Is it time to move from Magento to Shopify?

If your Magento store is costing more each year just to stay patched, hosted and supported, it's probably time to price up a move. For a lot of UK retailers, Shopify now covers what they used to need Magento for, with far less upkeep. Whether it's right for you comes down to three things: your catalogue, your integrations and when your current version stops getting support.

Why does Magento feel so expensive to keep running?

Most Magento owners we speak to aren't unhappy with what the store does. They're tired of what it takes to keep it doing it. There's the hosting bill, the monthly developer retainer, the security patch that breaks a checkout extension on a Friday afternoon, and the version upgrade that turns into a three-month project because half your modules need rewriting first.

None of that is a fault in Magento. It's an open, flexible platform, which is why big catalogues and complex B2B set-ups chose it. But every custom module is something a developer has to check each time the core changes, and that work never really stops.

Is my version of Magento still supported?

If you're still on Magento 1, the answer is no. Adobe's security bulletin from June 2020 confirmed that "Support for Magento Commerce 1.14 and Magento Open Source 1 is ending in June 2020". That bulletin carried the last security patches those editions would get. A Magento 1 store taking card payments today is running on software that hasn't had an official patch in over six years.

On Adobe Commerce, it depends on your exact version. Adobe's lifecycle policy for Adobe Commerce, last updated in September 2026, gives each version "a three-year standard support window from the General Availability (GA) date". In practice that means:

• 2.4.4 and 2.4.5: standard and extended support have both ended, and the security-only period runs to 31 May 2027.
• 2.4.6: standard support ended on 11 August 2026, extended support runs to 31 August 2027, and security-only fixes to 31 May 2028.
• 2.4.7: standard support runs to 31 May 2027, with extended support to 31 May 2028.
• 2.4.8 and 2.4.9: standard support runs to 31 May 2028 and 31 May 2029.

If you run Magento Open Source rather than Adobe Commerce, check your release's dates with your developer, as this policy is written for Adobe Commerce.

So if you're on 2.4.6 or older, you're already into a reduced support window. Once a version reaches its security-only period, Adobe only ships limited, isolated security fixes, with no quality fixes at all. You'll need to upgrade, or move, within the next year or two. That's the moment to compare the cost of a major Magento upgrade with the cost of replatforming, because in our experience the two often land closer together than people expect.

What actually changes when you move to Shopify?

The biggest change is who looks after the platform. Shopify is hosted and maintained for you, so hosting, core security patches and version upgrades stop being your problem. Your budget moves away from keeping the lights on and towards the things that sell more, like content, product pages and marketing.

The trade-off is that you work within Shopify's way of doing things. A lot of what's custom code on Magento becomes an app or a built-in setting on Shopify. Some things, usually unusual pricing rules, complex B2B logic or a bespoke configurator, need a custom app instead. Working out which is which is the first real job in any migration, and it's where most of the cost and risk sits.

What has to move across?

The obvious parts are products, variants, images, customers and order history. Then there are the parts that are easy to forget until they break: customer groups and tiered pricing, gift card balances, product reviews, blog content, and the fiddly attribute data that drives your filters.

Integrations are usually the hardest bit. If your Magento store talks to an ERP, a warehouse system or a CRM, those connections need rebuilding on Shopify, and they need testing with real orders before launch. Product feeds for Google and Meta have to move too, or your shopping ads can stall on the day you switch.

Will I lose my Google rankings?

You shouldn't lose them for good if the move is planned properly, but expect some movement. Google's own guidance on site moves with URL changes, updated in August 2026, warns that "you may experience ranking fluctuations while Google recrawls and reindexes your site". It also says a small or medium-sized site can take a few weeks to settle, and a larger one takes longer.

The same page recommends permanent, server-side redirects, and keeping them in place for at least a year. Shopify's URL structure is different from Magento's, so your old product and category URLs will almost certainly change. Every one of them needs a redirect to its new page, along with page titles, meta descriptions and content carried across. Skip that and you're leaving Google to work it out on its own. We've gone through the redirect and content checklist step by step in our guide to moving from WooCommerce to Shopify without losing SEO, and the same principles apply to a Magento move.

When is the best time to switch?

Not in the run-up to Black Friday or Christmas. Google's guidance is to time a move for a quieter period if you can, and for most UK retailers that means January to March or late spring, once the peak is over and returns have settled. If your busy season is different, plan around that instead.

Work backwards from your launch date. If you want to go live in late February, discovery and planning need to start in the autumn so the build, data testing and redirect mapping are done before you lose your team's attention to peak trading.

How much does a Magento to Shopify migration cost?

It depends mostly on catalogue size, how much custom functionality you have, and how many systems the store connects to. Our pricing is fixed once we've done discovery, and all prices are one-off and + VAT. A Shopify Growth build, which includes platform migration, SEO migration planning, product feeds and post-launch optimisation, is £25,000. For larger or more complex stores, Shopify Plus Migration starts from £65,000 and covers data and order migration, URL redirects and SEO protection, and post-launch monitoring. Custom apps for anything Shopify can't do out of the box start from £8,000.

When you compare that with a major Magento upgrade, include the costs you'd stop paying afterwards: hosting, patching and the developer time that goes on keeping extensions working. That's usually where the case for moving is made.

How does DLR handle a Magento migration?

We start with an audit and plan. We map your products, customers, orders, URLs, apps and integrations, then agree a fixed scope and price. If you'd like that picture before you commit to anything, our migration and replatforming audit is the place to start. After that we design and build, move and check your data, redirect every old URL to its new page, and plan the switch-over around your trading calendar. Once you're live, we monitor rankings, traffic and orders.

You get a named project lead and the same designers and developers from audit to launch, all in a private Slack channel, so you're never explaining your set-up twice. We migrate Magento 1 and 2 stores, including those with custom extensions, ERP connections and large catalogues. One jewellery retailer we moved from Magento to Shopify, with its ERP integration and custom functionality rebuilt, now has a 27.9% returning customer rate and can make changes without needing a developer for every update.

Frequently asked questions

Can I keep my order history when I move to Shopify?

Yes. Customers and past orders can be migrated and checked, so your team can still look up old orders and customers can see their history.

Do I need Shopify Plus or will standard Shopify do?

It depends on your volume and complexity. Many Magento stores fit comfortably on standard Shopify, while high-volume, multi-market or ERP-heavy stores usually suit Plus better, and our guide to upgrading to Shopify Plus covers the difference.

How long does a Magento to Shopify migration take?

It depends on catalogue size, data and integrations. We agree a fixed timeline after discovery, so you know your launch date before the build starts.

Should I upgrade Magento instead?

Sometimes, yes. If your store relies on functionality that would be expensive to rebuild and your team is happy with the running costs, an upgrade can make sense, and we'll tell you if that's what the numbers show.

If you'd like to talk through your Magento set-up and what a move would involve, book a free call or ring us on +44 1382 699595.