Best WHMCS Alternatives (Free & Paid Software)

Are you into starting a new web hosting business. If so, you’re in the right place. In this article, I’m listing and comparing the best web hosting business management solutions available.

These programs and software listed here will help you manage your business and clients easily. They basically will give you tons of tools to better manage your clients, their services, and invoicing.

WHMCS is considered to be the most popular web hosting management software. It allows web hosts to run web hosting business and thousands or clients with a complete ease via an interactive influential interface.

In this article today, I’m showing you the different programs available in the market. I’m also sharing the best free and paid software to better choose a solution that doesn’t break your wallet.

Billing Management Features:

Before getting started, I would like to give you an idea about what you should expect in a billing management software. And it doesn’t have to be for a web hosting business.

If you’re running a business that is managing a number of clients or a recurring basis, it’s very recommended to have a system and a billing management software.

Here are a list of points why you need a management software:

Billing & Payments: Recurring & Non-recurring invoices.
Services: Web Hosting and Web Design Services.
Quotes: Generate quotes out of your system.
Client Portal: Let clients login and manage services.
Ticketing System: Easily manage communications.
Marketing: Discounts & Coupons.
Reports: Reports of performance.

This was a quick glance of what you’ll get with business management software. Let’s proceed further and see the actual benefits along with a listing of the top software available.

What is WHMCS?

WHMCS is a web hosting management software. It’s considered to be the most popular one in the market. Most of web hosting services are using it to manage their businesses.

The word “WHMCS” stands for Web Host Manager Complete Solution. And yes, it gives you a complete solution with all the features and integration you need to run a successful web hosting business.

WHMCS is having built-in integration modules that allows you to sync it with a wide range of services and control panels. This means you can easily create, edit, or terminate any service right from WHMCS.

It also supports the billing aspects, signup handling, payment processing, and domain registration services. WHMCS gives you a complete solution to manage the tickets and customer support.

The client area features 10 language translations available, and extensive reports, which can be exported and printed in various formats. For hosts, cloud vendors, domain registrars, and other hosting industry businesses, WHMCS is market-leading.

Top WHMCS Alternatives:

In this article, we’re listing the best WHMCS alternatives. I’ve made sure to only include the most influential platforms. While WHMCS is the world’s number one, the following platforms has got a set features that makes them great alternatives.

1. ClientExec:

For me, I believe ClientExec is the best web hosting management software after WHMCS. It has got a wide rage of features and solutions to manage a business and handle clients.

It features a lot of payment gateways integrations along with a built-in live chat. It has great reporting set with income, revenue growth, and incoming clients.

ClientExec also integrates with a number of control panels; cPanel, ISPmanager, or Interworx. You can easily create and manage services directly from ClientExec via the integration module.

The software is available under two licenses; Self-hosted and SaaS versions. Their pricing starts at $12 per month which is quite reasonable and fair.

2. BoxBilling:

While it lacks many of the WHMCS and ClientExec features, BoxBilling is a very nice alternative that is built for sales. It also has a free version that you can start using right away.

BoxBilling works great for selling shared hosting, reseller hosting plans, domain registrations, software licenses, and downloadable products. The software has got a free version that is set with a number of limitations. If you do not have much products, you definitely can use it for FREE!

The premium version comes at a monthly price of $5.95 which is very decent. BoxBilling is featuring; invoicing, automation, service integrations, helpdesk, and support ticketing system.

3. HostBill:

HostBill is an automation software for large-scaled companies and enterprises. It offers automation solution for web hosting, cloud solutions, colocation, and VPN service providers.

Unlike other billing solution, HostBill comes at a one-time fee instead of a recurring monthly payment. Their pricing start at $599 one-time fee.

HostBill comes integrated with a set of features and server integrations. It also supports over 90 payment gateways.

The all-in-one client portal allows your customers to manage all of their services from a single touchpoint. Overall, HostBill is an enhanced platform for large-scaled businesses.

4. Blesta:

While being introduced to the market recently, it quickly became a considerable choice in the web hosting automation market.

Blesta is a well-coded platform that comes with a set features: Invoicing, billing management, service automation, and domain registrations.

The software also is integrated with a number of services and control panels such as; cPanel and others. You can easily manage your clients, their renewals, and support tickets easily.

5. BillingServ:

BillingServ is another great software that is integrated with a number of web hosting control panels. The software is also integrated with over 10 payment gateways to take client payments easily.

Their pricing start at $5 a month which is a great monthly pricing. Thus, it’s very affordable for startups and those who are just getting started.

BillingServ is offering a wide range of reports and insightful data such as sales reports, debt reports, and customer reports. It also paced up with real-time reporting to make it even more professional.

The platform allows digital downloadable products and automate the download access with payments. Thus, it becomes very handy for selling didgital products such as Themes, Plugins, Courses, ..etc.

Other Billing Platforms:

The above-mentioned platforms are the most professional ones available in the market according to my hands-on experience. There are tons of other billing and automation software available.

Let’s proceed with mentioning other platforms available. While they’re not features-packed as the above-mentioned platforms, they are a very good potential for startups and small businesses.

Here’s an additional list of other great WHMCS alternatives:

This was a quick list of WHMCS alternatives. If you’re just getting started, make sure to check the demos of the above-mentioned software to get a clear idea about how each one works.

A quick recommendation: If you’re tight on budget, I would definitely recommend using BoxBilling for free in the beginning. Once your business takes off and you start getting a few clients, an upgrade will be a MUST.

Conclusion:

Whether you’re starting a web hosting business or even a web design freelancing service, you definitely need a billing management software to facilitate client management tasks.

The platforms above offer a wide range of features to offer an awesome custom service while getting paid promptly. Overall, I wish you all the best choosing the best management software for your business.