The verdict in three sentences
A B2B store on PrestaShop 1.6 and PHP 5.6 has run without security patches for years: every extra month exposes your 1,200 customer accounts and their negotiated prices. For a wholesaler with 8,000 SKUs, the most cost-effective exit in 2026 is usually PrestaShop 8 with migrated B2B modules (EUR 12,000 to 25,000 excl. VAT), with Shopify Plus B2B only justified above EUR 3 to 4M of online revenue. The real work is not design but migrating accounts, price lists and order history, to be planned over 8 to 14 weeks.
Why staying on 1.6 is already expensive
PrestaShop 1.6 is no longer maintained, PHP 5.6 has had no updates since late 2018 and most hosts now charge extra to keep an obsolete PHP version. Payment, shipping and accounting export modules stop being compatible one after another. In practice, a hardware wholesaler on 1.6 carries three risks: an exploited flaw in a third-party module (customer data theft, a skimmer injected into checkout), a regulatory notice after a GDPR breach, and lost orders when the payment or shipping module breaks without warning.
| Cost of standing still in 2026 | Annual order of magnitude |
|---|---|
| Dedicated PHP 5.6 hosting or extended support | EUR 1,200 to 3,600 |
| Corrective maintenance of incompatible modules | EUR 3,000 to 8,000 |
| Order outages (2 to 4 days per year) | EUR 4,000 to 15,000 of lost revenue |
| Regulator notification and breach handling | EUR 10,000 to 50,000 depending on scale |
| Sales time spent keying phone orders | 300 to 600 h per year |
| Mobile performance score (Core Web Vitals) | often below 40/100 |
The three exit options compared
| Criterion | PrestaShop 8 + B2B modules | Shopify Plus B2B | Custom (Next.js + back office) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Project budget excl. VAT | EUR 12,000 to 25,000 | EUR 15,000 to 35,000 integration | EUR 45,000 to 90,000 |
| Recurring cost | Hosting EUR 80 to 250/month + maintenance | USD 2,300/month + 0.15 to 0.25% of sales + apps | Hosting EUR 150 to 400/month + maintenance |
| Timeline | 8 to 12 weeks | 10 to 14 weeks | 14 to 24 weeks |
| Customer and group pricing | Native + module (EUR 100 to 400) | Native B2B catalogs | Custom, no limits |
| Multi-buyer accounts, approvals | Module (EUR 200 to 600) | Native (company locations) | Custom |
| Net 30 or 60 terms, credit limits | Module or development | Native (payment terms) | Custom |
| ERP connection (Sage, Cegid, EBP) | Connector EUR 2,000 to 8,000 | App or middleware EUR 3,000 to 10,000 | Built into the project |
| Reversibility | Full, open source | Low, data exportable | Full |
The practical decision rule: if your negotiated prices fit into customer groups and discounts by product family, PrestaShop 8 is enough. If you have several delivery sites per account, buyers with approval workflows and export ambitions, Shopify Plus B2B becomes defensible. Custom is justified when the portal must drive fine business rules (prices indexed on metal rates, pack sizes, free shipping thresholds by zone) that neither handles cleanly.
A typical successful migration timeline
| Week | Step | Deliverable |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 2 | 1.6 audit: modules, overrides, data | Inventory and migration plan |
| 3 to 4 | Target environment, B2B theme | Staging available |
| 5 to 6 | Catalog migration (8,000 SKUs, variants, images) | Catalog 99% validated |
| 7 to 8 | Customer accounts, groups, price lists, addresses | Spot check on 50 customers |
| 9 to 10 | Order history, invoices, ERP connector | Outstanding balances reconciled |
| 11 to 12 | 301 redirects, acceptance testing, team training | Sunday cutover, 48 h freeze |
Passwords do not migrate cleanly from 1.6 to another platform: plan a reset email campaign and a welcome message on the login page, otherwise 20 to 30% of trade customers will call their sales rep in the first month.
Mini case study
Philippe, manager of a hardware wholesaler in Clermont-Ferrand, France, makes EUR 2.4M of online revenue with 1,200 trade customers. He picks PrestaShop 8 with a per-customer pricing module, a Sage 100 connector and migration of 8,000 SKUs: EUR 21,500 excl. VAT, delivered in 11 weeks. His recurring costs drop from EUR 7,800 per year (obsolete hosting and patches) to EUR 4,200, a EUR 3,600 saving. Self-service online ordering, with negotiated prices finally visible, lifts the web share from 55% to 68% of orders and frees about 420 h of order entry per year for two inside sales reps, valued at EUR 35 per hour, i.e. EUR 14,700. Estimated annual gain: EUR 18,300, payback in about 14 months, before counting the breach risk avoided.
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FAQ
Can we go straight from PrestaShop 1.6 to 8?
Yes, but not through an automatic upgrade: you need a data migration (a migration module at EUR 100 to 500, or scripts) and then reinstall compatible modules. Code overrides from 1.6 must be rewritten, often 20 to 40% of the budget.
Is Shopify Plus B2B worth USD 2,300 a month for a wholesaler?
Below EUR 2M of online revenue, rarely: the subscription alone is more than EUR 25,000 a year before apps. Above that, native B2B catalogs, payment terms and hosting reliability offset the cost.
What happens to our negotiated prices?
They are exported from 1.6 groups and specific price rules, then reimported and checked on a sample of 50 representative customers. Allow 1 to 2 weeks of work depending on the number of rules, often 2,000 to 10,000 lines.
Will we lose our search rankings?
Not if a 301 redirect plan covers every product and category URL, about 8,500 redirects for 8,000 SKUs. A 5 to 15% traffic dip for 4 to 8 weeks is common, then traffic returns thanks to better mobile performance.
How long will the store be closed?
No long closure: cutover usually happens on a Sunday with a 24 to 48 h order freeze. Orders from the last day are resynced before reopening.
Let's scope your project. We audit your PrestaShop 1.6 store and price the move to PrestaShop 8, Shopify Plus B2B or a custom portal, from EUR 12,000 to 90,000 excl. VAT depending on your pricing rules, delivered in 8 to 14 weeks. Detailed quote within 48 h. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.