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do I continue using blesta or shift to whmcs? Please read before reply :)
Hi guys I currently am using blesta and have had thoughts of moving to whmcs for a few days now. I've been using a pretty random theme for my front page and default theme blesta and a few have told me it doesn't look trustworthy so I decided to buy a theme but noticed the cheapest theme is nearly 59$ and it had a promo so I was considering to get the theme (it had a front page built in) to replace my sketchy front page website but my sys admin jumps in and says stop and doesn't even respond after that lol so anyways I've been thinking again about moving to whmcs as I've always been more comfortable with it and I already have bought a whmcs theme in the past for much cheaper and its ready to use the thing is that I just renewed blesta last week so I was having second thoughts of either waiting and migrating or buying a theme now, either way I'd be spending money and I felt like
"If I was ready to spend 47$ on a theme, I should be ready to spend 15$ to get whmcs"
Okay now you might be thinking, "15 dollars!??". yes you heard me 15$, I was thinking to get it from asurahosting, I've used them before and have liked their hosting. Now that would require me to move to their host as whmcs resellers can only sell whmcs to clients hosted with them and I'm scared something would break like email records and past emails and etc.
Okay so back to the topic so basically
- I buy the theme on blesta
- I wait and migrate to whmcs at the end of the billing period of my current blesta license
- I migrate now to not waste any time.
Why did this situation appear?
The thing is that I've been paying for advertisement at places recently and as mentioned a few have said it doesn't look trustworthy and one said "it doesn't really inspire me as a potential client to buy hosting from you but that's just my opinion."
That really made me decide between shifting to whmcs (as I already have a whmcs theme and its much comfortable for me, admin dashboard/management wise) or buying a 47$ blesta theme thats pretty great and can replace my bad front page website.
Now I am a bit sketchy about importing/migrating to whmcs as there could be some issues and we all know not everything would be migrated even tho I haven't got much on my blesta.
I was thinking to just buy the theme but again a lot of money would be spent on that and my advertising budget would decrease and I kinda don't want to work on everything again on the whmcs theme if I move to whmcs as the whmcs theme is pretty detailed and so much to edit while the blesta theme is a simple drop and use with bare minimum to edit on the front page code.
I normally would give the task to my sys admin friend who operates the host with me but he has been pretty busy lately so I feel staying with blesta would be a better choice, I'm just afraid of feeling regretful of the decision in future.
Do let me know on your opinion.
Comments
The worst staying with Blesta now is you'll lose $47, even if you later changed your mind and switched to WHMCS. So staying for now isn't a bad option.
In my sight, it looks like just UI/Interface was big issue here, nothing against program itself. I dont know how customizeable blesta than WHMCS, but consider you, I assume aleardy got some theme would be using on blesta. Stick on blesta would be great option and have worry-free about migrate and still have familiar administration stuff
I don't understand how a template will make it more reliable.
if you tell me that you want to change to whmcs, maybe because blesta doesn't work well, or has some bug, or doesn't have the option you are looking for, maybe i can understand it.
but to make the change for a template that according to you will give more credibility to the client, I don't see the sense in it.
imho, both are equally shitty solutions...
Even with a blesta template, I don't think it will change anything; use the software in which you are more comfortable; I have tried Clientexec, Blesta, and whmcs as well, and will definitely recommend using whmcs. If you are serious with your business and have little bigger budget then the second option is hostbill.
What is a better option?
hostbill
Are you seriously considering to migrate your hosting to save $47? Do you not value the time you spend working at all?
For $47 you would get about 20 minutes of my time (well, not really, because I would bill you for a full hour, but you get the point). If migrating takes more than 20 minutes I would not even consider it.
You like HostBill better than WHMCS?
Thing is that I have a .in domain and when I myself encounter Indian hosts with a template that looks sketchy, I too would skip on that. I just was too late to realise that until some people made comments on it.
Also a template would kinda boost the mood of a potential client.
For example, As a template lover myself, I can't stand to use pterodactyl unless a good template was applied to it.
Ya I feel like it's better to stay with blesta
Not saying Hostbill is better than whmcs, but considering the price paid per month to whmcs, having a lifetime license with more features included will be a better option.
What do you like about HostBill more than WHMCS?
Without considering pricing, would you rate HostBill to be on par with WHMCS?
The entire system is designed better than WHMCS, especially if you're an EU business.
I will go with whmcs then
WHMCS gets spendy once you grow, something to consider.
Business License Tier Max. Active Clients Pricing
Business 1000 Up to 1,000 $59.95/mo
Business 2500 Up to 2,500 $129.95/mo
Business 5000 Up to 5,000 $224.95/mo
Business 10000 Up to 10,000 $374.95/mo
Why would it be better if you’re an EU business?
As for Blesta, I have very few invoices being generated so I’ll handle, but something that I’ve noticed (but haven’t played around with too much) is that PENDING invoices seem to have an invoice ID
At least in Sweden, invoices have to be generated by increments of 1. I can’t send invoices in some weird random order. Blesta’s way of giving invoices an ID before they’re confirmed (sent) could really cause major headaches if it works like I think it does..
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I was refering to hostbill being better, definitely not blesta.
Regarding to your issue, I believe WHMCS can do the increment too. I know for sure hostbill does.
If I'm not mistaken, you can use the pro-forma system in Sweden too. The pro-forma works like a draft. If not paid, then isnt taken into account like a real invoice.
I know, the rest of it was just my contribution to the thread in general.
I'm honestly not too sure, but, invoices definitely can't be generated with ID's that aren't in order as they stick (even after payment)
So Blesta's way of invoicing is quite weird
Yeah... may be...
I had an attempt on using Blesta... bought hostbill license after 30 minutes of "how the f**k do I do this?!"
Out of interest, does hostbill ever generate ID's for invoices before they're sent out?
If not, might give it a try.
Well, yeah, it has to. But that's why I told you about proforma billing scheme.
All invoices have a DB ID that you use to identify the invoice in *SQL. However, a final invoice ID (the one you declare at your tax authority), is only applied after invoice is paid in full.
Screenshot: https://ibb.co/c6wZGwN
Seems Blesta has this too, I’ve just never known the word to lookup… thanks!!
Does HostBill have the full feature set found in WHMCS?
Sounds like what you really need is to stop using the billing platform as the front face of your business site. Move the billing platform to subdomain, design a simple header/footer to somewhat match your main "frontend" site. Make your main "frontend" something easy to customize and look professional like WordPress. Bingo bongo, now the garbo billing platform design isn't an issue. You can cut out a bunch of what's not needed in the billing platform, redirect a lot of the unused pages like the homepage so everything on the billing side is just cart/checkout/accounts. The "shop" can be setup on your front facing site... So many companies do it this way and it's so much easier to have a nice frontend/backend. Plus, all the billing panel templates are either half garbage or look cheap or end up riddled with security vulns. If you run the billing as a subdomain then you can just use a default theme, lightly tweak it to suit, totally remove 99% of potential future issues.
Yup. For me is even more.
This is the way to go, I could not agree more.
Frontend site should be about design and look, billing and panel is about functionality and usability, and often they do not mix easily.
Do not interpret this as "backend does not need design at all" or vice versa, it is about priorities. Frontend should have design and look as top priorities but of course still have functionality, while backend have functionality as top but still should be well designed.
So I basically bought a front page template long ago and forgot about it, I just updated my front page.
What do you think?
I might still consider the theme cuz my client aka billing website still looks too bland/plain/boring.