Skip to main content
TrustRadius
Miva

Miva

Overview

What is Miva?

Miva Merchant is a point-and-click, online store development and management system that allows merchants to build their online store through a web browser, and lets developers provide aftermarket enhancements for the online store.

Read more

Learn from top reviewers

Miva is the sweet spot for mid-size companies who want better than off the shelf!

Rating: 9 out of 10
March 31, 2023
Vetted ReviewVerified User
Miva is the backend sales platform for our websites. They provide a very modern front end for our retail and wholesale customers as well as many integrations to automate our p...
Continue reading
Paco Goebel
General Manager - Information Technology
Operations Manager
Motonation
Miva3 years of experience

If your looking for best-in-class B2B eCommerce features.. look no further.

Rating: 10 out of 10
January 27, 2023
Vetted ReviewVerified User
We use Miva to drive our eCommerce engine for our B2B operations. We have used it to bring our ERP system to our customers in a way they can interact with that is familiar and...
Continue reading
Marc Vasquez
Director - Other
Director of Global eCommerce
Ideal Clamp Products, Inc.
Miva4 years of experience

Easy for Beginners to Use, Powerful Enough for Larger Businesses, Flexible Enough to Meet Specialized Needs

Rating: 10 out of 10
July 26, 2022
Vetted ReviewVerified User
I'm a software engineer, not a merchant. I've been working with Miva for more than 20 years. My specialty is writing plug-in modules that customize the store's behavior. Miva ...
Continue reading
Kent Multer
Director - Other
Proprietor
Magic Metal Productions
Miva24 years of experience

Review from a "non-tech" business owner

Rating: 10 out of 10
June 4, 2022
Vetted ReviewVerified User
I'm not your typical "tech-savvy" online retailer, so you're going to want to read this review. I'm the target audience for Wix and Shopify, and I have chosen not to use them....
Continue reading
Rebecca Blackburn
C-Level Executive - Corporate
COO (Chief Operations Officer)
GlitzOnline
Miva20 years of experience

Innovative Company

Rating: 7 out of 10
June 3, 2022
Vetted ReviewVerified User
Miva Merchant gave us the possibility to have a functional website, a website that is under our control, and a user-friendly website. All those were problems that now are in t...
Continue reading
Ale McComic
Employee - Other
Imports
Alexander's Tractor Parts
Miva1 year of experience
Log in with LinkedIn to see content from your network
Return to navigation

Pricing

View all pricing
Miva

Miva

N/A
Unavailable

What is Miva?

Miva Merchant is a point-and-click, online store development and management system that allows merchants to build their online store through a web browser, and lets developers provide aftermarket enhancements for the online store.

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://www.miva.com/miva-ecommerce…

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Would you like us to let the vendor know that you want pricing?

6 people also want pricing

Alternatives Pricing

Shopify

Shopify

$29
per month
What is Shopify?

Shopify is a commerce platform designed for both online stores and retail locations. Shopify offers a professional online storefront, a payment solution to accept credit cards, and the Shopify POS application to power retail sales.

Wix

Wix

$16
per month
What is Wix?

Wix is a website builder used to grown an online presence. The platform allows users to build their website from scratch, choose from designer-made templates, or use an AI website builder to add sections, images, and text.

Return to navigation

Product Demos

MIVA Demo copy 2

YouTube

Miva – Business Consulting WordPress Theme Download, Installation and Import Demo Content

YouTube

MIVA - Illusion (demo)

YouTube

REPAY for MIVA Demo

YouTube

Miva demo video

YouTube
Return to navigation

Features

Online Storefront

Features for creating an online storefront with a browse-able product catalog.

8.3
Avg 7.8

Online Shopping Cart

Features that facilitate the collection of items so that customers can purchase them as a group.

7.6
Avg 7.7

Online Payment System

Features related to processing online payment for eCommerce purchases.

7.3
Avg 8.3

eCommerce Marketing

Features related to marketing for eCommerce websites

7.2
Avg 7.7

eCommerce Business Management

Features related to business management and administration of eCommerce operations

7.7
Avg 8.0
Return to navigation

Product Details

What is Miva?

Miva is an ecommerce platform which provides businesses with a flexible website and fully-customizable catalog and checkout system with control over the look, content, and functionality of their online store.

