Shopify to Magento migration: Step-by-step guide and key setup differences to know

Moving from Shopify to Magento Open Source involves more than transferring products and orders — it’s a shift in how your store is structured, hosted, and extended. This guide helps you plan and execute a successful move by covering:

• What setup changes to expect — including hosting, theme rebuilds, and checkout configuration

• Which migration method to choose — manual, automated, or agency-led

• A step-by-step process — covering planning, implementation, and launch

• What can go wrong — and how to avoid issues with SEO, performance, or feature gaps

Key setup considerations when migrating from Shopify to Magento

Shifting from Shopify to Magento involves fundamental changes in how your store is hosted, developed, and operated. Below are the critical setup areas you’ll need to plan for during migration — each one has direct implications for timelines, technical requirements, and resource allocation.

• You’ll need to provision and manage your hosting: Magento allows you to choose the hosting solution that best fits your needs. This gives you control over performance, compliance, and cost. However, it also requires early planning of infrastructure. You’ll need to provision and configure the full stack — including servers, databases, caching, and security — before development begins.

• Features typically handled by apps must be rebuilt using Magento modules: Shopify offers plug-and-play apps for most store features, while Magento relies on modules that integrate directly into the codebase. As a result, functionality like product bundles, SEO tools, or advanced filtering often needs to be re-implemented through Magento modules or custom development. 

• You’ll need to plan and build a custom checkout flow: Magento offers full control over the checkout experience. If you relied on Shopify's default flow, expect to define your own — including custom fields, validation rules, third-party integrations, and styling.

• You’ll need to create a new storefront theme from scratch: Shopify themes aren’t compatible with Magento, so your storefront will need to be redesigned and rebuilt. You can start with a default Magento theme like Luma, or adopt a frontend accelerator solution that provides a pre-built Magento storefront foundation. If frontend speed is a priority, modern frameworks like Hyvä offer significant performance benefits.
  
  

• Your product data will need to be restructured: 

• Shopify stores typically use a single product structure with built-in options for variants, such as size or colour. In Magento, each variant is created as a separate simple product and grouped under a configurable product for display on the storefront.

• Shopify uses a single, flat product structure where all items share the same basic fields, with optional data added via metafields. Magento, by contrast, uses attribute sets to define which fields appear for each product type—for example, clothing might use fields such as size and material, while electronics require fields like voltage and warranty. 

• As part of migration, you’ll need to reorganise your catalogue to fit this structure, including splitting variant data and assigning the right attribute sets.

• You’ll need to configure multi-region support from scratch: If you currently operate across multiple regions, prepare for a significant shift in how internationalisation is managed. Shopify Markets allows you to manage multiple regions from a single store using automated rules for domains, currencies, duties, and translations. In Magento, internationalisation is handled through store views or separate websites, each with its storefront, catalogue settings, and configuration.  This means you'll need to set up currencies manually, tax rules, translations, and region-specific content, significantly increasing the scope of configuration and data preparation during migration.

• Plan for potential URL changes and redirects: Shopify uses a fixed URL structure, while Magento lets you define custom paths, metadata, and structured data. If you change your URL format during migration, you’ll need a redirect plan to avoid broken links and loss of rankings. However, if existing paths are replicated exactly in Magento, redirects may not be necessary.

• You’ll need to take ownership of security and compliance tasks: On Shopify, key security and compliance tasks are managed for you as part of the platform. With Magento, these responsibilities shift to your team and should be planned as part of your infrastructure setup. This includes installing and renewing your SSL certificate, setting up automated backups, applying security patches, and configuring server-level protections like firewalls. These elements must be accounted for during infrastructure planning and included in your pre-launch checklist to meet PCI compliance and protect customer data.

• You’ll need to set up separate environments for development, staging, and deployment: On Shopify, most changes are made directly through the admin interface. Magento follows a more development-led approach. You’ll need to create dedicated environments for development, staging, and production to test updates, manage code, and coordinate deployment safely. This setup is crucial for preventing downtime, identifying issues early, and facilitating collaboration across multiple teams or partners during the migration process.

