Helix

Overview

Helix is a custom-built billing and customer management platform — a suite of three Rails applications plus a shared engine — serving tens of thousands of customers and well over a hundred thousand websites. It replaced an aging WHMCS installation that couldn’t scale with the business.

Architecture

The system is split into focused applications sharing a common engine:

• Helix Core — Shared engine containing models, business logic, and API clients used across all apps
• Helix Storefront — Customer-facing order forms, account management, and self-service tools
• Helix Admin — Internal operations dashboard for support, billing, and provisioning management
• Helix Partner — White-label partner portal with custom branding and commission tracking

Technical Highlights

• Migrated thousands of customers from WHMCS with zero downtime — accounts, services, billing history, and DNS records
• Zero-downtime payment processor migrations across multiple order forms
• Integrated with 15+ third-party services: domain registrars, SSL providers, DNS platforms, helpdesk systems
• Sidekiq-based background processing for provisioning workflows, email delivery, and scheduled billing
• Comprehensive test suite with RSpec and Capybara covering critical billing paths
• Role-based permissions system supporting support agents, billing staff, operations, and engineering access levels