Key Takeaways
- Magento 1 reaches end of life June 30, 2020 — no security patches or official support after this date.
- Migration is closer to a new build than an upgrade — themes, extensions, and custom code must all be rebuilt or replaced for Magento 2.
- Product, customer, and order data can be migrated using Magento's official Data Migration Tool, though complex data structures may require custom migration scripts.
- Budget planning should cover four workstreams: theme development, extension research and replacement, data migration, and custom development.
- The migration timeline for a mid-complexity store is typically 3–6 months — merchants should begin planning in 2017 to allow time for discovery, development, and testing before the 2020 deadline.
Magento 1 merchants received clear news in late 2016: the platform will reach end of life on June 30, 2020. That means no more security patches, no more official support, and a platform that will be increasingly targeted by attackers aware that known vulnerabilities will no longer be fixed. The end-of-life date gives merchants three years to migrate — enough time for careful planning, but not enough to indefinitely defer the decision. The migration is substantial. Magento 2 is not Magento 1 with new features added; it is a ground-up rewrite of the platform, with a different architecture, different database schema, different extension framework, and different front-end theme system. Every component of a Magento 1 store must be assessed and re-implemented for Magento 2. This guide explains what the migration actually involves, what the major workstreams are, what merchants can realistically budget, and how to approach the project in a way that minimises risk to your live revenue.
Definition: Magento 2 Architecture vs Magento 1
Magento 2 introduced significant architectural changes from Magento 1: a new module system using dependency injection and service contracts rather than Magento 1's event/observer pattern; a new theme structure using the LESS/Knockout.js-based Luma framework and a new layout XML system; a different database schema with optimised indexing and dedicated tables for EAV attribute types; native support for Varnish cache, Redis, and Elasticsearch; and a rebuilt admin panel. These architectural changes deliver real performance and scalability improvements over Magento 1 but mean that Magento 1 themes, extensions, and customisations are not compatible with Magento 2 and must be rebuilt.
The Four Major Workstreams in a Magento 1 to 2 Migration
A Magento 1 to Magento 2 migration typically involves four parallel workstreams: theme development, extension audit and replacement, data migration, and custom module development.
The theme workstream is almost always the most visible and most time-consuming. Magento 2 uses a completely different front-end architecture from Magento 1 — LESS-based styling, Knockout.js for checkout components, and a new layout XML system. Your existing Magento 1 theme cannot be ported; it must be rebuilt. This is an opportunity to redesign and modernise the store's visual identity and UX, but it also means the front-end development scope is the same as building a new store from scratch. Most merchants use the migration as an opportunity to redesign — investing in UX improvements alongside the necessary rebuild.
Extension audit involves cataloguing every third-party extension installed on your Magento 1 store and determining whether a compatible Magento 2 version exists, whether an equivalent Magento 2 extension is available from a different vendor, or whether the functionality needs to be rebuilt as custom code. Many popular Magento 1 extensions have direct Magento 2 equivalents from the same vendor. Some Magento 1 extensions — particularly older ones from developers who have moved on — have no Magento 2 version and require finding an alternative or building from scratch. This audit should happen early in the migration planning process, as extension gaps can significantly affect timeline and budget.
Data migration uses Magento's official Data Migration Tool — an open-source command-line utility that transfers products, categories, customers, orders, and CMS content from the Magento 1 database schema to the Magento 2 schema. The tool handles standard Magento data structures reliably. Complex custom data — EAV attributes added by extensions, custom order attributes, non-standard data structures — may require custom migration scripts developed alongside the standard tool. Order history and customer accounts are typically the highest-priority migration data, as losing them would require rebuilding customer trust and manual support for historical order enquiries.
Realistic Timeline and Budget for Magento 2 Migration
A mid-complexity Magento 2 migration takes 3–6 months and costs $15,000–$80,000, with larger, more customised stores requiring longer timelines and higher budgets.
Migration projects typically run longer than initial estimates because extension gaps, data quality issues, and custom functionality requirements are discovered during the project rather than during initial scoping. Build a project timeline that includes a discovery phase (2–4 weeks to audit your existing store in detail, map all functionality, and assess extension availability), development phases for theme, extensions, and custom code, a parallel data migration and testing phase, and a pre-launch period for QA testing on a staging environment against a copy of production data.
