The Real Cost of a Magento-to-Shopify Migration

I've been involved in enough platform migrations to know that the initial estimate is almost always wrong. Not because agencies are dishonest — though some are optimistic — but because migrations surface complexity that nobody fully appreciates until they're in the middle of it.

Here's where the money actually goes.

Data migration is never as clean as you think

Product data, customer records, order history — the raw transfer is the easy part. The hard part is mapping Magento's flexible attribute system to Shopify's more structured model.

Magento lets you create any attribute, attach it to any product type, and build elaborate attribute sets. Shopify uses metafields, which are capable but work differently. If your catalogue relies heavily on custom attributes for filtering, product comparison, or display logic, expect to spend time rearchitecting that data.

Customer passwords can't be migrated directly. You'll need a password reset flow or a bulk invite process. Neither is difficult, but both need planning.

Integrations are where budgets break

The platform swap is the visible part of a migration. The invisible part — and typically the most expensive — is reconnecting every system that currently talks to Magento.

ERP feeds, warehouse management, email marketing, loyalty programmes, payment providers, analytics. Each integration needs reviewing, and most need rebuilding. Magento's API structure is fundamentally different to Shopify's, so you can't simply redirect API calls.

I've seen migration budgets double because the integration layer wasn't properly scoped upfront — many of the same patterns I cover in five integration mistakes ecommerce brands keep making apply here. If you have more than three external system connections, treat the integration work as its own workstream with its own estimate.

SEO preservation requires discipline

URL structures change between Magento and Shopify. Category paths, product URLs, CMS page slugs — they'll all be different unless you plan otherwise.

A comprehensive redirect map needs building before you switch DNS. Every indexed URL on your current site should either have a corresponding page on Shopify or a 301 redirect to one. Miss this step and you'll spend months recovering organic traffic.

Structured data, canonical tags, and sitemap configuration also need attention. These are straightforward but easy to overlook in the rush to go live.

The honest answer

For a mid-market brand with a reasonably complex catalogue and three to five integrations, a Magento-to-Shopify migration typically takes eight to sixteen weeks and costs somewhere between £15,000 and £60,000. The range is wide because the variables are wide.

The biggest factor isn't the platform — it's the state of what you're migrating from. Clean data and well-documented integrations make everything faster. Technical debt accumulated over years of Magento customisation is what makes migrations expensive. Custom extensions in particular deserve careful attention — I've written about migrating Magento extensions to Shopify as a dedicated topic.

My advice: invest in a proper discovery phase before committing to a timeline or budget. A week of structured analysis will save you months of surprises. If you're still weighing up whether to move at all, my ecommerce platform comparison covers how Shopify stacks up against Magento and WooCommerce.