The Direction of WHMCS?

[RPS]

Matt & Staff,

 

1. What is the direction WHMCS is going?

 

2. Are you planning to turn this into a shopping cart similar to X-Cart?

 

3. Are you planning to keep it focused on hosting/domains with the ability to add simple products?

 

4. Maybe you're thinking about integrating the WHMCS billing system as a module for other programs (such as shopping carts)?

 

WHMCS is an amazing tool. Our company is currently looking into whether or not we need to setup a shopping cart store to sell all of our products, or try to use WHMCS.

 

I don't personally consider WHMCS a normal "Billing" program. I consider it a billing program for hosting and domains. Yes, it can create an invoice. But it can't calculate shipping, etc, etc... (basically, many things a shopping cart does).

 

Over the past couple months, I've used it for anti-virus licenses, online backup accounts, and certain hardware products.

 

There are many problems doing this that I don't really want to dive into, because I'm not sure if this is actually the goal of the software or not.

[openmind]

I hope they don't turn it into a shopping cart software system because that is most definitely not what it was created for.

 

First and foremost it is a billing system for web hosting companies and that is exactly what it should stay as. Once you start diluting the product so it attempts to become a "one product fits all" system then you start to lose functionality and features.

 

There are plenty of eCommerce systems out there already and I personally cannot see any reason or justification to turn WHMCS into one.

[HostOrca]

I hope they don't turn it into a shopping cart software system because that is most definitely not what it was created for.

 

First and foremost it is a billing system for web hosting companies and that is exactly what it should stay as. Once you start diluting the product so it attempts to become a "one product fits all" system then you start to lose functionality and features.

 

There are plenty of eCommerce systems out there already and I personally cannot see any reason or justification to turn WHMCS into one.

 

I personally agree with you!

 

I used to use modernbill, and while at the start it was a very good system, they then started to try to make it do everything, a "one size fits all" approach. In my opinion, that's when modernbill started going downhill. They forgot the core purpose, and the system got too bloated.

 

I certainly hope that whmcs never goes down that route.

[scurrell]

First and foremost it is a billing system for web hosting companies and that is exactly what it should stay as. Once you start diluting the product so it attempts to become a "one product fits all" system then you start to lose functionality and features.

 

There are plenty of eCommerce systems out there already and I personally cannot see any reason or justification to turn WHMCS into one.

 

Well said.

[hightekhosting]

Well said.

 

I second that motion!

[redrat]

I third it but, to be fair, there is nothing to indicate that WHMCS will ever become a shopping cart system like any of the main ones. Recent additions to functionality are simply in response to requests made by web designers, software vendors and such like that still fall within the scope of products and services that a typical web host may wish to become involved with.

 

In that sense, WHMCS becomes a billing solution that will handle non-server hosting related products and services which is only intended to increase its usefulness to those seeking a "Complete Solution", hence augmenting and extending the "CS" part appended to "WHM".

 

So I would relax about the OPs original question, though a good one.

[openmind]

I agree with that in part as long as focus on the original idea and ethos behind WHMCS is not lost...

[moonsoft]

I as a previous modernbill user was hanging on the hope that these things would happen;

 

-It would stay modular

(No shopping cart templates etc... Just cut and paste code and customize),

Making the ability to sell anything on a website easy to deploy for website developers

 

It would allow for a semi-complete accounting solution, the ability to input costs to get a better business picture. WHMCS does this well with the ability to enter product costs.

 

It would continue to support a large number of uses without leaving behind that its main function was billing for hosting companies and hosting products, and services.

 

It would continue to develop according to user input and people offering customized modules... Modernbill's design was BAD there was no easy way to develop modules for the software because of the constant change of the core which was heavily bugged and unfinished.

 

I HOPE WHMCS fulfills some of those hopes, but probably the most important, releasing stable builds, and continuing to develop along the curve of customer feedback as they've been proven to do so far....

Edited April 7, 2009 by moonsoft

[Gears]

I think it would be beneficial to WHMCS to start catering to more than hosting companies. In fact, it already is with features like the Quote system. Web design and programming are very closely related to the web hosting market anyway.

 

I liked redrat's post.

 

For example, http://forum.whmcs.com/showthread.php?t=18784

[RPS]

I wouldn't want WHMCS to turn into a shopping cart, but as the "Complete client billing software" it needs to be able to bill my clients for ALL of our products. If it is only going to do some (other than hosting), then it might as well do none outside of hosting/domains.

 

Maybe WHMCS is just planned to focus on web hosting/domains automation and billing? If so, that's fine. I want to know for a fact, which route it is trying to take.

 

If the goal is to keep it for hosting/domain automation, then we will start using something else to handle online sales for our other products. If the goal is to build WHMCS into a complete online billing program, then we'll stick with it for all of our products.

 

It would be nice to hear from the staff what the plans are. Whichever route this is going, I have great confidence that it will remain one of the best ones available.

[Gears]

If the goal is to build WHMCS into a complete online billing program, then we'll stick with it for all of our products.

 

I really hope this is the case.

[bear]

I'd say keep it within the scope of hosting, webdesign and related products. Maybe some day have add on modules that could perform some of these additional functions (at additional cost) but for the love of sanity, don't try to emulate x-cart. I've dealt with that bloated, buggy, impossibly-complicated-to-update POS for a client for several years now...and that would be a heartache.

