When you're running a web hosting business, your billing system shouldn't be harder to manage than your servers. That's exactly the situation Hostingwalk found themselves in—spending more time wrestling with WHMCS than actually serving their customers.
The WHMCS Problem
Hostingwalk had been using WHMCS, the industry-standard billing platform for hosting providers, for several years. While WHMCS is powerful, it comes with significant overhead that many hosting businesses don't actually need.
The platform requires self-hosting, which means managing yet another server, keeping software updated, and dealing with security patches. For a small-to-medium hosting provider, this administrative burden takes time away from what matters most: providing excellent hosting services.
WHMCS is designed for hosting companies that need deep integration with server provisioning—automatically creating cPanel accounts, configuring DNS, or spinning up VPS instances when customers sign up. But Hostingwalk, like many modern hosting providers, handles provisioning through streamlined workflows that don't require this level of automation.
They were paying for complexity they weren't using. The license fees, maintenance time, and steep learning curve for their team simply weren't justified by the features they actually needed.
The Switch to PayRequest
Hostingwalk evaluated several modern billing alternatives before settling on PayRequest. The key deciding factors were simplicity, European payment method support, and the customer portal functionality.
Centralized Billing Management: Instead of navigating WHMCS's complex interface, Hostingwalk now manages all invoices, subscriptions, and customer information from one clean dashboard. Creating invoices takes seconds, not minutes.
Automated Subscription Billing: Setting up recurring billing for hosting plans is straightforward. Hostingwalk configures a subscription product once, and PayRequest handles everything—sending invoices, collecting payments via SEPA Direct Debit or cards, and managing failed payment retries automatically.
Native European Payment Methods: As a European hosting provider, supporting iDEAL, SEPA Direct Debit, and Bancontact was essential. PayRequest's integration with Mollie made these payment methods available immediately, improving payment success rates with their primarily Dutch and Belgian customer base.
Customer Self-Service Portal: Hostingwalk's clients can now log into a branded portal to view their invoices, update payment methods, and see their subscription status. This reduced support tickets significantly—customers answer their own billing questions instead of contacting support.
Smart Customer Segmentation: Using PayRequest's tagging system, Hostingwalk organizes customers by hosting plan type (shared, VPS, dedicated), customer type (business vs. personal), and legacy status. This makes it easy to send targeted communications or analyze revenue by segment.
The Migration Process
Moving from WHMCS to PayRequest was simpler than expected. Hostingwalk exported their customer data and recreated their product catalog in PayRequest over a weekend. The biggest task was setting up SEPA Direct Debit mandates for existing customers, which PayRequest's flows made straightforward.
For ongoing subscriptions, Hostingwalk created new subscription products in PayRequest and gradually migrated customers as their billing cycles renewed. This phased approach meant no disruption to existing customers.
Hostingwalk didn't need to replicate every WHMCS feature. They dropped automated server provisioning (which they handled manually anyway), complex multi-currency support (their customers are primarily in the Eurozone), and hosting-specific modules they never used.
What they kept was the core of their business: reliable recurring billing, clear customer records, and professional invoicing.
Results After Migration
Since switching to PayRequest, Hostingwalk has seen measurable improvements in their billing operations.
Reduced Administrative Time: What used to take hours per week now takes minutes. The team spends less time on billing administration and more time on customer support and growth.
Fewer Billing Errors: WHMCS's complexity often led to configuration mistakes. PayRequest's simpler interface means fewer errors and less time spent correcting invoices.
Better Payment Success Rates: Native support for European payment methods, combined with automatic retry logic for failed payments, improved overall collection rates.
Improved Customer Transparency: The customer portal gives clients visibility into their billing relationship without requiring support intervention.
Clear Activity Tracking: PayRequest's activity log shows every billing event—invoice created, payment received, subscription renewed—making it easy to trace what happened and when.
Is PayRequest Right for Your Hosting Business?
Hostingwalk's experience suggests PayRequest is an excellent fit for hosting providers who:
- Don't need automated server provisioning (or use external tools for it)
- Want to reduce billing complexity and overhead
- Serve primarily European customers
- Value customer self-service capabilities
- Prefer cloud-hosted billing over self-managed solutions
If you're a large hosting provider with hundreds of products requiring deep integration with control panels and provisioning systems, WHMCS or similar platforms may still be the right choice. But for many hosting businesses, the simpler path leads to better results.
Getting Started
Hostingwalk's migration took one weekend of focused work. If you're considering a similar move, PayRequest offers a straightforward path:
- Sign up for a PayRequest account and connect your payment provider
- Create your hosting products and subscription plans
- Import your customer list
- Set up your customer portal branding
- Begin migrating customers as their billing cycles renew
The hosting industry is evolving. Your billing system should evolve with it—toward simplicity, not away from it.