Magento earned its reputation. Magento Open Source is free. Merchants can customize it to support almost any eCommerce requirement. The platform’s attribute sets handle large catalogs without strain, with one installation running several storefronts. Adobe Commerce is the paid edition and adds B2B tools, along with Adobe’s support. Plenty of large retailers built their business on it for a good reason.
What changed is the price of keeping that freedom. A Magento store runs on hosting the merchant rents, pays for, and has to scale up before every busy season. Security patches and version upgrades are the merchant’s responsibility too. Extra features usually mean extensions or custom code, installed through the Composer package manager. The merchant’s team has to maintain them and test each update against the store’s theme and the rest of its code before it goes live.
More merchants now treat a Magento to Shopify migration as the way out because:
- Shopify hosts every store and scales for traffic, so you don’t need to rent or scale servers before a sale.
- Shopify is PCI DSS Level 1 certified and patches the core platform itself.
- Platform updates arrive automatically, with no version-upgrade projects.
- Shopify’s app ecosystem adds features without custom extensions to maintain.
| Cost line | Magento Open Source | Adobe Commerce | Shopify |
| Platform license | Free | Paid annual license, quoted privately by sales volume | $25 to $399/mo standard; Plus from $2,300/mo |
| Hosting and scaling | Merchant rents and scales | Self-hosted or Adobe Commerce Cloud | Included |
| Security and upgrades | Developer time every release | Developer time, with Adobe support | Included, no upgrades |
Why Should a Magento Store Move to Shopify in 2026?
Several Shopify updates through 2026 have removed barriers that once kept larger Magento merchants from moving.
- Easier Storefront Edits: Shopify’s theme editor lets merchants make changes without touching code. A BFCM banner, hero image, or page section can be changed in the editor. Magento storefront customization often involves a developer because the storefront is maintained in code.
- No Servers to Manage or Scale: Shopify scales automatically during traffic spikes, including events such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday. There is no need to provision servers before a busy period. With Magento, the team is responsible for hosting and server capacity.
- DDoS Protection Included: Shopify takes care of DDoS protection as part of the platform. DDoS attacks flood a store with fake traffic to take it offline. For Magento stores, this is a recurring challenge, and protection depends on the hosting and security setup.
- More Product Variants: Shopify raised the variant limit from 100 to 2,048 per product. Stores can still use only three product options. But the higher variant limit makes the platform a better fit for products with many combinations of size, color, material, or other options.
- B2B on Standard Plans: Shopify now includes B2B features such as company accounts, payment terms, volume pricing, quantity rules, and up to three active B2B catalogs on Basic, Grow, and Advanced plans. Magento Open Source does not include these features out of the box and requires extensions or custom development to add them.
- B2B deposits or Partial Payments: Shopify Plus can collect a deposit when a B2B customer places an order and collect the remaining amount later. Magento does not include the same deposit flow as a standard feature.
- URL Redirects at Scale: Shopify supports up to 100,000 URL redirects on standard plans and up to 20 million on Shopify Plus. Large Magento stores can use them to redirect old product, category, and content URLs after a migration.
- Custom Discount Rules: Shopify uses Shopify Functions for discount rules that are not available by default. On Magento, anything beyond the built-in cart price rules usually requires custom code or an extension that runs on the merchant’s hosting and must be retested with each upgrade.
- Unified Online and Retail: Shopify POS connects retail sales, online orders, customers, and inventory in the same platform. Magento does not include its own POS system, so merchants usually rely on a third-party vendor and integration to keep data in sync.
- Selling Across Borders: Shopify Markets lets a store sell in different countries without setting up separate stores for each one. Merchants can manage currency, language, pricing, and domain settings by market. Magento can do the same, but it usually requires more setup.
- Built-in Automation: With Shopify Flow, merchants can automate routine tasks such as tagging customers, flagging high-risk orders, notifying staff, or holding orders for review. Magento can automate workflows too, but similar functionality often comes through custom development or extensions.
- Lower Maintenance Costs: Shopify removes much of the routine work involved in running a store, including server management, platform updates, and security patches. With Magento, the team has to maintain the core platform, extensions, dependencies, custom code, and hosting. All of this adds to the store’s operating costs.
What Does a Magento to Shopify Migration Look Like Today?
