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WooCommerce migration

WooCommerce to Shopify Plus migration

OUXP moves WooCommerce stores to Shopify Plus for brands that have outgrown running a store on WordPress – the hosting, the plugin updates and the security patching. We map every plugin to a Shopify app, a native feature or custom code, and move products, customers, orders and active subscriptions with their history. A 301 map covering every indexed URL is built to protect your search rankings.

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Reviewed by the OUXP engineering teamUpdated

Best for
Growing DTC and mid-market brands that have outgrown WordPress hosting and plugins
Timeline
3–⁠10 weeks, set mainly by plugins and custom code
Pricing
From $25,000, fixed before work starts
Blog and content
Moved to Shopify, or WordPress kept for content – your choice
Subscriptions
Active subscribers moved to Recharge, Skio or Shopify Subscriptions
Downtime
Minimal – WooCommerce keeps taking orders until the domain switch, and the final orders move across at launch
SEO preservation
Included in every migration
After launch
Retainer support, first response within 30–⁠60 minutes in business hours

Why teams move off WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a capable platform, and WordPress is still an excellent CMS. What wears growing stores down is the work of running a store on it – updates, conflicts, hosting and security – which grows with every plugin you add and every traffic peak you plan for.

  • 01

    Every update is a compatibility test

    WordPress core, WooCommerce, your theme and each plugin release updates on their own schedules. One update can break checkout, so updates get delayed – and delayed updates are a security risk.

  • 02

    Plugins are your security surface

    Patchstack’s 2026 State of WordPress Security report put 91% of the new WordPress vulnerabilities found in 2025 in plugins, and just 6 in WordPress core. Every plugin is code you must keep patched, and PCI compliance for the site is yours.

  • 03

    Checkout can’t be cached

    Cart, checkout and account pages bypass the page cache, so every shopper at checkout runs PHP and database queries on your server. Product launches and Black Friday are where that shows.

  • 04

    Hosting is your job

    Servers, PHP versions, caching, CDN, backups and staging are run by you, your developer or a managed host – and scaling for peak days has to be planned in advance.

  • 05

    Essentials need a plugin each

    Subscriptions, bundles, product options, currencies and wholesale pricing each come from a different vendor with its own license and support desk. When two plugins conflict, nobody owns the fix.

  • 06

    “Free” stops being free

    The software costs nothing; running it does. Hosting, premium plugin renewals, security services and developer hours add up to a monthly figure – total it before you compare platforms.

WooCommerce vs Shopify Plus: what changes for your team

The operational differences in one table. The full guide adds the “free platform” math, content trade-offs and when WooCommerce still wins.

WooCommerce vs Shopify Plus at a glance
CriteriaWooCommerceShopify Plus
What it isAn open-source plugin that turns WordPress into a storeA hosted commerce platform
Hosting and serversYou run it
Your host, your caching, your scaling plan		Included
Managed by Shopify
Platform and extension updatesManual
Core, theme and each plugin tested against the rest		Automatic
Shopify updates the platform; app vendors update their apps
Security and PCI complianceYours
Hardening, firewall, malware scans and PCI scope		Included
Shopify is a PCI DSS Level 1 platform
Peak trafficCapacity planning
Cart and checkout bypass the page cache		Handled by Shopify
No servers to scale
Checkout customizationFull code access
PHP hooks and templates, or the block checkout’s extension points		Extensible
Checkout Extensibility and Shopify Functions
Content and bloggingFull CMS
WordPress		Built in, simpler
Pages, blogs and metaobjects
Extensions and appsVia plugin
Installed into your WordPress codebase		Via app
Updated by each app’s vendor
Built-in AIVia plugin
Plugins and third-party services you connect and maintain		Built in
Shopify Magic, Sidekick and Agentic Storefronts, plus apps
Platform feeSoftware free; you pay for hosting, premium plugins and maintenanceFrom $2,300/month on a three-year term, or $2,500/month on a one-year term; high-volume stores move to a revenue-based variable fee

Broad comparison; details vary by project. Shopify pricing and platform facts as of October 2026.

Read the full WooCommerce vs Shopify Plus guide Compare all five platforms with Shopify Plus

When staying on WooCommerce is the right call

Stay on WooCommerce if content and publishing are the heart of the site and commerce is secondary, if someone in-house keeps WordPress patched and you want full control over hosting and costs, or if open-source customization is core to how you operate.

And not every store that leaves needs Shopify Plus: if a standard Shopify plan fits, the free migration assessment says so.

What moves to Shopify Plus – and what gets rebuilt

Data moves with its history. Plugins, theme code and page-builder layouts can’t transfer between platforms, so they are replaced or rebuilt. Discovery inventories every data type, plugin and integration, and you sign off the list before the build starts.

