Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Running a Web Hosting Business : WHNBilling vs. Ubersmith

[Skeptical]

I'm trying to decide if I should go with WHNBilling or Ubersmith for a payment management system.

Here are things I like about Ubersmith:

- integrated ticketing system
- hosted separately from my servers (better security?)

Here are things I like about WHNBilling:

- downloadable source code if I want it. I have more control
- integrates with Cpanel/WHM

The downside to WHNBilling though, is that I have to host it myself and I'm a bit unsure about its security features. I know there's encryption with it, but can it be cracked easily if someone were to get into my system? Also, do I have to host the entire WHNBilling program on the hosting server itself?

[Skeptical]

Anyone?

[HRBrendan]

Originally posted by Skeptical
[B

- downloadable source code if I want it. I have more control
- integrates with Cpanel/WHM

[/B]

Downloadable source code if anyone wants it, (malicious or not)... not necessarily a good thing.

-Brendan

[Matt Lightner]

Originally posted by Skeptical
The downside to WHNBilling though, is that I have to host it myself and I'm a bit unsure about its security features. I know there's encryption with it, but can it be cracked easily if someone were to get into my system? Also, do I have to host the entire WHNBilling program on the hosting server itself?

Judging from this, tt sounds like you're more confident in Ubersmith's ability to secure their servers than your own. If you have a good knowledge of how to implement extremely tight security on a server, and have access to a firewall or can at least disable ports on your billing server, then I would say you're probably not any less secure than Ubersmith would be. If you do choose WHNbilling, I would strongly caution you against hosting it on a server that also hosts customers (it doesn't need to be on the hosting servers themselves--it connects remotely). But putting it on a server that you also allow customers access to could be a potential disaster.

Just for fun, you might consider asking Ubersmith what kind of security systems they have in place. That way you can make an objective comparison of what they do to protect your data versus what you think you are capable of doing.

Ans last but definitely not least, you should consider which of the programs you find easiest to use. That is one of the most important factors. If you're going to be using this system on a daily basis, an extra click or an extra step when performing a common operation can get pretty annoying.

Hope that helps.

[Skeptical]

I just checked out Modernbill and it looks pretty promising too. Actually I think it's got more features than WHN Billing. Can you guys provide some feedback on this? Thanks a bunch.

[universal2001]

matt

what billing program do you use and recommend?

[Matt Lightner]

Site5 has been using BillAdmin for the past two years or so. It's a program that I wrote myself, because two years ago, there were no billing systems that were specifically tailored to web hosts (that I could find anyway), and there were none that could integrate with multiple Cpanel servers and Authorize.net. Site5 actually made it available to the public for a while (for a monthly fee, of course ), but it is available no longer (although a few hosting companies are still using it).

As far as the programs that have been mentioned in this thread, I have never actually used any of them in a production environment, but I have tested them out a bit (since I'm interested in this particular area--for obvious reasons). The pro that I see to WHNbilling is I believe it is the only one that actually integrates with Cpanel. I have heard that the Modernbill developer is working on Cpanel integration (actually, I was the one who pushed to get the Cpanel PHP API done so that he could integrate it), but I have yet to see this feature completed. Supposedly he's still working on it, but it doesn't seem to be a priority. Modernbill seems like a great system, but without control panel integration, I think it's of little use unless you've only got a small number of customers and want to do everything by hand (or edit the source code yourself).

Ubersmith, I have to admit that I'm a bit less familiar with it. I talked to Raj about the product quite a bit when it was in initial development, but I haven't seen any of the latest versions, and I don't know how it integrates with any of the control panel systems out there (if at all). I know Raj frequents this forum (at least he used to). I'm sure he can clear that issue up.

So I guess for me, the main points to consider are the setup and common-sense feel of the business logic, the seamlessness of the control panel integration, and the ease-of-use of the actual interface--in that order.

[Matt Lightner]

Originally posted by Skeptical
I just checked out Modernbill and it looks pretty promising too. Actually I think it's got more features than WHN Billing. Can you guys provide some feedback on this? Thanks a bunch.

Yes, Modernbill 3.0 has a great looking interface, not to mention a very nice array of features and flexibility. The only reason we actually haven't given it serious consideration for our own testing purposes is its lack of integration with Cpanel. When your system is managing thousands of accounts across a large number of servers, doing things by hand gets really old, really quick.

But once he finishes the integration, I will definitely give it another look--I love the flexibility that the program offers.

[universal2001]

thanks for the insight Matt.. Really appreciate it!!

[Skeptical]

Yeah Matt. Thanks for the insight.

Now another issue related to this. Support staff. It's pretty important at times for support staff to view details of an account and/or notes related to that account, for things like domain names, bandwidth allowance, etc.

How best to do this and use Modernbill. Modernbill doesn't seem to have admin permission features that let you add admins who have varying levels of privileges. I can store general client info in another database for techs to see, but that seems very inefficient because I'll be typing stuff in twice separately.

Any suggestions?

[Matt Lightner]

Originally posted by Skeptical
Yeah Matt. Thanks for the insight.

Now another issue related to this. Support staff. It's pretty important at times for support staff to view details of an account and/or notes related to that account, for things like domain names, bandwidth allowance, etc.

How best to do this and use Modernbill. Modernbill doesn't seem to have admin permission features that let you add admins who have varying levels of privileges. I can store general client info in another database for techs to see, but that seems very inefficient because I'll be typing stuff in twice separately.

Any suggestions?

I believe that ModernBill does support multiple administrators/staff members with different access levels. Best I can tell, on the "System Config" page (link is on the sidebar), you can find link to the "Admin Config" page where you can manage the billing system staff and assign them an access level (from 1 to 9 it looks like). I'm not sure what the different numbers mean, all I know is that 9 is the highest. You might want to go play with their demo a bit, or ask the developer what exactly the different access levels allow users to do.

[Jedito]

MB levels

// 9 = God [Uber Admin, Do All]
// 8 = Admin [View All, Config Changes = Yes, No Delete]
// 7 = Power User [View All, Config Changes = No, No Delete]
// 6 = NOT IN USE
// 5 = Support User [Support Desk & FAQ]
// 4 = NOT IN USE
// 3 = NOT IN USE
// 2 = NOT IN USE
// 1 = NOT IN USE

[Skeptical]

Does a level 5 support user have access to outstanding bills, notes, etc? I'd like them to be able to view accounting history for support purposes, but not be able to change stuff there.