I recently gave up my Alabanza server and switched to a reseller plan with another Alabanza host. However, since I no longer have automatic billing capabilities I need to look into other options and I need to do something fast.

I am considering ModernBill and DreamCost and would like to get feedback from actual users of these two products.

From what I've seen in the demos for both products, reading all the posts in here and at several other forums, and other research I've done, the ModernBill has much better navigation. It also seems to do a better job at reporting activity and making it easier to find orders.

Dreamcost though has a built-in Affiliate/Reseller tracking, something I am interested in using.

If you use either of these products I would like to hear the following from you:

1) Which one are you using and how long have you been using it?

2) What do you like about the product?

3) What do you dislike about the product?

4) How difficult was it to implement and customize?

5) Have you received good support from the company?

6) Are there any features you are not using?

If anyone is using a different automatic billing system. I would like to hear about it. However I am not interested in any high-priced solutions. I want something for less than $100 US (preferably much less).

Also if you know of any specific features or problems with either of these that deserve special mention, please let me know.

You can post replies here or can send me a private reply or email.

Thanks for your help.

1) Which one are you using and how long have you been using it?

Modernbill, using it for about 2 months now

2) What do you like about the product?

Very easy to setup, a little confusing as to how it reports invoices due at first, but it simplies things greatly!

3) What do you dislike about the product?

It is still always being developed so the potential for a bug crops up now and then, but at the same time it is a positive as it is always being developed and quick fixes are always made.

4) How difficult was it to implement and customize?

Very easy to customize, it has a template editing tool, which shows what you your are doing before you do it, and shows existing settings before you change them

5) Have you received good support from the company?

Excellent, there is an active forum, along with good emails support and a mailing list support

6) Are there any features you are not using?

Right now I am not using the automatic billing it provides with authorize.net or worldpay or echo or paypal because i dont have one of those accounts but that is next and then things will be really easy.

You also get free updates for 6 months to bug fixes and then it is only 20.00 extra for another 6 months (which is well worth it) as the software has gone from 1.9.3 to 2.0.3 since I signed up

Thanks for the reply. This is exactly the type of info I'm looking for.

Are you using their automated sign-up templates also?

I use the Verisign Payflow for CC processing so I will still need to post transactions manually until I figure out how to interface the two together.

Are you running any type of Affiliate or Reseller plan? If so, how are you interfacing that info with ModernBill?

Thanks again,

Yes I am using the automated signup template, it works well. I am running a resellers plan as well, and it works like any other hosting package on a monthly basis. It is really nice because it can store their information and they can update it, it sends out emails with credit cards are declined etc...

I recently purchased ModernBill, and so far I'm not as happy with it as I'd hoped.

Please note that I am a new user of this program, but as far as I can tell it has the following shortcomings:

1) You can't put certain variables in your custom invoice. For example, I like to break down my costs for my clients in my invoices (Nameservers = $x, MySQL support = $y and so on) and while ModernBill has these fields, it refuses to incorporate them into the invoice. You can use them in the welcoming letter only (??? -- that's what it says; and also the error message I get when I try), or you can send the breakdown separately. Also, I'd like to give the hosting period ("This invoice is for the hosting period of January 23 - February 23") - same story. Not happy with that.

2) You can't make it total automatically. When I invoice someone, I have to manually enter the total due, even though I have all the plans and the related costs set up under the customer. I can't fathom a billing program that leaves that out.

Those are my two major whines about ModernBill. On the plus side, it's very organized and has a nice, easy-to-use interface. Another downside is that it's server-based rather than on your hard drive; that makes storing credit cards #s riskier even though it's on the secure server (I store my CC#s separately).

I use ECHO but I don't trust this program enough yet to set it up to invoice automatically.

Hate to give a less-than-positive review, but hopefully it's helpful.

That was helpful. Have you submitted those complaints to the MB tech team?

Brian

No, I haven't gotten around to it yet. I imagine they will be helpful. Thanks for reminding me anyway; I'll do it tonight.

Lurleene,

Thanks for the input.

I'm not sure I understand your one comment, though, about having to enter the invoice amount manually. Do you mean if you have 100 customers that you bill monthly that you have to manually edit each of those invoices every month before they are emailed to the customer?

Thanks,

Now I'm totally mortified. Just when I was explaining I'm not that dumb with programs I had to go and hit "new thread" instead of "post reply." :blush: :unhappy:

Here's what I said in the new thread which will hopefully disappear quickly:

<<MOD NOTE: I found it, it is no more :D >>

---------

Again, maybe I'm just missing something in the program, but I usually take to new programs quickly and easily (only other exception: Adobe Illustrator, that insanely difficult but wonderful graphics tool). At the least my comments probably attest to a steep learning curve.

To clarify on the manual input: If I want to bill Jane Doe, I click on her profile then choose "invoice." It then asks me how much I want to invoice her for.

I believe that since Jane Doe's profile also contains her hosting plan information (lets say she buys a gold plan $20/month + nameservers $5/month) it should automatically total the cost ($25) though hopefully giving me a chance to manually edit it in case of any odd charges or credits.

Hope this makes my quandary clearer.

Now off I go in search of help from them.

