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A fresher, more stable and more secure approach for billing system - what do you think?
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A fresher, more stable and more secure approach for billing system - what do you think?

JordJord Moderator, Host Rep
edited May 2020 in General

When we saw users' data getting leaked due to poor coding by some other billing systems, we decided to build our own billing platform for ourselves to us, with security being the first attitude!

This is not something, we wrote overnight while getting a food coma on too much bamboo. This was coded by a team of competent developers and security experts, over a period of time and after much trial and error. therefore, BillingServ was born.

After our initial release, we had a handful of 3rd parties, approach us, and wanted to utilize our billing platform. So, we worked with them and customized our system a little further.

And as we did that, we realized that there's much room for improvement in terms of additional features, so we chose to rebuild the system from scratch, add more features that cater to a broader audience. While Web Hosts remains our core user base, we decided to focus on building a solution, that could be used by a web host, a freelancer, or my dad, selling his old tapes.

BillingServ at a glance:
• Fully Hosted with 100% uptime with failover.
• Fully PCI Compliant.
• ISO 27001 Compliance meaning we make sure all client data is safe.
• Web Hosting Integrations (DirectAdmin, cPanel, Plesk, Proxmox, Virtualizor, and more).
• Digital Downloads, Sell Services via our package’s manager.
• Nothing to install, setup or maintain
• We take care of all the security and patches so you don’t have too.

If you would like to signup for our beta test please do so here.

https://forms.gle/fTPxTij5dUAYAy2R6

Screenshots:
https://i.b-cdn.uk/BSCheckout2.png
https://i.b-cdn.uk/BSv2-3.png

https://www.billingserv.com

Any questions, feedback, or ideas please let me know.

Thanks all.
Jord

Here have a funny panda.

«13456

Comments

  • NeoonNeoon Community Contributor, Veteran

    Thanked by 1Jord
  • Looks good!
    Can you provide us how to install,and maybe some free licence to give out :)

    Thanked by 1Jord
  • seriesnseriesn Member

    @suricloud said:
    Looks good!
    Can you provide us how to install,and maybe some free licence to give out :)

    I strongly believe that this is cloud hosted. @Jord any beta/trial license sir?

    Thanked by 1Jord
  • UnixfyUnixfy Member

    Will there be a lifetime license offer? :P

    Personally I am not a fan of the SaaS model. A self-hosted version would be nice. Maybe you could pack it up into a virtual appliance or something where the user cannot tamper with the environment too much, Solarwinds style.

    Thanked by 1Ympker
  • JordJord Moderator, Host Rep

    @suricloud said:
    Looks good!
    Can you provide us how to install,and maybe some free licence to give out :)

    Thank you, currently, is it fully hosted for you so nothing to download and install.

    Once we go live for beta/testing we will give out free trials so people can test out our service :)

    Thanked by 1AK_KWH
  • raindog308raindog308 Administrator, Veteran

    I want to know if the guy in the red sweater on this page has a weird switchblade fingernail.

    https://www.billingserv.com/about-us/

    Thanked by 3Jord ViridWeb Edmond
  • JordJord Moderator, Host Rep

    Unixfy said: Will there be a lifetime license offer?

    Depends on how much bamboo you offer me ;)

    Unixfy said: Personally I am not a fan of the SaaS model. A self-hosted version would be nice. Maybe you could pack it up into a virtual appliance or something where the user cannot tamper with the environment too much, Solarwinds style.

    I will have a look into this, we decided on the SaaS approach as we have greater control over everything. As we are ISO 27001 compliant we needed to keep everything in house.

    Thanks for the suggestion on a virtual appliance I will look into that.

    Thanked by 1Unixfy
  • JordJord Moderator, Host Rep
    edited May 2020

    @raindog308 said:
    I want to know if the guy in the red sweater on this page has a weird switchblade fingernail.

    https://www.billingserv.com/about-us/

    He works in the mail room, it's for ease of opening boxes. It's all the bamboo I order online.

    Thanked by 2raindog308 Edmond
  • JordJord Moderator, Host Rep

    seriesn said: I strongly believe that this is cloud hosted. @Jord any beta/trial license sir?

    Thanks, sir, it is cloud hosted. Trials will be going out when we start beta testing.

  • deankdeank Member, Troll

    Fear da panda.

