New Billing Model for HostBill

[BRJP]

Dear All,

We have just noticed a new billing model from HostBill. 

Modules and Orderpages are now sold in bundles at around $999 - https://hostbillapp.com/list-features/
You can now buy 'editions' that are focused on your industry from $999 to $4999 - https://hostbillapp.com/order/
You can only purchase support in a bundle of 50 tickets at $999.

I look forward to hearing community comments on this latest change.

[lowprofile]

Oh noo... not again... 

[Enterprisevpssolutions]

Hope its not a money issue. At least whmcs and I believe another billing platform have migration scripts. Really what is the deal.

[nibb]

I just found this, I wanted to buy another 99$ module (which are gone now) and just stopped right there when I saw you cant. He now forces you to buy the whole pack for 999$ but wait, I already have most of other modules....in the same pack. Why would I want to pay again for all of them?

For the first time in years he had a proper model in terms of customization to what people needs and now he screwed it again. If he is going to force people buying a whole pack because they need one single module why doesn't he just go back to the previous model of no modules at all?

I mean for what exactly did he separated things into modules if you cannot buy one? One module? For what? His whole model change that lasted over 2 years was useless now if you cannot just buy the module you want. Why does he not just put everything into one pack again and call it software....

He should just go back to the license of everything included or nothing. It seems this is another trick to get more money out of existing customers, because now if you just want one module you are forced to re-buy everything again. Do you see the catch?

Let me explain, if he launches a new module and puts its under monitoring pack, you need to buy the whole pack. If he then launches another module under monitoring which you want, but has actually nothing to do with monitoring you need to buy the WHOLE pack AGAIN. So you paid twice now to get one single new stuff.

So you are basically re-paying everything two time, 3 times, 4 times, etc.

He advertises no recurring fees and this is exactly that. For us old users this is just screwing us. Example I wanted the time feature on the tickets, which is supposed to be included in the ticket module and I was told I need to rebuy the module. I wanted to buy the Pinddom module and need to buy the whole pack even when I have one of that already.

So hostbill is not the most expensive software of all of now because everytime you need something you will be forced to pay 999$ and since we did not get the new features, it means you are paying 999$ again if you need something new. This is just a rip off model completely. He did it again.

Why in the hell can´t he just keep one model and stick with it? Why does he not just charge a recurring yearly update fee if he wants income from the almost none customers he is left? Ah wait, he does not because he advertises Hostbill as no recurring fees and that is a lie, you are just forced to pay again and again for the same thing you already own. That is even worse than a recurring fee. And for a software without support...

Now the reason he does not charge recurring fees is because nobody would be so stupid to pay something without support.

What kind of commercial software completely encoded, nothing is open and you cannot customize anything does not offer support? Well Hostbill and the only reason some still use it was because he updates the software with features and it has no recurring fees. But thats it, nothing else, I cannot say its stable or everything works either, and since he remove the bug tracker, which actually I was going to buy as well you cannot even report bugs. I did not purchased that because if he remove it from his own site, I guess its not going to get developed anymore or it has some real problem.

Well, it seems this game of changing models is going to keep on for years, on my part like I said before, I´m already planning on creating my own system, I´m not going to pay 999$ each time I want a module. I would just go with ubersmith if I want something expensive, at least that ones does not have bugs. And since he removed the bug tracker I´m actually very pissed off since I had over 100+ nasty bugs which where unreported and now I cannot even track if they are going to be fixed or not since you cannot report bugs anymore its makes it an expensive buggy software.

Blesta on the other part is looking more and more better and WHMCS which everything said could not compete with Hostbill in features, I was just looking and it has more and more features now, it has cPanel DNS module from commercial party, one cloud provider I was looking is also there. And it has over 130+ modules is we go that route now:
https://www.whmcs.com/appstore/4/Provisioning-Modules

It has Citrix, and it has almost everything else Hostbill had. The only reason why I purchased Hostbill was because it had some of this advanced integrations WHMCS was lacking but this seems to be the end now. WHMCS is still missing some rack/datacenter features, but so far its impressing how many new module and integrations they have, way over hostbill and eventually Hostbill will not be even left to compete since the features is the only thing they had, and now WHCMS also has them. And I assume they are not buggy and actually WORK.

To be honest it seems Hostbill is in deep troubles now that WHCMS is opened itself to third party commercial integrations. Hostbill was stupid enough to close the developing of things for its software and WHCMS did exactly the opposite. One single developer will never be able to compete vs the whole world. How many modules, registrars, plugins does WHCMS has now?

Over 500 !!!!

I need the Pingdom feature. Wait:
https://www.whmcs.com/appstore/1814/HTB-Pingdom-WHMCS.html

I need the Xenserver feature, wait:
https://www.whmcs.com/appstore/249/Citrix-XenServer-Module-Xenica.html

I need the DNS features, wait there are to choose in every color and flavor....
https://www.whmcs.com/appstore/698/cPanel-DNS-Manager-Module-for-WHMCS.html

The only thing I deeply regret is that when I trialed WHCMS, I did this because Hostbill had not importer from my other billing software and WHCMS did, so I imported into WHCMS first and them imported into Hostbill, the only thing I regret is the almost 1000$ I spend so far in Hostbill for a software that seems to be dead without future.

