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Hello everyone,

I am currently working on free open source software, essentially a web application, that consists of portfolio and sales management for domainers.

Here is the rundown of the current features I have or am working on at the moment. Most are what you'd probably expect.

The admin portal web application has:
  • Bulk import from different sources:
    • Manual entry
    • Upload a CSV file or read from other third party sources (Google sheets etc)
    • Import directly and securely from supported registrars (requires API access at those registrars)
  • BIN and make offer pricing for domains
  • Custom offer landing pages (includes an offer page designer)
  • Set a different offer page design per domain
  • Auto updating and always fully backwards compatible (yes this means you won't have to manually download and redeploy)
  • No enforced branding or such on offer pages
  • User management
    • Maybe you have a team and would like to grant their limited, role based access to manage domains or other settings
    • You can even manually add other user accounts that have their own domains and offer pages, (yes go wild!)
  • Dashboard that shows various stats, recent sales, leads and more
  • Domain grid that provides filtering, sorting and more
  • Respond to inbound leads via a chat and email style interface
  • Multi lingual support (will only have English at first, but since it is open source others are more than welcome to contribute to translation)
  • Name server interface for configuring and managing your own name servers (read more below)
There is also software I've named DMAN, which stands for domain monitoring and notifications. This is additional optional software that can be installed for monitoring all your domains. It mostly checks for suspicious activity or unexpected WHOIS, Nameserver or DNS changes.

Other features that may or may not be admin specific are as follows:
  • Name server support. You can have your own nameservers/dns setup or you can integrate with supported providers such as Dyn or Protected Parking.
  • Optional two factor authentication
  • A mobile app (that will be paid for as I need to try and make some beer money) that provides a mobile app version of the admin portal but with the added benefits of receiving leads and notifications directly to your phone
There maybe other features in the final product not mentioned here yet. I am still considering things like marketplace integration, although I am not sure if the demand will be high enough. I feel most want good offer landing pages and an easy way to manage.

Here is the dilemma I am facing.

It will be highly recommended to have at least 1 server for the app (self hosting) and 2 more if you'd like to have your own custom nameservers and dns control setup (ns1.mynameserver.com, ns2.nameserver.com).

The APP is being built as a SPA with a .NET core backend. It is so blazingly fast and performable that it will easily run on a $5/month server even for those that have thousands of domain names.

The trouble is if somebody wants to have the 3 servers it will be a minimum cost of $15/per month for them to host it themselves, at which point they may well decide to of course not use the software and choose something like Efty instead.

I would appreciate any opinions on the following:
  • What do you make of the cost of self hosting this? $5/month for most cases, as DNS can still be handled elsewhere if the user would prefer?
  • What are your thoughts on the existing features and what would you like to see added?
  • Any other comments or thoughts you'd love to put across?
If you're curious as to why I am doing, there is a big personal gain in such a thing for me. My fulltime work and passion is software (apps, desktop, website) development. Having a project this huge on my Github will be worth thousands to me in freelance contracts as it serves of proof of my ability.

Finally, there will of course be plenty of documentation to add in installing and setting up the various parts. I will also educate users on best practices, free SSL certificates (entirely possible) and more.

Thank you very much for reading this post and I appreciate any thoughts you guys have.
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
If this is a .NET app, then it must run under Windows. That means you have to install some server version of Windows which can cost $30 a month or more for the license. Isn't that right ?

Also if you are running name servers, will the app talk to and update the NS machines or do you have to do that manually ?

I have been running dedicated hosting servers for over 20 years, under all versions of Windows and various *nix's so this is easy for me. But what about an average domainer ? Just the ordering and setup of the servers can be too much for them, forget about understanding dns, updates, etc.

Let me know more about how you see this being setup, but right now it sounds like you have to be well versed in computers and hosting to do this.
 
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If this is a .NET app, then it must run under Windows. That means you have to install some server version of Windows which can cost $30 a month or more for the license. Isn't that right ?

.NET core, so it is cross platform. I will supply an installer that can be run from CLI, so should be relatively straight forward to setup under the right conditions (basically, a new VPS will be highly recommended, otherwise there would be too many variables (existing sites, existing web servers etc) for any installer to take into effect, at which point manual installation will likely be required.

Also if you are running name servers, will the app talk to and update the NS machines or do you have to do that manually ?

Let me know more about how you see this being setup, but right now it sounds like you have to be well versed in computers and hosting to do this.

Yes it will, there will be support for various providers (powerdns, dyn.com etc).

I am also considering offering a hosting service for those willing to pay.

The app does support users though, so a group of domainers can setup and share server costs perhaps, that is an option also.

I know it seems difficult but I am determined to get this out there one way or the other.

