The verdict in three sentences
For a mid-market company with EUR 8M of online revenue, staying on Magento 2 costs about EUR 310,000 to 330,000 over 3 years in maintenance, hosting and upgrades, with no functional gain. Shopify Plus cuts maintenance by two to three times and suits you if catalogue and pricing rules stay standard, for EUR 50,000 to 90,000 of migration. Headless (Next.js front end + decoupled commerce engine) is justified by strong needs in performance, multi-brand or editorial content, for EUR 90,000 to 180,000 and a longer timeline.
Why Magento 2 becomes a cost centre
Magento Open Source remains powerful, but every upgrade (PHP, Elasticsearch or OpenSearch, quarterly security patches) requires a specialist agency whose day rate often exceeds EUR 650 in Lyon and EUR 700 to 900 in Berlin. Third-party extensions break with every update and Magento developers are getting scarce. The figures below come from a Lyon benchmark and transpose closely to a Berlin retailer.
| Annual item | Magento 2 (stay) | Shopify Plus | Headless (Next.js + open-source or SaaS engine) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Application maintenance | EUR 72,000 (6,000/month) | EUR 18,000 to 30,000 | EUR 30,000 to 50,000 |
| Hosting and managed services | EUR 18,000 | Included | EUR 8,000 to 15,000 |
| Licence or subscription | EUR 0 | EUR 28,000 to 33,000 (USD 2,300/month minimum, variable with revenue) | EUR 0 to 50,000 depending on engine |
| Extensions or apps | EUR 5,000 | EUR 10,000 to 15,000 | EUR 3,000 to 8,000 |
| Major upgrades | EUR 25,000 to 40,000 every 18 to 24 months | EUR 0 | EUR 5,000 to 10,000 |
| Average mobile performance score | 35 to 55 | 55 to 75 | 80 to 95 |
Total cost over 3 years and timelines
2026 estimates for a 6,000-product catalogue, 25,000 indexed URLs, a connected ERP and two markets.
| Item (3 years, EUR excl. VAT) | Stay on Magento | Shopify Plus migration | Headless migration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Migration project | 0 | 50,000 to 90,000 | 90,000 to 180,000 |
| SEO migration and redirect plan | 0 | 8,000 to 15,000 | 8,000 to 15,000 |
| Running costs (3 years) | 285,000 to 300,000 | 170,000 to 235,000 | 125,000 to 370,000 |
| Version upgrade | 25,000 to 40,000 | 0 | 0 to 10,000 |
| 3-year total | 310,000 to 340,000 | 228,000 to 340,000 | 223,000 to 575,000 |
| Project timeline | None | 4 to 5 months | 5 to 7 months |
| Vendor dependency | Low | High (Shopify) | Depends on engine |
The headless range depends on the engine: an open-source engine (Medusa, Sylius) has no licence, while a composable SaaS such as commercetools can exceed EUR 40,000 a year.
The 25,000 URLs: managing SEO risk
A poorly prepared migration loses 20% to 40% of organic traffic for 3 to 9 months. Done well, the dip is limited to 0% to 8% for 4 to 8 weeks.
| SEO step | Deliverable | Estimated effort |
|---|---|---|
| URL audit and export | List of 25,000 URLs with traffic and backlinks | 2 to 3 days |
| 301 redirect mapping | Old to new URL table, one by one for the top 2,000 | 4 to 6 days |
| Content and tag migration | Titles, descriptions, product structured data | 3 to 5 days |
| Staging QA | Full crawl, zero redirect chains | 2 days |
| Post-launch monitoring | Daily Search Console for 30 days, 404 fixes | 3 to 4 days |
Watch out with Shopify: its URLs force prefixes (/products/, /collections/), so mapping is required for 100% of pages.
Mini case study
Need a professional website?
Kolonell builds websites that attract clients, optimized for the Sénégalese market. Free quote in 2 minutes.
Julien, e-commerce director of a Lyon mid-market company selling professional kitchen equipment (the same profile as many Berlin retailers), makes EUR 8M online, 35% of it from organic search, i.e. EUR 2.8M. His Magento maintenance costs EUR 6,000 a month.
Migrating to Shopify Plus for EUR 75,000 plus EUR 12,000 of SEO work, he brings maintenance down to EUR 2,000 a month and pays about EUR 30,000 of annual subscription: a net saving of about EUR 31,000 a year before any conversion gain. The real stake lies elsewhere: a 20% SEO loss for 6 months would cost EUR 280,000 of revenue. The EUR 12,000 invested in the redirect plan is therefore 4% of the risk covered. With a 0.2-point mobile conversion gain from speed (from 1.6% to 1.8%), the project pays back in 18 to 22 months.
FAQ
Can we keep Magento and only rebuild the front end?
Yes, that is partial headless: a Next.js front end plugged into the Magento API, for EUR 60,000 to 110,000. You gain speed but keep Magento back-office maintenance, about EUR 3,000 to 4,000 a month.
Does Shopify Plus handle B2B and multiple countries?
Yes, with Shopify Markets for currencies and languages and native B2B features. Limits appear beyond 100 price lists or with complex product configurators, which cost EUR 10,000 to 30,000 of custom development.
How long must the site be frozen?
The feature freeze usually lasts 4 to 6 weeks before cutover. The cutover itself happens overnight, in 2 to 4 hours, with orders and customers from the last 24 hours synced.
What happens to customer accounts and passwords?
Accounts and order history are migrated, but passwords cannot be, for encryption reasons. Plan an email activation campaign: 40% to 60% of active customers reactivate within the first month.
When is the right time to migrate?
Between February and May, far from the fourth quarter that often concentrates 30% to 40% of annual revenue. Launching in September with no stabilisation margin is the riskiest scenario.
Let's scope your project. Share your URL volume, your ERP and your current maintenance budget: we will compare Shopify Plus and headless with 3-year cost, SEO plan and cutover schedule. 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.
