I have view both the 2 systems online and so far perlbill looks better. I may be wrong that is where I need your help to fill me in on the small details I may need or miss out as I have yet to use them in real mode.

My plans is to start a webhosting business next year and so far I have plans all those things I needed except for the billing software.

Can you give share some insight experience on ModermBill and PerlBill Pro and Cons.

Thanks. :)

Anybody?

I have only tried modernbill.. and I like it.. however it is extremely slow.. I run the whole site under ssl.. but still.. it has alot of graphics and tends to take it's sweet time loading.. It is alot slower then all the other web apps I run.. but very feature rich.

I have used both, perlbill is a lot faster to load and also faster to set.

One of the things that stands out with PerlBill is that it does not have a pure reoccurring billing system in place for Authorize.net users. It basicially sends out an invoice and requires the user to reenter their data and recharge their credit card (phpManager is the same way). Modernbill has a system where the users credit card automaticially gets charged every month without the users intervention.

Price
ModernBill...............$279
PerlBill.....................$200
phpManager............$45 as low as $25 (http://www.myphpmanager.com)

In my opinion phpManager seems to have a lot of the same features as PerlBill without the 200 dollar price tag, in fact it's quite a bargain for the features. Modernbill seems a bit pricey for 280 dollars considering that both PerlBill and phpManager are not far behind in the features. Version 2.0 of phpManager should have a lot of the features ModernBill has.

(It seems as though I've started to talk about phpManager more than PerlBill. But in any discussion about hosting software it's hard to leave out phpManager ;))

I'm interested to hear what others have to say.

Hi there,

I can't say much about ModernBill at the moment because I just picked it up here a few days ago. I can confirm that it does load very slow, but it is very feature rich.

The other problem I have is that there seems to be a lack of information to get it up and running. It can be very complicated and although the online manuals are attractive, they don't do that much to really get you going with this.

I expect anyone dealing with ModernBill will have to spend some time on their forums and waiting for support to help you out.

Other than that it's great so far.

Ricoche :D

How slow? What exactly do you mean by that, and is it enough to bother costumers?

I don't think the loading time is slow enough to bother cable/ADSL users at all really, but for 56kers I think it might be too slow in my opinion, but I can't verify this. It is possible I think to change the theme although there isn't one available yet. The Dolphin theme is what seems to bog down the system with all the images. Actually if you check out the demo over on the website you might get an idea. It was a little slow when I first tried there, but figured it would probably be ok. There are some comments on their forums about it here and there though.

We'll see.

Ricoche :)

Actually, if you can't afford the 279 price tag of MB, you can always lease it. 24.95 per month

This is what I did. Going with the lease deal has been working great because it allows you to get a really good idea if this software is going to work for you without shelling out lots of cash.

At the moment I'm still swimming in configuration problems so I'm extremely happy I didn't pay a lot of money here. So far there is no guarantee that this will work at all for me and if I can't get it going over the next three weeks then I'll will definitely be on to the next product.

You know, I buy into a product and there is nothing more I'd love to do then to say "Buy this great product", but I tell you my experiences with ModernBill are really making it difficult. <LOL> I'm sure a lot of you out there feel the same with other products you've purchased. Keep you posted and let's hope for the best.

Right now I'm closing in fast on Defcon Red with ModernBill with no clear direction on how to put the brakes on. <LOL>

Ricoche ;)

Modernbill does take a little bit to setup properly, entering packages, editing signup forms, and editing payment variables and so forth. This is all necessary though because it is very detailed.

As for the speed, i have always found it to be speedy. You could load something like php accelerator.

You can also edit this line in your php.ini file:

output_handler =

to say:

output_handler = ob_gzhandler

works like mod_gzip by compressing data before it is sent.

Hello folks...

I just want to point out that we have addressed the speed issues with v4 by creating a 'lite' version of the new theme with almost no graphics, however it still maintains the pleasant interface.

The ETA for the lite theme is 2 weeks or by the end of this month...which is about two weeks...lol...I guess I will be working on Christmas. :)

ricoche,

PM me in our forums with your posts so I can make sure you are up and running.

Can modernbill process worldpay's futurepay for recurring payments?

ModernBill handles all recurring activities and does not use FuturePay at this time. The invoice generation process and FurturePay auto-payments can become out-of-sync, thus creating a billing mess when you have a lot of clients using it.

Is Paysystems payment supported in Modernbill yet?

Thanks for the help Modernbill. Appreciate it. :D

One thing I'd like to add about the layout is that it's very nicely done I think. I know looks aren't everything, but I'm really impressed with how slick Modernbill looks and feels.

Take it easy,

Ricoche :)

> Is Paysystems payment supported in Modernbill yet?

