If someone was to build a billing system in asp instead of php would it still be as worth as the other leading ones like whmcs etc...

Anything can be developed just as well in ASP as it can as PHP, its about the qaulity of the developer(s).

Some would say that is a niche area that has yet to be exposed, developing web hosting type systems (support, billing, control panel) in asp. There are a few but nowhere near as many as PHP.

would it still be as worth as the other leading ones like whmcs etc...If you're interested in the price at which you'd be able to sell such a solution, it's rather hard to say. One one hand you have the more reduces competition, on the other you have the relatively fewer customers.

It also depends how you define success. I'd say that you don't have to be a leading provider to have a successful business.

i think you can not find a excellent script as good as whmcs...

If someone was to build a billing system in asp instead of php would it still be as worth as the other leading ones like whmcs etc...

Your possible market would be smaller as your product would only be used by windows hosters, whereas php billing systems will run on both windows and linux.

Unless you have tons of money I would rethink writing any new billing system as its a heck of a lot of work. Most of the current crop of php billing packages are very good and flexible enough to do about anything.

if the software is stable and feature rich it could be used by hosts using any operating system. Granted, the software itself would require a Windows system to run on. But these billing systems interact hosting servers via api calls, so it could still handle provisioning and general system interaction with Linux or BSD systems, as well as windows.

It would be a niche market, but again, if it meats the requirements of the job, it would likely be used by hosts that provide either Windows hosting, or mixed environment hosting.

The pure Linux hosts would probably stay with Linux based billing systems, though.

if the software is stable and feature rich it could be used by hosts using any operating system.

Huh? ASP is a Microsoft/Windows technology, and it cannot run on anything else but Windows (ie Linux) without the "assistance" of a 3rd party like Mono, which then it's not really native or really ASP for that matter. I'm a bit confused at what you're trying to say...

Huh? ASP is a Microsoft/Windows technology, and it cannot run on anything else but Windows (ie Linux) without the "assistance" of a 3rd party like Mono, which then it's not really native or really ASP for that matter. I'm a bit confused at what you're trying to say...

As I said in my original post, the billing software would require a Windows system to run on.

However most billing systems interact with control panel software on the servers which they interface with. These control panels have APIs and these APIs are how the billing software communicates with the other servers. There is no reason why an ASP billing solution running on a Windows server could not interact with the API of a Linux system running, for example, Cpanel/WHM in order to provision accounts and automate various other tasks.

if the software is stable and feature rich it could be used by hosts using any operating system. Granted, the software itself would require a Windows system to run on. But these billing systems interact hosting servers via api calls, so it could still handle provisioning and general system interaction with Linux or BSD systems, as well as windows.

It would be a niche market, but again, if it meats the requirements of the job, it would likely be used by hosts that provide either Windows hosting, or mixed environment hosting.

The pure Linux hosts would probably stay with Linux based billing systems, though.

ASP can actually be parsed on GNU/Linux.

It can, but not as well as on Windows.

It can, but not as well as on Windows.

Are you suggesting there is something Windows can do better than Linux? I reckon you might be stirring up trouble with a statement like that. :D

ASP can actually be parsed on GNU/Linux.

ASP cannot be properly and fully 'parsed' on Linux, because of the environment it has been designed to use. What WAS once a great option developed by sun/java is no longer available to be used, sooo, you're stuck with free stuff like mod_mono which don't do crap for parsing ASP well enough.

Sadly, if you want an ASP script to be properly parsed and handled, you'll have to use Windows , as that is what it's designed for.

The "leading" systems were designed for portability, using a language that is truly portable on almost any environment, whether that environment is Windows, Linux, BSD, whatever you're after, so, no, you wouldn't stand a chance at competing against them. However, if you're after a niche market, then by all means, use ASP. Just understand that nobody using Linux will ever be able to use your software, and people aren't going to buy a Windows server just for you. That's a bit ridiculous of requirement.