The verdict in three sentences
When a heavily customised Magento 2 costs EUR 4,000 a month in maintenance and blocks every upgrade, moving to Shopify Plus pays back in 2 to 3 years for a brand doing more than EUR 3M online. A realistic budget is EUR 40,000 to 120,000 for a 3 to 5 month project, plus a subscription of about USD 2,300 a month. The main risk is SEO: with an exhaustive 301 redirect plan, traffic loss stays between 0 and 15% and recovers in 2 to 4 months.
Why your Magento costs more than planned
A Magento 2 store with 40 to 80 extensions, a deeply modified theme and custom plugins becomes hard to upgrade. Every security patch needs manual testing, every new feature breaks an extension. It shows in the accounts: EUR 3,000 to 5,000 a month of maintenance, EUR 400 to 1,200 a month of dedicated hosting and shaky performance during sales peaks.
| Annual item (excl. VAT) | Customised Magento 2 | Shopify Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Licence / subscription | EUR 0 (Open Source; paid extensions EUR 3,000 to 8,000) | ~USD 27,600 (~EUR 25,500) |
| Hosting, CDN, security | EUR 5,000 to 15,000 | Included |
| Corrective maintenance and upgrades | EUR 36,000 to 60,000 | EUR 6,000 to 15,000 |
| Third-party apps | Included in extensions | EUR 6,000 to 18,000 |
| Transaction fees (Shopify Payments) | Depends on PSP, ~1.4% + EUR 0.25 | ~1.4 to 1.6% + EUR 0.25 depending on cards |
| Feature development | EUR 30,000 to 60,000 | EUR 20,000 to 40,000 |
| Total excl. transactions | EUR 74,000 to 143,000 | EUR 57,500 to 98,500 |
Figures are 2026 estimates for a brand doing EUR 5M online. Annual savings often land between EUR 15,000 and 45,000, before the conversion lift from a faster checkout (+0.2 to +0.5 points is common).
Migration cost and timeline
| Workstream | Scope | Budget (excl. VAT) | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Discovery and audit | Inventory of extensions, URLs, data, integrations | EUR 4,000 to 10,000 | 2 to 3 weeks |
| Theme and design | Custom or adapted Shopify theme, design system | EUR 12,000 to 40,000 | 6 to 10 weeks |
| Data migration | Products, variants, customers, order history, reviews | EUR 5,000 to 15,000 | 3 to 5 weeks |
| 301 redirects | Mapping 5,000 to 50,000 URLs, testing | EUR 3,000 to 12,000 | 2 to 4 weeks |
| Integrations | ERP, 3PL, CRM, marketing automation | EUR 8,000 to 30,000 | 4 to 8 weeks |
| QA and cutover | Testing, catalogue freeze, go-live, monitoring | EUR 4,000 to 13,000 | 2 to 3 weeks |
| Total | EUR 40,000 to 120,000 | 3 to 5 months |
Customer passwords cannot be migrated as is: plan an account activation campaign, which typically reactivates 30 to 50% in the first month.
Protecting SEO during cutover
Shopify enforces fixed URL structures (/products/, /collections/, /pages/), so every Magento URL changes. The rules that prevent damage: export every URL that received traffic or links over 24 months, map them one by one, keep title tags and meta descriptions, carry over category copy, then watch Search Console daily for 6 weeks. A rushed migration can cost 30 to 50% of organic traffic for 6 months.
Mini case study
Emma, head of ecommerce at a London fashion brand (EUR 6M online, 45% of traffic from organic), migrates from Magento 2 to Shopify Plus. Budget: EUR 85,000, 4 months. Annual cost before: EUR 118,000 excluding transactions. After: EUR 78,000. Savings: EUR 40,000 a year.
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Organic traffic dips 8% for 6 weeks then returns to baseline by month three. Conversion rate goes from 1.8% to 2.1%, roughly EUR 1,000,000 of extra annual revenue at equal traffic (an estimate to confirm over 12 months). Counting only running-cost savings, the migration pays back in just over 2 years.
FAQ
How much does a Magento to Shopify Plus migration cost in 2026?
Between EUR 40,000 and 120,000 depending on integrations and theme customisation, plus about USD 2,300 a month for Shopify Plus.
Will we lose SEO traffic?
With an exhaustive 301 plan and migrated content, the dip stays between 0 and 15% and recovers in 2 to 4 months. Without a serious plan, losses can exceed 30%.
Can we keep order history?
Yes, orders, customers and reviews migrate via the API. Only passwords must be recreated by customers, hence an activation campaign.
Is Shopify Plus right below EUR 3M revenue?
Often not: Shopify Advanced at about USD 400 a month is enough and cuts fixed costs by over EUR 20,000 a year.
How long does the project take?
Plan 3 to 5 months, and avoid going live less than 6 weeks before seasonal sales or Black Friday.
Let's scope your project. Send us your extension list, URL volume and integrations: we will price the migration between EUR 40,000 and 120,000 with an SEO plan and a 3 to 5 month 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.