Whether a store runs on Magento 2 or Adobe Commerce, a Magento to Shopify migration is more than moving data. It means auditing the catalog, rebuilding business rules, replacing extensions, reconnecting systems, and handling SEO, starting with a data audit to decide what to move, clean, or leave behind.
What can move:
- Products, variants, images, and custom fields
- Customer accounts, addresses, and order history
- CMS pages and blog posts
- SEO settings and URL redirects
- Categories, menus, tags, filters, metafields, and metaobjects
What needs rebuilding or review:
- Extensions and custom modules
- Pricing rules and other business logic
- Search, filters, and merchandising
- Payment tokens, saved cards, and passwords
- Custom checkout and payment flows
- Themes, including Luma, Hyvä, PWA Studio, and custom frontend code
- ERP, PIM, WMS, loyalty, subscription, returns, and email integrations
Top 6 Magento to Shopify Migration Challenges and How We at Bevy Solve Them
Six challenges account for most of the effort in a Magento to Shopify data migration. Each comes from a structural difference between the platforms and needs a decision before data moves. Here’s how Bevy handles them.
Migration Starts With Mapping
Magento uses an Entity-Attribute-Value or EAV model to organize product data. Shopify, by contrast, relies on product fields, variant options, and metafields. Before migrating anything, each Magento attribute must map to the right place in Shopify. Otherwise, information may end up in the wrong field or fail to transfer correctly. Bevy maps attribute sets to categories and tags, stores other attributes in metafields, and decides whether each attribute should sit at the product or variant level based on how the data is used.
Configurable Products Hit the 3 Option Limit
A Magento configurable product can use several attributes to create variants, but Shopify supports only three option fields per product. When a Magento product uses four or more, not every attribute can become a variant option in Shopify. Bevy works with the merchant to decide which three should be used for variant selection and stores the remaining attributes as metafields.
Passwords and Invalid Records Do Not Carry Over
Magento passwords cannot be imported into Shopify. Messy records such as duplicate or invalid phone numbers and spam signups may also be rejected when Shopify validates customers. Bevy cleans these records before loading them into Shopify. Bevy also loads customers into Shopify’s passwordless accounts, so customers sign in with a one-time code sent to their email and keep their customer history.
Categories and Blogs Need Manual Work
Categories in Magento do not have a direct equivalent in Shopify. Since Shopify uses collections, the category structure often needs to be rebuilt during the migration. Duplicate category names can create additional issues and may need to be renamed. As part of the process, Bevy rebuilds the category structure as Shopify collections and maps the old category URLs to the appropriate collection URLs.
Blog content can also require extra attention after the move. Article images, galleries, embedded videos, and formatting do not always display as expected and may need to be recreated. For stores with content in multiple languages, Bevy can migrate the translated articles and connect them to their corresponding English versions in Shopify.
Migration Apps Move Records, Not Business Logic
Migration apps can copy products, customers, orders, and other records from Magento to Shopify. They do not decide how the data should be structured in the new store. The team still needs to map Magento fields, match data from systems such as an ERP or PIM, and check the imported data before launch.
A simple catalog may only need a spreadsheet-based migration app. A more complex store may need custom scripts or an agency-led migration, especially when it has custom products, B2B or customer-group pricing, multiple languages, ERP data, or other integrations. Bevy writes custom scripts when standard tools cannot handle a store’s data, joining records from different systems and applying rules during import. Shopify’s GraphQL bulk operations also help with large imports, but the data still has to be reconciled before launch.
The table below compares common migration approaches, including what they can handle, what still needs to be done manually, and their cost.
