Some time ago, for data protection reasons (my company has to be GDPR compliant), an expensive management consultant suggested that I decentralise the billing system and manage it for each server location via the upmind platform. With hindsight, I don't know if this was a good idea. I created 50 brand accounts with upmind. These accounts all need to be managed individually. Some time ago I got a free Clientexec licence for a private VPS. I also have a WHMCS licence somewhere.

To cut a long story short: My question to you would be whether I should run the billing portal decentrally with upmind, which is of course much more time-consuming and cost-intensive, as I have to manage each one individually, or whether I should use a central billing portal for all server locations with e.g. Clientexec or WHMCS? Which is better?

I would appreciate your expertise.

There are many in the budget market who already offer services at little to no profit in order to keep pushing the sales. There are may be less than 1% of hosts who are talented enough as developers or earn enough to afford a custom billing solution which performs minimal automation without all the bells & whistles present in mass used solutions. A vast majority consisting of sole proprietors & one man show companies will have to make the difficult decision of migrating to a competing solution

Blesta, Hostbill, WISECP, Clientexec & AWBS are some of the well known WHMCS alternatives available.

Which one out of those do you think will replace WHMCS?

Does it make any difference whether you get branded or unbranded license when you are getting the same features & functionality?

Would love to read opinions on this from everyone including hosting providers