If you mean Revecom, not yet. It is on our module todo list.

> Thanks for the help Modernbill. Appreciate it.

Anytime. :)

Ricoche: Im a cable user, so I cant really check how it works on 56K. I hope its not too bothering, or at least that theyll be able to optimize it in future.. Otherwise, I loved the online demo. Looking great, and full-featured. With things on to-do list, I think this is a killer product.

ModernBill: Is there any chance that "Santa Claus" could find one more (-$100) coupon in his pocket? :D Unfortunatelly I have found your offer when it alredy expired :bawling: but would really like to purchase your product! Thanks.

Originally posted by rackyou
ModernBill: Is there any chance that "Santa Claus" could find one more (-$100) coupon in his pocket? :D Unfortunatelly I have found your offer when it alredy expired :bawling: but would really like to purchase your product! Thanks. [/B]

Yeah, I kind of missed the boat on that coupon too! :D

I have both modernbill and perlbill.

I currently USE modernbill and hope to switch all my billing over to perlbill.

I choose to switch to perlbill because it is simple. Clients and myself don't have to dig through 100 menus to get to where we are going.

Working with John @ perlbill to resolve a few issues I am having, and I hope to be able to start using it fulltime soon.

Zach

Zach: I find Modern Bill cool.. At first in demo it took me few minutes to get used to the interface, I wont deny, but after that everything went smooth. I like features it has and how self managable it is. After some tweaking it does almost everything on its own, and thats what I like. Not to mention good, clear looks which gives you the feeling of confidence into person you are doing business with. So far I love it, and would realy like to purchase the owned version. Its just bugging me that Ive missed the coupon that expired last week, since I could realy use it now. Holidays are comming, and they aint cheap ;)

Hi there,

I'd have to agree that Modernbill does add a bit of flair for customers. I know functionality is important because if something doesn't work then right off customers will think maybe you're unprofessional, but the looks and feel do account for something these days on the Internet. This is one reason why I bought into it.

I also understand how you guys feel about the coupon deal too. It was perhaps the single reason why I didn't buy the owned license because you were able to save a lot of money.

However, I find the lease option is working out just fine and indeed in a couple of months if all goes well I may just buy the owned license anyway. One thing I'm really interested in is the integration with Enom in the future. At the moment I'm thinking of going with DRAMS new version 2.5 which looks very nice, but I've heard there's something in the works with Modernbill too. We'll see.

Anyway, I'm very happy with Modernbill right now especially now that it's working great on my system.

Thanks,

Ricoche :D

What exactly is the problem with Enom? Im using it myself and would like to know what are the barrings.. Thanx

Originally posted by auyongtc
Is Paysystems payment supported in Modernbill yet?

We have got ModernBill and Paysystems working together well, but are yet to go live with it whilst the rest of our site(s) are being updated. How we'll go about contributing it I'm not sure yet, because it is quite fiddly (replaces the WorldPay module). Probably a web page with step-by-step instructions, and offer the services of our programmer for those who wouldn't want to tackle the job themselves.

Cheers

Gary

Can all the billing system automatically billed the clients every month (e.g. monthly recurring clients)?

Not with what we've done. It would probably be possible, but Paysystems takes care of that.

Gary

(Just helping to clear this up.)

> Can all the billing system automatically billed the clients every month (e.g. monthly recurring clients)?

This is how ModernBill functions, yes. You can do it manually by kicking off the process in the admin interface OR do it automatically by setting up cronjobs to kick off the process for you. Note: Not all gateways support our auto-batching functions.

Sorry, yes I was referring specifically to our mods.

Gary

Hello,

Do you support Paysystems? Not Revecom but Paysystems.

I believe they're the same thing.

http://www.revecom.com
http://www.paysystems.com

Unless I'm missing a reference in here - which is possible.

> I believe they're the same thing.

This is correct. We actually have a client who modified an existing module to connect with revecom and we are awaiting for the information to make it its own module.

Hello,

Revecom uses Paysystems.
Would be good if you did support.

Originally posted by modernbill

ModernBill handles all recurring activities and does not use FuturePay at this time. The invoice generation process and FurturePay auto-payments can become out-of-sync, thus creating a billing mess when you have a lot of clients using it. That's a cleverly crafted response that has little or no meaning. You may as well say you have no intentions to introduce it. That would be more honest of you!

mistral1,

We actual do have the intial flow diagram written for this. One thing to note, it that the solution must be generic enought to support not just FurturePay, but also 2checkout recurring billing, PayPals recurring billing, and any other sudo gateway that supports this billing style. We are trying to avoid the one-time hack and make it configurable.

Does that clear it up for you?

