View Poll Results: Which billing management software do you prefer?

Voters
107. You may not vote on this poll
  • ModernBill

    41 38.32%
  • Whois.Cart

    51 47.66%
  • ClientExec

    15 14.02%
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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Posts
    70

    Which Billing System is better...?

    I am wondering which billing system is better or what type of experiences have you all had with the following billing software:

    1.) ModernBill
    2.) Whois.Cart
    3.) ClientExec

    Be open and honest about your experiences. Does the billing software you use have things lacking, does it not meet a certain need? Did you change from one to another? Did you have good or bad experiences with the support staff, and what type of merchant support do they have, etc?

    I want to take as much information in as possible before making a final purchase.
    Last edited by bawalker; 03-16-2004 at 01:32 PM.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2003
    Location
    North Carolina USA
    Posts
    414
    I wish these polls allowed you to do multiple choice

    Here are my recommendations in order of preference:

    #1 - ModernBill - this is the most complete and feature packed option we have found. It is one of the more expensive options but you get what you pay for and ModernBill will pretty much do anything you need it to. It is the option that best fit our company needs.

    #2 - Whois.Cart - this product is VERY well done and has very good support. The team behind it is very talented and they are working hard to produce one of the best options on the market. And, the price can not be beat! It offers control panel integration for all widely used panels and modules for the most widely used payment gateways and domain registrars. If it had just a few more features that we need, we would be using this.

    #3 - ClientExec - this product has a great deal of potential in the future but lacks alot of features at the current time. No control panel integration and limited features. ClientExec would be a great option for those who do not need any automation of client account controls. Falls short of OUR needs but can be very usefull for others.

    There is also ServNetix (http://servnetix.com) which would fall in the same category as ModernBill as far as options and features but it is not as widely known. The team behind it is very professional and I have had several phone conversations with the president of the company who is very knowledgeable and very easy to talk to (they are in the same city we are).Worth looking into also if you are interested in a "complete" solution.

    Another option to consider if you do not need client account control automation would be phpcoin (http://phpcoin.com). I haven't tested any of the newer versions but last time I looked it was a very nicely programmed script with alot of features in the billing and ordering systems plus it has the ability to be customized and used as your entire website or integrated into an existing site. And the price can't be beat - FREE.

    I hope my input helps. Good luck in your choice!

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2003
    Location
    USA/Croatia
    Posts
    110
    Why is WHM AutoPilot on the poll. I vote for them.
    Freckle Face
    http://frecklefacehosting.com

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Posts
    70
    Originally posted by Freckled
    Why is WHM AutoPilot on the poll. I vote for them.
    Because WHM is only for cPanel and due to cost restrictions I don't plan to use cPanel. Only DirectAdmin or Ikonware.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Nov 2003
    Location
    USA/Croatia
    Posts
    110
    Well yes that does narrow down the field some. Can't help you out then as I don't use the others.
    Freckle Face
    http://frecklefacehosting.com

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Sep 2003
    Posts
    45
    i say whoiscart. They have the best customer service and not only that the features they are adding all the time. Always doing updates. Should see what will be here with version 3

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Aug 2003
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    1,036
    ModernBill has the most features and best interface and coding in my opinion.

    There have been quite a few debates on this topic, try a search to learn a bit more...
    CybexHost.com - Shared and Reseller Hosting Solutions on cPanel/WHM Linux Servers
    ModernTweak.com - Discount ModernBill Licenses, Hosted Installations, and Professional Services
    :: Pay for your discount ModernBill license with PayPal
    :: admin[at]cybexhost.com :: AIM: CybexH

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Sep 2003
    Posts
    45
    Originally posted by cybexhost
    ModernBill has the most features and best interface and coding in my opinion.