| Tool or approach | Best for | What it can move | What the team still does | Pricing |
| Shopify Store Migration app | Simple CSV imports | Products and customers via CSV | Prepare the CSVs, then rebuild the theme, pricing rules, SEO, and integrations | Free |
| Matrixify | Teams wanting spreadsheet control | Products, collections, customers, orders, metafields, redirects | Map fields, clean data, rebuild logic, test, and run the final delta; full orders need database access | From about $20/mo |
| Cart2Cart | Automated migration with a demo | Core products, customers, orders, categories | Rebuild extensions, complex attributes, pricing rules, and the theme | By record volume |
| LitExtension | Guided or managed migration | Products, customers, orders, coupons, CMS, blog, redirects, attributes | Rebuild complex pricing, customer groups, extensions, design, and ERP links | From about $59; managed separately |
| Custom scripts (Admin GraphQL API) | Multi-store, B2B, ERP, multilingual | Any supported Shopify object, within limits | Run the full process: mapping, cleanup, reconciliation, delta, and QA | Developer or agency time |
| Agency-led migration | Complex catalogs, integrations, high SEO risk | Migration plus planning, scripts, build, testing, launch | Make decisions, give system access, and set the business rules | Project quote by scope |
Inventory Needs an Owner and a Cutover Date
Product data can be moved weeks before launch, but inventory is different. Stock keeps changing while the Magento store is live and keeps taking orders. Bevy confirms which system is the source of truth before the migration and agrees on when the final inventory update will happen. The team also maps each location to the corresponding warehouse, store, dropship supplier, or fulfillment partner. Backorders, preorders, and bundles are handled separately.
Bevy runs a delta migration shortly before go-live to pick up stock changes made after the main migration. This is usually done within a 3 to 15-day window. For stores connected to an ERP, we also set up the integration, so Shopify receives inventory updates from the ERP instead of relying on a one-time stock count.
Launch Is a Sequence of Checks, Not One Import
Moving data into Shopify is only one step in the launch process. After the initial import, the migrated data still needs review and comparison against the Magento store to confirm everything arrived correctly.
A typical launch moves through:
- A test import into a staging store
- Checks across products, customers, orders, content, and SEO
- Fixes to mapping, source data, and integration rules
- A final catch-up import for records that changed while Magento was live
- A content-freeze date before launch
- DNS and domain changes
- Testing of payment, shipping, tax, discounts, and checkout
- Redirect testing
- Integration checks across ERP, PIM, WMS, email, analytics, and fulfillment
- Monitoring for at least the first 48 hours after go-live
Bevy uses the staging store to test the migration before anything goes live. The team checks records there for duplicate SKUs, missing fields, broken images, and conflicts between data sources. Each record is tied back to its source row, so when something goes wrong, Bevy can fix and migrate that record without running the entire catalog again.
| Area | What to check |
| Products | Counts, variants, images, prices, compare-at prices, descriptions, metafields, status |
| Inventory | Stock by location, backorders, preorders, bundles, warehouse sync |
| Customers | Counts, addresses, consent fields, account access, duplicates |
| Orders | Counts, totals, dates, statuses, customer links, support visibility |
| SEO | Redirects, canonicals, hreflang, sitemaps, broken links, metadata, 404s |
| Storefront | Mobile layout, navigation, search, filters, collection and product pages, accessibility |
| Checkout | Shipping, tax, discounts, payment methods, confirmation emails, fraud checks |
| Integrations | ERP, PIM, WMS, email, reviews, loyalty, subscriptions, returns, analytics, ad tracking |
| Reporting | Sales totals, order attribution, customer data, financial reporting |
| Post-launch | Search Console, 404 reports, conversion rate, checkout completion, payment failures, sync errors, support tickets |
How Long Does a Magento to Shopify Migration Take?
The projects Bevy has worked on show how much the scope can vary. A live reptile specialty store with about 7,000 orders on Magento Open Source 2 took 6 to 8 weeks, with much of the work focused on order history and custom animal fields. A jewelry brand on the same Magento edition took around 5 weeks. A furniture and home decor retailer had a more involved migration, taking 12 to 14 weeks to complete. The store had 8,508 Magento items, which became 4,944 products and 7,916 variants in Shopify. Bevy also reviewed about 48,000 images and reconciled around 80,000 ERP records across English and French.
One Change Since The Projects Shipped
Writing migration scripts with AI assistance can now bring an average catalog down to 1 or 2 weeks of scripting, as long as the client answers questions quickly. Slow client responses and approvals, rather than the technical work itself, can stretch a migration.
How Does Bevy Approach a Magento to Shopify Migration?
Bevy uses an in-house migration toolkit built on Shopify’s Admin API. A staging database sits between the source platform and Shopify, where it checks and logs records before import. The toolkit includes mapping templates developed from previous Magento, ERP, and eCommerce migrations, so a new project starts with an existing mapper. The only part written fresh is the step that reads that store’s own data. After that, the process follows the same stages: extraction, staging, and import into Shopify.
