WHMCS Branded Client Apps for iPhone and iPad

Regarding our poll on facebook, I thought this forum would be the most appropriate place to share it:

"Dear fellow webhosting companies! In the next month we'll submit a native hybrid iPhone / iPad app to the app store, in order to support our customers even better. The first version of this app will provide fast whois search, domain name registration, webhosting plan ordering (payment through app store) and support ticket management. Would this be an app that you would like to use branded, provided as a dedicated app in the app store for a leased (SUS) price? If yes, how much would you pay?"

Note that you can already start "LIKE"ing our facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/websiteondemand so that you'll be notified of any news on this!

Do you have any screenshots available as of yet?

Just posted some images on http://www.facebook.com/websiteondemand

I think there's no explanation needed, but I'll be happy answering any questions!

Seems nice, what would be the price you expect to sell it?

We're thinking about these type of licenses:

1) Branded App € 50,- per month

2) Free: Whois module for each branded app

3) Free: Info page with your own info, button to share itunes links through address book's emails, et cetera;

3) Order module: € 25,- per month additionally

4) Support tickets module: € 25,- per month additionally

5) More to come...

6) Personal features will be calculated and built upon request

7) Software Updates and Support on WHMCS changes will be included in all prices, and will only be rolled out on your request, so that it can be managed and coordinated with your WHMCS' upgrade.

We expect to start with these licenses and requests next april.

Let me know what you think.

So if i want to sell it means 75€ per month? and payment is processed thru apple store so apple charges me a comission? i understood well?

Regards,

It means that:

1) We build, provide and publish an app for you in the App Store that is branded with your logo. It is a standardized process, custom works is paid for. You decide whether you want your app to be free or payed;

2) The App will integrate with your WHMCS installation (some configuration and standardization needs to be done);

3) With the order module, we integrate with your WHMCS making it possible to order domains with or without a hosting package. We also define the In App Products for your business (mostly domain products and domains combined with hosting). Your customer pays you through the App Store and us, while Apple keeps 30% and we keep 5% administration fee. We deliver monthly reports and pay outs.

4) Default is that the second year a product/client runs through your email invoice cylce and thus you'll get the full amount.

4.b) Here's changes to come in the future (like making it possible/configurable to renew via iPhone/iPad), paying through your own provided payment gateways, and so on (depending on Apple's license and changes to that).

5) You will get a hybrid iPhone/iPad app, which means that it has been designed for iPhone and iPad and the app checks at runtime on which devices it runs and displays that one.

There's still some details to work out and more to follow and/or to change, but this'll basically be it.

35% of first year? or 35% of first invoice, monthly for example? second case could be good, if it's yearly cost of adquisition of client is way higher than any other method, at least in my country.

Regards,

35% of first year? or 35% of first invoice, monthly for example? second case could be good, if it's yearly cost of adquisition of client is way higher than any other method, at least in my country.

 

Regards,

At least for us where our cheaper package is nearly 100€ per year, of course if you sell 20€ per year hosting the figure changes totally...

35% of first year? or 35% of first invoice

35% of every payment

It's definitely something that a lot of us could make good use of. I saw your screenshots and it looks good, will look forward to seeing a live demo when it's ready.

It's because of Apple's policies, so this would be your own choice. At this time, only the first payment goes through Apple, so for the customer the smoothest way of registering a domain name is provided. Payment with Apple ID and he's done. Depending on our discussions (you <-> us), we do the integration for your own products, your prices and your first payment amount configuration. Because of the percentage that Apple keeps and the small amount that we keep for applying our own Apple contract and delivering reports, it's something you need to think about, because prices will be definitely different from what you offer online (due to the fixed tier pricing Apple uses (0,79, 0,99, and so on).

So that 5% we take isn't about earning loads of money from you, but to cover our costs and risks. Furthermore, we want you to love this product, so we'll inform you as good as we can and then provide you with the best available solutions for the way you can use this product.

Another thought we had on this, was because of Apple not wanting to let payments go through web pages, loaded from Apps (they definitely want to earn money through Apps), which they wrote down in their App submission contracts. Things have changed a bit, but we'll stick to this for now.

Is this clear or are there more questions on this?

While writing my previous post, I thought of this. We might bring up the option to get a bigger share in sales and change licensing fees accordingly. That should support the providers that have to pay more then they earn.

We'll think about that one too.

35% of every payment

Nope, we don't want Apple te earn that much, but we do want: Really, really simple way of payment and domain registration for customers (no hurdles to take), so that it will compete with whois and registration apps at it best.

To earn money with this App yourself, which we also want, because we take our time to build this and we do want to keep you as our customers, after the first invoice, your own invoice system will continue invoicing and directing the (hopefully a lot of new) customers to the payment systems you've configured yourself.

Furthermore, App development, especially against custom WHMCS installations require a lot of work and configuration, so there's always room for specific suggestions.

Any plans for an Android App?

Any plans for an Android App?

Yes, definitely. We're working on Android and Blackberry apps too which shouldn't be finished very long afterwards. At this time, we're collecting pre-orders too, which defines order of delivery and might speed up development.

Just to let you know, we integrate with your payment gateways now and In-App Purchases through Apple is cancelled due to policy changes at Apple. That means NO fee for us on purchases by your clients. We integrate standard with your PayPal account, but can provide help on integrating with others.

Also, the support module has dropped € 10,- p/m.

Some more information: http://www.appondemand.eu/whmcs/whmcs-branded-client-apps/

Some screenshots (waiting for a discussion with Apple to finish, before we'll update the pages with more details) for:

iPhone: https://websiteondemand.nl/nl/apps/whois-domeinnaam-hosting-wod-iphone-app

iPad: https://websiteondemand.nl/nl/apps/whois-domeinnaam-hosting-wod-ipad-app

And screenshots in english..

iPhone: https://websiteondemand.nl/en/apps/whois-domain-name-hosting-wod-iphone-app

iPad: https://websiteondemand.nl/en/apps/whois-domain-name-hosting-wod-ipad-app

This looks great, but to be honest I'd never consider leasing it, especially at the prices you're quoting. Maybe if you've got time to talk about developing a version and fixing a fee I'm interested.

Wow, and I thought they guy wanting $1000 per license was crazy.