WHMCS Pricing: License Cost per Month and Plan Limits

How much does a WHMCS license cost per month?

A self-hosted license starts at $34.95 per month and steps up with the active client count. These are the self-hosted plans as the pricing page lists them, in US dollars, excluding tax.

The higher Business prices appear when you change the client selector on its card. The license types article calls Business the tier sold "in increments over 1000 client accounts".

What is the WHMCS Starter license monthly price?

Starter is $9.99 per month for up to 25 active clients, and today it is a fully managed cloud plan, not a self-hosted license. WHMCS runs the installation, applies updates and takes backups, and bills every client above the included number on top.

Growth and Expansion also include all standard WHMCS modules and the self-service ImportAssist module, which is how you move data in from a self-hosted install. Cloud installs run on WebPros Cloud, with a location picked at signup from Houston, Dallas, Düsseldorf, Zurich and Tokyo.

What can you not do on a fully managed plan?

Three limits in the pricing page FAQ decide this for most hosting companies. Custom theme uploads are not available, so you work inside the bundled Theme Editor and Translation Manager. SSH and FTP access are not available. And only pre-approved modules from the curated WHMCS marketplace can be installed, with custom module support listed as a roadmap item rather than a current feature.

So if you need a registrar module nobody has written, a gateway for a local bank, or a client area that does not look like WHMCS, that points to self-hosted. I build custom modules, so weigh that knowing what I sell.

How does WHMCS count your active clients?

The software does the counting, and the pricing page gives the definition: "An Active Client is defined as any client with at least one active product, service, addon or domain."

• Where to read it. In the Admin Area, open Help > License Information and look at Active Client Count. The same screen shows the key, the license type and the valid domains and directories, as the License Information documentation describes.
• Who drops out. A client with nothing active stops meeting the definition. The status is evaluated by the daily automation tasks and adjusted by your Client Status Update setting, so dormant accounts only stop counting if that setting lets WHMCS mark them inactive.
• One installation per license. A license is bound to a domain, IP address and directory path. Moving servers means reissuing the key in the members area, or through the host that sold it.

What happens when you pass your WHMCS client limit?

The license upgrades itself to the next tier unless you opted out, and the new price starts on your next renewal date. The article Client Limit Approaching for License Keys sets out the rest, and one line in it is easy to miss.

• Automatic upgrade: no pro-rata charge for moving into the next tier mid-cycle.
• Manual upgrade placed in the client area: a pro-rated charge for the price difference between tiers for the rest of the billing cycle.
• If you opted out and do nothing: the client side keeps working and keeps taking orders, but admin management is restricted to the clients under your limit.

To upgrade by hand, go to Services > My Licenses in the WHMCS client area, open the key, click Upgrade License and pick the next tier. Opt out only if someone will act on the in-product notice.

What does each plan include, and what costs extra?

Every self-hosted plan includes the software, the right to host it on your own server, and email and ticket support. The plans differ in the client limit and, on Business, the support channels.

The same FAQ confirms you may take a Business license with fewer than 1,000 clients purely to get live chat and priority support.

Is there an annual, owned or trial WHMCS license?

No annual or owned license is sold today. The License Information page linked above states it plainly: "We currently only offer Monthly licenses." If you read about one-time owned licenses with yearly support renewals, that is history, not a budget line.

The terms of service add three rules. Licenses renew automatically each month until canceled, with payment due on the signup anniversary. You can cancel at any time with no notice period, but renewals already paid are not refunded. The 30-day money-back offer covers license and addon charges for new clients only, judged by both the registered client details and the domain the license runs on, and must be requested from the members area within 30 days of the original purchase.

There is no free trial, but there is a development license. The development license article says buying direct earns one free development key per active paid license at Plus or Professional, and three per active paid license at Business. If your license came from a reseller, a development key is a one-time $45 fee, and development instances must stay internal. Ask for the key on day one. It is how you test an upgrade or a new module without touching live billing.

Is a WHMCS license cheaper through a hosting provider?

Often yes, because the host buys at wholesale, but the terms are the host's and not WHMCS's. The reseller program page publishes what hosts pay per license, which tells you how much room they have to discount.

The page lists three more volume bands between those columns and describes the range as 15 to 55 percent off. Two cautions. The Starter row here is a reseller tier, not the fully managed Starter plan, and the page does not state its client limit, so ask. And reseller licenses "may not be sold directly to the general public or offered as a standalone product", so expect the license to be attached to hosting you also buy.

Ask any host four things: which tier it is and its client limit, what you pay when you outgrow it, who reissues the key when you move servers, and what happens to the license if you leave. Disclosure: I am CTO at ElySpace, a hosting company, so I sit on that side of the market. My reseller hosting guide covers the business model behind those offers.

What does running WHMCS cost beyond the license?

On a self-hosted install the license is rarely the largest line. I quote no amounts for other companies, because they vary by provider and country. This is the list to price for yourself.

Disclosure for the modules row: I founded WHMCSPilot.com, which sells WHMCS modules and themes. For what drives the development row, see what custom WHMCS module development costs. If you are comparing platforms rather than plans, WHMCS alternatives is the better page.