Magento 2 Migration: Moving from Magento 1 to Magento 2
A Magento 2 migration moves a store from Magento 1 onto Magento 2. Your products, customers, orders and settings can be migrated with Adobe's Data Migration Tool, but your theme, custom code and extensions have to be rebuilt or replaced, because Magento 2 is a different platform. This page explains what the tool moves and what it doesn't, a version catch with Magento 2.4.9, the steps Adobe recommends, what drives the cost, and how to protect your Google rankings.
Two kinds of Magento migration
People use "Magento migration" for two different jobs:
- Platform migration: moving from Magento 1 to Magento 2. This is a rebuild of the front end and custom code, plus a data migration. Most of this page is about this.
- Host migration: moving an existing Magento 2 store to a new server or hosting company. The software stays the same; only the server changes. We cover this briefly below, and in full on our free Magento migration page.
Is Magento 1 still supported?
No. Adobe's security bulletin APSB20-41, published on 22 June 2020, said: "Support for Magento Commerce 1.14 and Magento Open Source 1 is ending in June 2020. This will be the final security patches available for these editions" (Adobe APSB20-41). The final patch was SUPEE-11346, for Magento Commerce 1.14.4.5 and Magento Open Source 1.9.4.5. The exact date, 30 June 2020, was reported by Help Net Security quoting Adobe, which also warned that merchants staying on Magento 1 have "increased responsibility for maintaining your site's security and PCI DSS compliance" (Help Net Security).
The risk is real. Three months after support ended, security firm Sansec reported a campaign it called Cardbleed that "has infected 2806 Magento1 stores so far (3% of total install base)" (Sansec, September 2020).
A community project, OpenMage LTS, still maintains a Magento 1 codebase with security patches. Its latest release at the time of writing was v20.18.0 on 4 May 2026 (OpenMage on GitHub). It is a community fork, not an Adobe product. For current Magento 2 support dates, see Magento end of life dates.
Why a Magento to Magento 2 migration is not an upgrade
You cannot upgrade Magento 1 to Magento 2 in place. Adobe's own documentation says that design files "changed its location and format", and that "developers must make changes to their themes and customizations" (Adobe: data that requires manual migration; Adobe: how data migration works).
In practice, a Magento to Magento 2 migration has three strands that run side by side: rebuilding the storefront on a Magento 2 theme, replacing or rebuilding each extension and customisation, and migrating the data.
Magento data migration: what Adobe's tool moves and what it doesn't
Adobe's Data Migration Tool works in three modes, run in order: settings, data, then delta, which picks up "changes since the last run, such as new customers and orders".
| Migrated by the tool | Not migrated: manual or rebuilt |
|---|---|
| System configuration and website settings | Media files: copied by hand from Magento 1's `media` folder to Magento 2's `pub/media`, without Magento 1's `.htaccess` |
| Products, categories, customers, orders and other database data | Themes and design: CSS, JavaScript, templates and layout files |
| Data in extension tables, where the structure matches | Custom code and extensions |
| Changes since the last run (delta mode) | Admin users and their access permissions |
| URL rewrites, using logic matched to your Magento 1 version | Web service API credentials (SOAP, XML-RPC and REST) |
Sources: Adobe: how data migration works, Adobe: manual migration, Adobe: technical specification.
Two limits are worth knowing. Tables or fields from Magento 1 extensions that don't exist in Magento 2 cause errors unless they are mapped or ignored in the tool's map files. And the supported sources are Magento Open Source 1.6 to 1.9, and Adobe Commerce 1.11 to 1.14 (Adobe: supported versions).
The Data Migration Tool and Magento 2.4.9
Adobe is explicit that "Versions of Magento and Data Migration Tool must match" (Adobe: install the Data Migration Tool). As of 11 October 2026, the latest release of the tool is 2.4.8.1, published on 3 June 2025, and there is no 2.4.9 release (Data Migration Tool releases). An open GitHub issue, raised on 8 July 2026, shows an install of the 2.4.9 version failing (issue #936).
What this means for planning: an official migration today lands on Magento 2.4.8. One planning option is to migrate to 2.4.8 and then upgrade to 2.4.9 as a separate step. That is our suggestion, not Adobe guidance, so check the tool's releases page before you start. For the upgrade itself, see Magento upgrades and security patching.
Migration from Magento 1 to Magento 2, step by step
Adobe's recommended plan has seven stages (Adobe: create a data migration plan):
- Review extensions. Decide whether you still need each one, and whether a Magento 2 version exists.
- Build and prepare Magento 2 on hardware that at least matches your Magento 1 system, with the Data Migration Tool installed. Do not start Magento 2 cron jobs, and do not create products, categories or attributes in Magento 2 before migrating, because the tool overwrites them.
- Dry run. "Copy your Magento 1 store to a staging server", migrate it fully, then test the new store.
- Start the migration. Stop most Magento 1 admin activity, pause cron, migrate settings and websites, copy media, bulk-copy the database, then reindex.
