I'm struggling between buying ModernBill, ClientExec, or Whoiscart

I have two reseller accounts, one with DirectAdmin and the other with cPanel. I need a billing software that supports both, and the above three appear to.

The problem lies in whether I should be choosing Whoiscart and using the remaining money for other investments. My current provider, u2mike, can sell me Whoiscart for 20$. While I signed up with him before he began to use it, it does appear to work well on his website.

I'm willing to spend the 157$ extra to buy a yearly license of ModernBill. I'm not another person on here looking to start up a 5 minute host off of an eBay account. I'll spend money where it is needed.

But do I need Modernbill? Sure, great GUI. But Whoiscart seems to be ok, as in a few months I could always jump over to Modernbill once I grow. Having no billing system is a problem though, and I feel this is needed

Also, I should be securing the billing website with an SSL certificate correct?

Last, does ClientExec support DirectAdmin? They sort of confuse me, by how they dont have instant account setup, and you need to approve accounts.

Thanks,
Brandon

I was in the same situation and after weeks of contemplating, I went with Modernbill as they seem to have the most robust billing system. I am not knocking the others you mentioned but Modernbill seems to be able to kick out newer versions faster and it will be their for you when your company grows bigger.

As far as a secure cert..A must have. If you are billing customers online it is a must and not even an option. They are really cheap now and you can pick one up for 30-50 bucks.

As far as your last question..not sure but modernbill supports them all and you wouldn't have that concern later on.

Otherman,

I had modernbill and thought the system was complex. However, not difficult to use. In the end, the system has a multitude of features and does take some time to learn. As in any program, it has quirks...

At one point I switched control panels to HELM which currently has no support in Modernbill (autointergration). At that point, I switched to using Peachtree and manually invoicing. Finally, I started using Helm's built in Invoicing system. ---BIG MISTAKE---

I was cost aware too. I knew that modernbill was probally the best system, but I also knew that it cost $24.95 a month to lease. I went through the CIRCLE of changing billing systems. You might have guessed it about 3 weeks ago I ended up with ModernBill again.

I think running a webhosting business is alot of just plan trial and error. In my roots, I am a network engineer so the techni stuff comes natural. However, I am still learning the best things to do with the actual business processes. One of my biggest errors was switching from Modernbill to something else.

I hope my story above helps you. If you need anything just let me know.

Forgot to mention.

SSL CERT IS A MUST!

Hey Ya'll -

I can't speak for the other two programs mentioned, but we use ModernBill, and I highly recommend it. I used to do recurring billing with QuickBooks - each customer was setup in QuickBooks, and their "domain name" was a "job". (if you're familiar w/ QuickBooks, you know what I'm talking about). This was pretty effective because I had the invoices automatically entered 30 days prior to due date, and each date when I'd open QuickBooks, all the invoices would be generated, and I'd email them.

I had recurring billing setup w/ our USAEpay gateway (http://www.usaepay.com) which was awesome - unlike most of the other gateways, USAEpay's gateway comes w/ the recurring billing module built-in.

The reason I abandoned this platform was simple: standards ...
HPP was in a period where I no longer could handle the load by myself, and it was time to hire both sales, design, and tech support employees. By migrating all customer account info and billing into ModernBill, it was accessible to everyone (at least, everyone I'd given access!) and since ModernBill is pretty standard in the hosting business, I knew if decided to sell the business, it would be advantageous to have all accounts in software the "industry" recognized. Since HPP (http://www.hppenterprises.com) is comprised of several businesses, I certainly didn't want my outsourced support and in-house sales/design folks plundering around in the main company QuickBooks file!

One last thing - my philospohy is whenever possible - always buy instead of lease. It's steep up front, but then you never worry about paying for it again. Good luck!

Fred

There are a lot of downsides to ModernBill. If you do billing for business clients, chose ClientExec. ModernBill doesn't send PDF invoices. Its great for MCSEs or engineers but the accountants from your client's ARs will scream. Basically, in the end payment just won't be made if your collecting from businesses. Its a big problem.

Modernbill is really tough to understand and takes lots of concentration while ClientExec is very easy and pretty good too. MB has lots of features but who use all of those features? Not me. So I am happy with ClientExec