Reselling web hosting packages is one of the best businesses that can be started with low capital and limited manpower. In fact, many hosting resellers have been successfully running their business without huge staff or offices. Besides, the reputed providers also offer a complete set of infrastructure, marketing, and management tools when you start your journey as a reseller. One of the major tools these providers offer is host billing management ecosystem. There are multiple software’s used for managing host billing. Billing platforms are not only meant for receiving payments but can also cater to the diverse needs of hosting resellers. In fact, their importance has spread to marketing and new product offerings too.
It is recommendable that after gaining some experience in the field for some time you should evaluate the host billing system and see if it is the best fit for you. Here are essential things to look for while choosing the best host billing system and some of the, best host billing software:
Qualities of an ideal host billing system
While evaluating your host billing system management you should look for certain qualities. An ideal host billing system should:
Support multiple services: An ideal billing management system for resellers should support multiple services. Apart from traditional services like VPS, Dedicated and shared hosting it should also support SaaS, IaaS and Cloud Services on OpenStack or VMware. It will help you a great deal as a reseller even if you wish to expand your categories in the future.
Be Client Friendly: An easy to use client area with a Dashboard that can be customized as per the needs. A strong and strategically designed client support system is a vital feature. The site Chat (Built-In) and ticketing system with multiple levels access allows a smooth support procedure. A provision for supporting multi-projects can be an excellent feature for catering to the business clients.
Offer comprehensive reports: Reports play an important role in evaluating the efforts, identifying bottlenecks and recognizing vital patterns in terms of revenue generation activities. So an ideal host billing system should have the sophisticated streamlined system for report generation. Availability of multiple essential and advanced parameters allows a client to evaluate the report from different perspectives and hence add to the usability of the report. Apart from generating periodical reports, there should be a provision to generate forecast reports too. It will definitely be a valuable addition as this feature would allow the clients to forecast the milestones that they can complete in the near future and thus help them to set the future gals.
Be Promotion friendly: Marketing is an integral part of any reseller hosting business. So good billing management software should have the built-in provision for sending mass marketing emails to the targeted clients and designing/managing essential materials like marketing creatives. On the functionality level, a built-in referral program is certainly a big Plus for the clients.
Can be integrated with multiple SSL Providers Domain Registrars: An ideal system should be able to integrate with multiple SSL providers and Domain registrars. It should also be able to integrate sale free with country-specific payment systems so that you can manage global clients in the single place without compromising with a feature. Supporting diverse themes and multiple languages are two major things to look for in the interface of an ideal host billing system.
Based on the above points, there are 3 major web host billing systems that are equally recommendable for new as well as seasoned resellers:
WHMCS
WHMCS certainly excels on the 4 major parameters: Simple interface, functional excellence, flexibility and periodical updates. It allows the clients to take benefits from a variety of features without going through the complicated route. It automates the registration process of web hosting customers and makes it easier to divide and manage the resources. It also offers a feature-rich ticketing and support system thus allowing the end users to enjoy better after-sales support. Automated invoicing process and support for multiple currencies help the resellers to manage accounts for global clients.
HostBill
Host bill is another billing system that is gaining popularity among resellers due to excellent administration functionalities. The resellers can manage different aspects of billing, client and support management from the single location that makes their digital efforts less strenuous. The resellers can make use of the API for internal application development the resellers. Hostbill offers multiple add-on modules to support a wide spectrum of activities relevant to client management and billing. The USP of Hostbill is the automatic processing of literally everything from pre-configurations.
Clientexec
If you are looking for the reseller host billing system that combines security and flexibility then you should go for clintexec. It offers a complete set of tools for carrying out a number of hosting tasks like domain registration, client management, and revenue management. The sophisticated design of clientexec promotes accuracy and ease of use. The USP of this excellent host billing system is that it allows easy integration to the third parties technologies and secondly it has strong provisions for fraud protection.
Author Bio
Smith is a web developer with varied interests- travel, wildlife, history, art, and of course technology! He is a keen supporter of free internet and when not in the cabin, he loves to spend his time outdoors exploring the world, people and technology.