Thanks
 
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It will be highly recommended to have at least 1 server for the app (self hosting) and 2 more if you'd like to have your own custom nameservers and dns control setup (ns1.mynameserver.com, ns2.nameserver.com).
For serious big business, may be. For a domainer with his 5 or 5k domains? I don't see any reason for that. Just host the custom ns where it all is.
 
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For serious big business, may be. For a domainer with his 5 or 5k domains? I don't see any reason for that. Just host the custom ns where it all is.
Only problem is all dns servers must have unique IPs or you wont be able to do dns specific stuff at many sites. The cheap cloud based host providers usually only give you one ip per server. Standard dns servers listen on one IP, so I dont think you can run multiple dns servers on one instance of server and have them listen on their respective IPs. I dont know of all the dns server softwares out there, but I think the above is true for most of them.
 
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Personally, you lost me a bit with the specs. Most/A lot of us, already have a Linux VPS/Server Trying to get a .NET product to work with a Linux VPS/Server sound complicated. It sounds like it's going to need a completely separate Windows VPS. Something, and the code, I would be completely unfamiliar with. Which doesn't attract me, at all. It really puts me off, actually. I'd want my own nameservers. So that's 3 new servers, at least. This is already beginning to sound like it's not really the direction I want to go in. Efty is not the only alternative. There are quite a few softwares which can run on Linux already. DNHat and DNDork, to name just 2 off the top of my head. They may or may not have everything you plan to support.

To answer your questions...

- What do you make of the cost of self hosting this? $5/month for most cases, as DNS can still be handled elsewhere if the user would prefer?

Speaking for myself. I'd want my own nameservers, else we cannot say this is truely branded to our domain. I think not having them as standard, is kinda cheap-skating what sounds to be like a powerful system.

- What are your thoughts on the existing features and what would you like to see added?

I think a mobile app for the admin is kinda stupid, personally. For responding to offers would be good.

- Any other comments or thoughts you'd love to put across?

Most of my comments are incorporated above. For me. I'm not sure I really want to learn how to use a Windows host, or to handle any eventualities with running .NET under Linux. It would need to be 100% concrete and idiotproof.

I know I have sounded mostly negative in this post. But it's only that .NET is out of my comfort zone. If it was running natively under Linux, I would be the opposite. We still need THE KILLER, Domain Portfolio Sales Software. I wish you well with your efforts. If I can help in any way, let me know. I'm willing to help. If I can.
 
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Thanks to everyone for their responses.

Personally, you lost me a bit with the specs. Most/A lot of us, already have a Linux VPS/Server Trying to get a .NET product to work with a Linux VPS/Server sound complicated. It sounds like it's going to need a completely separate Windows VPS. Something, and the code, I would be completely unfamiliar with. Which doesn't attract me, at all. It really puts me off, actually. I'd want my own nameservers. So that's 3 new servers, at least. This is already beginning to sound like it's not really the direction I want to go in. Efty is not the only alternative. There are quite a few softwares which can run on Linux already. DNHat and DNDork, to name just 2 off the top of my head. They may or may not have everything you plan to support.

To answer your questions...

- What do you make of the cost of self hosting this? $5/month for most cases, as DNS can still be handled elsewhere if the user would prefer?

Speaking for myself. I'd want my own nameservers, else we cannot say this is truely branded to our domain. I think not having them as standard, is kinda cheap-skating what sounds to be like a powerful system.

- What are your thoughts on the existing features and what would you like to see added?

I think a mobile app for the admin is kinda stupid, personally. For responding to offers would be good.

- Any other comments or thoughts you'd love to put across?

Most of my comments are incorporated above. For me. I'm not sure I really want to learn how to use a Windows host, or to handle any eventualities with running .NET under Linux. It would need to be 100% concrete and idiotproof.

I know I have sounded mostly negative in this post. But it's only that .NET is out of my comfort zone. If it was running natively under Linux, I would be the opposite. We still need THE KILLER, Domain Portfolio Sales Software. I wish you well with your efforts. If I can help in any way, let me know. I'm willing to help. If I can.

Thanks for your detailed response.

.NET core is new and cross platform. Very easy to get setup running on Linux with any web server you're familiar with (Apache, nginx). Not complicated in my opinion and plenty of documentation to help out if need be.

The mobile app is more about responding to leads/offers and notifications but of course can have basic admin functionality too.

I plan to have an early alpha up and running soon and I may contact you closer to the time to ask for your help with testing and roadmap.

Yes I am hoping this will be that platform. :)

Cheers
 
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@Dave - I'll reserve judgment until I see the alpha. One thing I am comtemplating for my own website is a simple ticketing, like OpenSupports.com, kind of to replace my current make offer / buy now negotiations, for handling problems and suggestions on my website, and miscellaneous other communications with members.
 
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Any features you'd like to see?

