Miva Merchant was originally launched in 1997 as a distributed software platform, long before the concept of SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) existed. Back then, Miva Merchant was a fairly simple (although ahead of its time) catalog management system for putting products into a catalog and facilitating a checkout.
Today, Miva Merchant encompasses what used to be multiple separate paid third-party products:
In 2009, the Miva Merchant SaaS model was launched, replacing the legacy distributed software model that dated back to 1997. SaaS has since gone from being a new way to sell and distribute software to the de facto standard in software delivery today.
Since launching this SaaS model, Miva has invested far more into building out our core platform than at any point in Miva's history, all while the costs to operate our business have increased. And yet even as our platform has evolved and changed significantly, we have not changed the base pricing for our product.
Some of our customers have been with us 10, 15, even 18 years, and remember a time where Miva Merchant was provided for 'free' as part of a hosting plan. When considering this legacy model, it's understandable how many of our long time customers can find it challenging to understand why we're changing our pricing – and even our reasoning behind it.
In actuality, direct hosting costs comprise less than 5% of the total cost to operate our business, which is why charging for Disk, Bandwidth, Servers, etc., does not accurately compensate for what is largely a product of intellectual property.
Product development, network management (uptime) and support, on the other hand, comprise roughly 60% of the cost of running our business – yet under the old hosting pricing models we're essentially not charging for those items.
Thus, we've need a different method to charge for our intellectual property.
Here are the 5 models we've considered:
Coincidentally, this pricing adjustment also brings us in line with our competitors, who in all but a few cases offer ecommerce solutions capable of far less than what is available on Miva.
Entry-level competitors on the low end like Shopify and Bigcommerce charge $80+ a month for far less functionality than comes standard out-of-the-box with Miva.
Shopify and Bigcommerce also charge $1,000 to $3,000+ a month for "Enterprise" offerings unable to legitimately function at the level of a true Enterprise solution.
We've conducted a technical analysis of both Shopify and Bigcommerce and can show you very clearly how Miva is orders of magnitude more capable and more affordable than these "low end" platforms:
Miva Merchant vs. Shopify
Miva Merchant vs. BigCommerce
The only direct Enterprise equivalent to Miva Merchant Enterprise is Magento Enterprise. A Magento Enterprise license alone (without hosting) carries a price tag of $22,000 a year, with hosting costs often exceeding $60,000 a year.
We've also conducted a technical analysis comparing Miva Merchant and Miva Merchant Enterprise to Magento Community and Magento Enterprise which clearly demonstrates that Miva Merchant is both more capable and more affordable to operate than both of them, including the "free" Magento Community edition.
Miva Merchant vs. Magento Community
Miva Merchant Enterprise vs. Magento Enterprise
To recap, we've expanded the capabilities of our core Miva Merchant platform considerable since its advent in 1997. Today, Miva Merchant stores not only deliver the most sophisticated and streamlined online shopping experiences available, they also support sophisticated back-end ecommerce workflows (fulfillment, CRM, etc.). And as our platform evolves, it has become glaringly apparent that the value our customers derive from using Miva Merchant is not reflected in our old model of charging for Disk and Bandwidth. Hosting has become a commodity, while Miva's cost of building and maintaining our ecommerce platform has skyrocketed (programmers, network engineers, etc.). As such, we've adjusted our pricing to solve this long term structural problem, all while being fair and flexible should the need arise.
Compare Platforms | Shopify | Bigcommerce | Magento Community | Magento Enterprise | Miva |
Standard ecommerce features | |||||
App store for 3rd party plugins | |||||
Responsive design | |||||
Checkout on own domain | |||||
Full page template access | |||||
Full server FTP / database access | |||||
Enterprise configuration and UI | |||||
Advanced B2B features | |||||
Enterprise-level discounting / marketing | |||||
Complex shipping rules per method | |||||
Enterprise tools for integration, automation | |||||
Streaming updates | |||||
Full stack control | |||||
In house managed servers / professional services / support |
Standard ecommerce features |
|
App store for 3rd party plugins |
|
Responsive design |
|
Checkout on own domain |
|
Full page template access |
|
Full server FTP / database access |
|
Enterprise configuration and UI |
|
Advanced B2B features |
|
Enterprise-level discounting / marketing |
|
Complex shipping rules per method |
|
Enterprise tools for integration, automation |
|
Streaming updates |
|
Full stack control |
|
In house managed servers / professional services / support |
|