Don't you think that it's wrong that you have to pay $595 so you can enable your server to run their applications that they also make money off.

As long as people pay for it.........

.....................they'll keep doing it.

It is really worthwhile to familiar yourself with Interchange. It can do more than Miva and it's free. It just takes a bit more time to learn.

Anton ;)

Do you find that a lot of people want you to have the Miva compatibility on your server?

That's really not that bad as Miva is a pretty good product. We have so many customers who run it and love it. Also, it's very easy for them to learn and use.

Miva is a well known name so from the marketing POV it may help.

We chose not run Miva due to the price, but we do like the idea of outsourcing support.
We removed our links to interchange, however we are now running the new version which appears more stable. i will build a site with it before i present it to the public again- got burned once. They also offer support, but its not free like miva.

Lastly, as a friend who creates shopping cart scripts stated so smugly, "how long do they last, maybe 3-5 months. Before they run out of cash or find out the net is not paved with diamonds and gold." he is correct most ecommerce solutions by mom and pop dont last 6 months.

So in conclusion, Miva has a name, is over priced and offers you tech support for your clients. Interchange is free and yet to be proven in my eyes but im open minded. Lastly and most important, how much support are you willing to provide in a quarter just to get your investment back at $29.95/month or whatever you charge. Then you hope that they dont crash and you end up breaking even , thats a nice goal break even, NOT.

3rd party scripts are a ripoff- did that scam too........


el_g

Originally posted by netsolutions
Do you find that a lot of people want you to have the Miva compatibility on your server?

No.. we had it on an Alabanza server for 12 months and it wasn't used once. Everything was moved to a new server a few months ago and no-one seems to have even noticed it's not there anymore. In our experience, it's just not used much by anyone, regardless of what Miva try to tell people :)

I would love some of that promo stuff they have though.. very slick

Greg Moore

miva is still around ?

interesting

never liked it at all

One of our customers that used to be hosted by us until he needed a miva shopping cart for a reasonable price and went to OLM loves miva. I love miva merchant too. It's great, and people do use it.

Our ex-customer's site is:

www.perennialnursery.com

Yes, I recommended that he use a domain name that was easier to spell.

Anyway, I do always say that you should already have a business selling things at a brick and mortar store before you try to start selling it online. It's better to use the Internet to expand your business than to start a new one.

I was about to become a Miva partner until I called their support repeated times and got a bunch of young kids on the phone who knew nothing.

Interchange is undoubtedly a P.O.S. (at least when I tried using it).

I don't like the thought of spending so much for a shopping cart either, especially with solutions like DansieCart around. Not as pretty as MivaMerchant, but at $500 for unlimited carts, you can't beat it! Plus, unlimited free support from the actual programmers of the cart, so they know the answers pretty much every time.

Also looked into Actinic, which looks to me like the top affordable cart around, but veered away from it because you need to buy a new license for each webshop (blech).

I was about to become a Miva partner until I called their support repeated times and got a bunch of young kids on the phone who knew nothing.

Not sure who you talked to, but Miva has excellent support. They have had this since they started. They have personally buried numerous providers. Miva is a household name in the shopping cart world, so many times it as asked for by name.

If you can afford to buy a large volume of licenses, it is worth it. However, I agree that it is not to feasable for most host to purchase in small numbers due to price.

miva is still around ?

Apparently, you haven't been around. Miva's market share is huge. :)