Hostbill Enterprise Edition

[Patrick]

Anyone care to explain what the f**k this is?  The version we're all using is "Can be installed on shared host".  I sure as mother darn am not on a shared host, so does this mean we're no longer able to update without screwing ourselves? 

I swear, this guy thinks he's some fortune 500 company with the power and reputation to sell enterprise software.  The dude has gone far far beyond the deep end right now and i have no idea what the difference in enterprise version is or ours

[Lawrence]

I'm confused myself. Kris, I know you're reading this, you need to do the following.

1. Be more "OPEN" and explain your changes.
2. Explain to your clients WHY you're making such changes.

By not doing the two above, you're creating an unstable environment and confusing all your users.

I see 100's of job postings in the past week ALONE for KBKP Software S.C. all over the internet, but there doesn't seem to be any real progress going on. You're losing what little competitive edge you once had against WHMCS, ClientExec, BoxBilling, and Blesta.

If clients weigh their options against HostBill and Ubersmith, they will choose Ubersmith. (Competing against Ubersmith is NOT your forte.

The two requests above are not difficult.

[Paul]

what on earth... really? a hosting company running billing software on a shared host. someone's going to be selling what while they run a $600 software on $5/month shared hosting?

The only real change I see here is the Bi-weekly updates versus weekly. Which, if he's making the updates anyways, is just screwing the "non-enterprise" people for no reason of updates they likely need to fix bugs.

Really just looks like a scam to put the word "enterprise" in it and get some corporate idiots to pay more based on deceit. And "max performance/async processing"? Is the other version getting slowed down? Did he optimize his code, and instead of improving the product as a whole he decided, charge for it! Because he's on a binge of charging for every little thing he codes now. I've never seen a developer go this insane before, and I have some nutty developer friends!

And I shudder to think about what code might have been introduced to detect and do something to installations running on shared hosting versus VPS/dedi.

Needless to say, I'm not updating tomorrow.

Or is what we have the enterprise? I feel like our version is getting deprecated more and more, when we should be rewarded more and more for being "early" adopters that helped him even grow as a business. can't get no respect.

[tallship]

Kris, I know you're reading this, you need to do the following.

Stop smoking crack!

LMAO!

[Patrick]

what on earth... really? a hosting company running billing software on a shared host. someone's going to be selling what while they run a $600 software on $5/month shared hosting?

The only real change I see here is the Bi-weekly updates versus weekly. Which, if he's making the updates anyways, is just screwing the "non-enterprise" people for no reason of updates they likely need to fix bugs.

Really just looks like a scam to put the word "enterprise" in it and get some corporate idiots to pay more based on deceit. And "max performance/async processing"? Is the other version getting slowed down? Did he optimize his code, and instead of improving the product as a whole he decided, charge for it! Because he's on a binge of charging for every little thing he codes now. I've never seen a developer go this insane before, and I have some nutty developer friends!

And I shudder to think about what code might have been introduced to detect and do something to installations running on shared hosting versus VPS/dedi.

Needless to say, I'm not updating tomorrow.

Or is what we have the enterprise? I feel like our version is getting deprecated more and more, when we should be rewarded more and more for being "early" adopters that helped him even grow as a business. can't get no respect.

And just think, fans of hostbill on WHT would still defend this.  Like you said, when we update did he introduce some extra code that creates a loop to slow down sql queries?  This whole premise is so unbelievably illegal not only in NA but in Poland too.  How the hell do we know what version we "old" customers have.

I'm not sure if this was shared or not, i also don't want to say who showed me this so if you want to say I, by all means but i'm leaving names out until to avoid them feeling any discomfort or possible license issues for sharing this with me.  I believe this is important information.

http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1034&context=lawfirms

[UCG_Keith]

Great find Patrick!  We were actually Kaliningrad (a little Russian country between Poland and Lithuania) as we are expanding our datacenter footprint in that area.  The geographical and cost consideration was the reason for the initial desire; however, there were a lot of deciding factors against that entire region.

Interesting information as I read through the article (e.g. pages 23-24 really stood out)

[Patrick]

So who wants to open a license ticket and find out what c rappy version of hostbill we all have and on that note, who is going to dare upgrade to today version?  Not I.

[Speedy059]

"Max performance / async processing" - It doesn't limit itself to PHP? Can someone explain what this is all about? Is there a 2nd version in Java or something?

[Lawrence]

"Max performance / async processing" - It doesn't limit itself to PHP? Can someone explain what this is all about? Is there a 2nd version in Java or something?

Kris is having issues maintaining his current product, so it doesn't make sense to me why he would launch another one. I just wish he would explain things a bit more.

[Patrick]

Kris is having issues maintaining his current product, so it doesn't make sense to me why he would launch another one. I just wish he would explain things a bit more.

That's the part i don't understand at all.  Does this mean he's coding twice?  Is he making a mess of the "lower tier" to slow it down? as he copy and pastes?  It's very confusing why someone would try and maintain 6 different versions of the same software.  Considering we don't get the same updates for live chat or other modules as customers who buy them today would.  So two versions there.

All this could be solved if the guy had the balls to come online and talk to people.  The fact he doesn't care to surprises me.

[sth-chris]

Due to all of the bugs being introduced into every upgrade, I've stopped upgrading about 5 updates ago. It's running (as best as possible) for now. When I see things like this (max performance, etc. in a "new version") it makes me wonder if that next upgrade will introduce some deliberate code to screw up my software. All of this is really disheartning, and frankly, I'm very close to closing down and get out of hosting all together.

[tallship]

Oh don't do that Chris. Even if you go static there's still value to add for any existing customers you have and what works well today is likely to work just as well tomorrow and the next day.

Yes, this is disheartening... well it's more than that. It's sickening, and all of us here - whether they admit it or not - are feeling the same pain.

Next years technological breakthrough might not be something that you'll be able to implement with HostBill - especially if you don't u/g because of doubts pertaining to stability or operability, but just take a big breath for a second and think, in another year there will be all kinds of alternatives - and that list will likely include this one here too: http://whsuite.com/

[Lawrence]

in another year there will be all kinds of alternatives - and that list will likely include this one here too: http://whsuite.com/

Thanks for the information and the link.

[Patrick]

Yeah i've been following them for a while now.  They look like a incredibly serious contender b y the looks of the screenshots.  I'm pretty stoked to see what comes out of it.