Articles · Platform & Pricing
Leaving Shopify for Magento, BigCommerce or WooCommerce
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We build on Shopify, so this is an awkward article for us to write, and it is worth writing anyway. Most people who look up how to switch from Shopify have one specific problem, and a good share of those problems can be fixed without moving. The rest have a real reason to go, and they deserve a straight account of what the move takes.
First, check it is a platform problem
The complaints that start this search are usually a slow store, an app bill that crept up, transaction fees, or a build that fights every change. Only some of those belong to Shopify.
A slow store is almost always the theme and the apps running on it. The app bill is a set of decisions somebody made, and most stores carry a few apps doing nothing. A build that fights every change is a build problem, and it follows you to the next platform if the same approach goes with it.
If that list describes your store, a Shopify audit costs a fraction of a migration and answers the question first. If it does not, read on.
When leaving is the right call
The genuine reasons are specific: an in-house engineering team that already runs another stack, catalogue or pricing logic that no app covers and a custom build on Shopify would keep fighting, or a requirement to own the code and the hosting outright. Each of those points to a different platform, and our Shopify alternatives page covers which one.
Where people go, and what each move means
A Shopify to Magento migration is the move for a large catalogue and an engineering team that wants total control. Magento gives you the code, and with it most of the hosting, security patching and upgrade work that Shopify was doing for you. Budget for that as a permanent cost rather than a project cost, and see Shopify vs Magento for the full trade.
A Shopify to BigCommerce migration is the closest like-for-like move, because both are hosted platforms. You keep the hands-off infrastructure and change the feature set and the app ecosystem, so the work is mostly data, theme and apps. To migrate Shopify to BigCommerce well, list which of your current apps have a BigCommerce equivalent before anything else, and read Shopify vs BigCommerce for the rest.
A Shopify to WooCommerce migration moves you onto WordPress, which you host and maintain, and it suits a business whose content matters as much as its catalogue. Going from Shopify to WooCommerce swaps a monthly platform fee for hosting, plugins and somebody who keeps them updated. Shopify vs WooCommerce goes through it.
What comes with you, and what stays behind
You can export a Shopify store's records. The admin exports products, customers and orders as CSV files, and larger stores move the same records through the API or a migration tool. Collections, variants, images and blog posts all come across with some reshaping, because every platform structures them slightly differently.
What stays behind is the part people discover late.
- Customer passwords. Shopify does not export them, so every customer sets a new one on the new site, and the email that tells them needs planning.
- Shopify Payments and Shop Pay. Both only work on Shopify, so payments move to a new provider and returning customers lose their saved checkout.
- Apps, and the data inside them. Reviews, loyalty points, subscriptions and wishlists each live in an app with its own export, or with no export at all.
- Subscriptions in particular. Stored payment details are the hardest thing to move and sometimes cannot move, which means asking subscribers for their card again.
- The theme and anything built into it. None of it transfers, because the new front end is a new build.
URLs, and the traffic you already have
Shopify puts every product under /products/ and every
collection under /collections/, and the platform you move
to will not use that exact structure. So nearly every address changes,
and each one needs a permanent redirect to its closest match on the
new site, written before launch.
It is the same risk as a migration onto Shopify, and it fails the same quiet way: the top pages get mapped, the long tail does not, and months later the traffic that tail brought in has gone. Our Magento migration guide covers the redirect method, and it works in either direction.
What drives the cost
We are not going to put a number here, because the cost of leaving Shopify depends on four things, and the size of the store is not one of them on its own.
- Catalogue and data mess. A clean catalogue moves quickly, and a messy one gets reshaped by hand.
- App functionality to rebuild. Every app you rely on needs an equivalent, a replacement or a build on the new platform.
- Integrations. ERP, warehouse and accounting connections are each a small project, and they are the ones found late.
- URL count. Mapping is long rather than hard, and it grows with the site.
On Magento or WooCommerce there is a fifth cost that does not end at launch: hosting, and a developer to keep the platform patched. Shopify was including that in the monthly fee, and it is the line most budgets for leaving miss.
Our bias, declared
We only build on Shopify, so we do not take on migrations away from it, which is also why this page is not trying to talk you out of leaving. If the reason is fixable where you are, we would like to look at it. If it is not, choose an agency that builds on the platform you are moving to, and use the lists above to check their plan.
Leaving over something specific?
Tell us what is pushing you off Shopify. If it can be fixed where you are, we will say so and scope it. If it cannot, we will tell you that too.
Stores we build and grow
Common questions
Can I export my Shopify store?
The records, yes. Products, customers and orders export from the Shopify admin as CSV files, and larger stores move them through the API or a migration tool. What does not export is the theme, most app data and customer passwords, so those are the parts to plan for.
Will my customers need to reset their passwords?
Yes. Shopify does not export customer passwords, so every account on the new platform starts without one, and the reset email is worth sending before launch with a reason to come back attached.
Can I keep Shopify Payments after I leave?
No. Shopify Payments and Shop Pay only work on Shopify, so the new store needs its own payment provider, and returning customers lose their saved checkout details.
Is BigCommerce or Magento the better move?
They answer different problems: BigCommerce keeps the hosted, hands-off model and changes the features around it, while Magento hands you the code and the infrastructure that comes with it. If nobody on your team has the store as their full-time job, BigCommerce is the closer fit.
Do you migrate stores off Shopify?
No, we only build on Shopify. What we can do is tell you honestly whether the reason you are leaving can be fixed where you are, which is worth knowing before you commit to a migration either way.
If you are still deciding whether to leave, the alternatives hub links the comparison for each platform. If it turns out the move you want is onto Shopify instead, that is what our migration service does.