2025 Price Increase

[snake]

1 hour ago, bear said:

High security, yet hacked. 
I get what you're saying, but not all are that secure, and I simply won't trust them. Out of my control is out of my control. 😉

Sorry for the delayed reply, the powers that be are holding posts for moderation, since you can't be too careful someone might saying something negative. 

i'm not saying its not possible to get hacked, LastPass got hacked several times.
But as is almost always the case, it wasn't the product that got hacked, it was a developer who got socially engineered and phished.

You should take a look at Bitwarden, they offer a locally hosted version of the product, so nothing in the cloud.
 

[bear]

2 hours ago, snake said:

You should take a look at Bitwarden, they offer a locally hosted version of the product, so nothing in the cloud.

Had done so. Needs a docker container, I believe, and also hosted on line, even if it's on my own server. It's the storing online that worries me, regardless of where.

[RadWebHosting]

2 hours ago, bear said:

Had done so. Needs a docker container, I believe, and also hosted on line, even if it's on my own server. It's the storing online that worries me, regardless of where.

A couple of alternatives you might consider are

• Psono CE (open) but also functional completely behind a firewall
• Passbolt (open source) - Installs to nearly anything (no Docker reqd)

Drifting slowly off-topic...but proposing open source software to help offset the rising WHMCS costs, so feel free to mark as "solution". 🤔

[We Connect Nordic AB]

the thing we use WHMCS for is

set up hosting for our clients and register dot se domains.

we dont use the ticket system as its crap imo.

[snake]

7 hours ago, We Connect Nordic AB said:

the thing we use WHMCS for is

set up hosting for our clients and register dot se domains.

we dont use the ticket system as its crap imo.

yes the ticket system sucks, that is another thing that users have been asking to be improved for last 15 years, but still most of the issues exist.

what do you use instead?

[silver dayna]

Zammad

[bear]

10 hours ago, silver dayna said:

Zammad

Expensive, that. €2,699 per year. Still way less than Kayako, mind you.

[Damo]

We use SupportPal and the WHMCS integration is seamless. 

[zomex]

Maybe I'm easily pleased or not sure what modern ticket systems can do but I've never had a issue with the WHMCS ticket system. It's reliable, ties in with WHMCS of course keeping everything in one place.

Which features is it missing that have been requested?

Never saw the appeal of Kayako, always seemed over priced and over hyped to me.

Edited October 20, 2024 by zomex

[bear]

5 minutes ago, zomex said:

Never saw the appeal of Kayako, always seemed over priced and over hyped to me.

It was better at a bunch of things. My client base has a tendency to work with others, and add them into tickets after they're in progress. WHMCS hates that and doesn't allow it. It also allowed someone to reply from a different email address and have it stay with the ticket. WHMCS drops those responses. It didn't have a great search feature, but it was still better than WHMCS.
It was built as a help desk. WHMCS was not, and added one in which more or less neglected some important needs. The changes to the user system exacerbated the shortcomings. We still use it, but it's just adequate, IMHO.

Kayako was priced fairly until they decided it wasn't. They cited no one was purchasing support which forced them to drop owned in favor of leased (they reinstated owned, but at a 40 times increase in cost). Owners stopped purchasing support when there were no actual updates for literally years. Go figure. Way of the future, as we've learned here. 

[Damo]

I agree with @bear  we used Kayako too but once they forced SaaS and the pricing for licensing wasn't sustainable we moved to SupportPal. 

We use it for email and web. Not using WhatsApp and Twillio but expect they work as advertised. 

[We Connect Nordic AB]

On 18/10/2024 at 5:30 PM, snake said:

yes the ticket system sucks, that is another thing that users have been asking to be improved for last 15 years, but still most of the issues exist.

what do you use instead?

we use osTicket hosting it our self. as we get loads of tickets from our clients not only those who use our webhosting so the ticket system needs to accept those aswell.. sadly WHMCS ticket system is not a fit for us. they need to work on it abit more.

We have if a agent has awnsered the ticket it will remain open for XX amount of days if client has not responded it will take it as the issue has been resolved and closes the ticket. during XX amount of days it will send an email to the client asking if the issue has been resolved or not.

we also have if email from service@example.com send no notification of ticket creation and if in ticket header [success] close the ticket without sending ticket close. if [failed] dont send a ticket open to user but open it as a issue and alert ticket agents about the issue after it has been resolved and ticket close dont sent a ticket close to the user.

we also have if we get email from spam or services that we dont want to buy we have if spam@example.com dont open ticket close it or remove the ticket send a reply to the user with funny instructions like how to make noodles in other language etc.

[snake]

On 10/20/2024 at 10:53 AM, zomex said:

Maybe I'm easily pleased or not sure what modern ticket systems can do but I've never had a issue with the WHMCS ticket system. It's reliable, ties in with WHMCS of course keeping everything in one place.

Which features is it missing that have been requested?

