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Thread: HostBill Review

  1. #76
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    Nov 2006
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    USA
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    Quote Originally Posted by Settoz View Post
    Many small host would not have the money for it, and I would never buy HostBill now because they don't have a refund guarantee, they have a 14 days test period but that would never be enough because I won't transfer my client to it before I have a real license.. And it's hard to test the software, WHMCS have the option that you can try it out and then order a lifetime license..
    That comes back to my point above, if you cannot afford to spend $200 on something that could make your clients lives better or your admin teams life better, then you shouldn't be in business.

    Get a small business loan, save up cash, whatever - why go into it if you can't afford to do it right? Your clients will be the ones taking all the crap for it which is just straight up unfair.
    Last edited by leckley; 05-29-2012 at 06:35 AM.

  2. #77
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    May 2011
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    Quote Originally Posted by leckley View Post
    That comes back to my point above, if you cannot afford to spend $200 on something that could make your clients lives better or your admin teams life better, then you shouldn't be in business.

    Get a small business loan, save up cash, whatever - why go into it if you can't afford to do it right? Your clients will be the ones taking all the crap for it which is just straight up unfair.
    Your correct but I cant agree with you 100% on this statement. Small hosting company could not afford to buy WHMCS owned license but they were able to start out on monthly lease until they we able to purchase the owned license.

    Not everyone starts from the top and some people actually do better when they grow. Business is not just about buying expensive things because you can. Its about growing.

    Hostbill is fairly new and they had the monthly option at first, It seems a bit shady now since they are forcing everyone to fully commit on a owned license.

  3. #78
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    Quote Originally Posted by server-guru View Post
    Your correct but I cant agree with you 100% on this statement. Small hosting company could not afford to buy WHMCS owned license but they were able to start out on monthly lease until they we able to purchase the owned license.

    Not everyone starts from the top and some people actually do better when they grow. Business is not just about buying expensive things because you can. Its about growing.

    Hostbill is fairly new and they had the monthly option at first, It seems a bit shady now since they are forcing everyone to fully commit on a owned license.
    I am all for starting small and growing (I did it myself before I moved to Hypernia years ago), but there is a limit too how small one should start before you are more of a liability than an asset to your clients.

    If you do not have $200 to use on research and development (or you main billing system...in case you are not looking to move from another) then how can you afford to run a proper business? How do you offer new services if you can't afford to spend money on testing, training, developing etc...

    There are so many unexpected expenses in our business, hardware fails, clients sue, disasters happen, migrations, admin time, support etc etc etc - how can you possibly cover those if you don't even have $200?

  4. #79
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    Toronto, Canada
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    501
    Quote Originally Posted by Settoz View Post
    I think they will lose allot of customers when they remove the monthly recurring option, because many new host would never put 200 USD in a billing system. At least they that don't have the money for it. But that's just me
    I think that's possibly the point. They do not want the flyby night operations.

    I don't get some people. Starting a business isn't a thing you just wake up one morning and do because it sounds fun. It takes money. It's a business. The ones who have NO money to invest, the unprepared, the ones who have no clue what their doing that give the honest ones a hard time.

    Honestly i don't feel bad for those who cannot afford the HostBill license. Reason being? It's less chance of a flyby night operation starting up. Let's not forget, at the end of the day, this is a business, not a game. Some of the guys who have no idea how to run a business really ruin the industry because customers loose their trust in everyone.

    Quote Originally Posted by Settoz View Post
    Many small host would not have the money for it, and I would never buy HostBill now because they don't have a refund guarantee, they have a 14 days test period but that would never be enough because I won't transfer my client to it before I have a real license.. And it's hard to test the software, WHMCS have the option that you can try it out and then order a lifetime license..
    This answer completely ignored leckly's question

  5. #80
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Location
    Grand Rapids, Mi
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    1,200
    Quote Originally Posted by Settoz View Post
    I think they will lose allot of customers when they remove the monthly recurring option, because many new host would never put 200 USD in a billing system. At least they that don't have the money for it. But that's just me
    Is that based on the assumption that many new hosts wouldn't spend much more than 50$ to get their entire hosting operations off the ground in regards to provisioning a server or other stuff to resell off of? (though I mean if they did then it's probably not the kind of operation you want your branded panel associated with).
    IonVz - Nginx/FreeBSD/VPS Consulting | VPSNodeBox - Managed Support Representative

  6. #81
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    Apr 2012
    Location
    Toronto, Canada
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    Quote Originally Posted by leckley View Post
    I am all for starting small and growing (I did it myself before I moved to Hypernia years ago), but there is a limit too how small one should start before you are more of a liability than an asset to your clients.

