What's actually included in the hostbillapp license?

[joe5]

Hi,

I'm thinking about actually investing in HostBill since it looks like a solid solution for many things.
But the price-model seems rather uncertain and I'd like to get some clearifications on that.

If I commit myself to buying the "Owned, No-Branded, HostBill License" for 600USD, what exactly does that entitle me to?

I still have to pay ~$50-$100 yearly for updates, thats perfectly fine.

But what about all the additional modules? Are those additional costs for every module I want to try or are they included in the Owned license? That part seems a little bit confusing.

Best regards,
Joe Heckner

[electric]

Well, first of all... you should probably spend a few minutes longer reading the posts on these forums.  Anyone who wants to purchase and use hostbill is downright crazy and is risking their business with software that is developed and owned by the worst business person in the world who cares not even a single thought about his customers, and has zero morals and zero ethics.

That being said... if you absolutely insist on throwing away your money, and suffering from great heartache after you get eventually screwed by Kris (hostbill owner)... here's the answers to your question:

- You get only the basic core part of hostbill.  Nothing else.  The bugs are included for free.  Regression testing is not included.
- If you want to actually have any functionality, you must purchase modules.  Each module costs additional money. 

NOTE:  It is not possible to purchase modules from 3rd party developers, because Kris is an idiot and he has disallowed this.  If you want "feature xyz" that doesn't exist... you will need to purchase it exclusively from Kris.  If there is a bug or problem, you will need to wait until Kris fixes it.  It might be a week, but many people here have been waiting a lot longer for bug fixes that never come.

NOTE 2:  You are crazy if you purchase this software. 

[electric]

BTW - it looks like Kris has once again change his pricing and policy.

It is now $99 to contact him just to ask a pre-sales question.   

Now there is no yearly support/renewal fee:

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!

What a moron.  So now he has removed ALL forms of recurring income from his business.  I can hardly wait until next week when the price is going to go back to $999 and he will start charging to view pages of his website.

Oh, you want to see what is included in the software?  That is $2.  lol.

[Cloudrck]

What a moron.  So now he has removed ALL forms of recurring income from his business.  I can hardly wait until next week when the price is going to go back to $999 and he will start charging to view pages of his website.

I actually spit coffee on my keyboard, thanks.

[CBlade]

This is a big question, i cant find anywhere a list of features besides the text in order page "Full HostBill functionality" obviously this is for a reason, if you want a feature list, pay $99, and they want unaware people to buy hostbill thinking that is really "Full, for me this is a scam!

The pre-sales question cost same as FULL Blesta, KBKP its a mercenary outlaw company or what?

[Cloudrck]

The bigger question is why are people still supporting Hostbill?

[electric]

The bigger question is why are people still supporting Hostbill?

As the saying goes:   "There's a sucker born every minute".

Or this one:  "The world is full of stupid people."

And my favorite:  "It's good enough.  What could possibly go wrong?"

[Lawrence]

Let's not be so negative, HostBill still includes a lot of functionality.

Joe, there's no renewal fees anymore. The good news is most of the modules are still included in HostBill (The functionality), but clients after version 4.6.0 will not receive all the new orderpages. (Templates of the software)

You'll get all the billing features, all the main functionality of HostBill, and most of everything except for order pages / designs.

[tallship]

  The bugs are included for free.

OMFG! That is so funny... uh, wait. That's not funny! that's true!

[sth-chris]

OMFG! That is so funny... uh, wait. That's not funny! that's true!

Yeah, I laughed on that one too.

[electric]

The truth is that nobody here knows exactly what is included and what is not included since we all purchased our licenses BEFORE the moron owner of Hostbill (Kris) made the major change in policy and pricing and announced his "shop" where you must purchase any desired functionality/modules/plugins/order pages.

So the ONLY way you will find out the answer to your question is by either purchasing the software and then seeing what you got in the box... or why sending $99 to Kris to ask him.

Good luck.

[Paul]

Yes, billing features, so that you can MANUALLY provision or do anything related to hosting. He is selling a shopping cart system now. Except, it has no session control or actual cart functionality (remember me complaining about this long ago).

Any module to do any cPanel or other provisioning costs extra. Any Order Pages cost extra. Any support costs extra.

evil evil man.

[UCG_Keith]

Let's not be so negative, HostBill still includes a lot of functionality.

Joe, there's no renewal fees anymore. The good news is most of the modules are still included in HostBill (The functionality), but clients after version 4.6.0 will not receive all the new orderpages. (Templates of the software)

You'll get all the billing features, all the main functionality of HostBill, and most of everything except for order pages / designs.

Lawrence, I am not trying to offend you or anyone else regarding Hostbill; but lets look at reality; this company has pretty much locked down all opportunity for a logical, smart business owner from buying their software.  There isn't even a list of the "Full functions"

Hostbill has more bugs in place that have not been fixed in a long time, Hostbill is removed their public forum whereby the community can talk amongst each other and was even recommended by Hostbill on their website.

There is some very questionable policies and changes that are taking place on almost a daily basis; most changes are the restriction of services.  Finally, they have removed the ability for in house and other developers to utilize API's or develop in-house modules.

I "wish" that this was not happening; I wish that this application is EOL.  I wonder sometimes if many of us make statements hoping that Kris will "see his ways"  I do too, but we are business owners and we have to look at our clients and our business - is all of this drama worth the risk on not being able to support our clients?

Cheers!
Keith

[Patrick]

Let's not be so negative, HostBill still includes a lot of functionality.

Joe, there's no renewal fees anymore. The good news is most of the modules are still included in HostBill (The functionality), but clients after version 4.6.0 will not receive all the new orderpages. (Templates of the software)

You'll get all the billing features, all the main functionality of HostBill, and most of everything except for order pages / designs.

I'm not sure if you know something i'm not seeing on their site but no modules are included anymore, (nothing that creates a functionality within hostbill).  Hostbill is sold as a framework and you MUST purchase modules to use it to any of it's previous ability.  No provisioning modules are included, 4 of the oldest order pages are included and the pricing page describes under $599 price tag that it includes "FULL HOSTBILL FUNCTIONALITY". 

I mean there is nothing really positive at this time.  By this time on a Friday, we'd be receiving our weekly update with new features and bug fixes.  If you notice, still no update as of right now.  I'm more concerned over your business, my business and everyone else's business than i am KBKP Software. 

[Lawrence]

No, I understand where everyone is coming from but aren't the following features still included?

- All payment modules
- Most provisioning modules
- Other various modules not yet listed in the software store.
- Most domain management modules

I know a lot was taken out, but there's still a good bit of functionality left.

[edit]

I could also be wrong, I haven't tried to install the new version of HostBill. (I don't have access to the trimmed down version)