Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!


Leap - Opensource BILLING software is looking for LET love
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.

Leap - Opensource BILLING software is looking for LET love

SaahibSaahib Host Rep, Veteran
edited January 2022 in General

Everyone here knows that WHMCS is menace, after their recent pricing blunder where they are almost trying to hush away small providers, lots of folks went to alternatives like Blesta, clientexec and even hostbill etc. But this guy went on creating his own alternative and he is good.

His words:

I know WHMCS enough including its many bugs, secrets, flaws and missing features. I >exactly know what are the needs of providers and have the required skills to complete this >project.

As you can see from the following paragraphs, I'm already working on things including >forming a team and getting people involved. We need as many developers, designers and providers as possible to speed up the process but not at this stage as it would quickly turn the project into a bland wishlist. In this moment I prefer to lay the foundations of Leap only counting on people that I personally know.

If you want to partecipate, watch and star this repository. I will provide more details in the following months.

Keep in mind that every open source and free software still needs a way to fund activities. I will be using Github sponsors and donations (free choice and not forced) but I will not enable them till the software reaches the acceptable level. I don't like asking money only based on my good intentions that still need to be proved.

If you are feeling like to have some high level WHMCS love , see his posts here:
https://katamaze.com/

His project Leap GIT Page :
https://github.com/Katamaze/Leap

This guy need some LET love.

Thanked by 1ankesh

Comments

  • skorupionskorupion Member, Host Rep

    Github code hasn't been updated for like 8 months

  • stefemanstefeman Member
    edited January 2022

    Not audited, one man show, author just wants to sell modules for it.

    Last active commit was over half a year ago. Credibility is on "dude, trust me" level.

    Nice project anyway, but by no means mature.

    Thanked by 1lentro
  • @skorupion said:
    Github code hasn't been updated for like 8 months

    +
    seems abandoned

  • SaahibSaahib Host Rep, Veteran

    He is not selling anything yet, not modules either. If you look closely, he wants to fund it completely through sponsors. Further he himself said this project will be kind of open for public once its in a usable state.

    May look abandon but already I can see hardwork, even README alone is quite comprehensive . And from point of view of developer, a project may years if its done in spare time. Further, this guy knows what he is doing, definitely it will take a some time, I suppose this POST may encourage him to give it some preference.

  • I only skimmed through the README, but it seems to contain some good ideas and plans at least, but that's about the only thing this project has so far.

    The code is practically empty. 99% of the files have been created and contain nothing besides filler code (I'm not counting the vendor folder, because those are 3rd party libraries).

    The only file I could find that seems to contain any kind of "logic" was in app/API/GetOrder.php and it's... not pretty.

  • TamerciagaTamerciaga Member, Host Rep

    While he is completely right about the current billing softwares (read WHMCS), I see too much issues already in his code.

  • FranciscoFrancisco Top Host, Host Rep, Veteran

    all the files are empty too...?

    They're all just stubs or am I mistaken?

    Francisco

  • The idea is good, however, the project is poorly designed and most of the files are blank

  • I live the idea even used some of his modules for whmcs pity poor support never got an answer.

  • edited January 2022

    In a world where database abstraction is a thing and handles SQL-related stuff I find it weird that they chose to go do it raw.

    The check() function in Auth.php returns yeah instead of what could have been a bool.

    I applaud the effort to write it in native PHP and raw SQL, but for something as sensitive as a billing system a reasonable developer would've thought to not reinvent the wheel and rely on a framework's built-in security instead.

  • @Decicus said:
    I only skimmed through the README, but it seems to contain some good ideas and plans at least, but that's about the only thing this project has so far.

    The code is practically empty. 99% of the files have been created and contain nothing besides filler code (I'm not counting the vendor folder, because those are 3rd party libraries).

    The only file I could find that seems to contain any kind of "logic" was in app/API/GetOrder.php and it's... not pretty.

    Holy shit that ultra massive join.

    It seems creator lost his interest as it is with 99% of projects. To compete with WHMCS one must comprehend that codebase is huge and physically write it alone is almost not possible without some kind of help.

