As you may have read yesterday, WHMCS has ended support for owned licenses. For a lot of shops, this is a significant financial hit, given that the cost of moving to a monthly subscription is significantly greater than the cost of paying annual support. Additionally, WHMCS announced a price increase as well.
So will providers now migrate en masse to alternate software? Probably not immediately. Customer management software is the heart of most enterprises, and there are often integrations, automations, and business processes deeply tied to how the software works, which makes moving to a different platform painful.
However, if you’ve decided that WHMCS’s cost is too high for you or if you are looking a new “green field” startup where there is not a lot of legacy work tying you to WHMCS, here’s a brief rundown of alternates for you to take a look at. For comparison, WHMCS pricing is $18.95/mo ($227.40/year) for up to 250 clients, $29.95/mo ($359.40/year) for up to 500 clients, and $44.95/mo ($449.50/year) and up once you go past that, topping out at a staggering $1299.95/mo ($15,499.40/year) if you go unlimited.
Blesta is billing software with a long list of features. It’s not as feature-rich as WHMCS but is certainly more affordable, with a $250 one-time owned, branded option ($39/year renewal) or a one-time $750 perpetual support option. It’s also as cheap as $12.95/mo on a month-to-month basis.
BillingServ was developed by LowEndTalk’s very own @Jord (spoiler alert: an interview is in the works!). It’s cloud-hosted, so there’s no upgrades for you to manage or server to maintain. On the other hand, you have security, availability, and confidentiality considerations. BillingServ is priced at £12/£18/£28 per month for 250/1000/unlimited clients with no branding. You can also get started with a basic £50/year option that is branded for up to 50 clients.
Clientexec has been around a very long time and starts at $11.95/mo, which includes unlimited clients. For $3/mo more you can remove branding. They also have a lifetime single-payment option and a SaaS model.
BillingFox is a new entrant (and one recently discussed on LowEndTalk). Their pricing starts at only $2.99/month for up to 250 customers, and tops out at $10/mo for unlimited customers, with a one-time payment option available as well. Some comments on LET indicated that it still looks a little rough but it’s certainly the cheapest alternative on the list.
Finally, there’s HostBill. Their model involves paying a one-time fee for a lifetime license. For example, their base product (which probably has everything the typical host needs) costs $599, which works out to $49.91/month over the first year and then you’re done. Compare this to WHMCS’s $44.95/monthly which you pay forever (or at least until WHMCS raises prices again!) Updates after the first year are $99/year, so on a 3-year basis with updates, you’ll be paying about $22.14/month. There are some quirks with their model – pay attention to the price of support tickets – but HostBill is worth checking out if you’re planning on migrating off WHMCS.
There are some excellent threads on LowEndTalk to read more on this topic:
- WHMCS increasing prices again, alternatives?
- Blesta migration from WHMCS
- What’s stopping you from changing to WHMCS to Clientexec or any other alternative?
- Alternative to WHMCS: BillingFox
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I also enjoy using LEBs! I have an empire of little guys for VPNs, larger guys for apps, and big guys for databases and storage. When I'm not in front a screen I'm into German Shepherd dogs, quality knives, target shooting, theology, tabletop roleplaying games, and forest hiking.
I enjoy writing technical articles here on LowEndBox to help people get more out of their systems. You can find me on LowEndTalk @raindog308
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Huge fan of CE. Been using it for years. Support is awesome. There are two guys always willing to help you. They use intercom right within your billing so its just clicks away. I would highly recommend CE then Blesta.
Great post, keep up the good work Andrew.
I had added this blog post in way back in 2019 to find the alternatives, you guys can refer to it:
https://www.hostnamaste.com/blog/top-10-web-hosting-billing-softwares-and-automation-platforms-for-web-hosting-providers/
Nice Article
I would say Blesta and CE is best option for alternative
Thanks
For my first hosting company back in 2003, Velocity Servers (a game server provider) we used ClientExec for years. It was perfectly serviceable at the time. Like all other modern software packages I am sure it’s gotten better with time.
I am glad to know that there are more alternatives available at a minimum price. Thanks for sharing such useful information.
I have also read the similar article about WHMCS alternatives with the great price and some of them are free as well. If you want, you can give it a look as well.
https://www.hostingseekers.com/blog/whmcs-alternatives/
Good post. I’m grateful for it. More people ought to be aware of your blog.