Phillips Data, Inc.

[Bit Bayou]

So I love the active community and staff, but I have a question. Are the developers and staff full time, part time, or "remote?"

 

I mean, do ya'll go to an office every day, commute via the internet when you can, or what? Don't mean to be "nosy," just wondering the set up of the company.

 

I mean, it's a great product, but it seems kind of "cheap" to maintain an office and staff? That may be why the pricing is probably going up soon...but I mean, I can speculate all day.. lol You're missing an "About Us" page!

[Paul]

Good questions! We are all full time, and work in the same building in Tustin, California. A lot of other companies do really well with remote staff, but we find that being able to communicate with each other frequently, as you only can in the same location, has been a really good thing.

 

The $99 promo right now is a great deal and it is really cheap. The price will be going up when we release v3 officially and we'll announce pricing soon. It will be similar to our largest competitor, nothing ridiculous. Having a full time staff, and office rent is not cheap, especially in California. But, if we can capture a good 30-40% of the market in the next year or two I think we'll be doing really well.

[Michael]

Good questions! We are all full time, and work in the same building in Tustin, California. A lot of other companies do really well with remote staff, but we find that being able to communicate with each other frequently, as you only can in the same location, has been a really good thing.

 

The $99 promo right now is a great deal and it is really cheap. The price will be going up when we release v3 officially and we'll announce pricing soon. It will be similar to our largest competitor, nothing ridiculous. Having a full time staff, and office rent is not cheap, especially in California. But, if we can capture a good 30-40% of the market in the next year or two I think we'll be doing really well.

Trust me Paul, you will have at least 50% by next year and maybe more. I believe more re-sellers will be selling your product in hosting packs and on licensing sites.

 

Myself I'm going to put it in some of our packages free (Resellers) and as I offer the other popular one at a price. This I hope will move customers to Blesta.

 

Also you know my other brand I'm doing which is going to be Blesta only for a long time then I might add more licenses to the shop as you gave me that idea to compete but I want to dedicate it to Blesta

 

I do believe you will be the main competitor shortly

[Bit Bayou]

Good questions! We are all full time, and work in the same building in Tustin, California. A lot of other companies do really well with remote staff, but we find that being able to communicate with each other frequently, as you only can in the same location, has been a really good thing.

 

The $99 promo right now is a great deal and it is really cheap. The price will be going up when we release v3 officially and we'll announce pricing soon. It will be similar to our largest competitor, nothing ridiculous. Having a full time staff, and office rent is not cheap, especially in California. But, if we can capture a good 30-40% of the market in the next year or two I think we'll be doing really well.

 

Being a small operation, the $99 fee was one of the main reasons I chose Blesta in the beginning, but then I found something awesome!

 

I was using SPB** for a while because it has some cool features-- free (*free version allows for a maximum of 25 customers*). But then I started actually using it, and the functionality became a problem even though it was free. I mean, it's not "bad" it just wasn't doing what I wanted, nor was it as easy to manage as I would have preferred.

 

Lower priced, slightly limited, options are nice too. Not that you shouldn't get paid! Just works for the little guys too!

 

But it does make me feel a little more at ease, knowing Blesta is powered by a fully legitimate company. The Internet has all kinds- if you know what I mean!

[Paul]

Trust me Paul, you will have at least 50% by next year and maybe more. I believe more re-sellers will be selling your product in hosting packs and on licensing sites.

 

 

I do believe you will be the main competitor shortly

 

Thanks for your confidence! We can do it with your guys help.

 

 

Lower priced, slightly limited, options are nice too. Not that you shouldn't get paid! Just works for the little guys too!

 

But it does make me feel a little more at ease, knowing Blesta is powered by a fully legitimate company. The Internet has all kinds- if you know what I mean!

 

I can definitely see the benefits for ease of entry for small hosting companies. Something to consider.

 

We're definitely legit! Real people in a real office, writing really awesome code!

 

If you're ever in the area, let me know, you're welcome to stop by and say hi.

[xison]

While we're on the topic of Phillips Data Inc.'s structure... I'm curious if you've ever considered the Open Source business model?

