New app - HB Monitoring

[Patrick]

https://hostbillapp.com/clientarea/?/software_store/applications/hb_monitoring/

Though this seems like a great idea, $400 price tag?  I have to ask honestly without sounding like i'm bashing them.  Do they put any thought in to the price before it's released or do they just look at their screen and come up with a number randomly?  No testing, no prior release, no included support incase something is wrong.  I'll continue using my existing monitoring service, it's much cheaper and includes free support.

They have the right idea but pricing is out of this world.  Kris, if you're reading this.  Think twice ab out your pricing if you want to sell a lot of what you're making.

[jeffrey404]

I like the idea, but I do agree the pricing is kind of high. I would say half is a right cost for me to buy this. What price does everyone else think would be fair?

[Patrick]

Unfortunately i still say even $99 is too expensive for it.  It's untested and he's whipping these out like they were simple to do.  It's one thing to pay for support with Hostbill the software, but to charge $400 for a module + the $600 for the software and st ill ask for $75 per support ticket on a module we have no idea if it even works is scary.

Could it work 100%?  Absolutely but if anyone knows how complicated a stable and accurate monitoring system can be they know this is possibly full of bugs.

Like i said though, i love the idea of it but at $400 i'll never own it, $300 i'll never own it, $200 i'll never own it, $99 i'll never own it.  $50, i'll buy it right now as the risk with no support is worth trying it.

[Paul]

yeah, one screenshot showing up/down and ping time... for $400? Not in a million years. $50 tops. More like $19.95 if he wants people to buy it. Maybe charge more later when it's a mature app. Like Patrick says, who knows about it. What'd he whip it out in 4 days?

[Lawrence]

These price tags are silly. I will continue to use my external monitoring service.

[Patrick]

These price tags are silly. I will continue to use my external monitoring service.

it's really unfortunate too.  Apps like this have so much potential but without support, without it even reaching maturity it'll never sell.  It's wasted coding.  I don't see anyone buying it.  Any smart business person would never invest in it.

[enddo]

Actually prices differs from what you need.
If you are selling monitoring and gaining money from that service 400$ is not too much.
probably you will get its price in 3-4 months.
But the main issues here is;
1- You don't know how will it work. No more details then 3-4 screenshots.
2- You may not get any support if it is not working.
3- There is no any clue of getting more features in next weeks. It might be EOL product.


IMO Instead of starting with 400$ using tiered based prcing would be better.
For instance it starts with 50$ for first 10 sales
for next 10-25 it might 100$
then it would be get higher like early bird tickets in expos, fairs.
If there are too much demand then we can say that price is fair.

[psybox]

the further details page gives a little more info. To be honest I think its a great idea, I hate they way other systems force you to use your billing software server to do the monitoring. This option is also very scalable and as a value add to clients (or paid service and new revenue) is nice, especially if it can be developed to show more (ie bandwidth / cacti / disk / memory etc) and we could look to ditch 3rd parties.

$400 ??  perhaps not, but I do like the idea.

http://hostbillapp.com/features/apps/hbmonitoring/

[tallship]

I like the idea, but I do agree the pricing is kind of high. I would say half is a right cost for me to buy this. What price does everyone else think would be fair?

It looks like crap, and doesn't make any sense to me. Why would someone pay for that? Anything at all?

This is how you set up your monitoring.  Create a monitoring server just like they say, only choose a distro that you like, prolly not CentOS unless you're going to use CactiEZ (which no longer includes NetFlow, so you have to install that).

Then set up the monitoring services for your customers. Charge them or not. set up SMS to multi/many whatev, and emails too, via Nagios or Zabbix, etc., generate tickets w/RT ==>> right into your HostBill ticketing system.

Fine if it was included, but still lacks any sort of real functionality and looks like crap. The method i described above can be an addon to existing services where they have all kinds of nice RRD graph and raw data, generates tickets if you like obo the client, sets up internal notifications if that's all you want.

I just don't get it. integration with hostbill is fine, but there's nothing there in that module. Monitoring means disk stats, network stats, cpu stats, yearly, monthly, weekly, hourly, realtime, etc., And some stuff requires installing an agent and/or enabling snmp on the client's VPSes too.

The only thing I saw there was just a stupid little graph showing up/down/up time.

And people are saying it's worth anything?

I'll be happy to set this sort of stuff up for people at that price. I'll include 5 initial systems, and all you have to do is create a new user account for your customers when you add the extra package to their monthly services, that way, they'll really be getting something for their money, and have lots of bells and whistles.

After those initial five systems, you'll know how to add more customers yourself or I can do it at 25 bucks a pop for the few minutes it will take me to set up new instances.

At least there was a link to actually see it at the beginning of the thread. I couldn't find it when I followed the links at the kbkp site.

[Patrick]

It looks like crap, and doesn't make any sense to me. Why would someone pay for that? Anything at all?

This is how you set up your monitoring.  Create a monitoring server just like they say, only choose a distro that you like, prolly not CentOS unless you're going to use CactiEZ (which no longer includes NetFlow, so you have to install that).

Then set up the monitoring services for your customers. Charge them or not. set up SMS to multi/many whatev, and emails too, via Nagios or Zabbix, etc., generate tickets w/RT ==>> right into your HostBill ticketing system.

Fine if it was included, but still lacks any sort of real functionality and looks like crap. The method i described above can be an addon to existing services where they have all kinds of nice RRD graph and raw data, generates tickets if you like obo the client, sets up internal notifications if that's all you want.

I just don't get it. integration with hostbill is fine, but there's nothing there in that module. Monitoring means disk stats, network stats, cpu stats, yearly, monthly, weekly, hourly, realtime, etc., And some stuff requires installing an agent and/or enabling snmp on the client's VPSes too.

The only thing I saw there was just a stupid little graph showing up/down/up time.

And people are saying it's worth anything?

At least there was a link to actually see it at the beginning of the thread. I couldn't find it when I followed the links at the kbkp site.

That's why i said the idea is there and i can appreciate the idea, but let's be realistic.  This was pulled out of thin air in what? 3 days?  No real tireless coding was done and i'm saying this without even seeing it.  No demo, no support, no beta, no real information on how it operations short of a cron that pings.  That's why i find the $400 price tag rather entertaining.  I'm only saying $50 is what i'd pay as a value added service to my customers for something very basic.

Come to think of it, i believe Hostbill is simply copying Ubersmith.  Anyone that has used ubersmith knows if you go in to your devices and view ICMP you will see your servers estimated uptime.  Very very basic stuff.

[psybox]

all you have to do is create a new user account for your customers

this is the selling point - the value I think HB are looking into, is that we would not have to give our clients yet another login
We currently use a icinga and setup server, vps etc for clients but it is just another hoop for them to go through. The value I will perceive is when the information shown in icinga / nagios etc is produced in HB.

Lets face it if billing, support, control panel (cpanel etc), vps control (onapp or solusvm etc) and monitoring can all be accessed within one login to HB then clients are going to be much happier.

Admittedly their monitoring bit falls fair short of this at the moment, but going forward could be great.

[tallship]

Admittedly their monitoring bit falls fair short of this at the moment, but going forward could be great.

I doubt that.

See?

[Patrick]

I doubt that.

See?

You forgot to mention it reached EOL before it even matured.  Before it even fully functioned... just to make a buck

[tallship]

Oh yeah, lol. My bad

[Patrick]

Oh yeah, lol. My bad

Damn right it's your bad, now you owe me two special brownies.  On a serious note, who wants to pay $75 to ask for a demo of this? lol