If you’ve been following Magento eCommerce at all, you might have noticed some of the attack emails Miva Merchant has been sending out. You might have seen the following ad:
This ad, sent via email campaign, continues to say,
“Updating crucial security patches is infamously slow on Magento, commonly breaking the functionality of mods and plugins. The tortured development history of Magento means that every back-end integration requires an expensive custom build and painstaking IT maintenance…”
Miva’s smear campaign on Magento doesn’t stop there. In the company’s own article Miva vs Magento Enterprise, they make the claim that running a Magento Enterprise site is roughly twice the cost of a Miva platform, and not worth the cost. In another email they claim:
“Upgrading Magento software is expensive and dangerous. The transition from Magento 1.92 to 2.0 was a nightmare for store owners, with even the simple transfer of customer data requiring expensive 3rd-party tools. Magento updates are famous for breaking stores, with custom mods and plug-ins requiring expensive deployment to adapt.”
Miva Merchant, despite these ads, shouldn’t even be criticizing Magento. The cloud-based platform has great customer service and is easy to update, but isn’t actually in the same league as Magento. While Atlantic BT isn’t currently supporting Magento 2 sites, we would recommend Magento 2 to any client looking to rebuild their site. All “fresh” software releases hold inherent bugs and glitches that need to be worked out. So Miva’s attacks aren’t invalid, but it’s hard not to wonder why they’re attacking at all.
Based on the software, Miva is a lot more similar to Shopify than it is to Magento. Miva, because it is SaaS-based, limits your ability to do custom features and custom setup. Like Shopify, it’s a solid platform but it’s not likely to attract larger businesses that would use Magento. The businesses that Miva is targeting in their email campaign are likely to want a custom set up and a unique look and feel—things you’re not going to find with Miva.
In addition, think about the last time you heard about Miva. Probably never, right? Miva has been around for 18 years and was actually one of the first eCommerce platforms to be created. You know people that use Shopify, WooCommerce, and even WordPress eCommerce solutions, but Miva? Chances are you don’t know anyone that uses it. The platform may be older, but Miva has no business calling out Magento. From their size to the language they use, here are 3 reasons Miva shouldn’t even try to compare itself to Magento.
1. Few Businesses Actually Use it
Go ahead and look up “Top eCommerce Platforms.” Which names do you find? Magento, WooCommerce, Shopify, and even SquareSpace will come before Miva. When you look at the numbers, Miva doesn’t even make the top 10.
On their website, it says “Miva customers have processed over $100 billion in online sales since 1997.” Assuming this number is true, it certainly didn’t happen recently. According to numbers by Datanyze, since the beginning of this year, Miva Merchant gained 83 customers and lost half of them. Compare that to Magento: in the month of July alone, Magento gained 160 customers and lost 26. More specifically, Magento is used by over 125,000 online stores and powers 26% of the Alexa Top 1 Million sites.
Even when you put Miva head-to-head against WooCommerce and Shopify, it falls short. Only 0.2% of eCommerce sites have been using it this year. Want the exact numbers? That’s just 2,332 businesses. According to The Data Point, there are “approximately 110,000 eCommerce websites generating revenue of meaningful scale on the internet.” That’s not just eCommerce sites this year, that’s all eCommerce sites which are actually doing well. Assuming all of these Miva sites are generating enough revenue, they only constitute 2.2% of eCommerce sites.
Despite all of their years as an eCommerce platform, Miva doesn’t make the cut for most customers. It seems attacking another platform is the only way they get visibility at all.
2. More Aesthetics, Less Structure
Miva Merchant, even looking at the language it’s written in, focuses more on the look of an eCommerce website than the structure behind it. Miva uses a HTML/CSS-based content management system to allow business owners to create and manage their eCommerce websites. That comes with the capability to upload and edit product descriptions and images, track and manage incoming and outgoing inventory, and securely process customer orders.
While Magento has similar customization features, there is more emphasis on structure. Using a MySQLdatabase management system, PHP, and elements of the Zend Framework, Magento applies the conventions of object-oriented programming and model–view–controller architecture.
So what’s the difference?
Magento is a better program for people who have systems in place and want a platform to help organize those systems. This means sites that use Magento will also have people in place to manage that infrastructure and handle a more database- and function-heavy platform. Miva is half the cost because it’s better for people starting from scratch. If you’re looking for more of a backbone which your team can use to run a larger eCommerce business, forget about using Miva.
3. Scale Matters
Miva Merchant is half the cost, probably because it’s intended for businesses half the size (or less) of the ones using Magento. Although Miva claims it’s a better solution for enterprise than Magento, its strength lies in small business. Miva Merchant is entirely cloud-based, which is ideal for smaller businesses who lack the infrastructure and software needed to power a successful eCommerce enterprise. In addition, it excludes some areas of business—Miva doesn’t host for retailers with soft goods (meaning services or downloadable products).
Magento is designed with larger businesses in mind. Yes, managing the code base, all the updates and patches, and troubleshooting for security can be complicated. It also simply takes more to run an enterprise-level business. For a large business processing thousands of payments every day and managing hundreds of products, you need more than HTML and CSS—you need a platform built for growth. From managing the databases to keeping it secure, you need a team to keep it going. Only Magento’s high power and functionality has the capacity for enterprise.
The Bottom Line
All of that aside, Miva Merchant does have some advantages which Magento needs to learn from. One thing Miva excels in is providing helpful support and customer service to all of their customers, no matter what package they select. For Magento, this simply isn’t true. Despite the strength of the platform, Magento Community customers are pretty much on their own and even Enterprise users have a hard time getting the help they need. That said, Miva also has a bad record in terms of hidden charges and surges in cost. Magento may be expensive, but at least you know what the price is going to be.
Honestly, if you’re established and have the staff you need on Magento, just stay there. It may be complicated, but moving to a completely different language in the cloud isn’t going to solve your problems. Whether you use Enterprise or Community, you don’t have to feel alone. Are you having issues getting the support you need? You don’t need to switch over to Miva. At Atlantic BT we can provide their same level of support and beyond. As a Certified Magento Partner, we have the expertise you need to keep your platform running safely. Check out our eCommerce page to learn more.
The post 3 Reasons Miva Merchant Shouldn’t Compare Itself to Magento appeared first on Atlantic BT.