How Much Does It Cost to Migrate from WooCommerce to Shopify? (2026 Guide)

Laptop showing visual of woocommerce vs shopify migration costs

If you are considering moving your e-commerce store from WooCommerce to Shopify, one of the first questions on your mind is likely: “How much will this cost?” The answer is not a single number. The cost to migrate from WooCommerce to Shopify can range from less than a hundred pounds to tens of thousands, depending entirely on your store’s complexity and the migration method you choose.

Understanding the investment is crucial for planning a successful transition. This guide will break down the factors that influence the woocommerce to shopify migration cost, explore the different migration options available, and help you understand why cutting corners on this process can cost you more in the long run. As a Shopify Partner with extensive experience in both WordPress and Shopify, we aim to provide clarity on what you should expect to budget for a seamless and successful migration.

What Affects Migration Cost

There is no “one-size-fits-all” price for a platform migration. The final cost is a direct reflection of the time and complexity involved. The more data, custom features, and design work required, the higher the investment.

Here are the primary factors that will determine your final quote:

  • Number of Products, Customers, and Orders: The sheer volume of data is the biggest cost driver. A store with 200 products and 1,000 orders is far simpler to migrate than one with 20,000 products and 500,000 orders. Large datasets require more time for exporting, cleaning, importing, and verifying.
  • Custom Fields and Data: Do you have custom fields on your WooCommerce products for things like technical specifications or wholesale information? Does your customer data include unique segments or notes? Migrating this non-standard data requires custom scripting and careful mapping, which adds to the cost.
  • Theme Complexity and Design: Are you happy with a standard Shopify theme, or do you require a highly customised design to match your existing brand? Replicating a complex, bespoke WooCommerce design on Shopify requires significant development time.
  • App and Functionality Replication: You will need to find Shopify app equivalents for your WooCommerce plugins (e.g., subscriptions, loyalty points, product builders). The cost will increase if these apps require complex setup and data integration.
  • SEO Preservation: A thorough SEO migration, including a comprehensive 301 redirect map for all URLs, is a meticulous process. While it adds to the upfront cost, it is essential for protecting your organic traffic and revenue.

Tool-Based Migration Costs

For store owners on a tight budget, automated migration tools like Cart2Cart or LitExtension seem like an attractive option. These services use software to transfer your data from one platform to another.

  • Typical Costs: The price is usually based on the amount of data you are moving. For a small store, this could be as low as £50 – £250. For a larger store with thousands of products and orders, the cost can rise to £500 or more.
  • Hidden Risks and Costs: This “tool-only” price is deceptive. It only covers the raw data transfer. It does not include:
    • Setting up and customising your Shopify theme.
    • Installing and configuring Shopify apps.
    • Creating the crucial 301 redirect map to preserve SEO.
    • Testing the site for bugs.
    • Cleaning the data before or after the migration.

You are responsible for all these critical tasks. If you lack the technical expertise, you could spend countless hours troubleshooting or end up with a broken, underperforming store.

Manual Migration Costs

A manual migration involves exporting data from WooCommerce into CSV files and then importing them into Shopify. This method is only feasible for the smallest of stores.

  • Typical Costs: The direct cost is your time. If you hire a freelance developer to do this, you might pay by the hour. Depending on their rate (£30 – £100+ per hour) and the size of your store, even a “simple” manual migration could cost £300 – £1,000+.
  • Risk of Errors: This approach carries the highest risk of human error. Incorrectly formatted CSV files can lead to jumbled data, missing product variants, and incomplete customer records. The time spent fixing these mistakes can quickly eclipse any initial savings. For any store with more than a handful of products, this method is not recommended.

Expert-Led Migration Costs

Hiring a Shopify agency or an experienced freelancer like SEO Tailor offers a comprehensive, “done-for-you” solution. This is the recommended approach for any serious business that relies on its online store for revenue.

  • What’s Included: An expert-led migration is a full-service project. It includes a dedicated project manager and covers every stage:
    • A full audit of your existing store.
    • Data cleaning and preparation.
    • Complete data migration (products, customers, orders).
    • Theme setup and customisation.
    • A comprehensive SEO migration with 301 redirects.
    • App installation and configuration.
    • Rigorous quality assurance testing.
    • Go-live support.
  • Typical Costs: The woocommerce to shopify migration cost for an expert-led project varies widely based on the factors mentioned earlier:
    • Small Stores (<500 products): £1,500 – £3,500
    • Medium Stores (500 – 5,000 products): £3,500 – £7,000
    • Large/Complex Stores (5,000+ products, custom features): £7,000 – £20,000+
  • Return on Investment (ROI): While the upfront cost is higher, the ROI is significant. You save dozens of hours of your own time, avoid costly mistakes, and ensure your business operations are not disrupted. The migration is done correctly the first time, protecting your revenue and SEO.

Cheap vs. Proper Migration: The True Cost

Opting for the cheapest migration path is a false economy. The potential consequences of a botched migration can be catastrophic for your business.

  • Long-Term SEO Impact: A cheap migration often skips the meticulous 301 redirect process. This results in broken links and “404 Not Found” errors, telling Google your content is gone. The subsequent drop in organic traffic can take months or even years to recover from, costing you far more in lost sales than a proper migration would have.
  • Customer Trust: If customers find that their order history is missing or their account no longer works, it erodes trust. A buggy checkout or broken product pages will send them straight to your competitors.
  • Conversion Rate: A properly migrated and designed Shopify store often leads to a higher conversion rate due to faster page speeds and a more streamlined checkout. A poorly executed migration can introduce friction and bugs that hurt your conversion rate, directly impacting your bottom line.

A proper, expert-led migration is not an expense; it is an investment in your business’s stability, scalability, and future growth.

How to Get an Accurate Quote

To get an accurate and reliable quote to migrate woocommerce to shopify, you need to provide your potential migration partner with detailed information about your store. Be prepared to share:

  1. The URL of your current WooCommerce store.
  2. The number of products, customers, and orders you need to migrate.
  3. A list of essential functionalities (from your current plugins) that must be replicated on Shopify.
  4. Your desired level of design work (e.g., using a standard theme or requiring heavy customisation).
  5. Your budget and desired timeline.

Providing this information will allow an expert to properly assess the scope of your project and give you a realistic estimate.

Ready to find out the specific cost for your project? We provide detailed, no-obligation quotes based on your unique needs to ensure a smooth and successful transition to Shopify.

Get a Custom Migration Estimate

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