Miva is invested in its core competency as an ecommerce platform provider, continuously developing solutions to modern merchants’ most pressing needs. The vendor states Miva excels at supporting businesses whose complex product catalogs or specialized industry requirements have proved too challenging for other ecommerce platforms to handle. With over two decades of experience serving businesses that sell everything from aftermarket parts and fresh-caught seafood to custom diamond rings and swimming pools, Miva invites sellers to bring them the problems other platforms can’t handle.

How Miva Supports a Ecommerce System:

  • Interface provides web management for non-technical users
  • Platform designed to enable B2B and DTC sales on a single website
  • Extensive native functionality minimizes the need for third-party apps and plugins
  • Unlimited product variations for high SKU count (from thousands to millions) catalogs and dependent SKUs
  • Managed ERP integrations with Miva Connect
  • Back-office integrations through Miva’s JSON API
How Miva Helps Merchants Create a Store That Sells More:
  • Built-in subscriptions and reordering for frictionless repeat purchasing
  • Online sales quotes help sales teams automate their sales processes
  • Custom product builders help customers bundle products into kits and custom orders
  • Advanced shipping logic supports complex shipping and compliance requirements
  • Smart pricing options for customer and rule-based pricing

Miva Features

Online Storefront Features

  • Supported: Product catalog & listings
  • Supported: Product management
  • Supported: Bulk product upload
  • Supported: Branding
  • Supported: Search & filter
  • Supported: Mobile storefront
  • Supported: Product variations
  • Supported: Website integration
  • Supported: Visual customization
  • Supported: CMS
  • Supported: Customer service tools

Online Shopping Cart Features

  • Supported: Abandoned cart recovery
  • Supported: Tax calculator
  • Supported: Shipping calculator
  • Supported: Checkout user experience

Online Payment System Features

  • Supported: PayPal integration
  • Supported: Returns & refunds
  • Supported: Single-click checkout
  • Supported: eCommerce security
  • Supported: B2B features

eCommerce Marketing Features

  • Supported: Promotions & discounts
  • Supported: Personalized recommendations
  • Supported: SEO
  • Supported: Product reviews
  • Supported: Customer registration

eCommerce Business Management Features

  • Supported: Multi-site management
  • Supported: Order processing
  • Supported: Inventory management
  • Supported: Accounting
  • Supported: Shipping
  • Supported: Custom functionality

Additional Features

  • Supported: Online Sales Quotes

Miva Integrations

Miva Competitors

Miva Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsWindows, Linux, Mac
Mobile ApplicationNo
Supported CountriesAll
Supported LanguagesEnglish

Miva Downloadables

Frequently Asked Questions

Miva Merchant is a point-and-click, online store development and management system that allows merchants to build their online store through a web browser, and lets developers provide aftermarket enhancements for the online store.

Shopify, Volusion, and WooCommerce are common alternatives for Miva.

Reviewers rate Order processing highest, with a score of 7.4.

The most common users of Miva are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).

Miva Customer Size Distribution

Consumers0%
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)90%
Mid-Size Companies (51-500 employees)8%
Enterprises (more than 500 employees)2%
Return to navigation

Comparisons

View all alternatives
Return to navigation

Reviews and Ratings

(29)

Reviews

(1-5 of 13)

A Shopping Cart Solution for Online Businesses of Any Size

Rating: 10 out of 10
December 04, 2014
DL
David Limon
Manager
www.davidlimon.com (Internet, 201-500 employees)
Vetted Review
Verified User
Miva
12 years of experience
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
I currently offer E-Commerce consulting, marketing, and management services for a broad range of online companies most of which are using Miva Merchant as their shopping cart platform. The online stores I work with are offering anywhere from 20 to 180,000 products online. The shopping cart is primarily used to merchandise products and as a CMS system.Some of the more challenging issues my clients face are work arounds for MAP Pricing (Minimum Advertised Pricing), integrating in-house POS systems with Miva to manage inventory, and integrating live LTL freight rates directly into the shopping cart. All of these feats can be achieve but may require you to think outside of the box. The good thing about Miva is that you are only limited by your imagination as far as what you can do with the platform.
Pros
  • Miva Merchant is extremely robust and has very few limitations unlike most other shopping carts.
  • Offers the most bang for your buck! You can run a multimillion dollar online store using their smallest package at $50 per month with ease. No joke!
  • There are many 3rd party modules available for added flexibility.
  • Support staff is great and you can find answers to many questions in their forum (where senior techs tend to hang out). Video tutorials are available too!
Cons
  • There is a learning curve and newbies must have patience when setting up a new store out of the box.
  • I was never a big fan of the mobile layout. Fortunately a Responsive design is now available (and rocks)!
  • The ability to tie into 3rd party POS systems more easily would be a nice added feature (but I guess that would require the POS system to be integration friendly as well).
Likelihood to Recommend
Hands down this is the best shopping cart on the market for small, medium, and large online stores. The ability to easily scale up or down in size makes this a favorable shopping cart for all. Some great resources for getting started can be found here:
Miva Training Videos: http://www.mivamerchant.com/videos
Miva's Documentation (PDF): http://www.mivamerchant.com/pdf/MivaPR8_09-01-13.pdf
Miva's Official Forum http://extranet.miva.com/forums/