- Make changes if needed to the migrated catalogue, sales rules or CMS pages, with care.
- Run delta migration, so new orders and customers keep flowing across while you test.
- Go live. Downtime starts when you "Put your Magento 1 system in maintenance mode" and ends when you "Change DNS, load balancers, and so on to point to new production hardware".
How long it takes and what drives the cost
Adobe publishes no figures for how long a migration takes or what it costs. Published estimates come from agencies, so treat them as a sample rather than a survey.
In the UK-facing estimates we found on 10 October 2026, one agency put simpler migrations at about £5,000 to £8,000 and complex ones at £10,000 to £40,000 or more, with the data migration itself taking one to two weeks and custom development one to two months. Another UK estimator priced a custom theme at £3,400 and each Magento 1 customisation at £440, and stated that there is no fixed price.
The same drivers appear across every source:
- how much custom code and functionality you have;
- how many extensions need a Magento 2 equivalent or a rebuild;
- the theme, which has to be rebuilt;
- data volume and history, so clean out old data and logs first;
- integrations such as ERP and warehouse systems;
- order volume at go-live, which makes the cutover more delicate.
Magento 1 to Magento 2 migration with EveryHost
We carry out Magento 1 to Magento 2 migrations ourselves. Each one is a quoted project, not part of our free migration, because the work depends on your store:
- We migrate your data with Adobe's Data Migration Tool and set up the Magento 2 store on a supported 2.4 release.
- Theme and custom extension rebuilds are scoped in the quote, once we have reviewed your store.
- If you have a developer or agency, we work alongside them: they can take the theme and custom code while we handle the data, the server and the go-live.
If you are not ready to move yet, we can host Magento 1 or OpenMage while you plan, then migrate your data onto a supported 2.4 release. Talk to us about your Magento 1 to 2 migration.
Protecting your Google rankings during a Magento migration
URLs often change in a Magento 1 to Magento 2 migration, and Google's site-move guidance is clear on how to handle it (Google: site moves with URL changes):
- Map every old URL to its new one before you start redirecting.
- Use permanent server-side redirects (301 or 308), straight to the final page. Google advises "redirecting to the final destination directly", rather than through a chain.
- Keep redirects "for as long as possible, generally at least 1 year".
- Update the signals: self-referencing canonical tags, internal links and a new sitemap in Search Console.
- Expect some movement: Google says to "Expect temporary fluctuation in site ranking during the move."
Two Magento-specific steps help. Crawl the old site before migrating and compare it with the new one, rather than assuming the migrated URL rewrites match. And after launch, turn on "Create Permanent Redirect for URLs if URL Key Changed", so later edits to product or category URL keys create redirects automatically (Adobe: automatic redirects).
Moving a Magento 2 store to a new host
A host move keeps your URLs and your software, so it is a much smaller job. Google's guidance for a hosting change without URL changes covers the main steps (Google: hosting change):
- Build and test a copy on the new server, on a temporary hostname kept out of search with noindex.
- Lower the DNS TTL "to a conservative low value (for example, a few hours)" ahead of the move.
- In a quiet window, put the old store into maintenance mode, which returns "a 503 maintenance page" to visitors, and stop the queue consumers (Adobe: maintenance mode).
- Copy the final orders and media across, then update DNS to point at the new server.
- Reindex, clear caches and start cron on the new server only.
- Watch the server logs on both servers, and keep the old one until its traffic reaches zero.
For a consistent database copy, `mysqldump --single-transaction` "dumps the consistent state of the database at the time when START TRANSACTION was issued without blocking any applications", for InnoDB tables (MySQL 8.4 manual).
EveryHost moves Magento 2 stores to our servers free of charge, with minimum downtime, and most stores are live within 24 to 48 hours. We move your files, database, extensions, media, SSL and server configuration. A Magento 1 to Magento 2 platform migration is a separate project and is not part of free migration. See free Magento migration.
Pre-launch test checklist
Use this before any migration goes live:
- Home, category, product and CMS pages load over HTTPS on the new store
- Search returns results, with OpenSearch configured
- Add to basket, checkout and a test payment work for each payment method
- Order confirmation and password reset emails arrive
- Admin login, the order grid and saving a product all work
- Cron is running, and there are no "Reindex Required" messages
- Varnish or the full page cache is serving and clearing correctly
- Integrations such as ERP, feeds and payment webhooks reach the new server
- The SSL certificate is valid for every store domain
- noindex is removed from production, and robots.txt and the sitemap are correct
- Old URLs redirect to their new equivalents in one hop
Where to go next
For what a Magento 2 server needs, see Magento hosting and Magento 2 hosting. If you want help keeping the new store patched, see Magento support and maintenance. If you are weighing up hosting the new store on AWS, see Magento hosting on AWS vs managed UK hosting. See our managed Magento VPS plans, or our Magento hosting UK home page for the rest.
Frequently asked questions
Still on Magento 1?
We migrate your data, set up your Magento 2 store and work alongside your developer or agency. Every Magento 1 to 2 migration is quoted for your store.