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Practical Magento 2 guides on upgrades, security, speed and migration, written by the MageBooster team.

Moving to Magento 2 from Shopify or WooCommerce: When It Pays Off

When replatforming from Shopify or WooCommerce to Magento 2 makes sense, when it doesn’t, and how to migrate data, passwords and SEO safely.

In short

Moving to Magento 2 pays off when your requirements keep outgrowing your platform: complex B2B, deep catalog logic, many stores and currencies, or integrations that need full code control. It does not pay off if your current store works and your main pain is cost or speed of change. If you do move, the risky parts are customer passwords, order history and URL redirects, so plan those first.

Shopify and WooCommerce run a huge share of online stores, and for many businesses they are the right choice. Magento 2 (Magento Open Source and Adobe Commerce) sits at the other end of the scale: more control and more built-in commerce logic, with more engineering responsibility.

This guide is for teams deciding whether to replatform to Magento. It covers when the move makes sense, when it does not, and what a migration involves in practice.

When moving to Magento pays off

Complex B2B

Adobe Commerce includes a B2B extension with company accounts and hierarchies, shared catalogs with company-specific pricing, negotiable quotes, purchase order approvals, requisition lists, quick order and payment on account. Adobe lists it as Adobe Commerce only with a separate license. On Magento Open Source, similar features come from extensions or custom development.

The gap has narrowed. Shopify now offers B2B on its Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus plans, with companies, catalogs and payment terms; Plus adds unlimited B2B catalogs and catalogs assigned directly to specific companies. If your B2B needs are price lists and net terms, test Shopify’s B2B features before deciding. Magento tends to win when you need quote negotiation, approval workflows, complex company structures or pricing logic tied to an ERP.

Catalog complexity

Shopify raised its limit to 2,048 variants per product for all merchants in 2025, but products are still limited to three options. Magento supports configurable, bundle, grouped, virtual and downloadable product types, unlimited custom attributes and attribute sets, and layered navigation on any attribute. If your catalog relies on many product dimensions, configurators or complex bundles, that model is a real advantage.

Multi-store, multi-language and multi-currency

Magento’s website, store and store view hierarchy lets one installation run several brands, regions and languages with shared or separate catalogs, prices and stock. Shopify handles international selling through Markets, and WooCommerce through plugins or multisite. Magento fits best when each storefront needs its own catalog rules, tax setup or B2B behavior from one Admin.

Customization and integration

With Magento you own the code, the database and the hosting. You can change checkout logic, build custom modules and integrate directly with ERP, PIM and WMS systems without app-platform limits. That is the main reason teams with in-house or agency developers choose it.

Total cost of ownership

Magento Open Source has no license fee, but it is not cheap to run. A realistic TCO includes hosting and infrastructure, security patching and version upgrades, extension licenses, development and QA, monitoring, and on Adobe Commerce, the license. Shopify bundles hosting, security and upgrades into the subscription, but adds app fees and, depending on plan and payment setup, transaction costs. WooCommerce sits in between. Build the comparison on your own numbers over three to five years.

When staying put is the better choice

Your store works and your problems are marketing or merchandising. A replatform will not fix traffic or conversion on its own.
You have no development capacity. Magento needs ongoing engineering, either in-house or through a partner. Without it, patching and upgrades fall behind.
Your catalog is simple and single-region. Shopify or WooCommerce handle this well at lower cost.
The real blocker is one missing feature. An app, plugin or small custom service is usually cheaper than a migration.
You need to move fast. A Magento migration is a multi-month project. If a peak season is close, wait.

Migration steps

1. Data mapping

Adobe’s Data Migration Tool only covers Magento 1 to Magento 2, so a move from Shopify or WooCommerce relies on custom scripts, Magento’s import tools or third-party migration services. Start with a mapping document:

Shopify products and variants (up to three options) map to Magento configurable products with simple children. Metafields map to custom attributes.
WooCommerce variable products map to configurables; product attributes map to Magento attributes and attribute sets.
Collections or categories map to Magento categories. Smart or automated collections need rules or merchandising logic.
Decide which data is not migrated, such as abandoned carts or old discount codes.

