Control Panel cPanel Invests in Billing Software Provider WHMCS

At this year’s HostingCon, held in Boston in the beginning of this month, the hosting control panel developer, cPanel announced that they have invested in billing software company, WHMCS. The main aim of this move is integration and optimization with the billing company, which will make it possible for many hosting providers to use both the tools in a unified way.

At this stage, there is no definite plan yet as to what form the integration will take, or what type of changes it will bring to hosting providers already using either tool. At this time, the deal is still at the financial stage, while the blog post announcing the deal on the cPanel company blog calls the arrangement a “brain trust.”

Aaron Phillips, cPanel’s VP of operations said that, “The company recognized that cPanel & WHM had a need for an integrated component that would automate tasks like billing and account creation, but also recognized that such a tool would compete directly with WHMCS, if built in house. Given the quality and the popularity of WHMCS, it seemed like buying into that company was the more efficient route to the better product.”

According to Matt Pugh, CEO at WHMCS, the software was originally developed to fill a vacant niche in the hosting market. Apparently, he found it while working at cPanel himself, so he built WHMCS with that control panel platform in mind. It is almost a given that the planned integration will make the tool even easier to use with cPanel. Despite the advantages to cPanel users, Pugh claims that the deal will not affect the WHMCS’ ability to perform well with other control panel platforms.

As of writing this, no information about the financial details of the deal between cPanel and WHMCS has yet been released.