One of the best ecommerce shopping carts available

Rating: 10 out of 10
December 23, 2015
CJ
Chris Janus
Owner, Developer
Janus Design (Design, 1-10 employees)
Vetted Review
Verified User
Miva
6 years of experience
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
I use Miva Merchant as an ecommerce solution for my clients. Miva Merchant is easily capable of handling everything from smaller stores/individual sales to large and enterprise level businesses. The design is fully customizable in Miva, so I can implement my own or others' custom designs into a store and also adjust the code for SEO, google snippets, etc. Miva is extremely secure and passes all PCI/PDA-SS requirements which is extremely important. Miva is fully compatible with a number of popular third-party services like PayPal, Power Reviews, Shipworks, Authorize.net, etc and can be easily integrated with others.
Pros
  • Expandable Functionality: Store functionality (gift certificates, coupons, shipping,etc) can be customized via code on the page templates, or third-party services/modules can be integrated to add features. Even better is that more and more of the third-party features are being built into the core features with new releases!
  • Design: The store design can be fully customized to accommodate almost any design elements. Access to the page template code allows you to make customizations such as adding third-party code snippets (order tracking, live chat software, etc), adding if/then logic statements for dynamic customization, or to add a full custom design to the entire store.
  • Security: PCI/PDA-SS compliant - There are not a lot of carts out there that are fully PCI compliant, and this is especially critical now (credit card companies are really beginning to crack down on this).
Cons
  • The Miva admin area hasn't been the most user-friendly in the past. However, the admin in the the upcoming new Miva Merchant 9 Release has been completely revamped, is VERY user-friendly, and is formatted for desktop as well as mobile devices.
  • Some fairly standard ecommerce functionality like Gift Certificates, Coupons, Sale Prices, etc have previously required third-party modules or template customization. However, many of these features are being built into Miva Merchant upcoming releases.
Likelihood to Recommend
How many products are in the store? What type of products do you sell, and do they have any variations/attributes (eg size, color, model #, etc)? How much traffic does your store get monthly, or what are your monthly sales? What methods of payment do you offer? What shipping methods do you offer for your orders? Do you offer affiliate accounts? How custom of a design are you looking for?

Miva is very well suited for small business to enterprise level business sites or for stores that require lots of customization.

Miva Merchant - in it for the long haul

Rating: 9 out of 10
December 09, 2014
GC
Gordon Currie
Owner
Phosphor Media (Online Media, 1-10 employees)
Vetted Review
Verified User
Miva
14 years of experience
Use Cases and Deployment Scope

As we are a Miva Merchant Partner, we provide workflow and add-on tools for the Miva Merchant platform. In addition, we run our fulfillment, licensing, and CRM systems on Miva Merchant as well. We are able to keep all our systems 'in-house' without excessive use of third-party SAAS and clunky PHP.

While Miva Merchant can be used as an online cart, it is much more - especially since it is customizable on two different levels - a fairly simple high-level templating system that allows for reasonable customization, and a lower level compiled language (Miva Script) that allows for extremely powerful customization.

Of course, you get what you pay for. If you expect champagne at beer prices, look elsewhere (and please let me know when you find it).