Common Shopify to Magento migration methods

While every Shopify to Magento migration involves rebuilding your store’s data, theme, SEO structure, and integrations, the methods differ in how the data migration is performed and who is responsible for executing the other tasks.

• Manual migration uses Magento’s built-in tools, requiring your team to handle every step, from importing data to rebuilding the theme and SEO setup manually.

• Automated migration tools handle the transfer of data (e.g., products, customers, orders) via API, but leave the theme, SEO, and app logic to be rebuilt separately.

• Agency-led migration covers the full scope, with a Magento agency handling data transfer, theme development, SEO, integrations, testing, and go-live support.

Each method represents a different balance of cost, control, and workload, and the right fit depends on your catalogue size, customisation needs and available in-house expertise.

Option 1: Manual migration using built-in import/export tools

Manual migration involves exporting data from Shopify (typically via CSV) and re-importing it into Magento using Magento’s native import functionality. Your team is responsible for all other tasks, including configuring the store, rebuilding the theme, setting up redirects, and replacing apps. These steps generally require a developer familiar with Magento’s architecture, especially when working with modern frontend frameworks like Hyvä or replicating store-specific logic.

Common tasks include:

• Exporting products, customers, and orders via CSV

• Importing data into Magento using the admin or CLI tools (CLI refers to the command-line interface, used by developers to handle larger or more complex imports)

• Rebuild the storefront theme manually using Hyvä, Luma, or other Magento frontend frameworks

• Recreating attributes, categories, and product relationships

• Manually setting up CMS pages, tax rules, and shipping logic

• Rebuilding SEO metadata and redirects

Typical costs included:

• Internal development costs – Resulting from the execution of the tasks above, including data migration, theme redevelopment, store configuration, SEO setup, and testing

• Content/admin effort – For manually recreating CMS pages, menus, and media assets

• Licensing costs – For commercial Magento themes, or modules purchased to replace Shopify apps or custom features

Considerations:

• Time-consuming and error-prone without careful planning

• Customer passwords, payment tokens, and some data types can’t be migrated

• Requires Magento experience or internal dev capacity

• Not scalable for large or complex stores

Best fit for:

Small merchants with fewer than 500 products, limited customisation needs, and access to a Magento developer (mid-level or above) familiar with both Magento’s admin interface and frontend frameworks (e.g., Hyvä, Luma).

Best suited when you want full control, have internal dev capability, and can manage theme, data, and SEO setup manually without third-party tools.

Option 2: Use automated migration tools (e.g., LitExtension, Cart2Cart)

These tools connect Shopify and Magento via API to automate the migration of core data (including products, customers, and orders). However, it doesn’t cover theme rebuilding, SEO setup, or app logic. These remaining tasks must still be completed manually, either by your team or external developers, depending on your resources and technical expertise. This method is often used to accelerate data migration while keeping the frontend and content work flexible.

What’s included:

• Migrate products, categories, customers, and orders

• Transfer basic SEO metadata (e.g., URLs, meta titles)

• Optional add-ons: reviews, coupons, 301 redirects

• Tools such as LitExtension, Cart2Cart, or similar solutions

Typical costs included:

• Tool license or per-migration fee (based on the number of products, orders, and customers)
  Example: LitExtension offers both self-service and fully managed pricing models. For a store with approximately 2,000 products, 2,000 customers, and 1,000 orders, the estimated cost is $129 for automated migration (self-managed) or $449 for an All-in-One package that includes technical support and full migration execution.

