The verdict in three sentences
Replatforming a Magento 2 store costs 35,000 to 140,000 USD in New York in 2026, depending on SKU count, integrations (ERP, PIM, 3PL) and the target platform. The project makes sense when maintenance, hosting and security patches exceed 3,500 to 6,000 USD a month and every change takes weeks: total cost of ownership drops by 30 to 50 % over three years. The real risk is not technical, it is SEO: without a complete redirect plan, a migration can lose 20 to 40 % of organic traffic for several months.
What Magento costs today, and what it costs after
Adobe Commerce (Magento) is still powerful, but an average store piles up extensions, overrides and expensive version upgrades. Here is a 2026 order of magnitude for a store with 4.5 million USD in online revenue.
| Annual line | Magento 2 Open Source | Shopify Plus | Headless (Next.js front + SaaS back end) | Custom |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| License or subscription | 0 USD | about 27,600 to 30,000 USD (2,300 USD/month) | 7,000 to 30,000 USD | 0 USD |
| Hosting and CDN | 10,000 to 21,000 USD | Included | 3,500 to 9,000 USD | 4,500 to 12,000 USD |
| Maintenance, security, updates | 36,000 to 54,000 USD | 7,000 to 14,000 USD | 14,000 to 28,000 USD | 18,000 to 35,000 USD |
| Extensions and apps | 3,500 to 9,000 USD | 7,000 to 18,000 USD | 2,500 to 7,000 USD | 0 to 3,500 USD |
| Transaction fees | 0 USD (PSP dependent) | 0.15 to 0.3 % outside Shopify Payments | PSP dependent | PSP dependent |
| Indicative annual total | 49,500 to 84,000 USD | 41,600 to 62,000 USD | 27,000 to 74,000 USD | 22,500 to 50,500 USD |
The gain is not only on paper: on Shopify or headless, a marketing team edits a page, a promotion or a funnel without waiting for a developer. That is often where the fastest return sits.
Migration budget by scope
| Scope | Example | Migration cost (USD) | Timeline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simple catalog, few integrations | 2,000 SKUs, standard payments and carriers | 35,000 to 52,000 | 4 months |
| Rich catalog + ERP | 10,000 SKUs, variants, ERP (NetSuite, Dynamics) | 52,000 to 88,000 | 5 to 6 months |
| B2B + B2C, multi-store | Customer-specific pricing, quotes, two languages | 80,000 to 115,000 | 6 to 7 months |
| Full headless, multi-country | Next.js front, PIM, US + Canada + EU, mobile performance | 105,000 to 140,000 | 7 to 8 months |
| Option: historical data migration | Accounts, orders, reviews, loyalty balances | 4,500 to 14,000 | Within schedule |
| Option: full UX and design overhaul | New brand system, user testing | 12,000 to 30,000 | 6 to 8 weeks in parallel |
What you must not lose during migration
The checklist we apply on every project: a page-by-page 301 redirect plan (products, categories, CMS pages, indexed images), customer accounts preserved with a soft password reset, orders migrated over 24 to 36 months for customer service, reviews and loyalty balances. On compliance, marketing consent and state privacy preferences (such as CCPA opt-outs) must follow, along with sales tax settings by state. On performance, the target is a mobile LCP under 2.5 seconds, which Magento often barely reaches.
Mini case study
Jason, head of e-commerce at a specialty food and wine brand in New York, runs a Magento 2 store with 6 million USD in online revenue. He pays 4,500 USD a month for maintenance and 1,400 USD a month for hosting, or 70,800 USD a year, before any new feature.
He moves to a headless stack (Next.js front, SaaS commerce back end) for 95,000 USD in 6 months. The new annual cost is 36,000 USD. Savings: 34,800 USD a year. Mobile load time drops from 4.1 to 1.9 seconds and mobile conversion rises from 1.4 % to 1.7 %, about +200,000 USD in annual revenue at constant traffic. The migration pays back in under a year when counting margin on that extra revenue, and in about 2.7 years on operating savings alone.
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FAQ
How much does a Magento to Shopify migration cost in New York?
Between 35,000 and 88,000 USD for most stores doing 2 to 10 million USD, depending on ERP integrations and data volume. B2B multi-store or multi-country headless builds reach 140,000 USD.
Will we lose search rankings?
A temporary dip of 5 to 10 % for 4 to 8 weeks is common, even when well managed. With an exhaustive 301 plan, preserved tags and daily Search Console monitoring, traffic usually returns to baseline within 2 to 3 months.
Shopify Plus, headless or custom?
Shopify Plus fits standard catalogs and autonomous marketing teams. Headless pays off above 5 million USD in revenue or across several countries. Custom still makes sense for very specific B2B logic.
Can we keep Magento running during the migration?
Yes, both sites run in parallel and the cutover happens overnight, ideally outside Black Friday and holiday peaks. Plan 1 to 2 months of double hosting.
What about Adobe Commerce (paid edition)?
Its license starts around 22,000 USD a year and grows with revenue; that is often the deciding argument for leaving.
Let's scope your project. Send us your store URL, online revenue and integrations: we price the migration, between 35,000 and 140,000 USD, with a 4 to 8-month plan and a detailed SEO plan. 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.
