amuck-landowner

Is Hostbill worth the $$$?

V

VisionGroup

New Member
Hi All,

As an owner of a IT business and previous web hosting business.

I can tell you know that WHMCS is a heap better than hostbill for many reasons, listed below:

1) updates would break things ( somtimes many )

2) cost ( they have changed the price so often! )

3) Support, no support really.

Just my 2 cents worth...
 
N

netdude

New Member
I use HostBill on UNMETERED.IO ... Spent around $3.3k US on license and modules so far : when I see the nulled modules going around I kind of facepalm with the prices for things like the chat module which I don't even use anymore due to wackyness sometimes n lack of flawless function (although that was probably somebody who shall remain nameless' fault while tinkering in the database; my bad) : spending $300US on something ... ugh, would be nice if it used WebSockets :)

Other than that : any problems I've noticed in the code I've opened a bug report and it was fixed soon enough ; I know it's not ideal but I deal with / resell public companies and other huge entities and even their interfaces aren't absolutely flaweless ... My only two actual HB-coding issues were (biggie) lack of it being able to apply an affiliate generated voucher to checkout (resolved now) but that took around 2 weeks to fix once I noticed it ... and the other being members not having the ability to create sub-accounts : I think that was something database related and they fixed that in under a week ; both issues have not returned :)

I dunno, they've been kicking the price up and down : when I accept that the software earns me more every ... than it's cost : i accept that any peeves I have about the software is just irrational nitpicking for a suite that works pretty darn spiffy :) I am particularly infatuated with the "Charge CC" button ;)
 
T

TO.oL

New Member
nothing can beat whmcs, some providers are giving out free license for whmcs with the reseller and dedicated servers.
 
PowerUpHosting-Udit

PowerUpHosting-Udit

New Member
Verified Provider
The biggest advantage of having WHMCS over hostbill is the pricing and constant free upgrade. If you have got yourself and unbranded monthly license for $18.95/month, then nothing can go wrong. 


Also, the frequent updates and FREE bug fixes are what gives them an edge over Hostbill. Even the support provided by WHMCS is far better than hostbill. 


Though Hostbill has got its advantage, as they are looking to integrate WHMCS+Ubersmit, so it comes down to your budget and requirement.
 
Licensecart

Licensecart

Active Member
PowerUpHosting-Udit said:
The biggest advantage of having WHMCS over hostbill is the pricing and constant free upgrade. If you have got yourself and unbranded monthly license for $18.95/month, then nothing can go wrong. 


Also, the frequent updates and FREE bug fixes are what gives them an edge over Hostbill. Even the support provided by WHMCS is far better than hostbill. 


Though Hostbill has got its advantage, as they are looking to integrate WHMCS+Ubersmit, so it comes down to your budget and requirement.
Click to expand...

Not free if you have a owned license with them, $100 a year, and you don't want frequent updates which can make or break your installation. 
 
H

HostHoney

New Member
Hostbill is a good product, I did not like everything it had, there were items like the layoit of the admin area, and some of the features seemed more for a dedicated server provider than a shared host of vps provider. I would prefer to use WHMCS or Blesta over Hostbill due to the pricing, and If you want the plugins the cost is tremendously high but that is my point of view.
 
QuadraNet_Adam

QuadraNet_Adam

Active Member
Verified Provider
Only you can answer if it's worth the $$. What kind of market are you targeting? What kind of services are you selling? HostBill is geared more towards cloud service providers and it's cloud ready with modules for OpenStack, OnApp, etc, and any real company can easily justify the one-time fees that they charge, which isn't ridiculously high.
 
OSTKCabal

OSTKCabal

Active Member
Verified Provider
QuadraNet_Adam said:
Only you can answer if it's worth the $$. What kind of market are you targeting? What kind of services are you selling? HostBill is geared more towards cloud service providers and it's cloud ready with modules for OpenStack, OnApp, etc, and any real company can easily justify the one-time fees that they charge, which isn't ridiculously high.
Click to expand...

