Magento Migration Guide 2026: Checklist and Best Practices

Migrating off Magento is one of the most complex replatforming projects in ecommerce. The data model is deeply customised. The extension stack is large and often poorly documented. The B2B feature set - custom pricing, company accounts, negotiated quotes - does not have a direct equivalent on most destination platforms.

And yet most Magento stores are not on Magento because it is the best platform for them. They are on Magento because they were on Magento when they outgrew Shopify 1.0, or because a previous development team built something on it that worked well enough to keep. Inertia and extension debt are the two main reasons Magento migrations are delayed past the point where the cost of staying exceeds the cost of leaving.

This guide covers the complete migration process: when to stay, when to go, where to go, and how to execute the move without losing revenue, organic traffic, or content integrity.

When and Why to Migrate Off Magento

The Case for Staying on Adobe Commerce

Adobe Commerce (Magento 2) is not a platform to abandon without a compelling reason. For certain use cases it remains the most capable platform in the market:

• Complex B2B with negotiated pricing, company accounts, purchase orders, and quote workflows
• Very large catalogues (100,000+ SKUs) with complex configurable and bundled product structures
• Multi-store architectures with distinct storefronts serving different regions, brands, or customer segments from a single installation
• Heavy ERP integration where the Magento data model is the system of record for inventory, pricing, and order management

If two or more of these apply, a migration to a simpler platform will require significant custom development to replicate capabilities that Magento provides natively. The migration cost may exceed the operational benefit.

The Case for Leaving

The signals that justify a migration away from Magento:

• Extension debt that blocks progress. An installation with 40+ extensions, many undocumented or unmaintained, where any platform update risks breaking critical functionality. The maintenance cost of the extension stack exceeds the cost of rebuilding the required functionality on a modern platform.
• Developer dependency for routine content and marketing changes. Marketing teams unable to update banners, add promotions, or create landing pages without developer involvement. This is an architecture problem, not a staffing problem.
• Performance that cannot be resolved within the existing stack. Core Web Vitals failures tied to the rendering architecture of the Magento theme that would require a full front-end rebuild to fix - at which point a platform migration is the equivalent investment.
• Magento 1 end-of-life. Magento 1 reached end-of-life in June 2020. Running Magento 1 in 2026 means running unsupported software with no security patches. This is an operational risk, not a technical preference.
• Adobe Commerce licensing costs that are not justified by the capabilities used. Adobe Commerce cloud licensing can reach $22,000-$125,000+ annually. If the B2B and enterprise features that justify that cost are not being used, the licensing premium is waste.

The Stay vs. Leave Decision Framework

Destination Options

The destination platform depends on the complexity profile of the existing Magento store.

For most DTC and mid-market brands on Magento 1 or Magento 2, Shopify or Shopify Plus is the most common and most practical destination. This guide addresses both the Shopify path and the Adobe Commerce upgrade path where they differ.

Pre-Migration Audit and Data Mapping

This is the phase where Magento migrations succeed or fail. Magento's data architecture - particularly the EAV (Entity-Attribute-Value) model for product data - is significantly more complex than Shopify's or most other platforms'. Understanding the data model before writing a single migration script determines the accuracy of the timeline and the integrity of the migrated data.

The Magento Data Complexity Problem

Magento stores product data in an EAV structure. A single configurable product may have attributes stored across dozens of database tables, with attribute sets, attribute groups, and attribute options managed separately from the product records themselves. Custom attributes added over years of operation frequently have no direct equivalent in the destination platform.

Before scoping the migration, the development team must:

• Audit every attribute set in the product catalogue
• Map each attribute to its destination field in the new platform (or document that it has no equivalent and decide how to handle it)
• Identify configurable, grouped, and bundled products and define the mapping to the destination product model
• Document custom extensions that modify the product or order data model

This audit is not a one-day task. For a mid-size Magento installation, allow 2-4 weeks for the data audit alone.

SEO Inventory Before Any Work Begins

Before any migration planning, crawl the current Magento store and document the SEO state:

• Complete URL inventory with HTTP status codes
• Organic traffic per URL from analytics (trailing 90 days)
• Keyword positions per URL from Google Search Console
• Inbound backlink count per URL
• Meta title, meta description, and canonical tag coverage
• Structured data inventory - what schema types exist and on which page templates
• Core Web Vitals field data per page group

Every URL with organic traffic, rankings in positions 1-20, or inbound backlinks is a priority SEO asset. Magento's URL structure - including .html suffixes common in Magento 1 and 2 - differs from Shopify's structure. Every URL change requires a 301 redirect. The redirect map must be built from this inventory data before development begins.

