Starting with WHMCS - where to go from here?

[Sukkerpups]

Hello.

I'm one of those guys that offers free hosting for my community. I have this for many years now, and i have a bout 20-50 servers up and running at all times. Now i'm getting to that point where i'm not really interested in doing much manual "work" anymore,, specially when it comes to user accounts and game server setups, you know, due to having a billion kids, work and what not. I'm getting old(er) i guess. So i got a few questions related to automating game server setup. And who knows, maybe this next step in my evolution will open a new door for me in the future, when it comes to hosting.

I've done some research when it comes to WHMCS and i got some questions related to making server setup automatic for my members. After looking at WHMCS, i have no idea why i have not done this earlier!

Currently i'm using a host for my website and forum that doesn't support cpanel or WHMCS, and i've been looking at verpex.com reseller plans to host my cpanel and WHMCS. They have unlimited bandwidth and it seems that their packages don't cost much either. I can't really find any other alternatives for what i am looking for that gives unlimited bandwidth (please give me other, better alternatives if this host is a terrible idea).

It's pretty obvious that since i'm offering most of my services for free, i want to keep the cost down, and i really don't need anything fancy, i just want to automate game server and user accounts setups through a website that has WHMCS. I do have 4-5 dedicated servers available, and i was thinking about self  hosting cpanel and WHMCS, but i'm taking one step at a time on this one, and personally i think it's best to seperate ordering forms, personal information etc due to potential security risks.

Here is some of my questions.
1. If you're not selfhosting, what hosting supplier do you use for your cpanel/whmcs combined with TCAdmin?
2. Is it possible to point a WHCMS installation to a domain not hosted on the same server as the WHMCS installation? I am not hosting my domain or webhotel at verpex.com, and my current host don't support cpanel/whmcs either, hence my question if this is possible.
3. Do you guys have any better alternatives for me when it comes to all of this?

Any other suggestions or ideas are appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[Dennis]

15 hours ago, Sukkerpups said:

1. If you're not selfhosting, what hosting supplier do you use for your cpanel/whmcs combined with TCAdmin?

We do it ourselves. Besides hosting game servers, we also have a few companies that does web hosting, so it would be weird not to do it. I would always recommend hosting it yourself - you could already do it on one of your dedicated servers, if they're not running Windows (as cPanel only supports CentOS/RHEL based distros atm.)

15 hours ago, Sukkerpups said:

2. Is it possible to point a WHCMS installation to a domain not hosted on the same server as the WHMCS installation? I am not hosting my domain or webhotel at verpex.com, and my current host don't support cpanel/whmcs either, hence my question if this is possible.

Could you explain this? You want to point your WHMCS installation to another domain that's not hosted on the same server as the WHMCS installation... That doesn't make any sense to me

15 hours ago, Sukkerpups said:

3. Do you guys have any better alternatives for me when it comes to all of this?

If you're offering free services, you should consider free software. You can use the TCAdmin Billing API to automatically create game servers. You don't have to use WHMCS. You could build your own and since you won't have to handle any billing at all (because you're offering free services), it shouldn't be that difficult. There's also free alternatives to WHMCS that you could use.

 

[Sukkerpups]

15 hours ago, Dennis said:

We do it ourselves. Besides hosting game servers, we also have a few companies that does web hosting, so it would be weird not to do it. I would always recommend hosting it yourself - you could already do it on one of your dedicated servers, if they're not running Windows (as cPanel only supports CentOS/RHEL based distros atm.)

Could you explain this? You want to point your WHMCS installation to another domain that's not hosted on the same server as the WHMCS installation... That doesn't make any sense to me

If you're offering free services, you should consider free software. You can use the TCAdmin Billing API to automatically create game servers. You don't have to use WHMCS. You could build your own and since you won't have to handle any billing at all (because you're offering free services), it shouldn't be that difficult. There's also free alternatives to WHMCS that you could use.

 

I decided to go with cpanel/whm/whcms. It seems to have the flexibility i need for the future. And don't ask me what i was thinking about question nr2 :s Thanks for your input.