Switching from PrestaShop to Magento: process and risks

1. Why merchants switch from PrestaShop to Magento

Like Magento, PrestaShop is open source software that you can host and adapt yourself. The entry is easy, and there are many themes and modules. Whoever grows notices, however, that the quality of the modules varies strongly and that some extensions do not get along well. Maintenance and updates then become effort.

In addition there is the path between major versions: the jump from older versions to newer ones is often a rebuild with PrestaShop because themes and modules do not simply move along. Whoever has to rebuild anyway therefore also considers another system vendor. Further reasons are B2B requirements, several warehouses and a close connection to merchandise management.

Magento offers a large international extension market and a broad developer community for this. Whether that is decisive for you depends on what you miss today.

2. When the switch from PrestaShop to Magento pays off and when not

The switch pays off if your shop is growing and you reach limits with modules, updates or B2B, or if a rebuild is due anyway. It does not pay off if PrestaShop runs reliably and meets your requirements. Then Magento is more effort than your business needs.

Check honestly whether the problems lie in the system or in single modules, in hosting or in care. Often part of them can be fixed without a change of system.

3. Which data comes along from PrestaShop to Magento

In the admin PrestaShop offers an export for many data types and a programming interface, the so-called web service. In addition the data lies in the database, whose tables usually carry a common prefix. Which structure your shop has depends on version and modules, so we begin with an analysis.

A clean-up before the transfer is worthwhile: discontinued articles, duplicate categories and customers without an order, as far as legally and commercially appropriate. This speeds up the test migration and makes the new shop clearer.

4. SEO and addresses when switching from PrestaShop to Magento

PrestaShop addresses often contain the numeric ID of the product or category followed by the name. That eases the assignment: the matching product in the new shop can be found from the ID, and the old address is redirected to the new one by a 301 redirect.

In the move from PrestaShop to Magento you also check titles, meta descriptions, structured data, sitemaps and canonical tags. These values must be present again in the new shop. What we do for this is described on the page on SEO optimization.

With multilingual shops pay attention to the language versions and their linking, because errors happen quickly there during the rebuild.

5. Modules and functions: what becomes of them in Magento

PrestaShop shops often contain many modules for payment, shipping, invoices, product feeds and marketing. In the switch you go through each one: is it still needed? Is there a basic function, a module or an individual development in Magento for it? Usually it turns out that some modules are legacy.

We implement the frontend with Hyvä, see Hyvä theme. For the connection to merchandise management and shipping read the guide to ERP integration, for B2B functions the guide to the [B2B shop](b2bshop).

A tip from practice: define early which functions must run on day one and which may follow later. Payment, shipping and legal texts are mandatory, additional functions such as wish lists or comparisons can follow. This keeps the move from PrestaShop to Magento manageable.

6. The process: how you switch from PrestaShop to Magento

A switch from PrestaShop to Magento runs in five steps. First the inventory: which products, customers, orders and content exist, which functions do you really use and which addresses bring visitors? Then the test migration, in which part of the data is transferred and checked. After that the build of the shop with design, payment methods, shipping and legal texts.

In the fourth step you check the shop with us on a test system that search engines cannot see and place trial orders. In the fifth step the switch happens: the data is compared one last time, the redirects are activated and the domain is pointed to the new shop. In the first weeks afterwards we check errors and rankings. You keep the previous shop for a while until everything runs safely.

How you protect your ranking in the process is described in the guide to shop relaunch without SEO loss.

7. Effort and costs when switching from PrestaShop

When moving from PrestaShop to Magento the effort depends above all on the number of combinations, the data quality, the number of languages and the modules that have to be replaced. A well kept shop with clear data is transferred much faster than one that has grown historically.

A flat figure would be unreliable. After the inventory we estimate in writing, the hourly rate is 30 euros net, see pricing. General hints on costs are in the guide Magento costs.

8. How we support you with the switch

We are a web agency in which fixed freelancers work together, all from home offices. We take over the data migration, build the shop with the fast Hyvä frontend and take care of redirects and start. Source code and access stay with you, and ongoing care can be regulated through a maintenance contract.

This guide gives general orientation and does not replace a check of your shop. For a first conversation a short message through our contact page is enough.

9. Summary

The switch from PrestaShop to Magento pays off if growth, modules and requirements lead to limits or a rebuild is due anyway. Products, customers, orders and images can be taken over, with 301 redirects the ranking is largely kept.

Note: This article offers general orientation. Statements about PrestaShop can change with new versions, check them in the individual case.

10. FAQ on switching from PrestaShop to Magento