WHMCS increasing prices again, alternatives?

LosPollosHermanos

Got an email today saying my WHMCS license price is going up. What does everyone think about this?

My only complaint with WHMCS from a technical standpoint is they keep making large changes to the templates which makes updating all my customizations quite the hassle each time I upgrade the version.

None of the new features they are adding really do anything for us so I don't benefit from any of that. They are flogging a lot of 3rd party paid apps more and more. That seems to be what most of the template changes are about which makes it that much more annoying.

markd

WHMCS has became so greedy. They know people won’t switch from them. Here’s the pricing changes: https://assets.whmcs.com/customer-licensing-guide-2021.pdf

Tr33n

Good for Blesta. WHMCS will now slowly die.

jar

Fuck their parent company and the horse they rode in on.

qps

They are killing off owned licenses as well.

https://www.whmcs.com/members/index.php/knowledgebase/333/Support-and-Updates.html

Zare

We don't use WHMCS on Zare but we do on nitrous networks. Pricing is going from $39.95/mo to $174.95/mo. Bit ridiculous..

NobodyInteresting

Well... It is a very important part of a hosting business, so it should be alright I suppose.

NetDynamics24

ClientExec was our choice and we do not regret it.

LosPollosHermanos

I am tempted to just code my own billing from scratch on Laravel. Using Laravel Cashier you are already half way there.

https://laravel.com/docs/8.x/billing

Or use Laravel Spark where the billing is already integrated. Just need to add the server hosting hooks.

https://spark.laravel.com/

Ian_Dot_Tech

Nice glad my owned license is officially worthless.
Back in the day, the reason for buying an owned license was over the course of 4 years it would pay itself off. Glad now that it's been the point for us, it's officially dead.

I would really love to explore other options for LOS to leave WHMCS billing panel-wise, it's unfortunate WHMCS is still the best.

LTniger

Competitors will increase their prices as well. Start coding your own solution if your business plan is long term.

Alternatives (5+ years in industry, proven track, adopted by market, used by customers):

• BillManager https://www.ispsystem.com/software/billmanager
• HostbillApp
• Clientexec
• Blesta

Insanely shady || low grade products:

• https://hopebilling.com/
• https://www.wisecp.com/
• https://billingfox.net
• https://www.boxbilling.com/
• http://citrusdb.org/ this one still alive

Ultra high end solutions a.k.a "you can dream for it":

• https://www.zuora.com/
• https://www.atomia.com/home/
• https://fleio.com/ -- this is new one, 0 reputation
• https://ubersmith.com/

WSCallum

Absolutely crazy pricing for any large companies that use WHMCS, if you're below 1k active clients the pricing change is not incredibly significant at all, but if you have over 100k active clients you'll go from paying $40 a month now to $1.3k a month from July...

Bonkers!

jar

$299/m is a nice budget to have to find a replacement, and that's the budget they've forced me to assign up to. Probably Blesta, but there's some time to make sure the right choice is made.

jh

@LTniger said: https://www.wisecp.com/

Why do you say insanely shady? I looked at it a while back and it looks ok.

@qps said: They are killing off owned licenses as well.

Email today: "You will not be able to purchase or renew support for your owned WHMCS license effective immediately".

@LosPollosHermanos said: I am tempted to just code my own billing from scratch on Laravel. Using Laravel Cashier you are already half way there.

https://laravel.com/docs/8.x/billing

Or use Laravel Spark where the billing is already integrated. Just need to add the server hosting hooks.

https://spark.laravel.com/

This looks good!

Tr33n

@jh said: Why do you say insanely shady?

He probably says that because WiseCP made a fool of themselves on LET.

Nyr

@LTniger said: https://fleio.com/ -- this is new one, 0 reputation

I would not say zero reputation as it is from the IntoVPS/Hosterion group. It should be a decent product and relatively safe from abusive stakeholders. RamNode uses it.

dedicados

i have an owned license, is possible to sell it? i am not using it.

Lee

After everything with cPanel this is more a case of you're kidding right? If you did not see this coming.

JamesF

They have ended support addon for owned

Eased

Oakley Capital strikes again!

jar

@Lee said:
After everything with cPanel this is more a case of you're kidding right? If you did not see this coming.

The only thing I didn’t see coming was the amount of notice given. They’re giving very adequate time to move considering this is a much smaller data set than any provider would have stored under cPanel.

deank

Indirect notices were given. I mean the writing had been on the wall.

rustelekom

Billmanager unfortunately going same way - price was increased for lot just fe3w weeks ago...

JamesF

I have a Blesta License ready, but they haven't fixed the Gocardless module to take varied payments each month like a normal direct debit.

I have been waiting around 1 year for this.

I also want xero integration, but am happy to pay.

risturiz

Where is the "Blesta Feedback Thread!"?

yoursunny

@dedicados said:
i have an owned license, is possible to sell it? i am not using it.

I'll offer 7 push-ups for your WHMCS owned license.
Without support, this is as much as it's worth.
For reference, 7 push-ups roughly equal half a backpack or an expiring .top domain name.