I find this post very nearly offensive. Especially the "any real company can easily justify the one-time fees". While it's true that a responsible hosting provider should most certainly have X amount in reserve based on their direct costs of operation, saying that a small business that otherwise provides a great, sustainable service but doesn't want to spend $1000+ on their billing software (plus more for paid addons, apps, modules, etc) isn't a "real company" is really not the way to go about this. They're also not purely geared towards cloud. That's just one of the "editions" that they provide under the current licensing model.


Anyway, I personally find Hostbill to be a waste of money compared to cheaper and, in my humble opinion, better, alternatives. However, Adam makes a good point in saying that it depends on your personal needs, market, and intended customer base.
 
drmike

drmike

100% Tier-1 Gogent
I see pricing like this:


meh.. bad pasting in here again...


Enterprise 10 Edition $999
Cloud Edition $1499
Data Center Edition $1499
Email Edition $1499
All-Inclusive Edition $4999


On top of that....  $19.95 a ticket for support with first 10 included except on the All-Inclusive with 100.


If we take the Enterprise edition and say 24 months of use:


$999 / 24 = $41.63/month...


Seems expensive. 

 any real company can easily justify the one-time fees that they charge, which isn't ridiculously high
Click to expand...

I think the prices are high.. but context my side is flawed... It takes a good long test drive, or should before any established company transitions to something.  Unsure how they handle that, isn't clear from their site other than BUY BUY BUY!


The model they do is flawed.  Bad marketing / sales approach to just lunge after the big price point.  Same type of thing I often complain about with providers charging $2 on promos, but $24 on their website.


Why they wouldn't make the trial more apparent and allow short term subscription is beyond me.
 
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davidgestiondbi

davidgestiondbi

New Member
Verified Provider
I can say, I don't regret the move from WHMCS to Hostbill.


Despite the little issue we got at the beginning, now it's work like a charm and received new update every week!
 
R

RosenHost

New Member
I believe HostBill is also suitable for datacenters. WHMCS does not have the option such as rack management etc. Am I wrong ?
 
C

cristipuc

New Member
If you need a professional solution with weekly updates then you have to opt for hostbill, if you use hostbill you will never use WHMCS :)
 
drmike

drmike

100% Tier-1 Gogent
Been sitting in WHMCS lately (never really have before).


Yeah, that shitware would never fly in real business world.  Sure it's powerful.  But have to jump all over to do anything.  It's brutal opening tabs up all over to do anything real, and thus prone to human error.


WHMCS needs to hire and pay well some information designer(s) to fix the mess.


Unsure how guys stomach WHMCS.  Kittens should die over it.
 
CenTex Hosting

CenTex Hosting

Member
Verified Provider
Really no one can answer that but you.


Some things that you need to look at.


Are you a start up? If so do you have the budget for it


What do you really need right now.


The host that I know that are using it like it and would not switch. But the same thing would be with WHMCS you ask the ones that have set this up and have had mods built they would never switch.


What it comes down to what are your needs and wants and goals. 


If it covers all that and you have the budget then get it. But I would not strap myself for a program as you could use those funds to help grow your business. As you grow you could always upgrade to it
 
B

buildmyblock

New Member
hostbill is more for datacenter's and large enterprises rather than your small to medium sized webhost i have had a browse of hostbill before and i honestly don't think the price they charge is worth it while there client area and admin area are abit more user friendly than whmcs and also abit more feature intensive to justify that sort of price is ridiculous in any business's mind and that being said whmcs is getting more and more features recently so they may end up taking over there features
 
ChuckC

ChuckC

New Member
Hostbill is not great. My talks with the staff there left me uneasy. I found some discrepancies in their versions of supported panels, outdated docs. When asked pointed questions their responses were basically Hostbill is the best, of course it supports this. When pressed further, turns out it had not been verified and needed dev work.


Sucks cause it did look great but the attitude and responses + price + no trial = an emphatic NO from me.
 
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