OK, This will be a new move for me going fully dedicated. The problems I have encountered are that most fully managed dedicated have their own preferred conrol panels. (I have used and am very comfortable with WHM/cPanel, no complaints)
BUT Hsphere looks like quite a product. Automated billing, Integrated Site Studio, Integrated VPS etc. And if I move into a new venture I will be going for a different market than my current "niche". Not abandoning what I do now but going for customers who would be far more likely to use site builder & such, maybe even getting around to offering resellers or a VPS plan later on.
BUT Hsphere doesn't have an End-user control panel (customer) demo that I could find (may be there but I couldn't find it) and while it has a huge amount of features and I am sure it's a great product I am afraid by looking through the admin demos it would have a HUGE learning curve to get everything set up and working smoothly.
So what are some of your thoughts?
I want to be able to offer very good customer service (no making them wait while I get an answer from the Hsphere folks) and could always add site builder or a similar program to WHM/cPanel. Once it was done and I understood it all I am sure the automation of Hsphere would be a real time saver for billing, upgrades, etc. but I would like some input preferably from someone who jumped "head first" into Hsphere as to how difficult it was to configure and get all set up, especially on just one box (I know it has many features for admin of multiple servers)
Any ideas or relative input for someone trying to get up the guts to go for a new market & jump in where I know on some things I'll be over my head. (That's why before reading here about Hsphere I was only looking at fully managed cPanel/WHM boxes).
:confused:
Thanks in advance. (and please don't suggest searching, I've been reading search results for 2 hours and still have these questions)

PS: Would Hspere effect needed server specs much. There are so many great deals on dedicated right now that is why I'm considering this.

You can either go to psof.net website and click on the parters link.
Most of psoft's partners have end user control panel demo available. You can also visit matrixreseller.com.

Or you can just google this: hsphere user demo.

Good luck.

Tom

Hsphere is a very nice control panel. I like it better than Cpanel since I use it on myself. Only downside is the licensing cost. Updating the CP and OS on Hsphere machine is also considerably harder/more tricky then on cpanel/DA setups. The clustering feature is very nice on Hsphere setup as well.

Contact me privately if you want some pointers to some cheaper license.

Thanks for the links to the demo's.
Any input on the learning curve or whether Hsphere is overkill for one server?

Administration is simple to deal with via the graphical interface. The problem lies when there are problem that's not control via the GUI. With cpanel, the GUI have much greater scope in controlling without hacking into the CMI. With hsphere, be prepare to get into CMI and such even for update. So I would say the learning curve is basically the learning curve you experience with learning to administer the OS via CMI.

I take the last answer as meaning "too much learning curve" for me. I really like the looks of it but would be lost "hacking" into anything. :smash:
Looks like I'd be better off with WHM/cPanel, maybe WHMAP, and just adding site studio (I'm sure there must be a way to add site studio to a cPanel set up or they wouldn't sell it seperately.

Well, you have instead Fantastico! :-)

I've used Fantastico for years BUT the niche I've been looking into needs a program like site studio (template monster would be WAY beyond 85-90% of them) where they can just make simple clicks to change colors & select designs and enter info in little boxes that sat name, address, email, etc. and have it come out looking like a web site...even though I'll offer it as always, Fantstico would just be confusing & scary for most of this market.

If you find a host that could occasionally help you out with Hsphere issue, then you should be fine. Psoft would come to support you if the issue is major.

Originally posted by DDT
I take the last answer as meaning "too much learning curve" for me. I really like the looks of it but would be lost "hacking" into anything. :smash:
Looks like I'd be better off with WHM/cPanel, maybe WHMAP, and just adding site studio (I'm sure there must be a way to add site studio to a cPanel set up or they wouldn't sell it seperately.
There's no need to be hacking into anything H-Sphere related.

The learning curve is nowhere near as steep as some people make it out to be. Some users tend to over-complicate things.

Make sure that you simply get a host that actually backs H-Sphere boxes, as opposed to just selling them.

Simon

You can't go wrong by using Jeffery at http://www.hspherelicenses.com

What is so complicated about executing an sh script on the control panel server and the script updating *all* of your FreeBSD/Linux boxes, no matter if they are web, mail, dns or sql?

I could not imagine it being any easier?

Maybe you don't understand the concept I described. This would be 1 basic Linux box running standard apache etc. software. I maily liked the full integration aspect of h-sphere since this venture could utilize site studio and the automating billing etc. that comes integrated in h-sphere.
That's what I mentioned in an earlier post...it looks like h-sphere is geared for bigger hosts with multiple servers, etc. and might be overkill for me.
I've got my WHM/cPanel + Rvskins down to where life is easy. I would want to make it easier not take on a major learning experience where if I remember right support is $75 a call.
And I have my host picked out, they don't offer hsphere, it would just be a "no control panel" option if I went hsphere.

The update script doesn't work perfectly every time. From time to time, things breaks and they need some hacking via the cmi

Interesting.

I would imagine if you try some custom apache mods this might happen and break some modules, but in 3 years of upgrading, I have never had an issue.

I think you mean CLI.

Well, if the install is done totally correctly at start, then there shouldn't be much problem. I know mine broke because i forgot the up2date skiplist. I would recommend you to get someone that knows what they're doing to intall and configure it the first time.

Yes, I mean CLI, i keep thinking about CMI for some reason.

Greetings:

One of the many beautiful things about H-Sphere is that no hacking is required.

It works out of the box rather well.

Complete hosting automation for the provider, for the reseller, along with an easy-to-use control panel for the direct customer.

Thank you.