Skip to content

Migrate from WHMCS

Moving from WHMCS to PNLCS? Because PNLCS deliberately mirrors WHMCS concepts, the mental model carries straight over — clients, products, orders, invoices, services, tickets and modules all mean the same thing.

There is no one-click importer yet

PNLCS does not ship an automated WHMCS database importer. This guide describes the practical, low-risk way to move. If you'd like to help build an importer, it's a welcome contribution.

Rather than a big-bang migration, run PNLCS alongside WHMCS and move customers over as they renew. This avoids downtime and billing surprises.

1. Rebuild your catalog

Recreate your product groups and products in PNLCS with the same names and prices. See Your First Sale. This is quick and gives you a clean, correct price list.

2. Connect the same servers

Add your existing hosting servers to PNLCS (Connect a Server). The accounts already exist on those servers — PNLCS just needs to manage them going forward.

3. Recreate settings

4. Bring customers over

For each customer, create a client in PNLCS and add their existing services (linked to the right server, with the correct next due date and price). New renewal invoices then bill from PNLCS.

Two common patterns:

  • On renewal — as each customer's WHMCS renewal comes up, recreate them in PNLCS and let PNLCS bill the next cycle. Lowest risk.
  • All at once — recreate everyone in a maintenance window, set due dates to match, and switch billing.

Update your billing URL, client links and any signup forms to your PNLCS install. Redirect the old WHMCS URL if you can.

Handy facts for planners

  • Data model parity: WHMCS's clients/products/orders/invoices/services map 1:1 to PNLCS, so exported CSVs are easy to re-enter or script against the API.
  • API: PNLCS has a REST API (reference) you can script bulk client/service creation against.
  • Passwords: hosting account passwords live on the control panel, not in PNLCS — moving billing doesn't disturb live sites.

Get help

Migrations are the kind of thing the community loves to compare notes on — ask on the forum or open an issue with your scenario.