It seems to be doing well for Redhat and various other companies.

P.S. I am aware of your framework and various bits that are under an open, permissive license.

[ezpnet]

AFAIK, Blesta has been around for many years. I assume at this point that it is a relatively stable company...

[Paul]

While we're on the topic of Phillips Data Inc.'s structure... I'm curious if you've ever considered the Open Source business model?

It seems to be doing well for Redhat and various other companies.

P.S. I am aware of your framework and various bits that are under an open, permissive license.

 

Of course we have considered Open Source, we contribute to it -- http://github.com/phillipsdata however Blesta is a commercial product and will remain so.

 

 

AFAIK, Blesta has been around for many years. I assume at this point that it is a relatively stable company...

 

Yup

[Michael]

Not going to lie I was thinking of using Blesta before, but WHM** had more features, etc... So erm I took that way to get started, but then WHM** told me they had a new update for security recently and I thought "For F**k sake another one..." Then I found out it broke something which is important since what's a webhost without domains?"

 

So I thought to myself "I need to get away from this company, came across Blesta saw the deal $99, spoke to Paul and found out they did the refuge promotion as-well  but one or the other, so I saved up and them brought it.

 

But I was talking to our friends at FreshRostedHosting (FRH) and they was also thinking of moving and saw I was looking in moving to Blesta and informed me they was two considering and just before myself brought it .

 

Now I have no regrets and I believe this is the best billing system I have used and this is the step forward they needed to get people in..

 

- Billing systems going downhill.

- More features

- Stable 

- Secure

= Blesta 100%

[velaware]

If I may chip in some pennies...

 

Re: open source - You can still make it viable as a commercial product while having it open source.  For example, I have a server administration program that's 100% open source but I offer a service to keep it running for them, as well as support (both separately) for different pricing models.  This is really the way commercial open source products are going.

 

Now, on to Blesta and my love fest for it .

 

I was using Box Billing initially, after going through other solutions (even writing my own which ultimately failed), but their support was horrid.  It took 5 days to get a simple cookie-cutter response, so I couldn't justify paying the cheap price for it even if it did work with my control panel at the time.

 

I went to Client Exec as I used it at my previous employment, but just didn't feel like it fit me (plus the price was too high).  So, I embarked on trying something else, and came across Blesta.

 

To be honest the initial feeling of it wasn't that great, but it grew on me.  I was used to the web 2.0 feel of CMSes, but then I saw what Blesta 3 was turning into so I bought into the promo of $99.  Been here ever since.

 

Granted, I feel bad having yet to develop a merchant plugin I said I would develop, but mostly due to moving away from PHP development and getting wrapped up in things.  Plus how I have to develop it doesn't make for easy/quick process.

[Michael]

I prefer Blesta to be commerical as much as possible because they need to make a living some how. Open source bits is more than other providers and that's good but to have it fully open source to me is a very bad idea, people will end up giving it for free removing the licensing system... Now how can the developers make money to continue the product?

[velaware]

I prefer Blesta to be commerical as much as possible because they need to make a living some how. Open source bits is more than other providers and that's good but to have it fully open source to me is a very bad idea, people will end up giving it for free removing the licensing system... Now how can the developers make money to continue the product?

You're going to run into that regardless.  Nullifying scripts is a business all in its own.

 

Blesta could by technicality be considered open source in v3 since all it seems to encode is the licensing side of things.

[Michael]

You're going to run into that regardless.  Nullifying scripts is a business all in its own.

 

Blesta could by technicality be considered open source in v3 since all it seems to encode is the licensing side of things.

but that's not open source really because it's not 100% open sourced it's 99% open sourced.

[velaware]

but that's not open source really because it's not 100% open sourced it's 99% open sourced.

That's like saying an omelette isn't an omelette when it has no cheese.

 

I don't see how it can't be considered open source when the only part that is closed is what's protecting the IP.  The rest of the code base is open to the world.

[Michael]

That's like saying an omelette isn't an omelette when it has no cheese.

 

I don't see how it can't be considered open source when the only part that is closed is what's protecting the IP.  The rest of the code base is open to the world.

omelette is made with Eggs and can have ham or cheese in it.

