They've changed the pricing page...again.

[sth-chris]

Go take a look now.....

http://hostbillapp.com/order/

Your thoughts?

[nibb]

4 things come to my mind.

1. The 999$ package with the IPAM and Colo was a good deal. I would had purchased that if it was available when I did my purchase.
2. No renewal fees? Wrong. Well it seems nice, and sounds amazing, but its not realistic. He and any software NEED yearly renewal fees to stay on business.
3. So new clients have no renewal fees and the rest does? Not fair for current clients. Price changes should be consistent. Some have one deal, another has another deal, its getting really mixed up by now
4. Pay to ask presales questions? Really? Still ridiculous....

Why I would I pay to suggest new features? That should be value information any company should receive for free.

How much for support now?

I don´t mind paying yearly updates, if its a low and decent cost. Of course free is better, but its not realistic for any software developer. Because bugs will be always there, and people will eventually have all the features they need, so the software needs a way to keep income flowing.

Don´t get me wrong. I hate renewal fees just like the rest of us. But they are necessary, and I would pay like 99$ per year for updates for this software, which I think is fair, giving the current situation for bugs fixes, and no support.

But one purchase prices and never pay again? How does he pretend to keep income flowing, once users have the features and modules they need?

On the positive note, he is keeping the price on 599$ which is good, at least it did not went up or down. Of course without modules, we are talking about a couple of thousands for new users.

But I cannot believe what I will say here, this could potentially work. I mean, not everyone needs all modules to be honest. If you sell hosting in cPanel and some domains you would 2, plus live chat, and some others. The way you grow or need more you can buy more. I hardly don´t believe everyone needs every single module. I don´t at least. So this module can fit for those that don´t need much and the ones that do would purchase all the things they require.

I just hope he does keep adding at least basic features to the core, not just ripping everything apart. Some things make sense as a module or plugin, but others need to be included in the core in order to he useful.

Other than that, im fine for now as long as he respects old agreements to past customers sold. Of course if I know need a new hostbill license, I will have to pay allot more. It would be nice if he gave some promotional coupons or discounts from time to time, to existing customers. I was one click away to buy one module, the colo one and then he price jumped in 200%, so i just stopped. I don´t ask him to drop prices, but giving some promotional credits of coupons to existing clients from time to time would be nice.

[CBlade]

One more thing, most modules that was $99 now are $199...

And i prefer year payments.

[Patrick]

Hey, i'm all for their change of approach.................................................................then i read $99 for pre-sales *jaw drop*

I mean how do you express *WOW* in text? LOL!! No more renewal fee's leave me a little concerned over what's being released each week now?  And how about that pre-sales fee? 
Clearly they are reading these forums and i applaud them for that, but c'mon guys.  Stop thinking you can make money for customers to ask about using your software. 
Each module, theme and app is way, way, way too expensive.  It's the right idea for new customers to "build their platform" but prices need to be a little more realistic for some of the modules.

Provisioning modules should never cost money.  Why is cPanel free, but Interworx is not?  You'd think cPanel would cost a premium if going this route.  Just too many questionable decisions.

You want to sale do you not?  If so, charging pre-sales will absolutely guarantee you push sales away.  You'll scare customers away just having that on your site.  Not ONE company on this planet othre then KBKP Software charges for pre-sales.  NO ONE. so guys stop trying to pinch money out of every possibly avenue.  Customer service is free, sales is free, billing is free, support can be paid, licensing issues free.

Just blown away.

edit:
oh wow, ZERO provisioning modules are free now.  cPanel wasn't premium yesterday, it's $199.  Yikes, yikes, yikes.  I also have to feel bad for those who just paid their renewal fee's.  Glad we opted not to last month.  Very glad.

[psybox]

this sounds like a company closing its doors ;

- no renewal fees, as it doesn't intend to update things in the future
- pay for what is / should be core modules to rake in as much cash as possible
- lower the base price for the software to suck in potential clients on the verge of buying
- charging for pre sales just to see if anyone will pay

I can understand that they don't want lots of presales and also 3rd party developer questions, it takes time away from working on the product. I can understand that's why they canned the 3rd party developers. I can also understand presales is hard and can be expensive to service.  However - with all the changes made, I can only deduce they are looking to do a last minute money grab.

