The verdict in three sentences
Staying on PrestaShop 1.6 in 2026 means paying every month in security holes, broken modules and lost conversions. For a 3,200-product catalogue and 800,000 EUR in revenue, Shopify is the most profitable choice if your business logic is standard, PrestaShop 8 makes sense if you want to keep control of hosting and modules, and a custom build only pays off for very specific B2B or logistics needs. In all three cases the real risk is not technical: it is carrying over URLs and reviews, which decides your organic traffic from month one.
Three priced options for a 3,200-product store
Take a typical marine equipment retailer, the kind found in Marseille or on the Toronto waterfront: life jackets, deck hardware, onboard electronics, with many variants (sizes, rope lengths, diameters). Here are the 2026 orders of magnitude for this profile (EUR, roughly 1.09 USD per EUR).
| Criterion | Shopify (Advanced) | PrestaShop 8 | Custom (Next.js + back office) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Migration budget | 15,000 to 35,000 EUR | 15,000 to 30,000 EUR | 60,000 EUR and up |
| Subscription or hosting | about 400 EUR/month | 80 to 250 EUR/month | 150 to 400 EUR/month |
| Transaction fees | 0.5 to 0.6% outside Shopify Payments | 0% (PSP fees only) | 0% (PSP fees only) |
| Realistic timeline | 8 to 10 weeks | 9 to 11 weeks | 5 to 7 months |
| Annual maintenance | 3,000 to 6,000 EUR | 6,000 to 12,000 EUR | 10,000 to 18,000 EUR |
| Functional freedom | medium (apps) | high (modules, code) | total |
| Vendor dependency | high | low | none |
The Shopify budget varies mostly with the number of apps to replace: product configurator, oversized parcel handling, trade pricing for sailing clubs. PrestaShop 8 is cheaper on licensing, but upgrading modules bought five years ago often means paying for them a second time.
SEO, reviews and data: where migrations fail
A botched migration loses 20 to 40% of organic traffic for three to six months. For a site with 800,000 EUR in revenue, 45% of it from Google, that means up to 60,000 EUR of lost sales. The items to lock down are well known.
| Item to migrate | Method | Estimated effort |
|---|---|---|
| Product and category URLs (about 3,600) | exhaustive 301 redirect map | 3 to 5 days |
| Customer reviews (about 2,400) | export then import into the review app or module | 1 to 2 days |
| Customer accounts and order history | CSV import, password reset | 2 to 3 days |
| Product pages and variants | migration script, sample checks | 5 to 8 days |
| Title and meta tags | identical carry-over then optimization | 2 to 4 days |
| Images (about 14,000) | WebP conversion, filenames kept | 1 to 2 days |
On Shopify the URL structure is fixed (/products/ and /collections/), so every old URL must be redirected, with no exceptions. On PrestaShop 8 the original URLs can be kept, which lowers the risk. Either way, plan daily Search Console monitoring for the four weeks after the switch.
How to decide based on your business
Three questions usually settle it. Do you have differentiated trade pricing (clubs, boatyards) with more than two discount levels? Does your logistics involve complex rules (oversized parcels, marina delivery, in-store pickup)? Can your in-house team maintain a PHP server?
If you answer no to all three, Shopify is the calmest choice. If you answer yes to the third only, PrestaShop 8 saves you the subscription and fees. Custom only becomes profitable if the first two answers are yes and your revenue exceeds 1.5 million EUR, the threshold where the conversion gain covers the extra investment.
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Marc runs a marine equipment store generating 800,000 EUR in revenue with a 1.1% conversion rate on PrestaShop 1.6. He picks a Shopify migration at 28,000 EUR, delivered in 10 weeks, with full carry-over of 3,600 URLs and 2,400 reviews.
After the migration, mobile load time drops from 5.8 s to 2.1 s and conversion rises to 1.4%. At constant traffic, that is 800,000 × (1.4 / 1.1 − 1), or about 218,000 EUR of extra annual revenue. With a 35% gross margin, the margin gain is about 76,000 EUR. After subtracting the subscription (4,800 EUR a year) and maintenance (5,000 EUR), the project pays back in under six months.
FAQ
How much does a PrestaShop 1.6 to Shopify migration cost in 2026?
For a store with 2,000 to 5,000 products, expect 15,000 to 35,000 EUR (about 16,000 to 38,000 USD) depending on apps and integrations. Add about 400 EUR a month for Shopify Advanced.
Will I lose my Google rankings?
Not if every old URL has a 301 redirect to its new page. A temporary 5 to 10% dip for two to four weeks is normal; a loss above 20% signals a redirect error.
Can we keep existing customer reviews?
Yes, PrestaShop review exports can be imported into the main Shopify review apps or a PrestaShop 8 module. Expect one to two days of work for about 2,500 reviews.
Why not simply upgrade to PrestaShop 8?
It is a credible option at 15,000 to 30,000 EUR, but most 1.6 modules and themes are incompatible. In practice it is a rebuild, with a 9 to 11 week timeline.
When does a custom build make sense?
Above 1.5 million EUR in revenue, or if you have complex B2B pricing and unusual logistics. Entry cost starts at 60,000 EUR for a 5 to 7 month project.
Let's scope your project. Send us your product count, current modules and target date: we price the Shopify, PrestaShop 8 or custom migration with a full redirect plan, from 15,000 EUR and 10 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.
