Update on Pricing from Miva, Inc.

[Geographicus]

Another Customer Leaving

I don't know if you are intentionally trying to alienate the small business but you are doing a good job of it. Do you realize how impractical it is to ask a business with a gross revenue of 100K to pay 250 a month? Most likely their profit margins are already minimal - could be 30K of profit, and less minus operating expenses. You might want to seriously consider adding another tier say, 150 a month between 100k and 250K, then 250/month over 250K in revenue. That way it is affordable to smaller sellers.

Kevin

[Rick Wilson]

Re: Update on Pricing from Miva, Inc.

Kevin,

We're studying that, if you haven't already sent me an email about a price review, you should.

[K Series Parts]

Re: Update on Pricing from Miva, Inc.

Ricks keyboard these past couple of days....

9197752895_c85b2fb637_b.jpg

[Rick Wilson]

Re: Update on Pricing from Miva, Inc.

I'm trying to get my money's worth from my inevitable carpel tunnel surgery in 10 years

[bostontech88]

Re: Update on Pricing from Miva, Inc.

I've been following this thread and have finally decided to create an account so I could post this message here. I would like to find out Miva's pricing structure for larger stores, where currently it only says "starting from $1495 per month." What does this mean to a business that makes $4.5M in sales a year? What is the new pricing going to be? We are not hosted with Miva currently and our host doesn't know what the pricing for $2M, $3M, $4M, $5M, $10M clients is going to be. And looking at miva.com, neither could anyone else figure out, other than send a request for quote. The price jump from the current license to $1495/month is already hard to swallow for many clients we work with, but I have a feeling the license fee is going to be much higher for a $4.5M store than for a $1M store - so I need to plan discussions and strategies with my clients accordingly.

Miva - what is the pricing scale for larger stores that generate more than $1M/year in revenue? Is it percentage based, or is it tiered in some way? I do not want to "request a quote" because (a) I'm a developer and I'm working on behalf of several clients - I need info I can use for all of them, not a specific one client, and (b) this sort of info should be public knowledge for all larger merchants to see and base their decisions on, rather than getting "deals" on pricing if Miva decides to get a marquee name in the door at a lower price than a similar size but less known retailer requests a quote.

[Rick Wilson]

Re: Update on Pricing from Miva, Inc.

Bostontech88,

If you're not hosted with us, then it's flat. The Enterprise license is $1,550 a month if it's hosted elsewhere.

If you're hosted with us, it has to be a quote because we have $100 million dollar sites that use very little resource to power their site and we have $10 million dollar sites that do a ton of little transactions and need a custom server environment.

I can say this, the pricing is not a percentage of sales and runs roughly from $1,495.00 a month on the "low end" to $5,995.00 a month on the "high end".

[bostontech88]

Re: Update on Pricing from Miva, Inc.

Rick - thank you for that info, however, I'm a little confused on the pricing. You are saying Enterprise license is $1550/month, flat fee, if hosted elsewhere. How is it possible for you to offer the same Enterprise license on your in-house hosting for $1495/month, and include "Dedicated Environment" in this price (which I'm understanding is either dedicated server or a virtual machine) without coming off as blatantly trying to undercut other hosts offering Miva hosting? How can I explain to my clients that my host cannot offer same or better price than you can directly, without losing them altogether - either by moving to your direct hosting and me losing relationship with them, or by being forced to move to other platforms as this really sounds very anti-competitive to me.

I understand you will tell me the $4.5M client would get a "better deal" if they host elsewhere (possibly) if my host's license cost is a flat $1550, and if they hosted at Miva it might be more, but that's just one client, largest one I have. Most of my other clients are in the $1M to $2M range, and a good half of them are doing so little traffic that they are on shared servers paying $69-$149/month and have no need for Enterprise level hosting (dedicated servers, etc). I can't sell them "$1550 + cost of hosting" package when you are offering $1495 package which includes what sounds like a dedicated server.

Can you please clarify this for me? Is the pricing of the Enterprise license perhaps off a bit or you haven't considered the discrepancy between your own hosting while undercutting 3rd party hosts in the process?

[Rick Wilson]

Re: Update on Pricing from Miva, Inc.

The third party host pricing was designed to cover all sizes, so yes it's a little bit more than our base enterprise but that's why.

Also at this point very few of our clients use third party hosts as a percentage and as a rule we sell almost no new licenses that way.

[bostontech88]

Re: Update on Pricing from Miva, Inc.

Rick - I don't want to buy a "new license" - I want to continue hosting my clients "as is." Your logic makes it very difficult for clients to understand why you are raising prices by a factor of 4000% while offering better pricing internally than through 3rd party hosts. Is your intention to simply eliminate 3rd party hosting relationships by offering licenses at such uncompetitive prices that it won't make sense to host anywhere else but Miva directly? It sounds to me almost like a ploy to eliminate the remaining few hosts that still offer Miva hosting, to be honest.

Please let me/us know if you offer any kind of "affiliate" or other partnership options that I could consider, should the pricing be prohibitively higher at 3rd party hosts and my hands are forced to switch hosting to Miva.

[Rick Wilson]

Re: Update on Pricing from Miva, Inc.

It's certainly not a ploy to eliminate anyone, however it is important that pricing be similar across the board (same way SugarCRM prices their licenses).

Feel free to reach out to me privately about our affiliate program.

[bostontech88]

Re: Update on Pricing from Miva, Inc.

it is important that pricing be similar across the board

Rick - I think you confused me even more. If it's "important that pricing be similar across the board" then how can you offer a hosting plan for $1495 that includes Miva license + dedicated server, but sell the same license (JUST the license) to 3rd party hosts for $1550? They won't be able to offer similar hosting options as by the time they add the cost of a dedicated server, it's going to be closer to $1800+/month. Your cost of license is higher than cost of license with hosting (with Miva). This does not add up, I can't see how this is logical or offers "similar pricing across the board."

Are the $1995 one-time purchase licenses with $995/year maintenance fees still an option if we would prefer to host on our own servers elsewhere?

I'll contact you off list about the affiliate program.

[JFancett]

Re: Update on Pricing from Miva, Inc.

Are the $1995 one-time purchase licenses with $995/year maintenance fees still an option if we would prefer to host on our own servers elsewhere?

I wouldn't mind knowing the answer as well. Called Miva Support and they said they were still available as far as they knew. My question is are the updates in coming years going to be pricing by revenue tiers too instead of the flat $995/year?

[Rick Wilson]

Re: Update on Pricing from Miva, Inc.

Those are technically still available today but the price for those will be changing to match Magento Enterprise shortly.

In your specific case Jason the price review is a much better offer for you.

[JFancett]

Re: Update on Pricing from Miva, Inc.

Okay I'll cross that off the list.

[Rick Wilson]

Re: Update on Pricing from Miva, Inc.

Jason,

I just saw your reply via the ticket system, I'll call you shortly.