Due Diligence For Setting Up New Company

[ScottD]

Hello Blesta-ers!  )

 

I am setting up a new company and haven't commited to any billing/management system yet.  I have used WHM** in a previous company and Hosbill in another.  I checked out Box Billing, but their support, software and manners are horrible (yes, I even paid for it!).

 

So - What makes Blesta different?  I have browsed the forums and googled it a bit, but that doesn't tell me if the support people are decent people, and by that I don't mean they ooz butter when they speak to you, but that they actually take care of the problem and do it with respect, even if I am a dumb ass and not a PHP programmer.

 

I am currently uploading/setting up the test version, once I have played with it it a bit, what will make me want to buy it?  Is it stable?  Does it have bugs that are going to drive me crazy?  Does it have any security issues?

 

Feel free to chime in with any experiences, good or bad.

Thank you!

ScottD

[hostingDifferent-Scott]

I have used whmcs before, but the support at Blesta has been excellent. The developers answer promptly, go out of their way to support their product and are listening to add new features and make blesta even better. I have nothing but good things to say about them. I started blesta with v3.0 beta about 1.5-2 years ago.

[Michael]

Support depends where you buy the license from. If you buy direct you get the best Blesta support you can ever want. 

If you buy from a reseller (Distributor / Reseller webhost [eg: Site5,etc]) you get support from them, and that depends per business you use. You get support here as-well as the others above.

 

As for stable, Blesta is the most stable billing system out there on the market. If you look at the bug fixes for Blesta and then a competitor and you will see the difference. Blesta 1 - 5 in a beta, maybe a few got outside beta maximum, WHM** - ClientExec you get about 100 and / or more per release. And most of them are for simple things they just didn't bother with.

 

As for Security, Blesta again is the most secure billing system out there, and don't just take my word for it read these:

- http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showpost.php?p=8898652&postcount=14

- http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showpost.php?p=8885045&postcount=183

Two well known security auditors.

[mrrsm]

There is no piece of software that doesn't have some bugs in it.  With Blesta the bugs are acknowledged and usually you are provided with a Bug number to track it.  Bugs are usually fixed by the next release and sometimes workarounds are posted as the code is almost all editable.  I purchased directly through Blesta and have used their support a couple of times.  They are very prompt, courteous, and are willing to work with you to fix an issue.  At the same time, posting on the forums here will result in more eyes taking a look and providing solutions to your problem or question on top of the developers who are very active here as well.   Plus if you bring it up on the forum others who have the problem can benefit from whatever conclusions are reached.

 

A couple of the downsides to blesta for many people are specific plugins they have used or want are not here yet.  However, there is a great developer community who take jobs building these plugins as well as many who have given free plugins.

 

Overall what really sold me was the fact I can look at the code.  This means I can see what my billing script is doing and make sure nothing fishy is going on. Also, watching the forum grow, I can see how helpful people are in trying to get problems solved both from Blesta developers, plugin/module developers, and other Blesters who have their own set of skills to bring to the table.

[tenaki]

I have found the support on this forum to be excellent from the team and the mods