    Thanked by 2Jord Egyarmy
  • imokimok Member

    Great! More competition is better :)

    I'm seeing https://i.b-cdn.uk/BSCheckout2.png

    @Jord if you want some tips:

    • Is there a need for username when email is already unique?
    • "Already have an account? Click here" Looks like the title for the second column.
    • Is phone and email billing information?
    • Having 4 input boxes for address is weird. City/State selector depend on Country selector, as user I have to read the form from right to left.
    • On right, "Your order" and "Confirm payment" looks the same. One should look like a button.

    Happy coding!

    Thanked by 3Jord Dylan MatthewLeigh
  • cazrzcazrz Member

    SaaS is good, but I think most in the LE world prefers opensource/self-hosted.

  • JordJord Moderator, Host Rep

    imok said: Great! More competition is better

    Thank you, we thought so too :)

    imok said: 'm seeing https://i.b-cdn.uk/BSCheckout2.png

    @Jord if you want some tips:

    Is there a need for username when email is already unique?
    "Already have an account? Click here" Looks like the title for the second column.
    Is phone and email billing information?
    Having 4 input boxes for address is weird. City/State selector depend on Country selector, as user I have to read the form from right to left.
    On right, "Your order" and "Confirm payment" looks the same. One should look like a button.
    Happy coding!

    Thank you for this:

    1) Username should be removed you are correct, emails will be good enough. I will get this updated and changed.
    2) "Already have an account? Click here" Thank you I will get that corrected so it stands out more.
    3) I will see if we can tweak the address boxes some more to see what we can keep and get rid off.
    4) Ah yes, this has been changed. It does look like a button now :) I forgot to include it on our latest screenshot. But thank you for the catch.
    5) Thanks for this, I will get the email removed from Billing Information that doesn't need to be there. Phone is always useful so we will keep that.

    Thanks again for your pointers I will make sure they get completed.

    Thanked by 1imok
  • JordJord Moderator, Host Rep
    edited May 2020

    @cazrz said:
    SaaS is good, but I think most in the LE world prefers opensource/self-hosted.

    I do get and see that. Unfortunately, we can't please everyone, but we certainly try to.

  • @cazrz said:
    SaaS is good, but I think most in the LE world prefers opensource/self-hosted.

    Quite frankly - the world, in general, prefers free.

    Thanked by 1kkrajk
  • JordJord Moderator, Host Rep

    @alectrocute said:

    @cazrz said:
    SaaS is good, but I think most in the LE world prefers opensource/self-hosted.

    Quite frankly - the world, in general, prefers free.

    But then you get what you pay for, nothing is free in this world :)

  • BharatBBharatB Member, Patron Provider

    @Neoon said:

    1 suggestion limiting clients is fine but why invoices? :D

  • JordJord Moderator, Host Rep
    edited May 2020

    @BharatB said:

    @Neoon said:

    1 suggestion limiting clients is fine but why invoices? :D

    Sorted, like nothing ever happened :D

  • seriesnseriesn Member

    @alectrocute said:

    @cazrz said:
    SaaS is good, but I think most in the LE world prefers opensource/self-hosted.

    Quite frankly - the world, in general, prefers free.

    Just my 2c, billing system, that in general would result in making money, should cost money, because it needs to be well maintained and properly secured.

  • @seriesn said:

    @alectrocute said:

    @cazrz said:
    SaaS is good, but I think most in the LE world prefers opensource/self-hosted.

    Quite frankly - the world, in general, prefers free.

    Just my 2c, billing system, that in general would result in making money, should cost money, because it needs to be well maintained and properly secured.

    There's a bit to unpack here in order to properly carry on this discussion. I would counter that statement. "Properly secured", vs. self-hosted? Most of the exploits I see floating around on the web are targeting outdated, self-hosted software. It's purely anecdotal, though. When it comes to maintenance, self-hosting is the antithesis of proper upgrades and stability. There's a reason pterodactyl.io's Discord server is filled with people complaining about self-hosting issues, minute by minute, like clockwork.

    So that leaves us with the fact SaaS prevents us from seeing source code and leaves us with software licensing that is the equivalent of renting a house. But, as a software developer, this is really the only way to guarantee some form of monetary compensation for your product and/or investors.

    /rant

    Thanked by 2seriesn Jord
  • handyhosthandyhost Member, Host Rep
    edited May 2020

    Standing In the queue for free or $2 license :D

    @Jord Any idea to remove the active client limit and set the pricing based on extra features/ Number of products that can be added. Just a suggestion though.

    Thanked by 1Jord
  • raindog308raindog308 Administrator, Veteran

    Jord said: As we are ISO 27001 compliant we needed to keep everything in house.

