are you happy with all the panel (pay) and billing software out there? do you think there is still room for yet another control panel or billing software for linux and windows?

Why not .. I dont think there is any perfect billing control panel or hosting control panel out there in market yet .. the one that is 100% perfect and bug free.

There is still a room for such contorl panels and the best will survive.
If any company is planning to launch a new control panel, they can try bringing in the most stable and with good features control panel and I am sure.. once they launch it properly, if it has that instinct .. it will capture the market.

The windows market is still wide open. The leaders in that area have some serious flaws still.

Yeah I agree, windows is really a wide open market. If you develop something keep it simple clean and feature rich and you will build up a customer base. Also if you start it up don't expect to much at the start, it will take a few larger hosting companies to start using it for everyone else to give it a serious thought.

Speaking of web hosting billing software, I think there is still a large unfilled market niche for something that would fit in between UberSmith (too expensive for the features offered) and ModernBill (too cheap to be able to offer decent product support and fast development).

Originally posted by Harmolodic
Speaking of web hosting billing software, I think there is still a large unfilled market niche for something that would fit in between UberSmith (too expensive for the features offered) and ModernBill (too cheap to be able to offer decent product support and fast development).

both software are pretty expensive for me. LOL i'm a cheapo. i won't mind paying for a billing software based on asp or asp.net since i do windows...

i perfer Microsoft technology for Microsoft hosting rather php opensource for microsoft.

There are now at least 4 open source control panel that needs to have a look at. I'm sure soon, nobody will want to pay for a control panel for Unix, and it would be VERY hard for you to get known.

For windows, it's another story.

Thomas

Originally posted by gplhost
There are now at least 4 open source control panel that needs to have a look at. I'm sure soon, nobody will want to pay for a control panel for Unix, and it would be VERY hard for you to get known.

For windows, it's another story.

Thomas

not all free panel work well tho... pay version still work the best.

Sure there's the opportunity.

I'm looking for one for 2 weeks and still can't find the best I like.

Originally posted by Techark
The windows market is still wide open. The leaders in that area have some serious flaws still.

As do the Linux panels. It'll be interesting to see how cPanel's Windows version will compete.

I don't know which is current status for Linux/Unix but Windows market is very open. There are a few good panels but nothing which is complete enough. As someone said here, main player are very good but have some (sometimes unexplicable) flaws or missing features.

I think there's a room for at least one or two good panels more in Windows segment of this market. However, given the complexity arising from lots of software which a CP need to support, rewriting from scratch is not a simple task, plus a couple of players are committed to have new versions for their products available on 2006. That might solve part of present problems.

However, if anyone is willing to enter this market segment (Windows), maybe we could have a chat and share some thoughts. Given that next versions will come on 2006, there's enough room for a new project, if well supported and well planned. :cool:

its going to be tough to dethrone cpanel

yeah but with hard work and a good marketing campain it could be done.

So, anyone interested in developing something in .NET 2.0? :cool:

I'm interested in doing a windows port of my GPL control panel... anyone to help me destroy that commercial control panel market? :)

Thomas

Originally posted by gplhost
I'm interested in doing a windows port of my GPL control panel... anyone to help me destroy that commercial control panel market? :)

Thomas

Linux and Windows is two different platform. for example, guys at WHA (Helm) they come from Windows background and if you use Plesk (Linux background) you will get the feel of linux forced on Windows.

you will need to get developers with Windows background to help you port it so users won't feel like they are using something build for linux and forced on Windows.

my two cents.

I have yet to see a perfect billing software. I believe there will always been room for yet another company to show off their unique ideas and design tatics.

It reminds me of the Forum softwares. vBulletin has made an huge impact in top of the line forum software, yet more and more small companies or groups continue to build upon the standards that have been set.

It only makes for a overall better product in the end ;P

Well open source version of billing softwares are about to boom. I can see many people moving from paid versions to open source software on linux. Well there might not be money in selling the software but there will be cash in providing support for the software and customisng it to induvidual to requirements of companies. I know an open source project which is working on a billing software which has full integration with cpanel , built in forum , helpdesk etc.
And again in hosting control panels there is somnay things todo. There is no open source software which can handle clustering. The commercial ones which can handle the clustering don't have the features end user are loooking for. So the market is still open for new ideas new more robust software regardless it is commercial or open source. At 1899 US patent commisioner stated that "everything that can be invented has been invented". Look at the state of inventions today. At 1880 Thomas Edison said "Phonogram has no commercial value at all" . Again today it is it has got no commercial value at all !!!. Again at 1922 Mr Edison stated that "Radio craze will die out in time ". And in 2005 .... Let me add more. On 1909 The magazine Scientific American wrote following "The automobile reached the limit of it is development". I don't think BMW or MERCEDES thinks that way..In control panel and billing market we just walked on the moon there is still huge universe to guo trough.

There is lots of room for billing software and control panel software in both the windows/*nix market. The top player for the linux market is full of bugs and is far off from perfect.

Originally posted by quicklyweb
There is no open source software which can handle clustering.

Wrong, I've been able to run a cluster of Domain Technologie Control like explained in my doc. It works very well with no main trouble.

Thomas

Originally posted by jt2377
are you happy with all the panel (pay) and billing software out there? do you think there is still room for yet another control panel or billing software for linux and windows?

Was there room for a new domain registrar when GoDaddy came along? Look at them now.

Originally posted by [cobra]-Chris
[B]I have yet to see a perfect billing software.

I believe that is because "perfect" is relative to a customer's specific needs. It is impossible to make a publicly sold software that is perfect or that fits everyone's exact needs. :)

I trust good things have always door in market to enter.


This is high professional market, every one needs or expect more .

So just feel confident on this and start developing good solutions.

Parsv

I think there are tons of people just biting at the bit to jump ship from Modernbill. Their ego has gotten so large over the last year they don't feel they owe any of their paying customers anything, including bug fixes for mission critical bugs.

I think there is plenty of opportunity, but I do think that there are some fairly usable, reliable systems already out there. In order to attract attention, you'll have to do something different, and may obviously have to invest a bit more into marketing than some of the first "players" on the field.

Regardless, if you have a well-planned, well-designed product, I think it would sell. The hosting business is growing, after all, and there's always more opportunity.

Originally posted by WinHosting
DotNetPanel is a new (still beta) Windows hosting control panel made with ASP.NET 1.1. It will be in ASP.NET 2.0 soon. http://forum.dotnetpanel.com/forums/16/ShowPost.aspx#16

the UI is totally DotNetNuke UI. not a good idea to use CMS as your UI but other than that. it look pretty good.

Originally posted by jt2377
Linux and Windows is two different platform. ... and if you use Plesk (Linux background) you will get the feel of linux forced on Windows.

Agreed. And it is quite unpleasant feeling. Like a saddle on a cow. :)

[i]
However, if anyone is willing to enter this market segment (Windows), maybe we could have a chat and share some thoughts. Given that next versions will come on 2006, there's enough room for a new project, if well supported and well planned. :cool: [/B]

It would be great to discuss it. You may write me to 'fitsner AT msn DOT com'.