Alex_Clientexec

I think it is safe to say a price increase was expected, but completely killing owned is a shocker.

@NetDynamics24 said: ClientExec was our choice and we do not regret it.

Thank you! We appreciate you!

@LTniger said: Competitors will increase their prices as well.

We have no plans to increase our pricing, just saying

LTniger

@rustelekom said:
Billmanager unfortunately going same way - price was increased for lot just fe3w weeks ago...

Than fuck them... Options are running low.

We need a hero, alternative, cheap (9.99€/month), with massive support of modules, open source, humongous API and hardcore security audit.

Any candidates?

LTniger

@Alex_Clientexec said:

We have no plans to increase our pricing, just saying

This is your oportunity to shine. Release new features, hire more team members, invest. And you will ride a wild money horse as DirectAdmin doing it now.

rustelekom

@LTniger said:

@rustelekom said:
Billmanager unfortunately going same way - price was increased for lot just fe3w weeks ago...

Than fuck them... Options are running low.

We need a hero, alternative, cheap (9.99€/month), with massive support of modules, open source, humongous API and hardcore security audit.

Any candidates?

Excuse me for my English i hope that this was "sarcasm" ? Developers also want to eat...

LTniger

@rustelekom said:

@LTniger said:

@rustelekom said:
Billmanager unfortunately going same way - price was increased for lot just fe3w weeks ago...

Than fuck them... Options are running low.

We need a hero, alternative, cheap (9.99€/month), with massive support of modules, open source, humongous API and hardcore security audit.

Any candidates?

Excuse me for my English i hope that this was "sarcasm" ? Developers also want to eat...

Nope. With all todays technology (frameworks, APIs, automated testing) development process is way faster than back in 2000. Blesta is close to this, but still lacking few key features. Hope Blesta will not be sold to competitors...

niceboy

I think Blesta should be the beneficiary here.

deank

Being a coder is possibility the worst job other than being an actual slave.

alexvolk

@Nyr said:
I would not say zero reputation as it is from the IntoVPS/Hosterion group. It should be a decent product and relatively safe from abusive stakeholders. RamNode uses it.

With some bugs and problems somebody was saying....

@jh said:

@LTniger said: https://www.wisecp.com/

Why do you say insanely shady? I looked at it a while back and it looks ok.

Shady indeed. Two brothers making the best panel in the world. Have you tried getting a license? They're indeed some dicks. Check their replies in a previous thread.

TGT

With the new pricing might as well switch to hostbillapp. My question is will the increase in WHMCS price cause providers to up pricing on LE services?

LTniger

@TGT said:
With the new pricing might as well switch to hostbillapp. My question is will the increase in WHMCS price cause providers to up pricing on LE services?

HB will definitelly increase price if customers begin to migrate from WHMCS. They have insane price increases in past.

jh

@TGT said:
With the new pricing might as well switch to hostbillapp. My question is will the increase in WHMCS price cause providers to up pricing on LE services?

Right now I guess they're all digesting it and thinking about what to do. I think you will see price rises at HostBill and Blesta in time though. Now is a good time to get a license if you want one. Price rises might be a good thing for Blesta though - I get the feeling they're spread a bit thin so higher prices would probably mean more development and a better product. ClientExec etc., probably not - the products aren't good enough to justify a higher price tag.

Waqass

ClientExec etc., probably not - the products aren't good enough to justify a higher price tag.

Personally I am using both Blesta and Clientexec and would rate CE higher than Blesta. Its robust and more flexible in terms of adjusting account settings. Blesta code is though more open. Tried whmcs in start but glad didnt go that path.

deank

Time for maybe a class action lawsuit?

yoursunny

@deank said:
Being a coder is possibility the worst job other than being an actual slave.

True. I'm a coder and I feel like a slave of my users.

lonea

But if you have 100k active client, $1.3k per month is a bargain.

You know Ubersmith takes 10% of your total revenue right ?

@WSCallum said: Absolutely crazy pricing for any large companies that use WHMCS, if you're below 1k active clients the pricing change is not incredibly significant at all, but if you have over 100k active clients you'll go from paying $40 a month now to $1.3k a month from July...

PulsedMedia

These pricing increases are insane. For us like 20x what it was. WHMCS license just became an noticeable cost item.

Oh well, i guess that's what you get when you need one of the biggest tiers.
I wonder how they calc, i would assume the worst so simple counting of all active billing profiles, we have 11+ of history, so a lot of users who's not had a service for several years but might come back at anytime.

this was exactly what i predicted i think 2017 when they changed their pricing scheme, hoped for the best but was expecting to get this kind of financial punishment....

alexvolk

Ahaha! Guys, finally no summer hosts will be using WHMCS. It will be now PREMIUM shit.

jar

@PulsedMedia said:
These pricing increases are insane. For us like 20x what it was. WHMCS license just became an noticeable cost item.