[Patrick]

this sounds like a company closing its doors ;

- no renewal fees, as it doesn't intend to update things in the future
- pay for what is / should be core modules to rake in as much cash as possible
- lower the base price for the software to suck in potential clients on the verge of buying
- charging for pre sales just to see if anyone will pay

I can understand that they don't want lots of presales and also 3rd party developer questions, it takes time away from working on the product. I can understand that's why they canned the 3rd party developers. I can also understand presales is hard and can be expensive to service.  However - with all the changes made, I can only deduce they are looking to do a last minute money grab.

You're absolutely right.  I never thought about that.  It does sound like they are closing their doors to walk away and let the business run on auto pilot and if someone dares to pay them money they'll take time out of their day to answer otherwise it's self run.

[harrison914]

They really need to pick pricing and stick with it. My opinion is they really need to go monthly on pricing I would pay $100 a month if the software worked really well and they provided updates and support for free.

I just don't get where they think changing prices constantly is healthy for them as a business.

[Patrick]

They really need to pick pricing and stick with it. My opinion is they really need to go monthly on pricing I would pay $100 a month if the software worked really well and they provided updates and support for free.

I just don't get where they think changing prices constantly is healthy for them as a business.

Well, you now own the software, and the oddest decision yet is the removal of annual fee's.  So now what does that mean for everyone.  My guess is, we're using a near EOL software

[sth-chris]

The whole "pay to ask a pre-sale question" is the worst idea ever. OK, I can kinda understand if it is down to truly a one-man show and he wants to get "paid" for his time. But come on, what company does this? Imagine if you called GoDaddy or (insert any company that sells a product) and before you can ask a question, they're asking you for your credit card number for the "privelage" of talking to them.

This is so idiotic, it reaks of someone with ZERO business sense.

Be afraid, be very afraid!

[Patrick]

Heck they already produced two new order pages... https://hostbillapp.com/clientarea/?/software_store/orderpages/square_plans/

That is one i find that looks ok but $199?.....   They need to be reminded these are order pages.  I hope everyone enjoyed getting exciting updates every release, because you'll no longer get a single new exciting feature again.  No new order pages, themes, applications, plugins, modules, provisioning modules.  Software you have now is what you get unless you want to spend an arm and a leg to get more and i highly recommend against that as none of it comes with any support at those prices.

Hostbill core is $599, but a SINGLE order page is almost 1\2 that lol.  lol @ their pricing skills.

You'll also notice http://bytecp.com/ -- They removed renewal fee's off of there too.  I am going to start assuming the doors are slowly shutting on KBKP and letting it run on auto pilot to generate money.

[CBlade]

the doors are slowly shutting on KBKP and letting it run on auto pilot to generate money.

Really? They got potential, but only with REAL business man behind...

[Paul]

They have a new module that lets you change the font! $199!

yeah, you had to take a split second to discern if that was real or not. that's the state of this madness.

[tallship]

I also have to feel bad for those who just paid their renewal fee's.  Glad we opted not to last month.  Very glad.

um... You should be but perhaps not for the reason you stated?

I think you may have missed this little item Patrick



That says that your subscription is now current for the rest of your life LOL!

As noted in that image, they have lied about this before, reportedly defrauding early purchasers of the software by offering lifetime support and updates and then illegally changing that policy, but that is another story, contained in other threads where those customers who were swindled mentioned it.

Anyway, Maybe I should do a chargeback for the payment on my last subscription renewal. After all, nothing will be lost since I now have lifetime updates anyway from here on out

And kbkp still hasn't fixed the broken VMware 5 module that I own either.

Kindest regards,

[TommyK]

No renewal fees
Like 99% of population we hate renewal fees. So we no longer charge it from current and future customers - pay only for features you want!

99% is hardly the truth for his target audience and he never asked me.

Maybe ask customers what they want instead of manically shoot ideas left and right? Would save him a lot of effort to just ask us. I wouldn't mind answering 200 questions to him if I knew he was listening.

0 fee is not realistic and it makes me wonder if he is going to be able to grow his business at all with his current offerings. I feel sorry for him, cause the product is pretty cool.

[CBlade]

0 fee is not realistic and it makes me wonder if he is going to be able to grow his business at all with his current offerings. I feel sorry for him, cause the product is pretty cool.

Like many said, i think they wanting to cash out and close KBKP, all signs to this.