• Development costs (can be internal or external)  – For rebuilding the storefront theme, setting up store configuration (e.g., tax, shipping, payments), implementing SEO (e.g., redirects, metadata), and validating migrated data

• Content/admin effort – For manually recreating CMS pages, homepage layouts, and navigation elements not handled by the tool

• Licensing costs – For commercial Magento themes or paid modules required to replicate Shopify app functionality

Considerations:

• Doesn’t migrate metafields, theme content, or app logic

• Limited support for custom product structures

• Requires manual QA and frontend rebuild after import

• Useful as a starting point, not a full migration solution

Best fit for:

Mid-sized stores (e.g., ~2,000 SKUs) with clean data structures and a clear plan to rebuild the frontend separately. Build manually if the rebuild is straightforward and you have in-house Magento developers familiar with Magento themes (e.g., Hyvä or Luma). Choose an agency if you need a custom design or don’t have internal frontend capacity.

Option 3: Full-service agency-led migration

A Magento agency or solutions partner delivers an end-to-end migration project, covering data strategy, frontend redevelopment, redirect planning, app functionality replacement, SEO preservation, and go-live deployment.

Typical services include:

• Discovery and scoping

• Data mapping and migration (including transformation rules)

• Custom theme development (e.g., Hyvä)

• Rebuilding features and integrations.

• QA, staging environment setup, and launch support

Agencies often use a combination of automated tooling and custom scripts to streamline complex data migration while ensuring control over business logic and SEO assets.

Typical costs included:

• Project costs – Vary depending on the agency’s pricing model (fixed-fee, hourly, milestone-based, or hybrid), and typically cover discovery and planning, data migration, frontend development, configuration, SEO, QA, and launch

• Additional development costs – For custom modules, third-party integrations (e.g., ERP, CRM), or non-standard functionality not included in the base scope

• Licensing costs – For commercial themes, premium modules, or third-party services required to meet feature parity or performance goals.

Considerations:

• Most expensive approach, but lowest risk

• Requires a well-defined scope and content readiness

• The timeline depends on decision-making and internal approvals

Best fit for:

Merchants with larger or more complex setups — including multi-store, international, or B2B requirements — who want to ensure a smooth, strategic migration with minimal internal workload.

Best suited to teams aiming to upgrade UX, performance, or SEO as part of the migration, or who need support with theme development or integrations.

Key takeaways: Choosing the right migration method

• Manual migration offers the most control at the lowest external cost, but it’s time-consuming and only practical for small catalogues with minimal complexity. Best suited to merchants with internal Magento expertise.

• Automated tools strike a balance between speed and simplicity, handling core data well but falling short on frontend, custom fields, and SEO precision. Ideal when the catalogue is clean and frontend redevelopment is already planned.

• Full-service agency migration provides the most comprehensive outcome with minimal internal effort. It’s the safest route for larger or custom stores, but comes with higher investment and the need for upfront planning and collaboration.

Step-by-step Shopify to Magento process

Migrating from Shopify to Magento is not a single action — it’s a staged project involving infrastructure setup, data transfer, functional rebuilding, and deployment. Below is a typical step-by-step process used in real-world migrations.

1. Pre-migration audit & planning

Start with a clear roadmap. This phase defines what’s being rebuilt, what’s being preserved, and what success looks like.

• Audit your current Shopify store — Product structure, apps, custom themes, checkout setup — and identify what's essential to replicate or improve.

• Flag regional requirements early: If using Shopify Markets, decide whether to rebuild regions as Magento store views or separate websites — each adds complexity in setup, content, and tax configuration.

• Choose a migration approach: in-house, automated, or agency-led

2. Infrastructure setup for Magento store

Magento is self-hosted, so infrastructure must be provisioned before development can begin. Hosting decisions directly impact performance, flexibility, and deployment timelines.

• Select a Magento-ready hosting solution: Choose between Cloud VPS, dedicated servers, or PaaS offerings with Magento support.

• Install Magento and configure system dependencies: PHP versions, MySQL, Elasticsearch, Redis, and Varnish if required.

• Set up staging, development, and production environments for QA and deployment.

• Plan for security and compliance:

• Install and maintain SSL certificates

• Configure automated backups and system patching

• Enable firewalls and server-level protections

• Ensure PCI-DSS requirements are addressed at the infrastructure level

3. Theme selection & frontend development

Magento does not support importing Shopify themes, so your storefront will need to be rebuilt using Magento's frontend framework. This is your opportunity to invest in performance, branding, and long-term frontend maintainability.