    There have been quite a few debates on this topic, try a search to learn a bit more...
    Not blasting you but, the new version 3 of whoiscart will have all those features i seen on the demo for modernbill in whoiscart. One thing that sticks out, $500 for unlimted domains. Hmmm $35 for unlimted domains on whoiscart. Plus it supports directi with special prices for domains with them ( you get a reseller account free no setup fee with directi with 6.75 new domains and 6.49 for transfer domains only to whois cart customers.), enom, cpanel, directadmin, open srs, true credit card merchant account (seperate) only to whoiscart customers get the special deal and offer for the merchant account, you get all these paymant portals ANZ Egate, Authorize.Net, BluePay, 2Checkout, CDGCommerce, Echo Inc., EMatic, EWay, E-Gold, IBill, NoChex, Paypal, PayBox, PaySystems, PsiGate, Worldpay, Moneybookers, Realex Payments, you also get fraud proof by IP address from whoiscart, language files, and much more. I am tired of typing. I do not see all that more that moderbill offers that whoiscart does not. And what i see it does not will be in the soon to come version 3. Just my input, if i was you i would check out the features and see if you think $500 is worth the difference vs. $35

    Hope this helps you make up your mind!

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Apr 2003
    Location
    North Carolina USA
    Posts
    414
    Whois.Cart is definitely going to be a contender in the marketplace once they release V3 if it has all of the features that are planned. With the core engine they have built in V2 and the modules they already have in place, V3 is going to be a very powerful product without a doubt.

    But, to say it is better than ModernBill or ServNetix as it is NOW would be a stretch.

    DreamWareXp, The thing to keep in mind is, in your own words:
    ...the new version 3 of whoiscart will have all those features...
    It doesn't have those features yet and someone who needs the features it is lacking at this point would probably find ModernBill to be a better option.

    We have been involved with Whois.Cart for quite a while, having provided the test server for their DirectAdmin integration module before it was released and having tested the script ourselves. Plus, we have other business arrangements with Saeven. There is no doubt that it is the best product on the market when you consider value for investment. Their $35 unlimited license is, in my opinion, very under-priced for the quality of the product. Given the features and abilities of Whois.Cart, they could easily demand the same price that ClientExec is getting and be giving more than you would get with ClientExec.

    Whois.Cart is still in it's early stages. Once they release V3 it will very likely take the market by storm if it does have the features it is lacking and they keep the pricing the same... or even if they raise it to a more deserved level.

    As I said in my original post, I wish the poll allowed more than one choice. I went on to say that Whois.Cart is my #2 recommendation and if it had ALL of the features we needed, it would easily be #1 in my list. As much as I personally love Whois.Cart and the people behind it, we couldn't afford to wait for V3 or higher before we put a system in place. We had to make a move now so ModernBill is the way we went. That is NOT a reflection on the quality of Whois.Cart or it's developers. It is only a reflection of the features available AT THIS POINT. I have nothing but praise for the product and the team behind it!

    I know Alex is watching this thread ( ) and he knows how I feel about Whois.Cart itself. I am a huge fan of the project and I am amazed at the progress they have made in the past 3 months alone. You will not see me say anything negative about Whois.Cart other than it does not YET have some features that may be a necessity for some companies. I look forward to future releases!

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Posts
    70
    Two_A_T - Let me ask you this since you have much more experience with any of the billing management software or control panel software than I do. Being that I am just starting out hosting within the next few weeks and all I need at first is something to handle payments and do recurring billing on a set time schedule and integrate with DirectAdmin (I'm leaning towards them) I'm assuming Whois.Cart would do for me just fine? Just standard credit card billing users for set plans is the most important item on my list. Right now I don't need all of the massive options and features at least until I get my feet on the ground and can build with a customer base that I have.

    Speaking of which, what ARE some of the features that seperate ModernBill and Whois.Cart which version 3 should have? I'm definately interested in knowing to plan for the future.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Apr 2003
    Location
    North Carolina USA
    Posts
    414
    bawalker,

    First, let me say that you are heading the right direction by considering DirectAdmin! It is the only panel we offer

    Second, based on your situation from what you said, I would highly recommend Whois.Cart to you. It is a very powerful tool and not too complicated to set up. In your position, you can afford to start with it and by the time you need the additional features it may lack, the new versions will be out to offer them and you can simply upgrade.

    ModernBill is a very complicated piece of software with time consuming setup and configurations (we're still getting it configured). Whois.Cart is not nearly as complicated to set up and configure so you can be up and running fairly quickly.