    Pish. ISO 27001 does not prevent you from selling licenses and selling license keys.

    You could take a WHMCS model - pay your bill or it stops working. It's still SaaS but customer hosts on their own hardware. Not saying one is wrong vs. right. If customer hosts, no cloud cost for you, but more support questions around php-selektor and no enforced upgrades. If you host, php-selektor is superglued in place but cloud costs and possibly DDOS attacks.

    Personally, as someone who regularly lives with ISO 27001 audits, that certification does not increase my confidence in the least, though it's not a negative. It's nice marketing though. Some wags like me might think that's its only purpose. But that is a rant for another day :-)

    Some questions I would ask if I was a customer:

    Does BS (er, unfortunate acronynm LOL) allow the ability to templatize, to the same extent that WHMCS allows, both for web and email?

    Also, can I import my WHMCS easily flash-boom-bang and I'm up and running on BS or do I have to manually...create...every...account...etc.? Is there a WHMCS/BoxBilling/Blesta/etc. import tool?

    It isn't clear to me where the "cloud" is. Perhaps you should state where geographically this is hosted and ideally host it in multiple geographies so US customers aren't waiting on an European server, etc.

    BTW, I think your markdown broke down here: https://www.billingserv.com/2017/04/03/billingserv-wins-rising-star-and-great-user-experience-awards-in-financesonline-com-review/

    Jord said: This is not something, we wrote overnight while getting a food coma on too much bamboo.

    You have blog entries going back to 2016, so I guess you all have been at this for a while.

    Thanked by 1imok
  • JordJord Moderator, Host Rep

    raindog308 said: Pish. ISO 27001 does not prevent you from selling licenses and selling license keys.

    I agree I could have worded that better, for us we like to keep everything contained so we have full control over everything. The actual reason we became ISO 27001 was that we were going to build our own Payment gateway a few years ago. This is still a possibility and something I am considering.

    raindog308 said: You could take a WHMCS model - pay your bill or it stops working. It's still SaaS but customer hosts on their own hardware. Not saying one is wrong vs. right. If customer hosts, no cloud cost for you, but more support questions around php-selektor and no enforced upgrades. If you host, php-selektor is superglued in place but cloud costs and possibly DDOS attacks.

    I'm not completely closed on offering a self-hosted solution, but for now, we are going to focus on our hosted modal. Also getting support tickets because someone's php-selektor would indeed be a pain. I like superglue though ;)

    raindog308 said: Personally, as someone who regularly lives with ISO 27001 audits, that certification does not increase my confidence in the least, though it's not a negative. It's nice marketing though. Some wags like me might think that's its only purpose. But that is a rant for another day

    No, I completely agree with you here, it sometimes is for marketing, but for us we wanted it to go that extra mile, and well the cert and medal is a nice thing to have for our hard work :) but I feel it goes to show we will go that extra mile.

    raindog308 said: Does BS (er, unfortunate acronynm LOL) allow the ability to templatize, to the same extent that WHMCS allows, both for web and email?

    Haha, I'm glad you noticed ;) I did pick the name for a reason. Yes, you can fully customise the frontend to your colours, we give three areas you can add your own content. Header, footer and CSS. You can customise it to your hearts content.

    Emails will be added, but your logo is carried through on all your communication. If you are on any plan other than the £5 you will be able to completely white label everything. Including your own Domain Name/SSL Cert.

    raindog308 said: Also, can I import my WHMCS easily flash-boom-bang and I'm up and running on BS or do I have to manually...create...every...account...etc.? Is there a WHMCS/BoxBilling/Blesta/etc. import tool?

    Yes, there is, we have two versions of our Import/Export tool. Import from WHMCS, blesta, box billing, and so on. Or import via CSV. Then you can export into CSV too.

    raindog308 said: It isn't clear to me where the "cloud" is. Perhaps you should state where geographically this is hosted and ideally host it in multiple geographies so US customers aren't waiting on an European server, etc.

    We are currently using our own hardware in the UK, but we will be deploying a US and Asia server too. So US users will go to our US cluster and ASIA to theirs. Meaning it will be quick for everyone. Plus we will be able to failover to each location in the event of maintenance or an outage.

    Thank you, we are in the process of getting a new shiny website designed, ready for launching, with a new blogging platform. So it will be a nice welcomed change.

    raindog308 said: You have blog entries going back to 2016, so I guess you all have been at this for a while.