Choose a frontend approach:

• Hyvä Theme – Ideal for custom, high-performance storefronts

• Carbon Accelerator – A pre-built, Hyvä-based system with ready-to-deploy features for B2C and B2B commerce. Deployment is fast, often completed in a few weeks, compared to several months when using traditional Magento themes.

• Traditional Magento theme – For simpler, cost-conscious builds

Recreate your Shopify UI/UX in Magento: 

Rebuild homepage blocks, navigation, category filters, PDP layouts, and other customer-facing components within Magento’s layout and templating system.

Build and configure checkout separately:

Magento does not include a prebuilt checkout like Shopify. You’ll need to select a checkout approach (default 2-step, third-party module, or custom), define required fields, configure payment and shipping integrations, and test across guest, logged-in, and B2B scenarios.

4. Define your site structure and URL strategy (SEO-critical)

Your site’s structure is one of the most important factors in preserving or improving your SEO during migration. Magento offers full control over how categories, product pages, and landing pages are structured, unlike Shopify’s fixed /collections/ and /products/ format. This flexibility is powerful, but it requires careful planning.

If you change your structure or URL format, you'll need a comprehensive redirect strategy. If you replicate the existing structure exactly, you may retain rankings more easily but miss opportunities to optimise crawl paths, keyword mapping, or page depth.

Key SEO tasks include:

• Evaluate your current URL structure – Identify which paths perform well in search and should be preserved

• Plan your category and navigation hierarchy – Magento’s native category tree affects both UX and URL format

• Assess whether to replicate Shopify’s legacy paths (e.g. /products/, /collections/) or adopt cleaner Magento-native URLs — Keeping the same paths simplifies redirect mapping and preserves existing rankings. However, switching to SEO-friendly slugs, such as/category-name/ or /product-name/, may improve crawlability and keyword alignment in the long term.

• Create a redirect map for all changed URLs – Any page that won’t retain its original URL must be redirected using a 301 to preserve SEO equity, avoid crawl errors, and maintain rankings. Prioritise high-traffic and high-value pages based on analytics and backlink data.

5. Rebuild storefront features and customer-facing logic

Magento doesn’t support one-click app installs like Shopify. Core features must be rebuilt using third-party modules or custom development.

• List critical Shopify apps used

• Map each to a native feature or Magento module 

• Prioritise search, reviews, promotions, navigation, and SEO redirects

• Flag any features that require custom development

• Install and test modules early to avoid conflicts during data import

6. Configure payment, shipping, and tax systems

Magento doesn’t come preconfigured with commerce logic like Shopify does. You’ll need to set up core operational systems (including payment gateways, shipping methods, and tax rules) manually. Because they directly affect checkout functionality, pricing accuracy, and compliance, they should be planned once your storefront features are defined and well before testing begins.

Set up core commerce systems:

• Payment gateways: Stripe, PayPal, Braintree, or custom integrations

• Shipping logic: flat rate, free shipping, carrier-calculated, table rates

• Tax configuration: country/state-level rules, EU VAT, tax exemptions

Coordinate with finance and fulfillment teams:

• Validate shipping cost calculations

• Ensure tax behaviour aligns with reporting needs

Test multiple scenarios:

• Guest and registered user checkouts

• Multiple shipping regions and payment types

7. Data migration: Products, customers, orders

Migrating data from Shopify to Magento requires careful mapping. Magento’s data model is more rigid, especially around variants and attributes.

Prepare data in your Shopify store:

• Export products, collections, customers, and orders

• Clean and normalise data: reformat CSVs, adjust field types, remove duplicates

Map data structures for Magento:

• Variants → associated simple products

• Tags/metafields → attributes or custom fields

• URL slugs, redirects, and SEO fields → mapped manually or via script

Import and validate:

• Use admin tools, CLI commands, or tools like Matrixify/LitExtension

• Verify catalogue integrity: images, relationships, prices, inventory counts

8. SEO metadata setup

SEO metadata must be fully re-imported before launch to avoid traffic loss and search ranking drops.