    Some of the things that Whois.Cart was missing that we needed:

    1. Detailed Reporting (multiple types) with Excel export ability
    2. The ability to designate acceptable payment forms based on product (allowing one form of payment on one item and a different form of payment on another) and even designate different payment gateways based on product or transaction type
    3. Ability to generate individual invoices for other services
    4. Ability to offer add-ons and account upgrades within the system
    5. Bandwidth monitoring and charging
    6. Built in affiliate system (new MB feature) that will give clients a credit if they refer a new sign up
    7. Built Support Desk (Trouble Tickets and FAQ system)
    8. Built in detailed accounting system and register
    9. Multiple Admin levels with restrictions (good for employees)
    10. Built in tools such as Tracert, Ping, NS Lookup, ARIN Whois, MX Record lookup, IP to Hostname, Hostname to IP, subdomain search.

    There are a few other misc features but those are the main ones. I know many of these are planned for Whois.Cart V3 or very shortly after that.

    Since you are just starting out and will most likely not need the features above until you are established and have a larger client base, you can easily use the existing features in Whois.Cart and grow as it does. Also, when you are just starting out, cost is most likely a major factor. With Whois.Cart's price and the features you get for it, you can't lose!

    I hope my input helps

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Posts
    70
    Your input *definately* helps. For the longest time I had browsed these forums and just saw alot of "this is better" "that is better" but nothing ever outlining major differences between products. For control panels I had been debating between Ikonware and DirectAdmin. I was really swayed to D.A. after reading a post regarding the programming behind Ikonware and concerns over it requiring to run apache as root. That is outright scary to think about if that is the case. Plus I emailed Mark at DA and he has been more than helpful and very informative on helping me get the info I need. Plus we even had a feature request discussion with him regarding a SpamAssassin module/plugin for DA.

    Anyway below are some inline quotes to the billing software...


    Originally posted by Two_A_T

    Second, based on your situation from what you said, I would highly recommend Whois.Cart to you. It is a very powerful tool and not too complicated to set up. In your position, you can afford to start with it and by the time you need the additional features it may lack, the new versions will be out to offer them and you can simply upgrade.
    Right now that is the truth, I just need something to start with that is financially reasonable which Whois.Cart seems to be more than reasonably priced... if not under priced.

    1. Detailed Reporting (multiple types) with Excel export ability
    This isn't a high priority, but I could envision using it a year or two from now if the client base grows.


    2. The ability to designate acceptable payment forms based on product (allowing one form of payment on one item and a different form of payment on another) and even designate different payment gateways based on product or transaction type
    Again not a high priority until there was a need shown by customers that they wanted to pay certain ways for certain packages.


    3. Ability to generate individual invoices for other services
    This would definately be nice to have since my business does alot of consulting and network engineering work. Have one area for customers to log in and pay their bills, be it webhosting or consulting.


    4. Ability to offer add-ons and account upgrades within the system

    5. Bandwidth monitoring and charging

    7. Built Support Desk (Trouble Tickets and FAQ system)
    This would probably have to be one of the biggest things I could use right off the bat... but yet not a #1 nessecity to survive. This along with bandwidth monitoring, Support Desk.


    6. Built in affiliate system (new MB feature) that will give clients a credit if they refer a new sign up
    Nice... could use it but not right now.


    8. Built in detailed accounting system and register
    Again very useful, butnot for my needs right now.


    9. Multiple Admin levels with restrictions (good for employees)
    I have no employee's yet that need access to this so this isn't a problem.


    10. Built in tools such as Tracert, Ping, NS Lookup, ARIN Whois, MX Record lookup, IP to Hostname, Hostname to IP, subdomain search.
    Nice, but I have WebMin/UserMin with a module that does just this.


    Speaking of V3, when is it due? If it's due by midyear or a bit later that'd be great because I would be hopefully expanding to more servers by that time.

  13. #13
    Whois Cart all the way


    Their support is great & their are always members to help put

    looking forward to v3 & my free update

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Apr 2003
    Location
    North Carolina USA
    Posts
    414
    Originally posted by bawalker
    Speaking of V3, when is it due? If it's due by midyear or a bit later that'd be great because I would be hopefully expanding to more servers by that time.
    I'm not exactly sure when V3 is due out but I would assume now that the core engine is perfected it will not take them long with the talent in their team to put V3 on the market. Mid-year would not surprise me at all.
    Originally posted by bradhost
    Their support is great & their are always members to help put

    looking forward to v3 & my free update
    I completely agree. The Saeven/Whois.Cart team is very quick to respond when there is a question or bug report. Probably the best support in the billing & management market.

