂 
 

[brian!]

3 hours ago, UnwilfulExpenditure said:

Hows the self imposed freedom crusade coming along?

very well... there's a nice relaxed chill when you never have to worry about working ever again. 🏝️

3 hours ago, UnwilfulExpenditure said:

I keep my eye out when I go to my local supermarket, But nothing has drastically improved there

it didn't work out - the management insisted on charging customers as soon as they walked through the door or for daring to ask a member of staff a question - plus whenever one of their staff made a spillage in the aisle, the customers found it quicker to clean it themselves rather than report it to a member of staff... who were totally disinterested in their customers and would quite happily have left the spill there for years. 🧹 😜

*coughs*

3 hours ago, UnwilfulExpenditure said:

so I'm assuming you've chosen a new hobby or finally enjoying yourself mate?

the latter... still doing WHMCS coding bits & pieces (usually paid) if/when I feel like it....

really enjoying not reading the threads daily - i've no idea what's going on here unless I login (and that only occurs now if I need to reply to a PM)... once you finally accept that WHMCS, both as a company and product, is fundamentally unfixable, life becomes so much simpler... I don't mind a challenge, but a pointless one is a little too like sadistic for my liking!

it's what Tony Hancock wrote in his suicide note, "things just seemed to go too wrong too many times" - they repeat so many mistakes, so often, that it's not even funny any more.

I used to think things would improve, but the sad reality is that this is them giving 100%.... this is really all there is in the locker... they're in a long decline and there's nothing anyone can do to reverse it... not that there are many left who would even want to bother.

not to worry - they'll add 4 new partners to MarketConnect in v8.3 and all will be right in their world. 🌍

[UnwilfulExpenditure]

1 hour ago, brian! said:

very well... there's a nice relaxed chill when you never have to worry about working ever again. 🏝️

 

Ah, you'll make me jealous! 

1 hour ago, brian! said:

it didn't work out - the management insisted on charging customers as soon as they walked through the door or for daring to ask a member of staff a question - plus whenever one of their staff made a spillage in the aisle, the customers found it quicker to clean it themselves rather than report it to a member of staff... who were totally disinterested in their customers and would quite happily have left the spill there for years. 🧹 😜

*coughs*

What spill? There is no spill. Maybe there's only a spill for you? CanI get access to your glasses to take a look?

1 hour ago, brian! said:

the latter... still doing WHMCS coding bits & pieces (usually paid) if/when I feel like it....

Nice, I long for the day when I truly pick and choose my work! It sounds heavenly 

1 hour ago, brian! said:

it's what Tony Hancock wrote in his suicide note, "things just seemed to go too wrong too many times" - they repeat so many mistakes, so often, that it's not even funny any more.

On a related subject, My puppy has learnt to not urinate in the kitchen, I may take up a role in training those with seemingly no issue in rolling around in their mistakes like there is nothing wrong! 🙂 

1 hour ago, brian! said:

not to worry - they'll add 4 new partners to MarketConnect in v8.3 and all will be right in their world. 🌍

"We've listened to our customers say they'd like to sell......." No, Nobody did. Ever. Nobody wants to pay for access to affiliate links. It's turning into a multi level marketing scheme, Except without the promise of riches or things that will amaze your customers 

On a more serious note, I'm glad you're kicking back a little! Hope the beach was good 🙂 

[And then there was one les]

On 7/27/2021 at 10:45 PM, yggdrasil said:

Actually, your owned license is worth -$ because you had unlimited users, and now you need to pay for every single active customer.

Yes, that about sums up the situation. To be stuck on a version they know full well has more bugs than the kennels is just beyond all reasonable levels of comprehension.

I have decided to go fully open source, I have been using ISPConfig for a while, its not a billing system, more akin to WHM or cPanel to be honest but, Its open source and that suits me just fine. I will be tinkering in the code and maybe making some pushes in the billing direction. Not too sure yet. Besides right now I don't host any customers sites so its all gravy.

Add to that I am dumping Enom, I will no longer support WHMCS even with the measly rates they get for the renewals of my domain names. I am utterly done with them.

I didn't want to be rude and not respond when quoted but now i'm unsubscribing so I will say fair well and I hope you all find something that's worth your hard earned money.