Originally posted by modernbill
mistral1,

We actual do have the intial flow diagram written for this.

So why did you state this to another client asking about futurepay?

Do not wait for FuturePay, we have not figured out the logic yet.

> So why did you state this to another client asking about futurepay?

> Do not wait for FuturePay, we have not figured out the logic yet.

This is correct, because it is still in the planning phase and the logic has just recently been sketched out. No physical code has been started yet, only the logic for the flow chart. We even contacted worldpay with this info and have yet to receive a response from them. (We are inquiring about an additional hook that could resolve the invoice generation issues.)

Forget it!

Originally posted by modernbill
> I believe they're the same thing.

This is correct. We actually have a client who modified an existing module to connect with revecom and we are awaiting for the information to make it its own module.

That'd be us I think?

We're getting there. It works, but I don't want to work the vortex form in twice and we're soon replacing our sites...so it has been held up a bit. It was just a bit disappointing to learn that you guys hadn't made any inroads in to doing this recently since it's been sought after for 12 months.

Still, we'll try to get something up today on it.

Cheers

Gary

So is Modern Bill good choice to go with eNom or not? Im confused..

ModernBill looks pretty cool, I've asked a few questions in their forums (http://www.modernbill.com/board/index.php?act=ST&f=1&t=290) as well, which so far they have answered nicely. I am pretty sure if you get the developers license (which I am assuming to be very costly, especially for a startup that on;y has to manage 30 customers) you can pretty much make anything you want.

Originally posted by rackyou
So is Modern Bill good choice to go with eNom or not? Im confused..

Well, right now no! :D
-> http://modernbill.com/features/index.htm?type=modules

But it's in the works.;)

@Acronym Boy:

If you're willing to shell out that kind of money I would consider HSphere or even HostGUI as an "all-in-one" solution. You'll get a control panel + client billing + client management + domain registration. Plus if you are looking to customize a script I would think phpManager is the better bargain/starting point.

I have to admit with all of the control panels, billing and client management software out there it gets damn confusing on finding the right solution. But each one has their own nitch.

It remains to be seen how phpManager develops but if version 2 includes all the features they say it will (authorize.net automation, enom integration etc.) it will be the ideal solution for smaller webhosts. For bigger hosts who have thousands of customers and multiple servers, all-in-one control panel solutions like HSphere etc. seem the way to go. ModernBill and PerlBill seem to be a good solution for growing companies who are starting off small and are going to grow. But I'm really starting to wonder if going with those two makes sense anymore when HostGUI and HSphere are almost in the same price range. :confused:

Modernbill is good, too bad their script source is encrypted, :(

We've been using PerlBill for the past 4 to 5 months and have found it to be very easy to use with a clean interface. I personally had to make changes to our copy of PerlBill to suit our needs. But at the time, I had to decide between ModernBill and PerlBill... ModernBill was too confusing to use I thought, with all the pages and tables etc. The fact that their scsripts is also encrypted is not a good point since I prefer to be able to edit the source code as needed.

The new version of PerlBill (v2.02) is very nice, they've got a new interface that everyone should take a look at it, I've made a screenshot for those lazy people who can't be bothered to login to the demo. New features also include mutiple Cpanel server support and also integration with several credit card payment processors. It's definitely heading in the right direction.

Alan

Have you seen the new look for phpManager? It looks really nice and it's quite a bit different than the previous one. Much better I think.

http://www.phpmanager.com/v2

Originally posted by modernbill
(Just helping to clear this up.)

> Can all the billing system automatically billed the clients every month (e.g. monthly recurring clients)?

This is how ModernBill functions, yes. You can do it manually by kicking off the process in the admin interface OR do it automatically by setting up cronjobs to kick off the process for you. Note: Not all gateways support our auto-batching functions.

Cool! :) But I'm still a little confused Modermbill with 2checkout and paysystems recurring build in features. Are the tied up together?

Also do PerlBill have auto payment features like modernbill?

Originally posted by ricoche
Have you seen the new look for phpManager? It looks really nice and it's quite a bit different than the previous one. Much better I think.

http://www.phpmanager.com/v2

WOW!!

Originally posted by ricoche
Have you seen the new look for phpManager? It looks really nice and it's quite a bit different than the previous one. Much better I think.

http://www.phpmanager.com/v2 I see your point, the interface certainly does look nice. Once you've chosen a billing system it's easier to just code additional features in yourself to expand it to what you want it to do. That's what ModernBill limits you on... you always have to wait for them to bring out new features etc.

Alan

Originally posted by ho247
That's what ModernBill limits you on... you always have to wait for them to bring out new features etc.

Yes and no. We waited, then integrated Paysystems ourselves. We put the mod out today.

