On 09/16/2016 06:01 AM, Simon Westlake wrote:
There's a couple of others that are mostly billing focused
(BillMax, Freeside) that are probably similar in functionality
to Platypus (although, I will confess, I am not intimately
familiar with them, so they could have some differences.)
Sorry to be late to the party.
Simon, I would respectfully say that your characterization of
Freeside as "billing focused" or similar to Platypus/Billmax
rather than a full platform is incorrect. We're very much a
complete platform (for example, with all of the 7 modules you
list in your blog targeting Sonar's 1.0 release). Vlad, thanks
very much for the kind words - we're happy to have you as part of
our community as both a user and contributor to the codebase.
FWIW, I did some research and put together a chart with all 9
(nine!) billing vendors that are WISPA members. Of course I
cannot help but be biased, so take it with an appropriate amount
of salt, but I was going for "useful information" rather than
"useless marketing spin". Hope it helps!
Simon, Cameron, and anyone else, your comments/input are more
than welcome.
--
Ivan Kohler, President and Head Geek, Freeside Internet Services,
Inc.
Open-source billing, ticketing and provisioning -
http://freeside.biz/
Freeside <http://freeside.biz/>
Azotel Billmax DirectLink Admin Platypus
Powercode Sonar
VISP WISPMon
WISPA member ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
✔ ✔
WISP features ✔ ✔ ✖ ✖ ✖ ✔ ✔
✔ ✔
CDR billing / Telco features ✔ ✖ ✖ ✖ ✖
✖ new/preliminary
✖ ✖
Fiber ISP features ✔ ✖ ✖ ✖ ✖ ✖ ✖
✖ ✔
Deployment Hosted or Premise Hosted Premise Hosted Premise
Premise Hosted Hosted Premise
Client Web Web Web Web Windows Web Web
Web Web
License Open-source Proprietary Proprietary Proprietary
Proprietary Proprietary Proprietary Proprietary
Proprietary
Price No per-customer or license charges. Can purchase
implementation, support, and customization services.
$?/customer/month $?/customer/month $0.50/customer/month 100
customers free, then $0.05-$0.70/customer/month
$0.63-$1.40/customer/month $0.50-$1.25/customer/month
$0.90-$1.30/customer/month $0.95-$1.30/customer/month
Ongoing development Active (new major version this year) Active
Active Active (new product) Minimal Active Active (new
product) Active Active (new major version last year)
Vendor size Small Small Tiny Tiny Medium Large Small
Medium Tiny
Vendor business/ownership Billing software Billing software
(sold through distributors) Billing and geologic software MDU
ISP (VideoDirect) Domain names, mobile phone service (OpenSRS,
Ting, Tucows) WISP (Bertram wireless) Billing software
Billing
software, managed ISP services (call center, email/web hosting)
Billing software
Since 1998 2005 (2010 USA) 1997 2015 1996 2003
2015 1996
2010
Notable fact(s) Mature and full-featured ISP and CDR billing.
New UI, WISP mapping features and hosted option. Simple hosted
system for small WISPs, almost like a franchise Old ISP system,
dormant for years, revived in 2012 New system with MDU features
Barely maintained, on life support for a decade Giant
over-the-top trade show booths (compensating for something?)
Ex-Powercode team, early access discount, rapid development Can
also host your email and answer your support calls No longer
requires Adobe Flash