[Bigol'tastynuggets]

3 minutes ago, And then there was one les said:

Yes, that about sums up the situation. To be stuck on a version they know full well has more bugs than the kennels is just beyond all reasonable levels of comprehension.

I have decided to go fully open source, I have been using ISPConfig for a while, its not a billing system, more akin to WHM or cPanel to be honest but, Its open source and that suits me just fine. I will be tinkering in the code and maybe making some pushes in the billing direction. Not too sure yet. Besides right now I don't host any customers sites so its all gravy.

Add to that I am dumping Enom, I will no longer support WHMCS even with the measly rates they get for the renewals of my domain names. I am utterly done with them.

I didn't want to be rude and not respond when quoted but now i'm unsubscribing so I will say fair well and I hope you all find something that's worth your hard earned money.

Take care, ispconfig is good! We've been playing! 

[yggdrasil]

On 7/31/2021 at 12:54 PM, And then there was one les said:

Yes, that about sums up the situation. To be stuck on a version they know full well has more bugs than the kennels is just beyond all reasonable levels of comprehension.

I have decided to go fully open source, I have been using ISPConfig for a while, its not a billing system, more akin to WHM or cPanel to be honest but, Its open source and that suits me just fine. I will be tinkering in the code and maybe making some pushes in the billing direction. Not too sure yet. Besides right now I don't host any customers sites so its all gravy.

Add to that I am dumping Enom, I will no longer support WHMCS even with the measly rates they get for the renewals of my domain names. I am utterly done with them.

I didn't want to be rude and not respond when quoted but now i'm unsubscribing so I will say fair well and I hope you all find something that's worth your hard earned money.

Good choice. You might also take a look at Virtualmin which is far superior to cPanel. And Webmin is far superior to WHM as well. Virtualmin already comes with Webmin for management. It's open source.

 

[WisTex]

On 7/26/2021 at 9:29 AM, Kian said:

...let me underline that:

• Fact: WHMCS is better
• Friendliness will go away when it is no longer needed
• When Blesta will need more funds, who you gonna call? Price increase!
• Be prepared to leave Blesta for HostBill followed by HostBill, Ubersmith, ClientExec...

In my opinion the real issue here is not if X is better or cheaper or friendlier than Y. You can take as granted that in this whole industry every software that counts costs you more and more. Or even worse wants a % of your revenue. This is the root of the issue. All software companies share the same needs (lot of funds) and adopt (or will adopt) the same revenue model. I don't see how bouncing between the same stuff can make a significant difference.

My 2 cent.

One thing that WHMCS just did is niche themselves. I was hoping that WHMCS could be used as a general billing system, but with the new licensing terms and pricing, it simply does not make sense to use WHMCS for anything other than hosting and domains and related reoccurring services. Especially since they seem to count one-time purchases as active clients. 

They are currently the best at hosting and domains billing, and they want to get paid for that. I understand and respect that. They want to be a premium product. They will lose customers who do not want to pay premium prices, but they will be more profitable on the customers they keep. This will spur more competition who will swoop in to fill the non-premium void, but WHMCS seems to be okay with that.

As long as WHMCS keeps advancing and stays ahead of everyone else in features and usability, they will be okay. But as soon as a competitor matches the features at a better price point, the scales will be tipped.

This can either go one of three ways:

1. Quicken vs. Tons of New Competitors - Quicken remains the most respected brand, but the accounting space is now crowded with competitors, many who are catching up fast.
2. Sim City vs. Cities: Skylines - Sim City was the best until Cities: Skylines came out. Sim City still exists, but no new releases have come out in years.
3. Toys R Us vs. Walmart - Toys R Us were everywhere, and then Walmart came along. Toys R US faltered, stagnated, and ultimately died, while Walmart grew by leaps and bounds. 

So, is WHMCS going to be Quicken, Sim City, or Toys R Us? Only time will tell.

I had big plans to use WHMCS to manage all of my customers. But under the new licensing, they just relegated themselves to hosting and domains only. In fact, I am creating a brand that is specifically for hosting and domains, and then billing all my non-hosting customers under another brand. It does not make economic sense to pay a license fee for someone who made a one-time purchase of a course or downloaded a free product once.

It should be interesting how this plays out. WHMCS is now niche and premium. This changes the game significantly.