Magento’s native import supports products, advanced pricing, customers and addresses, customer finances and stock sources. Orders are not a native import entity, so order history needs a custom importer or a migration tool.

Run imports on staging through System > Data Transfer > Import (use Check Data first), then reindex and clean the cache:

bin/magento indexer:reindex
bin/magento cache:clean

2. Customers and passwords

This is where most migrations disappoint customers. Shopify does not provide password hashes in its exports, and its new customer accounts sign in with a one-time email code and no password at all. Plan a password reset flow: import customers, then send a clear “set your password” email at launch and make the reset link obvious on the login page.

WooCommerce stores their WordPress user password hashes in the database. Since WordPress 6.8, new hashes use bcrypt with a $wp$ prefix; older ones use phpass. Magento cannot verify those formats out of the box, but a custom module can check the legacy hash on first login and rehash the password in Magento’s format. That avoids a forced reset for most customers.

3. Orders and history

Migrate order history so customers can see past orders and support can handle returns. Keep order numbers (or a reference to the old number), statuses, line items, totals, taxes and addresses. Historical orders should be read-only and never trigger emails, invoices or ERP syncs during import.

4. URL redirects and SEO

Shopify uses fixed paths such as /products/ and /collections/; WooCommerce uses /product/ and /product-category/ by default. Magento URLs will differ. Google’s site move guidance recommends:

Server-side permanent redirects (301 or 308) from every old URL to its closest new equivalent.
Keeping redirects for as long as possible, generally at least one year.
Updating internal links, self-referencing canonical tags on new URLs and submitting new sitemaps in Search Console.
Using the Change of Address tool only if the domain changes.

Build the redirect map from a full crawl, your analytics and your Search Console landing pages. The product export alone misses CMS pages, blog posts and filtered URLs. Magento’s URL rewrites can hold product and category redirects. For large maps, an nginx map is efficient:

map $request_uri $new_uri {
    include /etc/nginx/redirects.map;   # "/products/blue-chair /blue-chair.html;"
}
server {
    if ($new_uri) { return 301 $new_uri; }
}

Also carry over page titles, meta descriptions, structured data and image alt text, and compare rankings and organic landing pages weekly for the first months.

5. Integrations

List every app or plugin and what it does: payments, tax, shipping, ERP, email, reviews, search, analytics and marketplace feeds. For each, choose a Magento extension, a direct integration or retirement. Payment and tax are the most sensitive, so test them end to end, including refunds.

Timeline phases

Duration depends on catalog size, integrations and design scope, so treat these as phases rather than fixed durations:

Discovery: requirements, data audit, integration list, TCO model and go or no-go decision.
Architecture and design: hosting, Magento edition, theme approach (Luma-based or Hyvä), extension selection.
Build: theme, custom modules, integrations, data migration scripts.
Migration rehearsals: at least two full test migrations on staging, with data validation.
UAT and performance testing: business users test real workflows; load tests run against expected peaks.
Launch: content freeze, final delta migration, DNS switch, redirects live, password emails out.
Hypercare: close monitoring of orders, errors, rankings and support tickets.

Key risks

SEO loss from missing or chained redirects.
Customer friction from forced password resets.
Scope creep when the migration becomes a redesign plus a process overhaul at once.
Underestimated running costs for patching, upgrades and hosting after launch.
Integration gaps discovered late because an app quietly did something important.

Frequently asked questions

Can I migrate customer passwords from Shopify to Magento?

No. Shopify does not provide password hashes, so customers need to set a new password. Plan the email and login-page messaging carefully.

Will I lose my Google rankings?

Some fluctuation is common after any site move. A complete 301 redirect map, preserved content and metadata, and close monitoring reduce the risk considerably.

Should I choose Magento Open Source or Adobe Commerce?

Open Source suits many B2C stores with a development partner. Adobe Commerce adds features such as the native B2B suite and Adobe support, at a license cost. Base the decision on the features you need.

Is Shopify Plus a better alternative?

For many brands, yes. If your requirements fit Shopify’s model, staying on Shopify or upgrading your plan is usually simpler. Magento is the stronger option when you need deep customization or complex B2B.

Not sure Magento is the right move?

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Moving to Magento 2 from Shopify or WooCommerce: When It Pays Off