Transfer metadata from Shopify:

• Meta titles, descriptions, and canonical URLs

• Alt text for images, H1/H2 structure, and open graph tags

Implement SEO best practices:

• Use Magento’s built-in fields or bulk import modules

• Audit for duplicate metadata, empty fields, and incorrect canonicals

Lay the foundation for ongoing optimisation:

• Set up sitemaps, robots.txt, and structured data

• Test the URL output against the old site for consistency

9. QA testing & staging sign-off

Before launch, thoroughly validate both the frontend experience and the backend logic to ensure operational readiness.

• Test the complete buying journey: from homepage load to successful checkout.

• Validate functional dependencies: search, filtering, customer login, CMS content, and multi-language/multi-currency, if applicable.

• Check integrations: confirm ERP, CRM, and analytics tools are syncing correctly with the Magento data structure.

10. Go live: public site launch & 301 redirects

Launch timing and sequencing are critical to avoid 404s and SEO loss.

Follow this sequence:

1. Remove noindex from the Magento site

2. Verify SSL is active and HTTPS loads correctly across all URLs

3. Point your live domain to the Magento server

4. Apply 301 redirects from Shopify URLs to Magento URLs

5. Reassign your Shopify store to a non-indexed staging domain (as a backup)

Why it matters: Running redirects before the domain switch can break routing or block redirects due to platform restrictions.

11. Post-migration monitoring & optimisation

After launch, continuous monitoring is essential to confirm that performance, visibility, and conversions are on track.

• Submit new sitemaps and monitor crawl activity using Google Search Console.

• Track key metrics: page speed, bounce rate, 404s, conversion rate, and order accuracy.

• Plan immediate follow-up actions: bug fixing, merchandising enhancements, content updates, and customer feedback analysis.

Shopify to Magento migration: Common pitfalls (and how to avoid them)

Even with careful planning, some issues only become apparent after launch. Below are the most common pitfalls observed during Shopify to Magento migrations, and how to prevent them with proactive preparation.

Incorrect or incomplete product data mapping

Typical symptoms:

• Missing product options (e.g., no size/colour selectors)

• Variants are displayed as separate products or not grouped

• Attribute filtering doesn’t work correctly

• Admin users can’t bulk update or filter by attribute

Impact:

• Confusing UX and lower conversion

• SEO issues due to duplicate variant URLs

• Higher admin overhead managing the catalogue

Why does it happen?

In practice, many migrations begin with a CSV or API export of Shopify data without revalidating its structure against Magento’s product model. The assumption is that product variants will transfer directly, but Magento requires explicit mapping between simple and configurable products using attributes like size, colour, etc. 

Real-world issues typically stem from:

• Lack of predefined Magento attribute sets before import

• Inconsistent or unclean Shopify data (e.g., variant naming, case mismatches)

• Using migration tools without enabling or supporting advanced variant mapping

• Omitting a staging round for admin-side validation of filters and bulk edits

How to avoid:

• Map Shopify variants to Magento simple+configurable products

• Standardise attribute values before import (e.g., “Blue” vs “blue”)

• Test with a sample import and review Magento’s admin structure

• Use a migration tool that supports variant mapping (e.g, LitExtension, Matrixify export + Magento-side import script)

Incomplete URL redirect mapping leading to SEO Drop

Typical symptoms:

• Pages return 404 errors for bookmarked or indexed URLs

• Google Search Console shows spikes in crawl errors

• Organic traffic and rankings decline within days post-launch

Impact:

Loss of SEO equity from old URLs. High bounce rates and lost inbound traffic from existing backlinks. Missed revenue from search visibility.

Why does it happen?

