compare: nbill vs cbsubs vs virtuemart

Hello,
I am reviewing billing platforms. Does anyone out there have experience with nBill and virtuemart?


nBill
extensions.joomla.org/extensions/e%252dcommerce/billing-&-invoices/1419/details


VirtueMart
extensions.joomla.org/extensions/e%252dcommerce/shopping-cart/129/details


If yes, can you give your opinions on how these carts/ billing packages compare to csubs? Why are you looking at cbsubs now?

Thanks,
Mike

Post edited by: mike177, at: 2009/04/24 15:54

If you need to just send invoices to people, then your choice among those is clear. (not a recommendation though, as i didn't try it)

Imho ipossible to compare 3 different solutions made for 3 different needs, it's like comparing a CMS and a forum and a blog...different solutions for different needs...


As I understand (please correct me if I'm wrong regarding core product functions):

- nBill : solution to send payable invoices with many invoices

- virtuemart: solution for an online shop with many shopable items, with integrated invoicing for those

- CBSubs: solution for managing many social memberships, many donations and some merchandises, with integrated invoicing for those


So if you need to be able to write freely individual invoices and address those invoices to people, CBSubs 1.0 is not the right solution for you.

However, if the invoices are automaticaly resulting of many social memberships, many donations and some merchandises, then it's the right solution.

Thanks Beat.

In my case, we are selling a mix of items. So, I am not sure which platform is best. Perhaps you can tell me how well sbsubs would work for us?

Products:
1) templated real estate websites: they pay us a flat monthly fee plus usage driven by unique users (measured by google analytics per URL)
2) real estate agents pay for advertising on our main site (cost driven by per click and per impression)
3) phone usage driven by number of minutes used
4) various monthly services (binary costs: on or off)
5) post cards sent for real estate agent
6) emails sent for a real estate agent
7) on occasion we need to send a non-standard invoice is a real estate agent for custom work

As you can see, all of our products actually are services. We do have some phyical products involved in these services but they are very few. By far, the bulk of our billing is for services where we are counting widgets in a database that measure how much a service is being used.

Now, in all of these cases, the real estate agent is paying for these marketing services to gain customers. We are building these services so when home buyers reply then they become "linked" to that realtor via the service they are replying to. Therefore, these "linked" home shoppers's activities on our site become visible to the agent. Hence, in some ways, this is like building a community. As long as the realtor and the home buyer agree to remain linked then the realtor will be able to see the home shoppers actions on our site. It is this "linking" action that seem to fit well into the CB world.

I am wondering if cbsubs / community builder can help us build this type of functionality. I am also wondering if cbsubs is built to invoice these kind of services???

Many thanks,
Mike

Post edited by: mike177, at: 2009/04/27 03:00

mike177 wrote:

Thanks Beat.

In my case, we are selling a mix of items. So, I am not sure which platform is best. Perhaps you can tell me how well sbsubs would work for us?

Products:
1) templated real estate websites: they pay us a flat monthly fee plus usage driven by unique users (measured by google analytics per URL)
2) real estate agents pay for advertising on our main site (cost driven by per click and per impression)
3) phone usage driven by number of minutes used
4) various monthly services (binary costs: on or off)
5) post cards sent for real estate agent
6) emails sent for a real estate agent
7) on occasion we need to send a non-standard invoice is a real estate agent for custom work

As you can see, all of our products actually are services. We do have some phyical products involved in these services but they are very few. By far, the bulk of our billing is for services where we are counting widgets in a database that measure how much a service is being used.

Now, in all of these cases, the real estate agent is paying for these marketing services to gain customers. We are building these services so when home buyers reply then they become "linked" to that realtor via the service they are replying to. Therefore, these "linked" home shoppers's activities on our site become visible to the agent. Hence, in some ways, this is like building a community. As long as the realtor and the home buyer agree to remain linked then the realtor will be able to see the home shoppers actions on our site. It is this "linking" action that seem to fit well into the CB world.

I am wondering if cbsubs / community builder can help us build this type of functionality. I am also wondering if cbsubs is built to invoice these kind of services???

Many thanks,
Mike

Post edited by: mike177, at: 2009/04/27 03:00

Yes, CBSubs's framework has things needed to build this. However CBSubs doesn't implement them in core, it would need to be a or a few integration plugins to be developed.

I guess my reply to your other post here replies this one too

www.joomlapolis.com/component/option,com_joomlaboard/Itemid,38/func,view/catid,87/id,96693/#96693