    We've been going since 2014, we were trying to figure out which direction we wanted to go in, but with some help of some of our clients we figured that out. And here we are :)

    Thank you @raindog308 for the feedback, I got some things to think about now and move forward with :heart:

  • JordJord Moderator, Host Rep

    @MrPsycho said:

    Bingo sir, very correct. No product will fit everyone's needs. But there is nothing stopping us from trying.

  • JordJord Moderator, Host Rep

    @handyhost said:
    Standing In the queue for free or $2 license :D

    @Jord Any idea to remove the active client limit and set the pricing based on extra features/ Number of products that can be added. Just a suggestion though.

    Our cheapest plan will be £5 a month, so no free licenses but there is a free trial :)

    We will look into this, but currently, we are happy with how we have things set up as this pricing includes all our features bundled into the price. It's a lot easier to have one price than have multiple we feel.

  • MrPsychoMrPsycho Member
    edited May 2020

    Jord said: Web Hosting Integrations (DirectAdmin, cPanel, Plesk, Proxmox, Virtualizor, and more).

    You mostly mention just the apps themselves. Are you actually developing the modules in-house or are you integrating with third party modules like for example ProxCP?

    What do you think about letting providers choose Stripe's own checkout page, instead of Stripe Elements for that sweet chargeback protection?

    I can also see that the payment method is straight on the registration page. What do you think about letting customer first register and order, then go to payment on another page? So you know... they feel kind of obligated to do that now. Sometimes seeing the "enter your credit card here" might make the customer rethink their decision before they enter any sort of data.

    Edit: you also advertise "No Transactions Fees", it might be a good idea to include an asterisk to indicate you don't put any transaction fees on top of the payment gateway fees as that's what you probably meant :P

    Edit2: The link to "PCI Compliance Certificate" throws 404

    Thanked by 1Jord
  • seriesnseriesn Member

    @MrPsycho said:
    I can also see that the payment method is straight on the registration page. What do you think about letting customer first register and order, then go to payment on another page? So you know... they feel kind of obligated to do that now. Sometimes seeing the "enter your credit card here" might make the customer rethink their decision before they enter any sort of data.

    From an end user perspective, I actually prefer one page checkout. But this could scare off end users trying to score free products.

    Thanked by 1Jord
  • SaahibSaahib Host Rep, Veteran

    Looks sleek and well laid out.
    Small suggestion, you consider to offer starter plan with custom domain, you see , more users means more publicity, further as the person grow, he will automatically go to your higher plan. And there are more chances to stick with you if he starts with you.

    Thanked by 1Jord
  • JordJord Moderator, Host Rep

    MrPsycho said: You mostly mention just the apps themselves. Are you actually developing the modules in-house or are you integrating with third party modules like for example ProxCP?

    The apps are developed by us internally. So we have full control over the code. We integrate with modules we think will be useful for the most of our client base. But we can integrate with ProxCP sure.

    MrPsycho said: What do you think about letting providers choose Stripe's own checkout page, instead of Stripe Elements for that sweet chargeback protection?

    In theory, we could do this, we would just build it into our payment flows and offer it as a service. We do offer offsite payment gateway solutions already, but we prefer to mostly integrate via API. But I'm not going to say no to integrating it if we get enough interest.

    MrPsycho said: I can also see that the payment method is straight on the registration page. What do you think about letting customer first register and order, then go to payment on another page? So you know... they feel kind of obligated to do that now. Sometimes seeing the "enter your credit card here" might make the customer rethink their decision before they enter any sort of data.

    We've had this come up a few times, you won't be the first and you won't be the last. But most of our users have preferred the one style checkout. In fact, we had a three-page checkout before and everyone hated it. So that's why we decided to go with the one-page checkout. We feel it's a lot quicker and smoother. But I will take your comments on board.

    We do have some payment gateways that go offsite, like PayPal Standard so they have to go offsite to pay via PayPal then come back to or be redirected to their main website for example.

    MrPsycho said: Edit: you also advertise "No Transactions Fees", it might be a good idea to include an asterisk to indicate you don't put any transaction fees on top of the payment gateway fees as that's what you probably meant

    We will clear this up a bit more with our new design, but thanks for pointing that out :)

    MrPsycho said: Edit2: The link to "PCI Compliance Certificate" throws 404

    Thank you, we are currently in the process of designing a new site, so I will get that updated.

    Thanks again for your input :)

    Thanked by 1MrPsycho
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