Hello WHT users, I was wondering what type of billing system you all use. I currently provide shell hosting and webhosting to my customers. I found that no one could provide the custom ways of doing things that I needed so about a year and a half ago I started programing my own. This is done in php and it is truely 100% customized to what I need. I have multiple staff using this system with different levels of access. My system records all the orders and the customers can be setup with a simple click by a staff member who has access. It also records who modifies accounts, you can add memos to the user's account. It sends out bills to customers, disables them, We can reset passwords to a random password and have it emailed to the user with a single click. I recently reprogrammed and organized the programs so that things can be easily changed and made it much more secure with reseller access and staff access. Basically I have staff members that can add accounts, reset passwords etc without having to give them any kind of root access. This does NOT telnet into the servers or anything of that sort. I have over 600 customers on 5 servers all controlled by this system, I even have it working with cpanel, from account start to account end. It basically handles all of our daily operations except tech support (working on a ticket system)

I was wondering if there is a market for this type of customized system. It wouldn't be a one software fits all sort of thing. The software would be customized to fit your business needs.

Would anyone want this type of system? whats the market like? what can I charge? Would customers want this hosted on their own system or would they prefer my system with twice daily full backups and free custom programing? Just looking for ideas since I have this sweet system that other people might like.

Is no one interested in a custom billing system?

modernBill here. Night want to do a search, this question has been asked and answered many times...

i'm using whm autopilot.

the problem with new systems like yours is how to gain customer trust for your system's stability, reliability, functionality, ease of installation & use, availability of documentation, and, of course, pricing.

I've been using the system for well over a year it is why my shell service has an edge over the others. as for functionality, it would be totally custom, I've programmed this from the ground up and know every bit of code thats in it and can make it do anything anyone wants. There is hardly a need for documentation. The system is simple.

This is not a one program fits all kind of thing. This is a billing system which is totally reprogramed to fit your needs. There arn't variables that would be set for different systems etc. Its hard coded into the program all by hand.

as for pricing that also depends on the customer needs etc.

It sounds to me like the big question here is "how do I market my custom billing application service" and that you are really falling more into the realm of being a custom programmer/application designer than offering an "off the shelf" solution like the big names out there. (ModernBill, WHMAP, WhoisCart, ClientExec)

I think you are starting in the right method by trying to get input from folks. I think your next step is to try to define the market segment that would be interested in having you build them a custom billing package.

So your approach may be, in part, networking quite a bit with hosting companies and advertising specifically to the larger companies who would be willing to invest in a custom system - provided they don't have the time or resources to do it in-house.

Does anyone else have any comments or suggestions?

i use custom made billing system too since i sell same services you offer plus doing custom contracts and selling few hardware when doing network setup too

its also customized to work with cPanel, eNom and paysystems too. Like yours all with single click :)

might integrate a ready made ticket system with it or code our own too.

i think there is market for it but the thing is since its so precious to us anyone asked for a copy of our billing software we quoted $xxxx range and never sold a copy ofcourse

if you're market is big enough to sell between mid-high $xx - low $xxx per license then go for it. I believe there is be a good market for such softwares since so many posts over here either requests custom made billing system or recommends having custom made billing system :)

Heh yea I feel the same it is very precious to me, that is why I was thinking of a sort lease instead of a out right sale.

How would people like to have the actual billing system on my servers, I take care of all the programming and dbmaint on the system on my servers and they just use it for billing and server interaction?

that would be an option too, but you dont want to be annoyed by tons of customers incase of something goes down.

instead you can run a license server and auto updater or something :)

Actually, I don't mind customer support. and there would be less support if it was all on my servers and if everything was customized to the way they wanted it. With my shell servers I currently get over 100 emails a day wanting help, passwords reset etc. Actually I just programmed a ticket support system into the billing system :O

I have hacked ClientExec to do half what I need. Always known I should write something custom, but it takes too much time I don't have.

That is exactly why I want to offer my system to other businesses. They would just tell me how they want it and I would program it, Test it and modify it.