Magento was the go-to platform for serious e-commerce for over a decade. It gave businesses control that nothing else could match at the time. But the landscape has changed, and staying on Magento in 2026 comes with costs that go well beyond your monthly hosting bill.
If you are running a Magento store and have started looking at alternatives, you are not alone. Shopify gained over 520 stores from Magento in a single 90-day window in 2025. Magento's global market share dropped 11% year-over-year, while Shopify now powers 4.8 million active storefronts worldwide.
This is not a "Shopify is better than Magento" article. This is a practical guide for business owners who have already decided to explore the move and want to know exactly what they are getting into.
01. Why Businesses Are Leaving Magento
The reasons fall into a few categories, and cost is only one of them.
Magento 1 hit end of life in June 2020.
No more security patches, no more bug fixes, no more official support from Adobe. If your store still runs on Magento 1, you are operating on an unsupported platform with known security vulnerabilities. Upgrading to Magento 2 is not a simple update. It is a full rebuild, which is why many businesses skip it entirely and migrate to Shopify instead.
Magento 2 and Adobe Commerce are expensive to maintain.
Adobe Commerce Pro starts at $22,000 per year. Adobe Commerce Cloud starts at $40,000 per year. And that is before you factor in developer time, hosting, security monitoring, and the constant cycle of patches and updates. Even on the free Magento Open Source edition, you are paying for hosting, SSL, CDN, and a developer to keep everything running.
The technical overhead is real.
Magento requires dedicated development resources for things that Shopify handles out of the box: security patches, server scaling, PCI compliance, performance optimization. Every hour your team spends maintaining infrastructure is an hour they are not spending on growth.
The talent pool is shrinking.
As more businesses migrate away from Magento, fewer developers specialize in it. That drives up the cost of Magento development and makes it harder to find reliable support when something breaks.
02. What a Magento to Shopify Migration Actually Involves
A migration is not a copy-paste job. It is a structured process with distinct phases, and cutting corners in any of them creates problems down the road.
Discovery and planning.
Before anything moves, you need a full audit of your current Magento store. That means cataloging every product, collection, customer record, custom feature, third-party integration, and URL structure. This phase determines the scope, timeline, and cost of everything that follows.
Store setup and design.
Your new Shopify store needs to be built. That could mean selecting and customizing a theme, or building a fully custom storefront. The goal is to match or improve on what your customers experience today, not just replicate it pixel for pixel.
Data migration.
Products, categories, customers, and historical orders all need to move. Each data type has its own challenges. Product data includes variants, images, metafields, and SEO metadata. Customer data includes account information, order history, and loyalty points if applicable.
URL redirects and SEO preservation.
This is critical enough to get its own section below.
Custom functionality rebuild.
Any custom modules, integrations, or workflows on your Magento store need equivalent solutions on Shopify. Sometimes that means a Shopify app. Sometimes it means custom development.
Testing and launch.
Every product page, checkout flow, payment gateway, shipping calculation, and integration gets tested before the switch. Then you go live, monitor everything closely for the first 48 to 72 hours, and resolve any issues in real time.
03. The SEO Problem Nobody Warns You About
This is where migrations go wrong more often than anywhere else.
Magento and Shopify use fundamentally different URL structures. Magento gives you flexible URLs. You might have product URLs ending in .html, or nested under category paths like /electronics/headphones/product-name.html. Shopify uses a fixed structure: /products/product-name for products, /collections/collection-name for categories, and /pages/page-name for content pages.
Every single URL that changes needs a 301 redirect. Without them, Google sees 404 errors everywhere, your search rankings tank, and all the SEO equity you have built over the years disappears.
Here is what a proper redirect plan looks like:
- •Map every URL. Export all indexed URLs from your Magento store using Google Search Console or Screaming Frog. Map each one to its new Shopify equivalent.
- •Set up 301 redirects in bulk. Shopify allows bulk redirects via CSV upload. For stores with thousands of products, this is the only practical approach.
- •Handle category pages carefully. Magento category URLs often do not map cleanly to Shopify collection URLs. Each one needs manual attention to ensure the redirect makes sense.
- •Preserve meta titles and descriptions. Your product and page metadata needs to transfer exactly. This is not just about rankings. It is about maintaining the click-through rates you have earned in search results.
- •Monitor after launch. Use Google Search Console to watch for crawl errors, dropped impressions, and ranking changes in the weeks after migration. Catch problems early before they compound.
04. Customer Data, Orders, and Passwords
Your customers will not notice most of what happens during a migration. But there are a few things you cannot avoid.
Passwords do not transfer.
Magento and Shopify use different encryption methods for customer passwords. There is no way to migrate them. Every customer will need to reset their password the first time they log in after the migration. The best approach is a proactive email before launch explaining the change, followed by a seamless password reset flow on the new store.
Historical orders require extra work.
Shopify does not natively support historical order imports. Tools like Matrixify can bring order data into Shopify for customer service reference, but the data will not behave exactly like native Shopify orders. Set expectations accordingly.
Customer accounts and addresses migrate cleanly.
Names, emails, shipping addresses, and other profile data transfer without issue using standard migration tools.
05. Custom Functionality: What Transfers and What Does Not
If your Magento store runs on mostly out-of-the-box features, the migration is straightforward. If you have invested heavily in custom Magento development, this is where you need to plan carefully.
ERP and CRM integrations.