    I am also looking forward to V3 and the proposed feature upgrades it should have.

  15. #15
    I have two big problems with ModernBill. The first is that their support is about non-existent. The best support they have is from the users in the forums and ModernBill CHARGES you to access those forums.

    The second problem is their very public entry into the Hosting business. I don't know about any of you, but I don't want to be branding my competitor in the Client Management system I use..

    We chose Whoiscart for many reasons, the main reason is simplicity. We don't want or need all the crap that comes with overbloated systems like ModernBill, we have other systems in place for that already. We want to take payments with our Merchant account, buy domains through our registrar and anything else is really not essential for us.

    I think Whoiscart has a great future, but as they exist right now they are perfect for us...

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Sep 2003
    Posts
    45
    I will say this TOW_A_ T your right. You hit it on the nail!

    bawalker it already supports multiple servers. Second just to let you know a help desk is in the workings for it also. I would agree in your situation i would use whoiscart. Maybe by the time you get ready version 3 will be out and you will be ready for the new features!

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Posts
    70
    Thanks guys for all of the input. It looks like it'll be DirectAdmin and Whois.Cart for me at least costwise for the deciding factor. I may go HSphere years down the road, or if something else better comes out, but that is too far ahead to worry about.

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Sep 2003
    Posts
    45
    Originally posted by bawalker
    Thanks guys for all of the input. It looks like it'll be DirectAdmin and Whois.Cart for me at least costwise for the deciding factor. I may go HSphere years down the road, or if something else better comes out, but that is too far ahead to worry about.
    Glad you figure out what you needed!

  19. #19
    Join Date
    Jan 2002
    Location
    Dallas, TX
    Posts
    244
    Whois.cart all the way. You can't beat the features you get for the price and support.

  20. #20
    Originally posted by Two_A_T
    The Saeven/Whois.Cart team is very quick to respond when there is a question or bug report. Probably the best support in the billing & management market.
    One fact out of the box is that Alex is the one giving all-day support on the forums and that himself is the president/owner of Saeven Consulting...

  21. #21
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
    Location
    UK, West Yorkshire
    Posts
    1
    Whois.Cart is absolutely fantastic.

    I am still busy implementing it. But at this moment in time, I have a small customer base who mostly signed up on a simple bespoke order system I created a while back and they all seem happy at the moment. They will be even happier when I move them to the client section of Whois.Cart.

    It is a must for any hosting company wanting to start out.

  22. #22
    Originally posted by Blue Dragon
    One fact out of the box is that Alex is the one giving all-day support on the forums and that himself is the president/owner of Saeven Consulting...
    I've received emails sent to Whoiscart from support staff other than Alex which were intelligently written, informative and answered my questions fully. There are also detailed answers and support provided int he Client's section from Support staff other than Alex.

    Alex is the developer and main man at Whoiscart but there is certainly other qualified staff assisting him...

  23. #23
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    Western Canada
    Posts
    1,889
    Whoiscart > *

    Support and features (price too) excellent.

    I can't wait for ver. 3



  24. #24
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Posts
    56
    Originally posted by Watcher_TVI
    I have two big problems with ModernBill. The first is that their support is about non-existent. The best support they have is from the users in the forums and ModernBill CHARGES you to access those forums......
    I have my license for almost a year, but never took my time to set it up.
    Now I was going to start using it expect that the support expired last year and I can't log to download security updates or the support forums unless I renew the license.
    I send e-mail to MB asking 3 questions that I had, but the guy ignored all of them and include URL link that was not even working.

    Instead of wasting my $30.00 on ModernBill renew I should go on and buy Whois.Cart.

  25. #25
    Quote Originally Posted by iNCLiP
    Instead of wasting my $30.00 on ModernBill renew I should go on and buy Whois.Cart.
    You'll be much better off...

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