As a long time user and ongoing user of Platypus I agree with what Justin is saying.
Their team has always been responsive and willing to help us out on modules or support for any part of it. They got me up and running on my new stuff for a very good price. And they update often, so that column item needs to change. I do wish they would invest some major resources into a total client/app/web end redo though. It would be extremely painful to implement, but Plat is really the SQL database at heart with runtime modules running things. So it would be POSSIBLE to redo the ‘front’ end of those things. From: Af [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Justin Thornton Sent: Monday, September 26, 2016 10:04 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Billing system survey rehash I take some issue with this characterization of Platypus. While we have never been the flashiest or anywhere close to the best at marketing, Platypus has long been on a consistent development schedule with multiple releases each year. We have also taken pride in the flexibility of Platypus and how it can bend to work with whatever tools our customers prefer and are already familiar with, and how the billing results can be manipulated to provide most any results they desire. So when a customer comes to us asking about CDR billing, integrating with monitoring tools, communicating with Sandvine, provisioning LTE, adding line items from Dish, DirecTv, SiriusXM, etc. for a unified statement or whatever it might be, we don't typically need to add a new feature and release a new version. We just point the customer to where their request can fit into our existing architecture and assist them with the configuration. All of the billing platforms who operate in this space have their strengths and weaknesses and none of us are the right solution for everyone, but Platypus is still actively under development and here to serve those who are a good fit for us. I just don't want their to be any confusion over that. Justin Thornton Platypus ISP Billing On Sat, Sep 24, 2016 at 4:38 PM, Ivan Kohler <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: 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