Magento gives merchants full control over how URLs are structured. This is a feature that allows website owners to restructure URLs on the new site to make them more SEO-friendly. However, changing the URL structure can have negative effects if the website owner makes mistakes in the process: 

• Failure to export a full URL list from Shopify before the domain cutover

• Renaming slugs or reworking navigation without updating redirect plans

• Not mapping collection URLs to Magento’s category structure

• Skipping redirect testing in staging, leading to unnoticed 404s post-launch

How to avoid:

• Export all live Shopify URLs before migration

• Create a Shopify → Magento URL mapping (can be semi-automated using Screaming Frog or Excel VLOOKUP) before migration

• Implement 301 redirects via Magento’s URL Rewrites or server-level config as soon as your Magento site goes live, so legacy Shopify URLs are redirected without interruption.

• After launch, check that all mapped redirects are functioning correctly by crawling the live site with SEO tools like Screaming Frog or Ahrefs. This helps catch missed URLs, broken links, and redirect chains early.

• Re-submit sitemaps to Google Search Console post-launch and monitor crawl stats

Failure to replicate Shopify app functionality

Typical symptoms:

• Features expected by users (e.g., advanced filters, reviews, product labels) are missing on launch

• Merchants discover functionality gaps late in development

• Conversion drops due to broken or absent upsell flows and search behaviour

Impact:

Key parts of the customer experience are degraded or missing entirely. This leads to lower engagement, reduced conversion, and increased admin frustration post-launch.

Why does it happen?

Shopify merchants often rely on multiple lightweight apps to provide key functionality, like product badges, filters, upsells, or custom logic. In real migrations, these dependencies are rarely documented thoroughly. Problems arise because:

• App functionality is abstracted behind UI and isn’t visible in the data export

• There’s no systematic audit of installed apps, settings, or frontend impact

• Magento equivalents may exist, but require custom integration or developer setup

• Feature gaps are only discovered late—after frontend development or during UAT—causing rework and delays.

How to avoid:

• Audit and categorise all Shopify apps by function (e.g., frontend UX, promotions, admin automation)

• Identify Magento-native features, reliable third-party extensions, or areas that require custom development

• Validate feature parity before frontend or data work begins

• Allocate time in your project timeline for module testing, edge-case behaviour, and conflict resolution

Poor performance due to misconfigured hosting

Typical symptoms:

• Slow page load times despite using Hyvä

• High TTFB (Time to First Byte)

• Admin panel lags or times out

• Magento indexing or cache issues under load

Impact:

• Slower UX and drop in conversion, especially on mobile

• Negative SEO signals (LCP, INP, CLS failures)

• Risk of downtime or failed orders at peak traffic

• Higher server costs due to inefficiencies

Why does it happen?

Magento requires server-level tuning and infrastructure planning that many teams overlook, especially when coming from Shopify’s fully managed stack. Performance pitfalls typically result from:

• Choosing a low-cost VPS or non-optimised hosting that lacks the required stack configuration.

• Misconfigured PHP, Redis, or Elasticsearch services

• Lack of full-page caching setup (e.g., Varnish not enabled)

• No pre-launch load testing on real catalogue size and traffic profiles

How to avoid:

• Use a Magento-optimised host with pre-configured stack

• Ensure PHP, Redis, Elasticsearch, and FPC/Varnish are properly installed

• Use performance testing tools (Lighthouse, WebPageTest, Blackfire) pre-launch

• Monitor server metrics post-launch and scale resources as needed

Conclusion

Migrating from Shopify to Magento requires more than a simple data transfer — it’s a full replatforming project that impacts infrastructure, frontend development, functionality, and SEO. 

This guide has covered the key setup differences between the platforms, outlined migration methods, and walked through each stage of the process, from pre-migration planning and data mapping to go-live sequencing and post-launch monitoring.

At On Tap, we don’t just handle migrations — we engineer them for stability, scalability, and growth. With nearly two decades of experience in complex eCommerce projects, we help merchants turn technical transitions into business opportunities. Whether you're looking for strategic planning, development support, or a full-service migration partner, get in touch with us. We will make your move to Magento a success.