    If you do not have $200 to use on research and development (or you main billing system...in case you are not looking to move from another) then how can you afford to run a proper business? How do you offer new services if you can't afford to spend money on testing, training, developing etc...

    There are so many unexpected expenses in our business, hardware fails, clients sue, disasters happen, migrations, admin time, support etc etc etc - how can you possibly cover those if you don't even have $200?
    I agree with you.

    I think every one thinks the hosting industry is a quick buck. Spend less and profit as much as possible. If you have customers that are paying annually at a time and you seriously cannot provide the adequate service, you're in trouble.

    I also think the ones who cannot afford the smallest of things like a license tells me they cannot afford a decent server which also means odds are they don't have the money to reinvest the business earnings back into the business which in the end will be a disaster.

  7. #82
    Join Date
    May 2011
    Posts
    47
    Yeah, i agree that if you cant afford to spend $200 on a billing system you should not be in this business.

    We bought 2 WHMCS Owned License and only have used 1, this does not mean we are a big organization because we could afford it.

    We started out on a monthly lease to test the system before jumping the gun, this is what i would like to see again with hostbill.

    They pretend to be so corporate and well business orientated but they business mind is like kids (indecisive) which makes me think they maybe there now and gone tomorrow.

    Just like the fly by night host, maybe this will be a fly by night billing system. Maybe not

    @ veedub, This business is certainly not a quick buck since its like the cheapest service on the internet. As we all know that this business is mostly about volume.

  8. #83
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    Apr 2012
    Location
    Toronto, Canada
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    501
    Quote Originally Posted by server-guru View Post
    Yeah, i agree that if you cant afford to spend $200 on a billing system you should not be in this business.

    We bought 2 WHMCS Owned License and only have used 1, this does not mean we are a big organization because we could afford it.

    We started out on a monthly lease to test the system before jumping the gun, this is what i would like to see again with hostbill.

    They pretend to be so corporate and well business orientated but they business mind is like kids (indecisive) which makes me think they maybe there now and gone tomorrow.

    Just like the fly by night host, maybe this will be a fly by night billing system. Maybe not

    @ veedub, This business is certainly not a quick buck since its like the cheapest service on the internet. As we all know that this business is mostly about volume.
    Like many startups though (Hostbill isn't brand new anymore) pricing is indecisive. Policy is indecisive. I think it was a skilled programmer and web designer that thought, i'll join the market just for the fun of it not realizing the high demand.

    I think quite honestly it took him by surprise. People enjoy making money, and it makes programming more fun when it's supported by an income. I'll be first to admit even with my positive review, their support policy sucks and some type of leased license would be a good option. Doesn't have to be monthly but something a little less risky to avoid an instant commitment.

    Put it this way. You'll have 45 day guarantee with paypal (charge back if they refuse refund) and 30 day with most major credit cards if you report it.

    When we bought it we had 3 options. Yearly leased $99, Owned Branded $199, Owned Unbranded $299. Coming from WHMCS we were overall happy with it, but it was honestly lacking on our client side. We wanted a billing solution like HostBill for the client side.

    No joke, we sat in meetings for awhile with pros/cons etc. Took a vote and HostBill won 10-1. With business comes risk, no risk, no reward. So we jumped head first and bought owned, unbranded, IPMA and Support Fields plugin which i forgot to mention in the review. Soon we'll be buying the dedicated server plugin.

    We wouldn't gamble with our customers if we had any doubts. Kris invested a lot of time into building HostBill and odds in it just going away are slim to none. I'm sure same concerns were around with WHMCS. WHMCS had to mature as well, in order to mature people need to chance it.

    WHMCS stayed in the comfortable spot without advancing it's software very much. Good programmers, crappy designers. HostBill is in it for the long haul and if they were't i'd give them a free VPS or server for the licensing server to ensure it stayed online.

  9. #84
    The support forum for hostbillapp is somewhat slow but, yes, you can always open a ticket with them. Hostbillapp has come along way and more importantly to those using onapp is the seamless integration. There are some quirky things that is probably my own error such as the strange name that is seen inside the onapp control panel as the label. Asides from a few design flaws (jquery/css issues) with the new template, it's very easy to get things up and running.

    However, one nice feature that has recently been featured with whmcs is their project management add-on. Though this is a very nice feature, I have faith that hostbillapp will make their own version.

    Some other small things these vendors should consider would be CRM integration, support for charging customers per incident/ticket, payment integration such as with QuickBooks, customer configuration/notes.

    You can't go wrong with hostbillapp especially if you're using onapp for your cloud. With the new theme that comes packaged (admin setting to change the theme) and the plugins/modules available, it's $300 bucks... the efficiency with diminishing overhead with hostbillapp will bring you back your roi in no time.

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