Magento to Shopify, without losing the complexity that earns.
Magento stores are complex because the business is. The migration question is never "can the data move", it is which of that complexity is genuinely load-bearing and which is a decade of accumulated configuration nobody has audited.
Tell us about your Magento store.
On this page
- 01Magento's attribute set and EAV model is richer than Shopify's product model. Mapping it, rather than flattening it, is most of the project.
- 02Shopify has a hard limit on variants per product. Configurable products with many options need a deliberate strategy, not a hopeful import.
- 03Multi-store and multi-website setups map to Shopify Markets or to separate stores. Which one is a commercial decision with a real cost difference.
- 04Magento URLs, layered navigation and store-view paths all change. The redirect map is larger than most teams expect.
- 05Most Magento merchants are leaving for total cost of ownership, not features. Be clear that is the reason, because it sets what you should accept losing.
Be honest about why.
Magento is not a worse platform than Shopify. It is a more capable and much more expensive one, and it demands a team. Merchants leave it for one of three reasons, and which reason you have should shape the whole project.
Cost of ownership. Hosting, a Magento developer or agency on permanent retainer, upgrade projects, and security patching. This is the most common and most legitimate reason, and it is a real number you can put on a page.
Speed of change. Marketing wants to ship a landing page this week and the answer is a sprint. On Shopify most of that becomes self-serve, which is worth a great deal to a lean team.
An upgrade cliff. A version end-of-life forcing a large project anyway. If you are paying for a big project regardless, comparing platforms at that moment is rational.
If none of those applies and Magento is serving you, staying is a perfectly good answer. We would rather say that than sell you a migration you will regret.
Four things that do not simply copy.
Attributes and product types
Magento's attribute sets, configurable, bundle and grouped products have no exact Shopify twin. Some become variants, some metafields, some separate products, and some become a decision to simplify the range.
Variant ceilings
Shopify caps variants per product. A configurable product with several option axes can exceed it. The fix is a modelling decision made deliberately up front, not an import error discovered late.
Multi-store
Magento websites, stores and store views become either Shopify Markets on one store, or several stores under one organisation. The two have different costs, different admin overhead and different SEO shapes.
Integrations and B2B
ERP, PIM and tax integrations are rebuilt against Shopify's APIs. Magento's native B2B features map onto Shopify's B2B, which usually means Plus. That is often the real cost line.
A bigger redirect map than you expect.
Magento generates more indexable URLs than teams remember: category paths, layered-navigation combinations, store-view prefixes for each locale, and the URL rewrite table that has accumulated entries for years.
We build the map from what Google actually has, taken from Search Console and your live sitemaps, not from a theoretical model of your structure. Anything with impressions gets an explicit destination; the long tail of filter permutations is handled by pattern rather than one by one.
Then every rule is tested with a real request after launch, checking it is a single hop to a page that returns 200. A redirect into a redirect, or into a 404, is worse than leaving the old URL alone.
Six answers.
Will we lose functionality?
Some, and you should decide which before you start rather than discovering it at launch. Magento's product modelling and native B2B are genuinely deeper. In practice a lot of what looks essential turns out to be configuration nobody uses, and the audit separates the two. What you gain is a platform your team can operate without a developer on call.
Do we need Shopify Plus?
Often, though not always. If you use Magento's B2B, run several store views, or rely on checkout customisation, Plus is where the equivalents live. If you are a single-market DTC store that grew on Magento by accident, standard Shopify may be enough. See what Shopify Plus is.
What happens to customer passwords?
They do not transfer, on any platform migration, because passwords are stored hashed with a scheme the destination cannot reuse. Customer records, order history and addresses migrate; customers set a new password on first login. Plan the email that explains this, and send it before launch, not after the first support ticket.
How long does a Magento migration take?
Longer than a WooCommerce migration, because the modelling work is real. The drivers are the number of store views, the complexity of your attribute sets, whether B2B is in scope, and how many integrations must be rebuilt. Catalogue size matters far less than those four.
Can we run both during transition?
For a multi-store setup you can move one market or brand first, prove it, then follow with the rest. For a single storefront, no: running two live stores on one domain splits inventory and confuses customers. Keep the Magento instance available but not public for a while after cutover, as a safety net.
Is Shopify actually cheaper than Magento?
Usually, once you count honestly. Compare Shopify's platform fee plus apps against Magento's hosting, agency retainer, upgrade projects and the internal time spent keeping it running. The saving is real for most mid-market merchants, and it is much smaller than the marketing suggests for large B2B operations. Run the three-year number on your own figures. Our Shopify vs Magento comparison sets out the method.
Tell us your store views and attribute sets.
Those two facts, plus whether B2B is in scope, tell us most of what this migration costs. We will also tell you if the honest answer is to stay on Magento.
Why work with Digital Heroes
115 people across five studios in New York, Delhi, London, Sydney and Lucknow, shipping ecommerce, web, software and mobile work for founder-led brands. Senior engineers only, no account-manager relay, and the same team from kickoff to launch.
- Shopify Premier Partner, the tier Shopify reserves for agencies with a sustained delivery record on Plus builds
- Tier 1 registered supplier on the United Nations Global Marketplace, which requires audited company documentation
- Top Rated Plus on Upwork, the bracket for the top 3% of talent by client outcomes
- 397 public five-star-weighted reviews across four Fiverr gigs, from clients in 36 countries
- DUNS verified business, No. 650878346, so procurement can check us before signing
- Listed by Clutch in Top 1000 Global B2B Companies and Top Web Designers 2024
- Verified profiles on GoodFirms, DesignRush, Digital.com, AppFutura and TopDevelopers
- 2,000+ brands built across 55+ countries, with $50M+ in client revenue scaled
Published .