If you have connected Magento to an ERP like SAP or NetSuite, or a CRM like HubSpot or Salesforce, those integrations need to be rebuilt for Shopify. The good news is that Shopify has well-documented APIs and a large ecosystem of pre-built connectors. The work is usually less complex than the original Magento integration.
Custom checkout flows.
Shopify has historically been more restrictive with checkout customization, but Shopify Plus now offers Checkout Extensibility with full customization capabilities. If you are on a standard Shopify plan, there are still workarounds, but they are more limited.
B2B and wholesale features.
If your Magento store serves wholesale buyers with custom pricing, net payment terms, and volume discounts, Shopify can handle this. Shopify Plus includes native B2B features. On standard plans, an experienced Shopify developer can build equivalent functionality through custom apps and theme modifications.
Shipping and fulfillment automation.
Any custom shipping rules, LTL freight integrations, or warehouse connections need to be replicated. Shopify supports a wide range of shipping apps and APIs, but complex setups with multiple warehouses or custom carrier logic will require development work.
06. Timeline and Cost Expectations
Be skeptical of anyone who quotes you a flat rate without understanding your store first. Migration costs depend on complexity, and no two Magento stores are the same.
Small stores
With under 1,000 products, minimal custom functionality, and standard integrations typically take 2 to 6 weeks and cost between $2,000 and $8,000.
Mid-sized stores
With 2,000 to 5,000 products, some customization, and a few third-party integrations typically take 6 to 12 weeks and cost between $8,000 and $25,000.
Enterprise stores
With large catalogs, heavy customization, multiple integrations (ERP, CRM, PIM, OMS), and complex business logic can take 3 to 6 months and cost $25,000 to $75,000 or more.
The biggest cost drivers are catalog complexity (number of products, variants, and attributes), custom development requirements, the number of third-party integrations, and the level of design customization on the new store.
One thing to factor in: your total cost of ownership drops after the migration. Businesses report an average 38% reduction in total cost of ownership after moving from Magento to Shopify. Lower hosting costs, fewer developer hours for maintenance, and less time spent on security and performance optimization add up fast.
07. When Shopify Plus Makes Sense (and When It Does Not)
Shopify Plus starts at over $2,000 per month. For that, you get native B2B features, advanced checkout customization, Shopify Flow for automation, multi-store management, and dedicated support.
If your business does over $1 million in annual online revenue and needs B2B capabilities, complex automation, or multiple storefronts, Shopify Plus is worth evaluating seriously.
If you are under that threshold, standard Shopify combined with custom development can deliver most of the same functionality at a fraction of the cost. Custom B2B portals, tailored automation workflows, and advanced integrations are all possible on standard Shopify plans with the right development partner.
08. How to Choose a Migration Partner
Not every Shopify agency has experience with Magento migrations specifically. The technical challenges are different from building a new Shopify store from scratch.
Look for a partner who can:
- •Demonstrate experience with Magento-to-Shopify migrations specifically
- •Have a clear process for SEO preservation and URL redirect mapping
- •Understand your integration requirements (ERP, CRM, shipping, etc.)
- •Advise on whether you need Shopify Plus or can achieve your goals on a standard plan
- •Provide post-launch support for the critical first few weeks after migration
Ask for references from businesses that have completed similar migrations. And be wary of anyone who promises a timeline or price before they have audited your current store.
09. Frequently Asked Questions
How long does a Magento to Shopify migration take?
It depends on your store's complexity. Simple stores with under 1,000 products can migrate in 2 to 6 weeks. Mid-sized stores typically take 6 to 12 weeks. Enterprise migrations with deep integrations and custom functionality can take 3 to 6 months. The discovery and planning phase at the beginning is what determines the realistic timeline.
Will I lose my Google rankings when I migrate?
Not if the migration is handled correctly. The key is comprehensive 301 redirects from every old Magento URL to its new Shopify equivalent, along with preserving your meta titles, descriptions, and structured data. There is usually a short dip in rankings during the first few weeks as Google recrawls your site, but with proper redirects in place, rankings typically recover within 4 to 8 weeks.
Can I migrate from Magento to Shopify without Shopify Plus?
Yes. Shopify Plus offers some advanced features natively, but a skilled Shopify developer can build custom B2B portals, advanced automation, and complex integrations on standard Shopify plans. Whether Plus is worth the investment depends on your specific requirements and transaction volume.
What happens to my customers' passwords after migration?
Customer passwords cannot be transferred between Magento and Shopify because the platforms use different encryption methods. All customers will need to reset their passwords after migration. The best practice is to send a clear, well-timed email before launch explaining the change and making the reset process as simple as possible.
How much does it cost to migrate from Magento to Shopify?
Costs range from $2,000 for simple stores to $75,000+ for complex enterprise migrations. The main cost drivers are catalog size, custom functionality, number of integrations, and design requirements. Your total cost of ownership typically drops by about 38% after the migration, so the investment pays back through lower ongoing expenses.
What Is Holding You Back?
If you have been weighing this move for a while, the best next step is a proper assessment of your current Magento store. Not a sales call. A technical review that maps out exactly what a migration would involve for your specific situation, including timeline, cost, and any potential complications.
AtlanticWorks has guided businesses through platform migrations from Magento, WooCommerce, and other platforms to Shopify. If you want a clear picture of what the move looks like for your store, we are happy to walk through it with you.