[velaware]

omelette is made with Eggs and can have ham or cheese in it.

And open source can mean everything not protecting IP is open (i.e.:Blesta v3)

[Michael]

And open source can mean everything not protecting IP is open (i.e.:Blesta v3)

 

Open-source hardware is hardware whose initial specification, usually in a software format, are published and made available to the public, enabling anyone to copy, modify and redistribute the hardware and source code without paying royalties or fees.

 

So if Blesta was open-source, that means I could buy it, redistribute it without charging people.... = No way!

[Paul]

but that's not open source really because it's not 100% open sourced it's 99% open sourced.

 

According to Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source

 

In production and development, open source as a philosophy promotes a universal access via free license to a product's design or blueprint, and universal redistribution of that design or blueprint, including subsequent improvements to it by anyone.^{[citation needed]}.

 

Blesta isn't open source at all, rather the vast majority of the code is unencoded and available to edit for your own use. While we choose to make the code available, there's a difference between that and open source software.

[Paul]

This page is more applicable - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_software

 

Open-source software (OSS) is computer software with its source code made available and licensed with a license in which the copyright holder provides the rights to study, change and distribute the software at no cost to anyone and for any purpose.

 

Blesta is not free, and cannot be redistributed. It's made available under a commercial license. To contrast, we have released minPHP (The framework for which Blesta v3 is built) as OSS (Open Source Software) under the MIT license.

[Cody]

"Open source" didn't used to mean free, but it's gained that connotation (see FOSS).

[Bit Bayou]

Some things can make sense (logic and business) to be both "free" and "open source." I don't think it's in everyone's best interest for Blesta to be both.

[Bit Bayou]

If you're ever in the area, let me know, you're welcome to stop by and say hi.

 

The closest I will ever be, at least the foreseeable future, is when I go to Vegas in a month. But that's still not even close.

 

I'd love to meet more programmers irl..especially those of the PHP persuasion!

[Paul]

The closest I will ever be, at least the foreseeable future, is when I go to Vegas in a month. But that's still not even close.

 

I'd love to meet more programmers irl..especially those of the PHP persuasion!

 

6 hour drive is not very close, this is true! 

[Bit Bayou]

6 hour drive is not very close, this is true! 

 

A 6 hour drive is definitely a lot better than currently, seeing as I'm in Louisiana. But what's worse, I won't have a vehicle in Vegas! That 6 hour drive just became an eternity.

[xison]

This page is more applicable - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_software

 

 

Blesta is not free, and cannot be redistributed. It's made available under a commercial license. To contrast, we have released minPHP (The framework for which Blesta v3 is built) as OSS (Open Source Software) under the MIT license.

"Open source" didn't used to mean free, but it's gained that connotation (see FOSS).

I did not mean to spark this debate. I appologise whole heartedly. I was more curious if Paul had ever considered going the Open Source model and his reasons for choosing the way he went.

 

I'm not saying I think Blesta should be Free/Open Source Software, and you shouldn't be compensated for your hard work. I was just curious. I develop and contribute to a lot of F/OSS projects. My own CMS I use strictly for my clients is 100% closed source. However, I have been considering opening it up. It does some things I have yet to find in other comparable systems, and I am very proud of it. This sense of pride trumps my business logic a lot of times in the ongoing internal debate in my mind and I think to my self "I must share this with the world!" Although in reality nobody would care, and most likely would co-exist with the many other systems out there and whither away until I stop maintaining it. I'm considering the route secforus_ehansen mentioned for another project I've been working on.

 

I'm 24 years old, married, with two young kids (3-1/2 year old son and 2-1/2 year old daughter) and self-employed. My web design / software development / hosting / I.T. business is what puts food on the table, gas in the cars, and keeps a roof over my family's heads. Trust me I know you have to make money. :-)

 

I really like the fact that Blesta v3 is very open for developers sake. I'm not 100% reliant on a manual, I can see a lot of the code and tweak it also. I think you have a great thing going here, Blesta team. It's open enough and closed enough to strike a great balance. Kudo's to the team.