    Thanked by 1exception0x876
  • I think developer pretty much abandoned the idea. He won't get any ROI/ROT from the project anyway. Open source is just way to exploit passionate people.

    Thanked by 1eris
  • @Boogeyman said:
    I think developer pretty much abandoned the idea. He won't get any ROI/ROT from the project anyway. Open source is just way to exploit passionate people.

    Well from the original message he had, it sounded like he was getting support from hosting companies that he's working with for this app. On top of his solicitation (in the future) for direct community support via Github Sponsor or similar financing models.

    But I think at the end of the day noone's going to sponsor the project until we see something. Currently it's just a vision. A good vision, but just a vision for now.

  • @HalfEatenPie said: Well from the original message he had, it sounded like he was getting support from hosting companies that he's working with for this app. On top of his solicitation (in the future) for direct community support via Github Sponsor or similar financing models.

    But I think at the end of the day noone's going to sponsor the project until we see something. Currently it's just a vision. A good vision, but just a vision for now.

    Even through sponsorship and community support he won't get that much money that he will get from closed source. It's like comparing billions with millions.

  • exception0x876exception0x876 Member, Host Rep, LIR

    @LTniger said:
    It seems creator lost his interest as it is with 99% of projects. To compete with WHMCS one must comprehend that codebase is huge and physically write it alone is almost not possible without some kind of help.

    True story, it is been a year since I started writing my own billing panel and it is still very WIP.

  • @exception0x876 said: True story, it is been a year since I started writing my own billing panel and it is still very WIP.

    I think instead of writing something from scratch fork any opensource project and start working on it as per your requirements.

  • @Boogeyman said:

    @exception0x876 said: True story, it is been a year since I started writing my own billing panel and it is still very WIP.

    I think instead of writing something from scratch fork any opensource project and start working on it as per your requirements.

    Working from scratch is half of a pleasure. For some people process is more important than finished product. I find very rewarding experience to discover something I previously didn't knew.

    Thanked by 1yoursunny
  • SaahibSaahib Host Rep, Veteran

    Don't know about that guys coding skill but he does have plenty of knowledge about hosting need and how a billing platform should be.

    It could be abandoned altogether or could simply be stalled for a while but with opensource you have chance to improve while you collaborate, he himself said , it could take years to make it usable. And as he came from WHMCS, may be he need to code cleaner and leaner.

  • This is similar to a project but i'm not going to talk about it, WHMCS from the beginning was a real project, and have alot of developments, There is any alternative provide the same quality , Even there are some modules not available in other projects, WHMCS is similar to Wordpress, But at the same time i hope we can find a real project with the same quality.

  • He shit on WHMCS and every other popular billing software... which would have been fine if he had some kind of MVP to present... but the repo is practically empty.

    Thanked by 1corbpie
  • yoursunnyyoursunny Member, IPv6 Advocate
    if (panel.prototype.paymentMethods.includes("pushups")) {
      use(panel);
    } else {
      forget(panel);
    }
    
  • deankdeank Member, Troll

    @Boogeyman said:
    It's like comparing billions with millions.

    More akin to billions with ten thousand.

    Thanked by 1Boogeyman
  • @Boogeyman said:

    Even through sponsorship and community support he won't get that much money that he will get from closed source. It's like comparing billions with millions.

    Well of course. But that's getting into the dynamics of Open Source software development vs Closed Source software development financing models and how much control the author has vs how much control the funding company has vs etc. Also, that's assuming the author could secure funding from companies to build that closed source product.

    Regardless, it was the author's decision to rely on that initially and then open up community support as it continues to get flushed out. The fact that there's no github sponsors option available shows that the author knows that it's currently not in a state to solicit community support, or maybe their decision has changed.

    Regardless, there are many people who have "ideas". There aren't as many people who actually have built something based off of their idea. I'm willing to support and fund more projects once they have a better MVP available. You'll find this true with most funding mediums.

Sign In or Register to comment.