merchant account / billing software

[generic]

I am a web designer getting deeper into reselling. (left Readyhosting for Vortech) I checked through the forums but don’t see any recent answers to these questions.

I am looking for a good merchant account and good billing software. I want to avoid hsphere, not enough features, and can’t send bills for web work either. I plan on manually entering cc numbers using a virtual terminal after I verify everything via telephone.

Merchant account:
Looking into http://www.payquake.com/ for merchant account
Looks awesome for my high dollar low volume clients, anyone had experience, good / bad?

Looking into http://www.clientexec.com or http://www.modernbill.com/ for client management / billing systems.

Anyone had good/bad luck installing on Vortech’s servers. I saw a couple comments on needing ionCube loader, mcrypt and curl integrated with your php installed for clientexec.

Looking for any comments out there, thanks

[Brangwyn]

H-Sphere actually has a stack of billing features, custom job tracking etc etc. Turning it off can actually be a little more hassle than it's worth as you'll need to very carefully set maximum limits on all resources else your customers can upgrade or go over plan limits without you neccessarily knowing about it.

As for merchant accounts, I think most people would reccomend authorize.net if you live in the US, if your outside the US then your choices start to get a bit more limited, worldpay isn't a bad international choice.

I've seen some good reports on payquake as well, nothing bad as I recall anyway.

Modernbill will work, but I think it's probably more complex than you'll find you need, it also doesn't integrate into H-Sphere at all afaik.

[Vixen]

Originally Posted by Brangwyn

Modernbill will work, but I think it's probably more complex than you'll find you need, it also doesn't integrate into H-Sphere at all afaik.

Modernbill is easier for me to use than Hsphere. Maybe it is because it was the only billing system we had for awhile and that was what I learned on.

Brangwyn, you are correct, it does not integrate with Hsphere. We strictly use it for our Cpanel clients. Also, it is rather expensive.

[upstatei]

Is Modernbill available on the server somewhere for our use? What did you mean "we use it for our cpanel clients?"

I'm also looking for a billing product. Has anyone used clientexec on the cpanel servers?

[Vixen]

Originally Posted by upstatei

Is Modernbill available on the server somewhere for our use? What did you mean "we use it for our cpanel clients?"

I'm also looking for a billing product. Has anyone used clientexec on the cpanel servers?

If you wish to utilize ModernBill you would need to purchase it.

What I meant by "we use it for our Cpanel clients" is it is the billing system we (Vortech) use for our Cpanel customers. Whereas Hsphere customers are handled via Hsphere's billing system.

[generic]

thanks for all the advise, I will just try hsphere for the first few months and moderate everything.

By the time those other two products release their "new" versions they have been promoting and I have been waiting for... I will be old and gray (and poor).

[Funnyhat]

I my self like Vortech use two billing systems (Hsphere) and Modernbill for my clients that are located on other servers that do not have Hsphere as their control panel (Cpanel or Ensim). Modern Bill is nice but is spendy like Vixen said and unless you own or lease your own server you really do not get to use some of the best features that Modern bill has to offer (API features are very nice). Another option that I looked at was Perl Bill (http://www.perlbill.com) not sure if anyone here is using it but it is cheaper (200 dollars unlimited users)... there are many options but if you are going to be hosting with Hsphere I would just use that... it may be kind of bulky and down right slow at times but it works well for what you are looking to do.

[tkraffty]

...Random question related to HSPHERE billing: When my customers' credit card EXP date has passed, does the system send them any sort of notification to update their billing information or will it just keep charging the same card number?

[DVHost]

tkraffty, yes. When H-Sphere encounters a problem with billing the CC, be it expiration or otherwise, it will send the customer as well as yourself a notice providing you have H-Sphere configured correctly.