Lurleene,

No problem... we all have brain fade now and again :) Some of us, including me, have it more often than others.

After you have set up the customer's invoice does the software then email it to him/her automatically each month?

Thank you for the great feedback everyone.

We often visit the various forums around the net in an effort to see what people actually have to say about ModernBill, and most of the time we are very pleased. We do take note in the problems areas and work to fix them as well.

Please note that the best way to make our program better and get it to run the way you want is to send us this kind of feedback in our support forum.

As for your email template not having enough info, please try "%%INVOICE_SNAPSHOT%% if you send html emails.

Let us know if our forum if we can assist in any other way.

ModernBill is very good if your requirements are specific and part of the logic that the package was developed for. If not, future developments will probably accomodate as they are very receptive to suggestions and feedback.

For the price we paid for ModernBill, it's a great basis for what we were trying to achieve. So we've built a recurring billing system around it, and plugged planetpos.com into it as well as an affiliate system. The end result is an absolute credit to our programmer (perlboy.org).

ModernBill has a huge future ahead...it just needs a bit more flexibility.

Gary

Sorry to come in late on this topic, but I definitely have some feedback.

DreamCost is RIDDLED with bugs. There are multiple spelling errors, the months in the CC entry screen are incorrect (October=9 September=10), the affiliate percentage displayed to the user is off by 100x (tells them they get ".25 percent"), the CC processor selector does not work due to field size limitations in the stock tables (i.e. if you choose processor #10, the table only stores one digit and tries to send payment info to processor #1), the redundant nested HTML tables are of fixed width and color, and each HTML file is comprised of **70-90%** useless, orphaned font tags, which quintuples load time. By deleting the orphaned font tags in one file, I brought its size down from 14Kb to 2Kb, and *each* of the others were nearly as bad. There is no way to customize font/color/tables without editing every page directly, and the only CSS they use is inline, also to their own preferences, so that has to be deleted as well.

As for support, there are messages on their support forums from 3 months ago which are unanswered. The answers that are there are almost all "call [someone else], it not a problem with OUR script." The number of angry posts there, begging for any reply, is dumbfounding. They won't provide access to the forums until you pay, and their sales@ and info@ addresses reject mail because they were "getting too much." All this for a mere $250!!

I KNEW better than to buy this without knowing more first, but I crossed my fingers and went for it since MOST companies are decent and will work with you. I can fix the bugs, but it will take tons of time, as it's a bloated set of scripts. Just picking the relevant text out of all the orphaned font tags is tough. Besides, I was trying to buy a solution, not another project. I initiated a mediation process with their CC processor, and the DreamCost folks didn't even bother to respond to THAT, so I got a refund.

Since I couldn't find any reviews before buying, I am posting this for other potential buyers. If I'd known, I would NEVER have wasted my time with this.

we purchased modernbill, played with it for about a month and then signed up with ubersmith.

modernbill may work in some peoples hands, it did not in ours and the 'under development' issue seems omni present

you get what you pay for, in our case the significant price difference was worth it, this will not be true for all users
nor for different levels of programming/software knowledge.
we moved on fast and didnt have time for a solution that did not work well in our hands your experience may vary, and perhaps we are not as wise in programming ways as others may be.
however we couldnt recommend it..

dos centavos

miami_g,

Have you had a chance to login and view the MBill 3.0 version yet?

As I recall from our previous conversations, this has all of the features you may be looking for.

Hope all is well. :)

nice thought, we had spoken?--you didnt speak to me or anyone in this office since the install and the incorrect password issue

just a little cya huh?

nice try!

a buck 60 is not an expensive lesson for us

like i said didnt work for us, may work for others
We cant recommend your software...

normally i wouldnt reply to this stuff but the 'last time we spoke' is a real trip,, CYA dude...

We can certainly understand your situation. :( We take great pride in making sure all of our clients are well taken care of and if we dropped the ball on your account, our apologies go out to you and your team.

If you wish to initiate a refund, please complete and send in our "Letter of Software Intellectual Property Destruction" and we will process it as soon as it is received.

Warm regards,
-admin

That would have to be the most commendable "sorry we didn't meet your requirements" I have ever seen.

ModernBill didn't quite suit our unique needs either, so we have plugged our own in-house billing and affiliate systems into it and it all works a treat.

Your level of service has always been inspirational Michael.

Cheers

Gary

I'm wary of ubersmith just because everything is hosted on their servers...what happens if they go out of business?

Brian

I would def go with ModernBill, we use it for offline credit card processing (Tier 1) Its great. We considered DreamCost but after seeing that its so unchangable and filled with bugs we went with MB and are extremely happy.

Thanks

Originally posted by BrianF
I'm wary of ubersmith just because everything is hosted on their servers...what happens if they go out of business?

Brian

Brian,

FYI we have an escrow option for those concerned about this.
Also, our new version (1.8) which is going to be released to our beta group (about a dozen hosting companies) on Monday, is going to be offered with an onsite option.

EXTRA EXTRA READ ALL ABOUT IT!
That's right folks. ubersmith will be available as a download. Run it on your own servers.

There will be several payment and licensing options.

Best,

Raj Dutt
Voxel dot Net, Inc.