Trust me.

[moonsoft]

I'd say keep it within the scope of hosting, webdesign and related products. Maybe some day have add on modules that could perform some of these additional functions (at additional cost) but for the love of sanity, don't try to emulate x-cart. I've dealt with that bloated, buggy, impossibly-complicated-to-update POS for a client for several years now...and that would be a heartache.

Trust me.

 

I completely agree, if someone wants MORE out of this product than provide addittional cost add-ons that emulate shopping cart solutions, that way someone can choose to have a feature explosive shopping cart, billing, clean your house, water your garden solution, and those of us just needing to bill hosting realted or IT related products will be happy we have the "Slim client"

[tdog89]

Does anyone think WHMCS will turn out to be more like Urbersmith? I have testing ubersmith more professional than WHMCS. I am not saying WHMCS isn't professional. But ubersmith is more on the lines as a Billing, Ticket, Control panel. Because you can reboot your Dedicated, etc. I currently use WHMCS love what they have done and keep it going. I have been from Modern billing, WHMCS than ClientExec. Now I am back to WHMCS and plan on staying with them until i figure out the best way. I host Dedicated Servers, VPS, Managed Solutions, and Back Up Solutions. I would like for WHMCS to be more like Urbersmith.

[HostOrca]

Does anyone think WHMCS will turn out to be more like Urbersmith? I have testing ubersmith more professional than WHMCS. I am not saying WHMCS isn't professional. But ubersmith is more on the lines as a Billing, Ticket, Control panel. Because you can reboot your Dedicated, etc. I currently use WHMCS love what they have done and keep it going. I have been from Modern billing, WHMCS than ClientExec. Now I am back to WHMCS and plan on staying with them until i figure out the best way. I host Dedicated Servers, VPS, Managed Solutions, and Back Up Solutions. I would like for WHMCS to be more like Urbersmith.

 

I would imagine that these are all features that can be added over time, I would suggest making feature requests for the ones that you want, that way Matt can gauge which ones are most wanted.

 

Adding features like dedicated server rebooting certainly fits into what whmcs does.

 

With regards to my previous post, just to clarify, I have no objection to whmcs catering to other products that many webhosts sell, like web design, software, and other services, this is something that I think whmcs should consider. But I would hate it to become a system for selling everything (shoes, dog food, the kitchen sink), add on to the system yes, but do not loose focus on it's core function, which is a hosting automation/billing system.

[RPS]

don't try to emulate x-cart. I've dealt with that bloated, buggy, impossibly-complicated-to-update POS for a client for several years now...and that would be a heartache.

- Ohhh man, that program has quite a bit of bloat to it, that's for sure. I really like the structure Matt has for WHMCS, seems like he actually put some time/energy into the layout/ideas.

 

But I would hate it to become a system for selling everything (shoes, dog food, the kitchen sink), add on to the system yes, but do not loose focus on it's core function, which is a hosting automation/billing system.

- I agree completely. I don't consider WHMCS a shopping cart, but I think it would be nice if it was able to integrate with other shopping carts.

 

I just hope WHMCS isn't planned to stay just a hosting/domain billing & automation tool. I want more out of it than just that, but I understand if that's going to remain the focus.

[aslam]

I see WHMCS's real strength as the fact that it is one of the only billing systems that focuses on (and does a very good job of) regularly repeating/subscription billing. And my suggestion would be that WHMCS focus on that and enhancing those functions while being somewhat agnostic as to what services we are billing for.

 

Personally I don't use any of the web server control features of WHMCS. I use it exclusively to bill for my online backup subscription service. The provisioning of user orders/services is done via a server module/plug-in that connects to my backup server and then creates, suspends and terminates the accounts as directed by the status of the customer billing. Unfortunately since the system is so focused on web hosting services, it is sometimes problematic. For example, constantly having to navigate around options for web hosting, domain name sales to make sure that my customers don't see such options is rather annoying. As well, the constant assumption that we are selling Web Hosting which pervades the system means that the server module for my backup services cannot do everything it needs. For example, upgrades and downgrades and optional add-ons (like MySQL Server or Exchange Server backup capabilities) are often buggy and require manual intervention to enable. And some features are just not available (like adding 10GB of storage quota for free when they buy the MySQL Server backup option).

 

I wish that the core WHMCS system would be a bit more agnostic as to what service we are selling and focus more on the billing, management of affiliates, expenses, transaction fees, etc. and leave all provisioning of those services to the server module plug-ins. At the same time, it would be good if WHMCS gave more flexibility to the server modules to provision in different ways (for example to package storage quota increases with options).

 

Having said that about the Subscription Billing aspects/future of WHMCS, I can see the points that RPS is making and I agree that if WHMCS wants to focus on the subscription billing, then it would make sense for WHMCS to integrate with some other shopping cart solution (like e-junkie).

 

In the scenario that I imagine, the other shopping cart (e-junkie for example) would allow the other solution to take care of core shopping cart functions and selling of one-off/inventory-style items like computer hardware, boxed software, shoes, widgets, sprockets, sprachets and any other such product that is a one transaction sale and then hand off any subscription billing to WHMCS.

 

Just my 2 cents.

 

Aslam