After some delay and awesome help of the team here our virtualmin server has been running wihotu any hickups for some time now, with 3 test packages. Now, I’m looking to get a few first customers to move over to our virtualmin services, people that have already shown intererst.
I used to have a lifetime license of AWBS but found out it’s not so lifetime anymore once they smell money. That means I need to switch to a +25 usd package a month, and with the few customers i have in mind I won’t even break even. So, is there an open source alternative that supports both virtualmin and popular payment systems in europe like iDEAL or Mollie etc?
As mentioned before, when profitable enough I’ll be happy to continously donate thos eopen source communities, I’m not just only looking for freebees.
Yes it does, but I switched from whmcs to AWBS long ago. Still the same pricing issue plus it doesn’t support common payment methodes used in europe. No open source alternatives?!
Billing systems are a lot of work. Roughly as much work as a control panel like Virtualmin. And, a lot of the work is the unpleasant work of interacting with payment gateways (which are a pain in the ass to deal with, in general), and taxes, and accounting, etc.
There have been some Open Source billing systems discussed here a few times over the years, but I don’t think anyone has ever said they found one that was suitable for use beyond a quite small scale.
Also, I think there’s always the lingering feeling that if someone is using a billing system, they’re making money, and if they’re making money, maybe they should be paying some of it to the folks who make the software that enables it. We kinda feel the same way about features that are mostly only useful for people selling hosting, and they stay in Pro, while features not related to making money tend to trickle down into GPL over time.
So, it’s probably not surprising that a hard and annoying task isn’t being done by volunteers.
I’m testing ClientExec. I have opened a ticket to check the disable_functions = as mentioned in this Forum.
They were very kind and explained to me that two of these functions would be necessary to keep active = mail() and shell_exec, the latter for updates but that I could disable it to do manually.
Now I will continue testing for another 7 days and then put it into production.
Would this statement apply to a billing system which:
lets a visitor select and pay for a subscription
disables a virtual server if the subscription is not renewed
That’s it. Would this be too labourous to build and include in Virtualmin Pro? I think the billing systems are eating Virtualmin’s lunch. Give Virtualmin users a bare-bones billing system and many cPanel users will become Virtualmin users.
Taxes (I don’t know where you are, but in the US, taxes can be crazy complicated and very expensive to get wrong)? Upgrades/Downgrades/Prorating? Payments? Which payment processors?
I’m probably overestimating the work (it’s probably not as much as a control panel). But, you’re underestimating the scope of the problem. While it’s gotten simpler in recent years with more comprehensive payments APIs like Stripe, Paypal, and Braintree, it’s still a lot of work, and we continue to be just three developers working on this part-time.
I made a basic CMS to handle USA sales taxes and it was basic implementation.
The tax system is horrible in the USA, if I am not mistaken there is no central computer system with all state and local tax rates defined.
There are 3rd party companies that provide APIs for the tax rates and then there are payment processors that can handle it all for you. These entities have done the research and keep up to date with rates which can change often.
User configurable. Two tax units. Let the user specify the percent for each.
Or
assume taxes are included in sales price.
We could begin with 2 and then include 1 if there is demand.
Only one. Paypal. Since it is almost global.
You are right about my oversimplifying this but such a basic billing system will enable many struggling web hosting businesses to save upto USD 300 a year, which can be a significant amount in countries with weaker economies and a big incentive for admins to switch to Virtualmin.
I’m trying to install in a subdirectory with a separate VM. As it requires SSL and Let’s Encrypt is not allowing sub-domains, I’ll try to install it on Wampserver
I looked at this about a year back. It felt like they forked something that went closed and didn’t really know what to do with it. I think those that forked it have it to where THEY can use it and that’s all they cared about.
I convinced them Discord wasn’t a great communications tool for trying to grow the thing so they got some ‘forum’ software that basically was ‘Discord’ in look and feel.
They had a section for Virtualmin that didn’t work and their attitude was ‘please get it working on your own and report back’. Absolutely ZERO interest in developing past their own needs.
I guess you’re not familiar with US sales tax, which varies by county and state. A business may need dozens of tax rates and the ability to apply them to customers based on their location.
Yep. And a “nexus” is all kinds of things. If you have remote employees, if you have servers in a data center, if you have an office, even a small company might have to deal with several sales tax rates applied based on location. It’s stupid and hard for small businesses, but that’s how it is.
Yeah. Point was, it posted here so I just wanted to give the state of the project. They had a Virtualmin module written already. I’m guessing it was part of the fork.
