WHMCS: A solution driven by the needs of the web hosting industry
Like cPanel, WHMCS was originally developed to fill a specific gap in the tools available to web hosting providers and web hosting resellers.
“It was a natural progression from web design and development to hosting,” says Matt. “I began to look into hosting and, as my business grew, I went from a small reseller hosting plan to a virtual private server (VPS), then to a dedicated server, and then to several servers. I found more and more that I was being limited by the automation software that existed at the time, spending needless hours working with customer accounts. I wanted something that combined billing and support, but there seemed to be nothing that met my needs … so I wrote my own. WHMCS was born.”
Using his hands-on experience with existing automation software, Matt was able to quickly identify the features that would most benefit the web hosting industry. After the initial launch of WHMCS, Matt also considered the requests of other users to expand the functionality of the software and offer even more value to hosting providers.
“With a combination of competitive pricing and very active development based on user requests, the WHMCS user base quickly started growing,” says Matt. “16 hour days became the norm, and every minute of the day I had available was spent developing WHMCS or providing support to users. We have kept WHMCS very developer-friendly, so that it’s easy to customize and extend. In addition to the core features that we provide, a thriving community of developers has formed to offer great additional resources for our users.”
Today, WHMCS includes automated account provisioning, domain management, email functionality, multi-currency billing, and order management. These features are offered with a full technical support system built-in including ticketed support, service announcements, and a hierarchical knowledgebase tool.
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Despite having so many features already in place, Matt is determined to expand WHMCS even further.
“There’s so much I want to do, and so much I could do, but there’s simply not enough hours in the day,” says Matt. “I manage the business, the staff, the finances, the development – I can’t actually think of anything I don’t do! We have recently set up a new office and taken on three new local staff to complement the existing 14 remote staff. That will hopefully free up some more of my time to focus on what I enjoy doing most – the development. Our expansion, along with our new partnership with cPanel will help us to deliver more of what hosting companies want, need, and expect from their automation systems.”
The partnership between WHMCS Ltd. and cPanel, inc. “Both of these companies were started by young and passionate developers who needed a tool to help them organize, manage, and grow their web hosting businesses,” says Aaron. “Both companies were founded as hobbies with their owners continually investing resources back into development from the start. Both companies knew that their features should be driven by customer demand and that a community-centered approach to add-ons and modules would be important.”
Because of the striking similarities between the histories of these two companies, a partnership between cPanel, Inc., and WHMCS Ltd. enables two individual providers to work collaboratively toward a common goal. Both companies have similar business priorities and ethics, helping to ensure that the strategic partnership works in the interests of both parties.
“The history and commitment to both of these companies and ongoing top-notch level of support are all but identical in many ways,” says Aaron. “Because of this similar history of both companies, we decided our best course going forward should include WHMCS. With this new agreement, web hosting providers and hosting resellers can benefit from our unified approach, in
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