Now I have lost this money and I will probably have to repurchase everything in WHCMS if I ever go that route instead of developing my own stuff. But why re-invent the wheel, in particular if the other options are not even expensive.

[Enterprisevpssolutions]

Well said http://www.modulesgarden.com/ has some nice modules for hostbill and they have a import script that will import the software for you. Hostbill does need to change but it seems your crys and complaints fall on def ears.

[nibb]

Yes, the modulesgarden seems very nice, example the IP manager is way better than Hostbill, at least from the screenshots and descriptions and it costs a bit more than 100$ and 500$ for the open code version, not 999$.

Thanks for that tip! One thing less to look for.

I asked for example to let you do something as simple as export IPs out to Hostbill once from IPAM. I was just looking the modulesgarden and not only it has that (which is something very logic to build into an IP management product) but it also is way better build than hostbill.

Now, actually most of the WHCMS modules build by third parties are nicer build and with more features, updates and support included. The nice options about this is that you don´t only have 1 choice but several. Example, modulesgarden also has a DNS module, there are so many different DNS modules to choose from, this means if one does not work for you in the future you can switch. Same for support tickets, or chat, or anything else. There are plenty of commercial products that integrate with WHMCS.

How long until someone builds an OnApp or Cloudstack module for it? Then Hostbill will be in troubles.

[BRJP]

Well said http://www.modulesgarden.com/ has some nice modules for hostbill and they have a import script that will import the software for you.

I thought modulesgarden stopped producing modules as HostBill stopped allowing this?  I also cannot see any HB modules on their site - is that what you meant?

[nibb]

I thought modulesgarden stopped producing modules as HostBill stopped allowing this?  I also cannot see any HB modules on their site - is that what you meant?

I was referring to the WHMCS modules.

Ah and wait, Cloudstack is also there for WHCMS:
http://www.getcloudservices.com/hosting-providers/cloudstack-whmcs-module.html

About looks, you have this:
https://www.whmcsdesigns.com/

Does not look bad either.

[nibb]

Oh noo... not again... 

Don´t worry, knowing hostbill it will change in a few days or weeks again. Lets see what is tried next. So far:

Owned licenses with updates: Done

Owned licenses without updates: Done

Free version: Done for some hours

Lite version, Professional, Enterprise: Done

Separated all modules and only sold core: Done

Sold core packages with some modules, everything else as extra: Done

Now are on the pack of modules face...

If you think about it there is not much else he can try. The only think he did not tried yet is charge per user/account, etc. That will finish it or go to a complete recurring model. If he does this, which I think he can´t then not sure what else they will try.

One of the forums posters here made a valid point on why they are not charging recurring fees at all. I think its not because they don´t want but they can´t. Hostbill is in Europe and it seems legally you have to provider customer care or support for leasing or recurring products. And since that is what they don´t want to do, give support, then try all this models to see what sticks.

Don´t worry, it will probably change 3 or 4 times again this year. I´m actually not taking attention anymore to the prices changes.

[Enterprisevpssolutions]

LOL Yes I was showing that hostbill doesn't have much going for it for the new versions to many bugs and now the prices again. whmcs is great but has lots of security issues.

[nibb]

Yes I was thinking the same but then again, how many people use for example Hostbill and how many people use WHMCS?

If you think about it, its normal that more security bugs and issues will be reported to the last one as its widely more popular. Its like saying Mac is secure, Windows is not. The real deal is that nobody writes malware for Mac which is another story, not that is more secure. Same with Linux, example Android has malware and is Linux based, Windows Phone has none. Again the reason is because one is widely used and the other not.

So is really WHCMS more insecure? They both use smarty templates are very similar in the setups, even features if you look are very, very similar, its like Hostbill is an improved WHCMS since some options are exactly the same. Actually I think that Hostbill does has security bugs but nobody even bothers to report them anymore, why would you help a software that does not give you anything in return? I know for a fact allot of bugs and even some security bugs which where not reported to Hostbill developers anymore for the reason they don´t like to work with them anymore.

So is Hostbill really more secure? Or WHMCS insecure? Not sure to be honest.

But yes WHMCS had its deal of security issues. We have to be honest about that, in the good side there are more developers eyes looking at WHCMS every day so chances they discover new security bugs is higher, that makes the software overfall more secure with time, but at the same time, right now because its popular its also a widely attacked software.

WHCMS did had horrible security issues, that is correct. And I think security in a billing software is top priority. So far Hostbill has a good track on fixing security issues which is a plus.

[Fusionhost]

If they do many more changes the company and Kris are likely to get sued.