Complete Hosting Automation - How?

[BitByteHost]

We are small start-up company with hardly 3 persons on pay-roll.

I want to:

1. Sell shared hosting, reseller hosting, dedicated servers (resell), vps servers, ssl, domain names, etc
2. I don't have large resource so I need automation with minimal hassle.
4. I want Billing, Help Desk, Network Monitoring, Marketing Tools, Automated Provisioning, etc under SINGLE login. I don't want different software with separate logins.
5. Software should support me to sustain and expand business.

I could compile following candidates:

1. Helm (www.helm3.com) - Nice CP but does only shared/reseller hosting. I need to sell ssl, vps, dedicated servers too.
2. Plesk (www.swsoft.com) - Again very nice but does more or less what Helm does yet costs more.
3. HSPC (www.swsoft.com) - Looks stable and nice. I spoke with swsoft and apparently this solution costs an arm and a leg. Very high priced and I need to pay more for modules like reseller, vps, etc. This is the solution I need but is not in my budget (<$1000).
4. E-jadSPM System (www.m achsol.com) - Looks nice and akin to HSPC. Like HSPC, is not a control panel but allows to setup hosting on Plesk in automated manner and supports everything else I need. No pricing on their website but received pricing via email (<$1000 cost ). Only fear is that they are new and I cannot find reviews about it.
5. Did I miss a choice here?

My Quesion:

1. Which automation is BEST, COMPREHENSIVE, MOST-ADVANCED, yet AFFORDABLE?

I hope this thread will pick-up and guide both newbie and experienced web hosted.

Thanks.

[Mastdesi]

what do you mean by automation?

you can use whmcs billing software which makes hosting accounts for you and other stuff.

[brianoz]

You did miss a choice; WHMCS. It's one of the best automation platforms - well designed, robust, easy to set up, and even has some doco which is more than some of the others. Don't let the deceptively cheap price fool you, this is one of the best out there; and, it's also very easy to set up.

[fwwebs]

WHM Autopilot is a nice product.

[ldcdc]

H-Sphere might be a good candidate, taking care of most of your needs.

[oshq]

WHM Autopilot is a nice product.

I use this and it is very nice. You can get a license at license pal.

[othellotech]

WHMAP is ok upto a certain size, once you have a few hundred clients it *appears* to begin to slowdown considerably as the DB size grows.

We've moved away from it to WHMCS in the last year as it's move actively developed and easier to write our own extensions and integrated reports for.

There will never be one product to do everything you need, unless you develop it yourself, or pay for one of the existing products to be extended to match your needs.


Billing, Help Desk, Network Monitoring, Marketing Tools, Automated Provisioning


Network monitoring is an entire field in itself, you might want to look at nagios & cacti and do your own integration to the billing/help/provisioning systems

[liammc1]

I think WHMCS is the best option well for me it currenly is.

[Gr-Andy]

Whmcs Is The Best Easy To Use And Wonderful.

[bermuda]

Yes, the complete client management, billing & support system has all of the features needed for running a powerful hosting portal.

[adult100mbps]

WHMcs is good yes

but your not asking for to much are you?

[HavokCentral]

iHost is a pretty descent automation script to use

[liammc1]

I agree 100% WHMCS is amazing,wonderful,simple and fast.

[1maverick]

whmcs.com with cpanel for linux hosting -- you are all set

automated hosting at its finest -

[servmap]

WHMCS is good, yes, I use it on my site.
But currently they don't have automatic ssl delivery as your requirement, which is still under development, but you're welcome to create your own module/plugin

[Rageki-John]

ClientExec is a nice script with lots of features :). Plus it's not too expensive. I have seen some resellers selling it for about $5/month.

[hostmeforever]

WHMCS is best

[ramdas111]

you can use whmcs billing software . it's best for you. i use whmcs really it's better

[rlshosting]

WHMCS is the best one in my opinion. Nothing really compares to. Maybe Host Bill. Thats all.

[hostingguy12]

for right now I would go with WHMCS as this seems to have plenty of support.

[G6HOSTINC]

WHMCS All The Way, I am moving to it after my license has expired with Clientexce.

[HostingJuice]

Me too posting +1000 for WHMCS after testing hostbill and whmcs, we kept WHMCS, for Hosting and VPS services

[DXLH - Jake]

WHMCS by far the most advanced/noob friendy controlpanel. whmcs.com

[RFEHosting]

I use ClientExec, and love it. But have also heard great reviews about WHMCS.

[Hydro_Host]

WHMCS every time.

Don't even consider AWBS, I moved from it around 2 months ago and havent looked back since.

[PogiWeb]

The only issue that I can see from your request is the automation of dedicated servers using WHMCS. WHMCS does not currently have any modules to create a dedicated server. You would need to contact a datacenter and check if they offer an api. If they offer an api you can then create a custom module to auto provision these servers.

[plusplus]

WHMCS is the way...if you need something that cant be done with it....just create a module for it.

[AJKpeter]

sure WHMCS is the most popular because the most useful

[CrocWeb]

Take a look at WHMCS, it can setup accounts automatically.