New on LowEndTalk? Please Register and read our Community Rules.
All new Registrations are manually reviewed and approved, so a short delay after registration may occur before your account becomes active.
All new Registrations are manually reviewed and approved, so a short delay after registration may occur before your account becomes active.
Is A Billing Portal Really Needed?
Alright, so I noticed almost every webhosting company has a billing portal such as WHMCS or similar, the question is, Is it really needed? Why not use PayPal's buttons they provide for websites? I noticed that whenever someone wants to start up a hosting company, WHMCS is a must-have for them. Why, is this? I know what a billing portal does, I've owned a hosting company before. However, I've realized that I can fully operate a host without such thing. Custom PayPal order form, PayPal sends invoices automatically. Respond to support requests via a support ticket desk software or via Email. Track orders manually.
Comments
you're forgetting about the automation of provisioning and ability for client to self-manage password resets, etc.
Is this a joke question?
Manual records and fragmented login services increase required man power with scale. Automation decreases required man power as a whole, and limits the required growth of that very costly thing. Therefore $15 could save you hundreds on your car insurance...I mean your company overhead.
@ctalkington I will not be doing automated provisioning and I do not plan doing so in the near future, as sometimes WHMCS can screw up. And once you send your client the server login details via Email, they can then change their password and much more. @jarland That is true.
@awson You are the joke, why would it be a joke question?
@Jeffrey said:
And how would you manage recurring billing and know when clients cancel a subscription on PayPal if there is one? Keep a huge excel list?
Even without automatic provisioning or integration of any kind a billing system is simply a must have. It will help you keep track of your customers and plans. An offline solution for a hosting provider makes no sense.
You need a billing system as it will make things such as tax, P&L, cash flow all so much easier. Also simply put what happens when you want to use something that isn't Paypal?
@patrivk yep, why not? @rghf almost everyone that makes purchases online has a Paypal account. and as far as outside paypal purchases go, i have a Paypal debit card and i have my paypal account linked up with my active bank account so i can easily transfer money
@fapvps it is not needed, but it makes things easier, which is not needed.
It would appear that you have made up you mind about billing systems. Simply from experience: For years I had local customers buy hosting services and design services from me and I really should have purchased a proper hosting billing system a long time even for internal use. I can't even imagine growing without one because it saves so much time that can be spend on other things related to your business.
@fapvps very true but i will not be using a billing system like whmcs, for now. i am implementing my own code at the moment, i have tested it and it works wonderfully
Sounds dangerous, make sure to get your code looked at by a security company...
Webhostingpad used to so that. But I think I caused enough fuss on my way out of that shithole provider they started using WHMCS
You would save a lot of time and thus money by just using a premade solution like whmcs instead of building it from scratch or by hand.
If your time is nothing worth, of course you can do it that way.
Just think about the time you would save.
Hey, if you write your own billing system that does what you want it to do then great. The $300 paid for WHMCS was money well spent. The fraud detection, promos, addons for products, support tickets, integration that will eventually be used.
Tha advantage of whmcs is that you can click a button and it creates a VPS rather than going through Solus manually which can be as buggy as hell. The other advantage is that clients don't need to mess around with seperate support when it can all be done in one place.
It just makes things easier.
@fapvps I can do all of that. And @dominicl So, you're implying that WHMCS doesn't have bugs?
Whmcs does have bugs, yes. However, it still makes things one hell of a lot easier
And when your business gets to 1000s of clients and you realise that your solution doesn't scale and your facing lengthy/costly data keying activities ?
If you can't afford $15/mo to keep your business organized, rethink your business plan.
@Jeffrey the title of this thread is a question. You've quite clearly already came to your own conclusion as to what you think the answer is and disagree with pretty much everything anybody is saying here.
The point you're making is that yes, you can do things without WHMCS, and strictly speaking it isn't NEEDED (in the sense that it's possible to function without).
The point everybody else is making is that functioning without WHMCS or an alternative is pointless as it'll just add time and money where it isn't necessary.
It's like saying "Is the human sensory system needed?". No, we don't NEED to be able to feel, see, hear, smell, taste etc. But it sure as hell makes a lot more sense to take the choice of having a sensory system than to choose not to if we had the opportunity to make that kind of decision.
You have your opinion and that's fine, but you're arguing for the sake of arguing. Just stop man.
@Microlinux I can most certainly afford WHMCS, however, I have already spent much time into building my current billing system. And @liamwithers I am not arguing with anyone, just sharing my opinion and thoughts, as, isn't every human allowed to share their opinion and thoughts on things? Also, please note that during this whole discussion thread, was all written after I knocked down like two strong Energy drinks, I wrote that thread in less than 40 seconds.
@Jeffrey so your question is "Is a billing portal really needed?" and you're trying to tell anybody that is isn't. Yet you've built your own billing portal? This thread is ridiculous.
+1. How can i LIKED and AGREED both?
)
What about HostBill?
Clearly he doesn't need it, he's made his own billing portal; he doesn't need the one he made either, apparently. :O (but he spent a lot of time making it)
Totally appropriate.
@Jeffery said: can most certainly afford WHMCS, however, I have already spent much time into building my current billing system
So you can afford an automated system that does everything you need, but you feel its better to come up with some bastardized manual system?
Sure.