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What is WHMCS?

By Sarah / April 23rd, 2021


Running a web hosting business means being part of a global industry that's forecast to reach $73 billion by next year. It also means tackling unique challenges every day. Luckily, WHMCS is an easy way to make your everyday operations run smoothly and easily. If you're reading this blog, you probably know that WHMCS is trusted by web hosting companies around the world to automate their operations. We're here to help you grow and improve your business every day.

But, what does that mean WHMCS can do?

Automation Made Easy
WHMCS can automate every step of your customer lifecycle, integrating with all of the most important aspects of web hosting. We have modules for cPanel, Plesk, DirectAdmin, and all of the other leading web hosting control panels. Additionally, we integrate with the most popular payment processors, domain registrars, and more. That's customer management, business management, and sales management all in one place and designed as one well-oiled machine. This lets us deliver automated signup, payment processing, provisioning, domain registration, and more. There are also integrations for additional features like WHMCS addons and easy-to-sell MarketConnect products.

The automated experience begins when your customers sign up using our included Client Area, which doubles as both a store for new customers and a hub of self-service portals and account information for existing clients. When your new customer checks out, they'll be added to your WHMCS database and we'll automate the provisioning of any hosting purchases, registration of the domains they're buying, and processing for payments through the appropriate gateways. All of this can happen immediately, with no action required on your part.


After purchase, your customer will have access to self-service management of their domains and Single Sign-On logins to their web hosting control panels, all just depending on the registrars and server types you choose.

WHMCS auto-generates invoices for renewals and recurring payments while giving you complete control over factors like when they're generated, when overdue reminders are sent, and even when to charge late fees. In the case of nonpayment, suspensions and terminations are automated too.


Automation isn't limited to purchases and billing. We offer settings for auto-deletion of inactive client accounts, managing inactive support tickets, and pruning logs. WHMCS brings full automation with zero manual intervention required for many processes. All you have to do is configure your preferences in WHMCS's easy-to-use settings.

Easy Sales and Checkout
WHMCS is all you need to set up a polished and professional-looking storefront with shopping carts and integrated customer accounts. Every product that you set up for sale in WHMCS is completely configurable. To drive your sales further, domain registrations include features like namespinning (which suggests domain names based on keywords, locations, personal names, and more) and highlighted TLDs to put the best options in front of your customers.


Even better, our integrated MarketConnect platform lets you sell valuable services like SSL certificates, website builders, and email security. Provisioning for MarketConnect is easy and fully-automated, pricing and promotions are already configured for you with ready-to-use marketing materials, and your customers get self-service access after purchase. It can help you increase your average order value and grow your business with new and exciting opportunities for revenue, all with just a few clicks.


With your own logos displayed and the opportunity for complete customization, your customers won't even know they're shopping with WHMCS. They'll just know that you're giving them the experience they want while they give you their business.

Superior Support Tools
Your customer relationship is important to growing your business, and so much of that relationship is built on the support you provide. WHMCS includes an integrated ticket system and many support tools, like a built-in knowledgebase and network status notifications. Our client management system makes sure your staff can access the customer's profile, services, and billing information in one place. You'll have all the information at your fingertips, and your response times will benefit, too.


You can set up multiple departments, grant access to your staff, and set up easy-to-use widgets in the WHMCS Admin Area dashboard to make sure you see everything as it comes in. Your customers will be able to submit tickets both through their Client Area dashboards and through email using email piping and importing. Once a ticket's open, you'll be able to respond efficiently using predefined responses and providing links to your own proprietary knowledgebase that's also built into your Client Area. For your customers, everything is available with self-service tools (meaning less work for you and your staff, too).


An All-In-One Solution
What's listed here is just the beginning of WHMCS's many features, and WHMCS is the perfect solution for more than just web hosting. When you add it all up, WHMCS is one thing: a single, powerful tool that lets you manage all aspects of your business without repetitive tasks and redundant systems.

Over 45,000 companies around the world are benefitting from our one easy solution. Because WHMCS integrates with all of the leading web hosting control panels, payment processors, and registrars, it's easy to make your installation all your own. You can go even further with our Marketplace, which offers hundreds of custom integrations, or access our API and hook system to create custom-made pages in WHMCS.

Interested in getting started with WHMCS? You can find out more about our features on our website, in our documentation and tutorial videos, or by contacting us.

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