Cheers

Gary

Originally posted by modernbill
(Just helping to clear this up.)

> Can all the billing system automatically billed the clients every month (e.g. monthly recurring clients)?

This is how ModernBill functions, yes. You can do it manually by kicking off the process in the admin interface OR do it automatically by setting up cronjobs to kick off the process for you. Note: Not all gateways support our auto-batching functions.

I'm reposting this again below....

Cool! :) But I'm still a little confused Modermbill with 2checkout and paysystems recurring build in features. Are the tied up together?

Also do PerlBill have auto payment features like modernbill?

They're not exactly tied in together. ModernBill wont bill someone via Revecom on a recurring basis. What you can do though, is run a client through the vortex form and end up giving the option to "click here to pay by Revecom" and off they go to set up their own recurring billing. So you would have two systems to manage, but the Revecom side of things looks after itself and will keep the billing going until you or your client cancels it.

Regards

Gary

Originally posted by modernbill


This is correct, because it is still in the planning phase and the logic has just recently been sketched out. No physical code has been started yet, only the logic for the flow chart. We even contacted worldpay with this info and have yet to receive a response from them. (We are inquiring about an additional hook that could resolve the invoice generation issues.)

I have stated on many occasions that I am willing to help, let me know what you need and I will ask them. They reply in 2-3 hours for us.

Thanks for clearing up that issue for me Editor. :)

> Myacen

Please ping me in our forums so I can show you what we need from WorldPay.

> someone mentioned enom....

It will be out in the next update.

Originally posted by ricoche
Have you seen the new look for phpManager? It looks really nice and it's quite a bit different than the previous one. Much better I think.

http://www.phpmanager.com/v2

Whoa...:emlaugh: How did you get that link?? I don't see any mention of it on the phpManager site. Do you know when v.2 will be out?

I noticed that it already has ENOM integration, how about Authorize.net recurring billing?

Thanks for that link rioche ;)

Originally posted by modernbill
> Myacen
> someone mentioned enom....
It will be out in the next update.

And when would that be? I need ETA.

Sunday

Sunday? thats in two days? Cool :) Thanks.

Hello,

Very nice phpmanager :eek:.

Yes, phpmanager is looking quite nice. However, it lacks that 'polished look'... so you can tell it is just a "pixelbrick-ish" web site, and not one actually designed by pixelbrick. Comparing to the modernbill v4, you can tell MB spent big bucks on the design for the interface (which is a genuine pixelbrick design) actually... i guess it's ceonex now... same company though.

Anyway.... does anyone know how much phpmanager v2 will be?

mpope,

Thank you for the post. Interesting thread...

Originally posted by mpope
Yes, phpmanager is looking quite nice. However, it lacks that 'polished look'... so you can tell it is just a "pixelbrick-ish" web site, and not one actually designed by pixelbrick. Comparing to the modernbill v4, you can tell MB spent big bucks on the design for the interface (which is a genuine pixelbrick design) actually... i guess it's ceonex now... same company though.


Yeah, I agree it's highly influenced by the PixelBrick/Ceonex design style and doesn't have quite the 'polished look' that modernbill does. But phpmanager also costs a fraction of what modernbill does and all that eye candy seems to slow down modernbill too, why else would modernbill be coming out with a "light" version of their GUI/template?

Originally posted by mpope

Anyway.... does anyone know how much phpmanager v2 will be?

I'm assuming it will go up in price but if you buy phpManager now you'll get the upgrade to v2 for free ;)

Jazz,


The additional theme is being offered as a "contextual" theme to offer language translation control. Yes, the new theme will not contain as many graphics as V4, but it depends on what connection you have to your server when you discuss how slow or fast a software package behaves. The modernBill user will have the ability to pick which theme they want to use, and switch back and forth as they please. The theme will be available from the web site.

A billing software comparison chart will be released soon.

Warm Regards,

I just noticed modernbill by moderngigabyte is located in my hometown of louisville, ky!

maybe i can just walk across the street and pick up a copy?

have any open jobs available?

all that eye candy seems to slow down modernbill...

I was only paraphrasing what others had said before me. ;)

Originally posted by Sprynex
I have only tried modernbill.. and I like it.. however it is extremely slow.. I run the whole site under ssl.. but still.. it has alot of graphics and tends to take it's sweet time loading.. It is alot slower then all the other web apps I run.. but very feature rich.

Originally posted by modernbill
Hello folks...

I just want to point out that we have addressed the speed issues with v4 by creating a 'lite' version of the new theme with almost no graphics, however it still maintains the pleasant interface.


Hey, let's not forget PerlBill! They seem to have redone their "look" as well.

ciao :D

Has anyone used this product?

http://instantaccess.net/billing/