Miva Comparison. Miva versus 3dCart

The real cost of 3dcart vs. the real cost of Miva Merchant

3dcart: Consistent Price Structure. Miva Merchant: Unpredictable Fees.

Miva Merchant's pricing starts at $79.95 a month, and after the first year, your SSL will cost you another $49 annually. Higher-level plans go up to almost $1,500 monthly, but the kicker is that you don't get to decide when you upgrade. Miva Merchant will move your store to the next-higher plan automatically, with little warning, once you reach a certain gross income. This has been an unpleasant surprise for many former Miva Merchant customers, who have seen their expenses shoot through the roof because they happened to have a good year of sales.

With 3dcart, you decide when your growing business is ready to move up to the next tier, and scale up at your own pace— not ours. We'll never penalize you for success by arbitrarily deciding you should pay more because your profits have grown.

3dcart vs. Miva Merchant functionality comparison

Easy Setup and Administration vs. Difficult Setup and Unfriendly Store Design

User-friendly store themes

Miva Merchant only offers 12 themes (one of which is a blank canvas), and several of them feature a large, intrusive navigation bar that remains on the screen at all times. On devices like an iPad, this bar takes up so much space that visitors can't even see product images in their entirety. 3dcart, on the other hand, offers over 100 themes, all of which are designed for maximum shopper appeal and selling potential.

Ease of use

Miva Merchant is time-consuming to set up, and since you're running a business you may not have the time and energy to devote to the technical aspects of your online store. However, 3dcart's intuitive interface will have your store up and running in minutes, even if you're not tech-savvy.

“Miva changed their pricing structure on us right before the holidays, saying that because of our gross revenues our monthly fee would increase drastically— from $59 to $1,540 per month. This happened during our busiest season and we only had 30 days warning, not enough time to move to another cart and still have our store ready for the holidays.”

– Former Miva Merchant Customer

Try before you buy

Choosing an eCommerce platform is one of the most important decisions you can make for your business. In order to get a free trial of Miva Merchant, you have to enter your credit card information and commit to a monthly fee after 30 days. If you decide Miva Merchant isn't for you, you have to pursue a refund. But 3dcart offers a free 15-day trial with no commitment, no strings attached, and no credit card needed.

Maintain control of your business

3dcart gives you the tools and freedom to manage your store how you see fit

3dcart: Pay less for more features

3dcart offers unlimited bandwidth and disk space for every plan, even the $19/month Starter Plan. All the space you need for unlimited products, images, and customers.

Miva Merchant: High price and low limits

No matter how much you pay Miva Merchant, you never get unlimited storage or bandwidth, and if you go over, you're charged for that, too. Lowest-priced plan? $79.95/month.

Scalability vs. Large Businesses Only

3dcart:

3dcart offers entry-level pricing plans to ensure businesses of all sizes can open a successful, affordable online store and expand to the next level when necessary.

Miva Merchant:

Miva Merchant's lowest price point is more expensive than many small businesses can handle, making it quite rough on your budget if you're just starting out.