Oh well, i guess that's what you get when you need one of the biggest tiers.
I wonder how they calc, i would assume the worst so simple counting of all active billing profiles, we have 11+ of history, so a lot of users who's not had a service for several years but might come back at anytime.

this was exactly what i predicted i think 2017 when they changed their pricing scheme, hoped for the best but was expecting to get this kind of financial punishment....

I get it on some level. If you make someone a million dollars and you collect twenty, it’s hard not to think about the value you created and then want a larger slice of it.

On an individual level I get it like that, but we all have to be on the lookout for everyone trying to take a larger slice, but we might end up giving away the whole pie if we’re not careful. I’m definitely not paying these prices come July.

TGT

So what's it looking like for lowendhost offering services using WHMCS? Will we see increases in price such as a $15/yr service turning into a $20/yr service anything of that nature? or will this affect the service provider pricing structure on LET any?

rajat

Blesta is good choice for whmcs alternative

WSCallum

@lonea said:
But if you have 100k active client, $1.3k per month is a bargain.

You know Ubersmith takes 10% of your total revenue right ?

@WSCallum said: Absolutely crazy pricing for any large companies that use WHMCS, if you're below 1k active clients the pricing change is not incredibly significant at all, but if you have over 100k active clients you'll go from paying $40 a month now to $1.3k a month from July...

It’s crazy compared to their current pricing - For $15.6k you could develop and maintain your own billing software from scratch which is what a lot of the big players affected will probably do. Smaller scale up to around 1k clients sees a very modest increase.

lonea

Sure it's crazy, but it's still a bargain if you have 100k active clients.

R&D cost real money. There are legitimate reason why a medium-large company would still choose a ready-made product like WHMCS vs developing their own. Because chances are it'll cost tons more down the road.

Ie, if you are going to hire a full time dev. It'll be at least $3-4k a month on salary. Then the ongoing maintenance and development.

$1.3k / month sounds like real cheap when its all said and done.

@WSCallum said:

@lonea said:
But if you have 100k active client, $1.3k per month is a bargain.

You know Ubersmith takes 10% of your total revenue right ?

@WSCallum said: Absolutely crazy pricing for any large companies that use WHMCS, if you're below 1k active clients the pricing change is not incredibly significant at all, but if you have over 100k active clients you'll go from paying $40 a month now to $1.3k a month from July...

It’s crazy compared to their current pricing - For $15.6k you could develop and maintain your own billing software from scratch which is what a lot of the big players affected will probably do. Smaller scale up to around 1k clients sees a very modest increase.

PulsedMedia

@TGT said:
So what's it looking like for lowendhost offering services using WHMCS? Will we see increases in price such as a $15/yr service turning into a $20/yr service anything of that nature? or will this affect the service provider pricing structure on LET any?

Will definitively change how they do things to a degree.

In our case, to put the price increase in perspective: We are looking to buy property for building a new datacenter. The price increase is way more than the premises management costs + property loan repayments would be on monthly basis for that location ... and that place is large enough to run ~50 racks with 8kw budgeted each, cooling included ~600kw power budget ... and property is not located at exactly cheap place as you need to be "on net" for new builds.

I wish i were joking, but that's how it is looking like.

---

I think many will move to be very proactivate in turning billing profiles to "inactive" or "closed" state to keep costs down. I don't know how that will affect customer re-acquisition (getting them back to your services)

Boogeyman

Working on this for sometime(I know it looks shit)

https://imgur.com/a/2PwoTew

WSCallum

@lonea said:
Sure it's crazy, but it's still a bargain if you have 100k active clients.

R&D cost real money. There are legitimate reason why a medium-large company would still choose a ready-made product like WHMCS vs developing their own. Because chances are it'll cost tons more down the road.

Ie, if you are going to hire a full time dev. It'll be at least $3-4k a month on salary. Then the ongoing maintenance and development.

$1.3k / month sounds like real cheap when its all said and done.

@WSCallum said:

@lonea said:
But if you have 100k active client, $1.3k per month is a bargain.

You know Ubersmith takes 10% of your total revenue right ?

@WSCallum said: Absolutely crazy pricing for any large companies that use WHMCS, if you're below 1k active clients the pricing change is not incredibly significant at all, but if you have over 100k active clients you'll go from paying $40 a month now to $1.3k a month from July...

It’s crazy compared to their current pricing - For $15.6k you could develop and maintain your own billing software from scratch which is what a lot of the big players affected will probably do. Smaller scale up to around 1k clients sees a very modest increase.

Depends what route you go - Hire a full time dev, sure you'll pay more out. Pay out a dev/firm one off to develop the software for you, might cost similar to WHMCS one year cost on the "unlimited clients" plan - Setup an agreement or whatever payment/year for rolling out security updates where necessary or pay one off to have it maintained, features improved etc. If it's your own, it's easier to manage, maintain and take forward integration wise as well compared to the likes of WHMCS. All depends on your needs and requirements.

Regardless of that the point still stands that some will go from paying $40 per month to $1.3k per month - No one could factor this into their pricing or even expect it so those affected are either going to increase their pricing or reduce their costs elsewhere.

I'd be surprised if large size companies continue with WHMCS long term after the price increase but time will tell.