Budget ranges vary significantly by store complexity. Straightforward stores — under 1,000 SKUs, minimal custom development, extensions available in M2 versions, basic theming requirements — can be migrated for $15,000–$30,000. Medium-complexity stores with multi-store setups, significant custom functionality, and more involved themes typically run $30,000–$80,000. Enterprise stores with B2B functionality, complex pricing rules, ERP integrations, and high-volume catalogue management can exceed $150,000. Underbudgeting a Magento migration and launching with incomplete QA or missing functionality is common and consistently results in expensive emergency development in the weeks after launch.
Merchants with significant revenue should prioritise launching with full functionality even if it means a longer development period — the cost of a broken checkout or missing B2B functionality on a live store that processes thousands of orders per week dwarfs any savings from rushing the launch. Plan for a parallel period during which the Magento 1 store remains live and the Magento 2 development and testing occurs in isolation, with a carefully managed cutover.
SEO Considerations for Magento 1 to Magento 2 Migration
A platform migration is one of the highest-risk events for an established site's search rankings — managing URL structure, redirects, and crawlability is essential to preserving the rankings you've built.
The first priority is URL mapping: document every product, category, and CMS page URL on your Magento 1 store and determine whether those URLs will change in the Magento 2 version. Magento 2 allows you to configure URL rewrites to match your existing structure, and in most cases matching your M1 URLs in M2 is preferable to accepting whatever M2 generates by default. Where URL changes are unavoidable, implement 301 redirects from old URLs to new ones — missing redirects mean losing the link equity and ranking history associated with those pages.
Run a comprehensive Search Console audit before the migration: download your current sitemap and crawl data, note your ranking pages and their current positions, and document which pages receive the most organic traffic. Use this as your benchmark. After migration, monitor Search Console daily for crawl errors, index coverage changes, and ranking fluctuations for 4–6 weeks. Ranking drops in the first 2–4 weeks after a correctly implemented migration are common and usually temporary — they reflect Google re-crawling and re-evaluating the new site. Drops that persist beyond 6 weeks indicate a technical SEO problem worth investigating.
Experience Signal
The Magento migrations I've been involved in that went smoothly shared a common characteristic: they started with a thorough discovery phase that identified every piece of custom functionality and mapped every extension against Magento 2 availability before any development began. The ones that struggled started development too quickly, discovered extension gaps mid-project, and ended up either extending the timeline or launching with missing features. Magento migration is one of the rare projects where investing in discovery up front — 2–4 weeks of auditing your existing installation before writing a line of code — consistently pays back more than it costs.
Frequently Asked Questions
It is functionally closer to a new build than an in-place upgrade. Magento 2 is a completely rewritten platform with a different database schema, theme architecture, and extension framework from Magento 1. There is no simple 'upgrade' path. Data migration (products, customers, orders, CMS content) can be automated using Magento's official Data Migration Tool, but the theme must be rebuilt from scratch, all extensions must be replaced with Magento 2 compatible versions (which may not exist for every Magento 1 extension you're using), and custom functionality must be rewritten using Magento 2's module system.
Migration cost depends heavily on store complexity, custom development scope, and the number of extensions that need replacing. A straightforward migration — small catalogue, minimal custom development, extensions available in Magento 2 versions — might cost $15,000–$30,000. A complex migration with significant custom functionality, a large SKU count, multiple storeviews, and B2B features can cost $50,000–$150,000 or more. Attempting to minimise cost by migrating with fewer resources and a shorter timeline consistently results in post-launch issues that cost more to fix than the savings achieved.
After June 30, 2020, Magento will no longer issue security patches for Magento 1. Running an unpatched Magento 1 store beyond that date means operating a known-vulnerability e-commerce environment that processes payment data. The risk is real and has precedent: Magento 1 has historically been targeted by payment skimming attacks, and the absence of patches after EOL will accelerate the exploitation of known vulnerabilities. Hosting providers may also begin refusing to support Magento 1 installations after EOL. Merchants who cannot complete migration by June 2020 should at minimum engage a Magento security specialist to apply available patches and harden the environment.
Sources
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Webnixon has delivered Magento migrations for merchants of all sizes — from straightforward catalogue stores to complex B2B implementations. Start with a discovery engagement to understand exactly what your migration involves before committing to a full project budget.
Book a Magento Migration DiscoveryAbout the author
Jai Paek
Creative Director
Jai leads brand identity and UX design at Webnixon, bringing 20+ years of experience building digital design systems for agencies and enterprise teams. He has shipped design systems and visual identities for over 200 brands across Canada and the US, with deep expertise in conversion-focused UI, WCAG 2.1 accessibility compliance, and responsive web design for service businesses and ecommerce brands.
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