Bevy engineered the toolkit because migration data often comes from more than one source. A project may involve exports from Magento, an ERP, a POS, or client-maintained spreadsheets. Some information, including inventory and order status data, may only be available through an API. Before import, we review the data, map it to Shopify’s structure, and adjust it as needed. On the furniture migration, for example, Bevy pulled inventory from the client’s ERP and converted Magento product records into Shopify products and variants.
The same toolkit is used for customer accounts, ERP identifiers, collections, translations, blog content, redirects, and SEO fields. Records can be reprocessed when corrected source data is provided, and each record remains linked to its source row for troubleshooting. Bulk operations are used for large catalogs, with controls in place to work within Shopify’s API limits. The mapping templates are updated as migrations are completed, reducing the amount of new migration code required on similar projects.
Magento to Shopify Migrations Bevy Has Delivered
Bevy has completed Magento to Shopify migrations for 3 very different stores. Each migration had its own data and integration requirements.
1. A Modern Furniture Retailer With an ERP Connected
The furniture retailer had 8,508 catalog items in Magento. Bevy migrated them to Shopify as 4,944 products and 7,916 variants. Inventory and product data were also tied to the client’s ERP, which held about 80,000 records. Bevy matched 7,914 of those ERP records to products on the Shopify store to keep inventory and specifications aligned. Product details that differ between variants, such as volume, weight, and dimensions, were stored at the variant level instead of on the product. The migration also included roughly 48,000 product images and French product content, which was added to the French storefront using Shopify’s translation import.
Customer data came from both Magento and the ERP, and the records did not always match. Some shoppers had multiple ERP accounts, while family members sometimes shared an email address or phone number. Bevy used names and postal codes to work out the matches, then saved the ERP customer number on the Shopify profile. Records that could not be matched were flagged for review. Bevy also set up redirects for the old URLs, titles, and descriptions in both English and French to help retain search rankings.
2. Live Reptile Retailer With 9 Years of Order History
The store sold live reptiles, so its product data included details such as species, morph, gender, hatch date, and breeder information. Bevy moved these fields into Shopify metafields. The migration covered roughly 3,000 SKUs. A custom Node.js script pulled the data from Magento through its SOAP API and uploaded the product images. Bevy also moved about 7,000 orders from 2016 to 2025 and reconnected GA4 on Shopify.
3. Boutique-Style Jewelry Brand With Marketing Setup
A brand running active campaigns loses money when its tracking breaks. A platform move is exactly where that can happen. The jewelry store had roughly 7,700 SKUs and about 3 years of orders in Magento Open Source 2, which Bevy migrated. Before launch, the team reconnected GA4, the Facebook pixel, and Mailchimp on Shopify. This kept the store’s reporting and marketing campaigns running after the move.
Why Choose Bevy as a Magento to Shopify Migration Service?
Plenty of agencies can move a Magento store to Shopify. The difference is what happens when the project does not go exactly as planned. A client may add a new requirement or realize partway through the migration that something needs to work differently. Bevy can adjust the work as those changes come up instead of treating the original plan as fixed.
That flexibility comes from treating the client relationship as a partnership. Migration is not the end goal. Bevy’s wider team can keep working with the business to improve the store, increase revenue, and handle new requirements as they come up. That can include:
- Email marketing, SMS, and conversion rate optimization
- SEO, plus GEO and AEO for visibility in AI answers
- UX and UI design and Shopify theme development
- Custom app and headless development, with API integrations and B2B
- Paid media across search, social and programmatic
- Strategy, data and analytics, with dashboards and reporting
The range is why most clients treat the migration as their first project with Bevy rather than their only one.
Ready to Move Off Magento?
Another year on an aging Magento store means another year of hosting bills and developer hours spent on patches and upgrades, plus the risk of running outdated code. None of that helps grow sales. The sooner you start planning, the sooner you can put that spending toward a faster store on a platform that handles updates and maintenance for you.
Start the conversation with Bevy, or a similar agency, about moving from Magento to Shopify. A short discovery call is usually enough to size the work and understand where the real effort will go.