Never saw the appeal of Kayako, always seemed over priced and over hyped to me.

where to start..

the security options are useless, if you enable them, they cause a lot of other issues.

Tickets are always assigned to the account owner, regardless who opens them.  this obviously causes problems when a clients other staff opens a ticket, as it always has the wrong name on it, and someone who doesn;t need to gets all the replies.
the only way for a contact to open a ticket in their own name is via email, so you have to allow that. then as soon as you assign the ticket to the account, it changes the name on it.
there is no reliable way to stop unauthorised people opening tickets without causing other issues a mentioned above.

So much content gets stripped out of tickets and there is no way to view it, so there is often important content and links you cannot see, so you then have to tell client to send as an attachment instead.

All this and more has been in the feature request system for 10+ years

[bear]

6 hours ago, snake said:

have to tell client to send as an attachment instead

Which they promptly send as an attachment not in the list of allowed ones. 😉

[Mandalorian]

On 10/10/2024 at 2:57 PM, Evolve Web Hosting said:

It is good that they are taking the initiative. The software is still too far behind (and in Beta I believe) that it can't be run in a production environment right now.

FossBilling is being used by at least one really good domain and hosting provider and that too successfully. The owner is doing a heroic job maintaining it actively on Github in the interests of Open Source for everyone: billing .hostbybelle .com

Blesta too is being actively used by a number of very reputable domain and hosting providers that I know and have worked with.

After so many years of you know what, I have come to terms with the fact that things are not going to get better unless we want to make some compromises and sacrifices to move in a different direction. That's the  way to go, for me at least, from now on.

Edited October 22, 2024 by Mandalorian

[We Connect Nordic AB]

we are evaluating WiseCP as an alternative to WHMCS.

the cost is too much for the use case we have.

 

 

[johnharry2]

You're definitely not alone in feeling that way. The PHP version update is a plus, but I agree that features like Apple Pay, Android Pay, and streamlined sign-in options would be much more impactful for everyday use. It seems like there's still a gap between what's being rolled out and what many users actually find valuable.

[stormy]

Blesta doesn't look too bad right now and having open source code and some competent developers, anything can be fixed. HostBill is very complete apparently (lots of modules) but I don't want to be trapped in another WHMCS-like situation.

Anyone else trying Blesta? I know they seem to have an attitude, but so does our current provider...

[bear]

On 11/21/2024 at 10:46 AM, stormy said:

I know they seem to have an attitude

Understated.

[Zetamex]

PayPal integration change removed the ability to block subscriptions, which in some cases(basically all) confuse customers as to why they are still paying for something resulting in more chargebacks and disputes.

An outstanding issue with the API reported over a year ago is scheduled to "maybe" get fixed some time in 2025 after it has been an issue for more than 4 years.

New things implemented only exposed to addons mean a great way for the secondary market to further extract money.

In times of high inflation the very worst thing you can do is raise prices. Don't have to have a masters in economics to know that, it's simple math.

For the longest time the auto update has failed and while that seems to no longer happen, there was a never a conclusion as to why.

Source for older versions float around the net and the code isn't pretty, so unless half the system has been rewritten since 7.x some of that stuff is still in there.

The only constant in this is that good feature requests are declined so beyond the investment itself you then have to find a third-party addon if you need something "specific" (that somehow hundreds of people voted for).

I have seen no meaningful change since the last price increase. Every positive offset by a new negative. If "development" costs too much, try doing what we were all forced to do in this economy: Cut costs! Instead of nickle and diming the loyal customers that propped up the business the last 10 years. You know other places grandfather long term customers into cheaper plans instead of giving them the finger.

(I tried posting here from my community account, but it won't even let me, wtf)

[WHMCS Rex]

@Zetamex - could you create a ticket so we can check that community account for you?

[Evolve Web Hosting]

1 hour ago, WHMCS Rex said:

@Zetamex - could you create a ticket so we can check that community account for you?

@WHMCS Rex why don't you offer any answers to @Zetamex legitimate concerns about the software itself?

[WHMCS Rex]

@Evolve Web Hosting - honestly, I don't know much about WHMCS the software as I just help manage the community itself, so I'm not qualified to comment on those things.  I'm sure one of the WHMCS techs will see this and comment, although there may be a bit of delay with the holidays happening right now.

[bear]

2 hours ago, WHMCS Rex said:

I'm sure one of the WHMCS techs will see this and comment

Generally not. Most of the time when it's about missing fixes vs paid marketplace stuff it's ignored, quietly removed, or John himself comes in here and tells us it's because we all asked for the thing they added. If not that we asked for it, it's "to help you serve your customers",  and price increases are to "keep developing and stay financially sound" or some such. 

I'd suggest dev costs have not increased at nearly the same pace as the bottom line for sales has. Just my 2 cents, adjusted for inflation. 

[WHMCS Rex]

@bear - interesting - let me poke some people about this!