Content Decisions: Keep, Prune, Merge, or Rewrite

The migration is the correct moment to rationalise the content inventory. Magento stores frequently accumulate CMS pages, blog content (via third-party extensions), and landing pages that have not been reviewed in years.

Keep: Pages with organic traffic, rankings, or inbound backlinks. Migrate with redirect to the closest equivalent URL.

Update: Pages ranking but underperforming on conversion. Migrate and schedule content improvement.

Merge: Multiple pages targeting the same query. Consolidate to one URL, redirect the others.

Prune: Pages with no traffic, no rankings, no backlinks, and no conversion value. Remove and redirect to the nearest relevant category.

Marketing owns these decisions. They cannot be made by a developer during the build.

The 301 Redirect Map

Built from the SEO inventory. Columns: current URL, organic sessions, ranking keywords, backlink count, content decision, destination URL, redirect type (301), notes.

Every URL in the inventory gets a destination. The most common Magento-specific redirect challenges:

• .html suffix removal. Magento 1 and some Magento 2 configurations use .html suffixes on product and category URLs. Shopify does not. Every .html URL needs a redirect to the Shopify equivalent without the suffix.
• URL key conflicts. Magento allows product and category URL keys to be the same if they are in different stores. The destination platform may not. Resolve conflicts in the content decision phase before building the redirect map.
• Layered navigation URLs. Magento's faceted navigation generates parameter-based filter URLs. These are typically excluded from the redirect map (handled via canonical configuration on the existing site) but should be audited for any that have indexed traffic.

SEO and Redirect Strategy

Protecting Organic Equity Through a Magento Migration

The specific steps that determine organic traffic retention:

Complete 1:1 redirect mapping. Every product page, category page, CMS page, and blog post with organic traffic, rankings, or backlinks needs a redirect to its destination URL. The redirect must be a 301 (permanent). Implement the redirect map before the domain change - not after.

Meta data migration. Every priority page must have its meta title and meta description migrated to the new platform with parity. Magento stores meta data at the product and category level - this data must be exported and imported into the destination platform's equivalent fields.

Schema markup migration. Magento themes include basic Product and BreadcrumbList schema. Verify these are correctly implemented in the new platform's theme and validate using Google's Rich Results Test. For blog content and Organisation schema, additional implementation is required.

Canonical tag configuration. Magento's layered navigation generates many near-duplicate URLs. Verify that the destination platform's canonical configuration correctly handles filtered and paginated URLs.

Pre-Launch SEO Checklist

Core Web Vitals targets: LCP under 2.5 seconds, INP under 200 milliseconds, CLS under 0.1. Source: Google web.dev/vitals - verify current thresholds before launch.

Execution and Cutover

Data Migration Complexity Tiers

Timeline estimates for migrations to Shopify or BigCommerce. Adobe Commerce upgrade timelines differ - typically 12-24 weeks for a version upgrade without replatform. Actual timelines depend on data quality and integration complexity.

The Magento-Specific Data Migration Challenges

EAV product data transformation. Exporting product data from Magento's EAV structure and transforming it into flat product records for Shopify or BigCommerce requires custom ETL (extract, transform, load) logic. Off-the-shelf migration apps handle standard attribute types but frequently fail on custom attributes, complex configurable product structures, and custom option sets. Budget for custom development in the data transformation layer.

Customer password migration. Magento stores passwords in a different hash format than Shopify. Passwords cannot be migrated directly. Migrated customers must reset passwords on first login. Plan the customer communication sequence around this before launch.

Order history. Order history can be imported into most destination platforms for customer service and reporting purposes. Verify what the imported order history can and cannot do in the destination platform before setting client expectations - order history imported into Shopify is accessible but does not integrate with native Shopify fulfilment workflows.

Multi-store migration. Magento's multi-store architecture allows multiple storefronts with different catalogues, pricing, and configurations from a single installation. Most destination platforms handle multi-store differently - verify that the destination architecture supports the required multi-store model before committing to the platform.

Post-Launch Monitoring

Monitoring Cadence

A 5-15% temporary dip in the first two weeks is normal. A problem is sessions down more than 20% after two weeks with no recovery trend, or Search Console reporting high volumes of redirect or crawl errors on priority pages.

What a Successful Magento Migration Looks Like at 90 Days

• Organic sessions at or above pre-migration baseline
• Target keyword positions maintained at 90% or above
• Conversion rate at or above pre-migration baseline
• All integrations verified with live transaction data
• Marketing team publishing content and managing promotions without developer involvement
• Content velocity - time to publish a new landing page - lower than pre-migration baseline

That last metric is often missing from migration success criteria. If the marketing team is still filing developer tickets for routine content changes 90 days after a migration to Shopify or a headless platform, the migration has not delivered its operational objective.