Anyone else?
Well. Just out of my head. Unlimited grouping. For this group, switch to BIN + make offer. For this group, apply this BIN. For this group, ads on. For this group, mark them anything i want, like having this and that NS, some purpose, names, tags, etc etc. And yes, unlimited taxonomy levels.
 
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It sounds like an amazing platform for power users with huge portfolios. I particularly like the lead interface (chat etc.) and multi-lingual future support. Mobile is a nice feature.

I think for many though headaches of hosting will be enough that instead they would go with Efty that provides a number of the features in a super technically easy package.

I wish you the best with the project, but probably would not personally use it.

Bob
 
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Any features you'd like to see?

Anyone else?

How large is .net core? Is there a repository that is compatible with Linux software managers like apt and yum? If not, it will be a pain to keep the core updated and secure.

Is the architecture of the app based on reusable components like most web applications?

URL for the git repository?
 
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It sounds like an amazing platform for power users with huge portfolios. I particularly like the lead interface (chat etc.) and multi-lingual future support. Mobile is a nice feature.

I think for many though headaches of hosting will be enough that instead they would go with Efty that provides a number of the features in a super technically easy package.

I wish you the best with the project, but probably would not personally use it.

Bob

The normal business model for open source projects. Experienced users will adopt because they can customize and their fixes, features are added to the core.

Inexperience users buy a hosted solution which is less expensive than closed source solutions.
 
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Thanks to everyone for their replies and input.

I've discussed this in more depth with quite a few now and one common agreement is that the initial setup and costs of hosting (you're looking at $10/month for the recommended nameservers) will put most off using the software and they would prefer to pay Efty or such instead.

With that being said I will still be open sourcing these apps and will look at how to provide hosting and nameservers at minimal cost to users, otherwise there is no incentive.

I won't be put off by the negatives. I know I can make this work and give something back to this great community.
 
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Thanks to everyone for their replies and input.

I've discussed this in more depth with quite a few now and one common agreement is that the initial setup and costs of hosting (you're looking at $10/month for the recommended nameservers) will put most off using the software and they would prefer to pay Efty or such instead.

With that being said I will still be open sourcing these apps and will look at how to provide hosting and nameservers at minimal cost to users, otherwise there is no incentive.

I won't be put off by the negatives. I know I can make this work and give something back to this great community.

Check scaleway.com ( €1.99 / month ). Most clients are going to have minimal traffic so you can use starter account 99% of the time. API, so you can setup automated installation.

In the end, not much you can do that isn't already being done by efty for $20/month.
 
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I think for many though headaches of hosting will be enough that instead they would go with Efty that provides a number of the features in a super technically easy package.

I've discussed this in more depth with quite a few now and one common agreement is that the initial setup and costs of hosting (you're looking at $10/month for the recommended nameservers) will put most off using the software and they would prefer to pay Efty or such instead.
For me, it's crucial that such tool is self hosted. I found here on NP a very cool looking domain portfolio tool and had some nice and fruitful conversations with its owner/developer; however he offers it as SaaS and is not willing to give me a standalone version. While for me this is a dealbreaker, i have zero interest in entrusting all my domain info to any 3rd party company or person.

But that's only me, i'm not frightened by all this server stuff, and i anyway have a few servers - for hosting, SEO tools, etc etc. I understand though that majority of domainers unlike SEO's have no idea and don't want to learn all this server stuff and would prefer a ready hosted solution.
 
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For me, it's crucial that such tool is self hosted.
I think @golan makes a very good point. While at my stage in life and technical skill level might personally prefer a solution that did not require self-hosting, i think the case is very strong that serious domain investors with large, active and valuable portfolios should consider a self-hosted solution.
Thanks,
Bob
 
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Some FOSS projects authors make money on consultancy, setup and hosting while providing a product that is essentially offered to the community at no charge.
People who are technically proficient can run and install the stuff by themselves. Less advanced users can choose to pay for a hosted service (Saas).
Which means both options can be pursued at the same time.
 
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I own a bunch of dedicated servers around the USA and Canada, so I could offer dirt cheap hosting for windows/plesk and/or linux/cpanel hosting, and all have control panels. But it would have to be something stable, not code that could make a server unstable.

I am also comfortable at kernel level software installations/builds in Freebsd and Centos as well as all hardware provisioning. I also run Windows servers for .asp/.net applications.

Let me know if you need a staging area once this starts to come together.
 
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Thanks everyone.

@Kate Yes I will likely pursue what you described.

@NYJimbo Thanks for the offer. Testers always appreciated and I will contact you closer to a time when the app is ready to have a demo.
 
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You'll get more responses if you change your title to something more descriptive.

A generic title with "I need opinions please", will be passed-on by many people who don't like gambling on whether they will be interested in the content of the thread.
 
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