Pros
  • Based on a templating system. Almost every part of a page is built from templates, that can not only be customized, but contain HTML. JavaScript and a subset of the Miva Script language for powerful and responsive dynamic page experiences.
  • PCI compliance and overall security. Miva puts significant effort into the security of their platform.
  • Room for growth. A business can start out using only base capabilities, and fairly easily add more as their business needs grow.
Cons
  • Training and documentation. Miva Merchant is fairly complex, and while they continue to make good progress in providing resources for all levels of expertise (beginner to expert), there are still a number of gaps. To take the step beyond the initial levels of online storefront requires expert assistance for most businesses (unless they have some substantial IT/technical resources available).
  • Market for add-on and add-in products. (Note: this is significantly biased by our own business experience selling workflow and feature products for Miva Merchant.) The long-term goal for Miva has been stated to essentially involve having integration partners (selling their time) and larger companion product partners (selling products that work with, but usually NOT within Merchant). There is clearly a gap of potential customer needs that they are attempting to build into the core platform. Of course, no one can cover all needs! While Miva Merchant is not hostile to third-party product companies, neither do they have an explicit place in their long term roadmap. It is my opinion that their strategy of minimizing third-party add-on developers may be throwing the baby out with the bathwater, and I shudder to imagine a time when all significant features only come from the developers within Miva. As good as they are (quite good) they suffer from the inevitable myopia that ALL companies have - they are NOT their customers!
Likelihood to Recommend
In general, unless someone has a tiny business, or expects minimal growth (and why are they in business? is it a hobby?) - I would recommend Miva Merchant. They are solid out of the box, support has gotten very good after a number of years of improvement, and there is room from growth - so you don't have to switch systems when your business grows faster than expected, or you go through a significant change (such as B2C moving to B2B etc.). Miva Merchant is very scalable.

MIVA Merchant. Almost Perfect.

Rating: 8 out of 10
April 29, 2015
TS
Timothy Schneider
Co-founder/Multimedia Producer
Pixel Juice Productions (Internet, 1-10 employees)
Vetted Review
Verified User
Miva
12 years of experience
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
We use MIVA Merchant as our platform of choice for developing both online catalog and eCommerce project for clients. While we might consider WordPress for clients with a very small inventory, MIVA is the only other platform we use. The ongoing development of the platform, responsive MIVA support and the active community of developers make this a very good choice for us.
Pros
  • Ongoing development. MIVA has, over the years, added features and functions to the platform that keeps it both secure and feature-rich. With recent releases, for instance, MIVA is PCI compliant and many of the most used 3rd party modules have been incorporated.
  • MIVA Support. Support is responsive and can be very technical.
  • Active forum of developers. This is a great resource for those times when a client has asked for a function I've not seen used in MIVA. Developers on the MIVA forums often have suggestions or solutions to share.
Cons
  • The internal search function is somewhat basic. Ideally the a search would potentially use multiple data fields.
  • Selling digital items for download isn't yet an option.
  • MIVA isn't responsive so that it reduces nicely on mobile devices.
Likelihood to Recommend
Few scenarios would cause me to steer a client toward another platform for a catalog or eCommerce project. Other than the monthly hosting cost (generally around $50 per month for MIVA), comparable platforms offer no great benefit over MIVA. I do have clients that have opted to have small eCommerce projects developed in WordPress, which does often have a lower cost and shorter production time. I would also offer the WordPress option to clients selling soft goods or needing a responsive site as these aren't MIVA features yet.

Miva Merchant Review

Rating: 10 out of 10
January 18, 2016
SS
Sabine Sharp
President
Glendale Designs (Internet, 1-10 employees)
Vetted Review
Verified User
Miva
17 years of experience
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
Miva Merchant ecommerce design and development is at the core of our organization. We try to solve any ecommerce pain points our clients may experience. The Miva Merchant platform is extremely flexible and open to customization without the ability of the end-user breaking pertinent functionality.
Pros
  • Streamlined software updates without breaking existing design/functionality.
  • Totally flexible front end UI – the sky is the limit – we haven’t run into anything we can’t do on the Miva platform
  • PCI/PA-DSS compliance/certification of the platform – in lieu of recent events (Target, etc.) this is definitely a strong point of the Miva merchant platform
Cons
  • Integrated social capability is currently lacking (can be added, though)
  • Automated feed services to third parties is missing (again – can be added as an add-on)
  • Admin could be more user friendly (I hear that will happen in PR9)
Likelihood to Recommend
Totally depends on the business – I suppose long-term business goals are questions that need to be asked to determine if a less sophisticated cart should be used, or if the client would have to re-platform, if his business grows. Totally depends on the business
Return to navigation