Ownership and Governance

RACI for Magento Migration Stakeholders

The most common ownership failure in Magento migrations: the technical team owns the project entirely and the marketing team is presented with a finished store to approve. Content decisions, redirect map review, and SEO field verification all require active marketing involvement - not just sign-off at the end.

Work with Shadow Digital

Magento migrations fail for the same predictable reasons: attribute mapping gaps discovered mid-build, redirect maps built too late, content decisions delegated to developers, and post-launch monitoring not included in scope.

Shadow Digital approaches complex platform migrations with the data audit, redirect mapping, and content decisions completed before a single migration script is written. For teams where the destination is Webflow rather than Shopify - common for B2B SaaS brands that have historically run a Magento-based site - the Webflow migration process covers the platform-specific steps.

For the broader CMS migration process, the CMS migration guide covers the ownership and planning framework that applies regardless of platform. For SEO protection specifically, the website redesign SEO guide covers the technical steps in detail.

Book a strategy call to talk through your Magento migration scope and risk profile. Or see our work to understand the standard of process and execution we apply.

A Note on Sources

Technical guidance on 301 redirects and Change of Address is based on Google Search Central documentation at developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/site-move-with-url-changes and support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9370220. Core Web Vitals thresholds sourced from Google web.dev/vitals - verify current thresholds before launch. Adobe Commerce migration guidance references publicly available Adobe documentation. Magento 1 end-of-life date (June 2020) is documented by Adobe. Cost and timeline estimates are indicative ranges based on industry benchmarks - actual timelines depend on data quality, integration complexity, and development capacity. All figures should be verified at time of execution.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Long Does a Magento Migration Take?

A low-complexity migration (under 1,000 products, minimal integrations) to Shopify runs 8-14 weeks. Medium complexity (1,000-10,000 products, 3-5 integrations) runs 14-22 weeks. High complexity with ERP integration and B2B features runs 22-36 weeks. Enterprise migrations with 50,000+ SKUs and multi-store architecture run 36-60 weeks. The pre-migration data audit alone typically requires 2-4 weeks before any build work begins.

How Much Does a Magento Migration Cost?

Low-complexity migrations to Shopify run $15,000-$40,000. Medium-complexity migrations run $40,000-$100,000. High-complexity migrations with ERP integration and B2B feature parity run $100,000-$250,000+. Enterprise migrations run $250,000 and above. The data audit and EAV transformation work is the primary cost differentiator between Magento migrations and simpler platform switches.

What Is the Biggest Risk in a Magento Migration?

EAV data transformation failure - custom attributes, complex configurable product structures, and custom option sets that do not map cleanly to the destination platform's data model. Data issues discovered mid-build significantly extend timelines and budgets. A thorough data audit before any migration scripts are written is the primary risk mitigation.

Should I Migrate from Magento to Shopify or Upgrade to Adobe Commerce?

Stay on Adobe Commerce (Magento 2) if you have complex B2B requirements (negotiated pricing, company accounts, purchase orders), catalogues above 50,000 SKUs with complex product structures, or multi-store architectures that would require significant reconstruction on another platform. Migrate to Shopify or BigCommerce if your B2B requirements are basic, your catalogue is manageable, and the operational overhead of running Adobe Commerce exceeds the value of its capabilities.

Will a Magento Migration Hurt SEO Rankings?

Not if the redirect map is built correctly and implemented before the domain change. The Magento-specific risks are .html suffix URL changes, layered navigation URL handling, and category URL key conflicts. All three must be addressed in the redirect mapping phase. Organisations that complete a full redirect map before development begins, migrate meta data with parity, and verify implementation before launch typically retain 90-95% of organic sessions within 30 days.

How Do I Handle Magento 1 End-of-Life?

Magento 1 reached end-of-life in June 2020. Running Magento 1 in 2026 means running software with no security patches. The migration is not optional - the question is only where to go and when. Most Magento 1 stores should evaluate Shopify for standard DTC and mid-market use cases, and Adobe Commerce (Magento 2) only if the B2B feature requirements justify the platform complexity.

What Data Can I Migrate from Magento?

Products (with variants, attributes, and images), categories, customer records, order history, and CMS pages and blocks. Custom product attributes require explicit mapping to destination fields. Customer passwords cannot be migrated - affected customers must reset passwords on first login. Order history imported into most destination platforms is available for customer service and reporting but does not integrate with the destination platform's native fulfilment workflows.