Migrated

  • Simple and variable products
  • Product categories as collections
  • Product tags
  • Attributes and custom fields
  • Images
  • Inventory
  • Customers and addresses
  • Order history, including guest orders
  • Coupons as discount codes
  • Product reviews
  • Active subscriptions
  • Blog posts and pages
  • SEO titles and descriptions
  • URLs as 301 redirects

Internal IDs don’t carry over between platforms; the relationships do – each order with its customer and products, each product with its variants and images. Old order numbers that support, finance or connected systems rely on are kept for reference.

Rebuilt or reconnected

  • Plugins, as apps or native features
  • Theme and page-builder layouts
  • Custom code in functions.php
  • Checkout fields and customizations
  • Pricing and discount rules
  • Payment gateways
  • Shipping rates and carriers
  • Tax setup
  • Search and filters
  • Email marketing flows
  • ERP, CRM and 3PL
  • Analytics and tracking pixels

Passwords can’t move – Shopify can’t read WordPress password hashes – and returning customers don’t need one: new Shopify stores use customer accounts, where people sign in with a one-time code emailed to the address on file. Your WooCommerce theme can’t run on Shopify either, so we recreate the current design, refresh it or redesign, as agreed in the quote.

Whether gift card balances, loyalty points, wishlists and other plugin-held data can move depends on what each plugin exports – discovery checks each one before we quote.

What replaces your WooCommerce plugins?

This is the main work in a WooCommerce migration. Every plugin is replaced by a Shopify app, rebuilt as custom code or retired because Shopify does the job natively – so the plugin list usually shrinks. These are the most common mappings; your full list is itemized during discovery.

Plugin mapping: what replaces what
On WooCommerceOn Shopify Plus
WooCommerce SubscriptionsRecharge, Skio or Shopify Subscriptions, with active subscribers migrated – how subscriptions move
Yoast SEO or Rank MathShopify’s built-in SEO fields, with titles and meta descriptions carried over; canonical tags set by Shopify, any custom canonicals you rely on rebuilt with a metafield, and structured data in the theme
Redirection plugin and existing redirect rulesShopify URL redirects, merged into the 301 map with chains flattened
Stripe, PayPal and other payment gateway pluginsShopify Payments with Shop Pay, Apple Pay and Google Pay, plus PayPal
Product Add-Ons and extra product optionsLine item properties in the theme, or a product options app
Product Bundles, Composite Products and grouped productsShopify Bundles, or a Cart Transform Function for custom bundle logic
Dynamic pricing and discount-rule pluginsShopify discounts, with rules they can’t express rebuilt as Shopify Functions
Wholesale and B2B pricing pluginsShopify B2B: company accounts, catalogs, volume pricing and payment terms
WPML, Polylang and currency switchersShopify Markets with Translate & Adapt or a translation app; local currencies through Shopify Payments
Table rate shipping plugins or ShipStationShopify shipping profiles and carrier-calculated rates; ShipStation’s Shopify integration
WooCommerce Tax, Avalara or TaxJarShopify Tax, or Avalara’s Shopify integration
Klaviyo or Mailchimp for WooCommerceKlaviyo or Mailchimp for Shopify, with flows re-triggered on Shopify events and segments checked so pre-launch orders still count
Gorgias, HubSpot and other helpdesk or CRM pluginsThe same vendors’ Shopify apps, with customer and order history reconnected
Native WooCommerce reviews or a reviews pluginJudge.me, Okendo or Yotpo, with reviews and ratings imported
Search plugins, including AlgoliaShopify Search & Discovery filters, or Algolia’s Shopify app
Advanced Custom FieldsMetafields and metaobjects
Elementor, Divi or WPBakeryShopify theme sections and templates your team edits in the theme editor
Security and caching plugins such as Wordfence or WP RocketRetired – Shopify runs hosting, security and caching
ERP connectors and custom API pluginsCeligo or custom Admin API middleware – see commerce integrations

Common mappings, not a fixed list. Apps and Shopify features as of October 2026; app subscriptions are billed by their vendors and are not part of the migration price.

Paste your plugin list into the assessment form. The free written assessment shows which plugins have a direct Shopify equivalent and which need a rebuild – within 2 business days, no store access needed.

Get a free migration assessment

What actually makes a WooCommerce migration hard

Getting data out of WooCommerce is the easy part – it is an open database. These four problems decide whether the project lands on time, so we scope each one before quoting – not halfway through the build.

  1. Business logic hides outside the plugin list

    How we solve it

    WooCommerce stores collect custom code over the years – snippets in the theme’s functions.php, code-snippet plugins and must-use plugins, hooked into pricing, shipping, checkout fields and emails – and none of it appears on the plugins screen. We read the codebase and list every hook that changes how the store behaves. For each one we decide, with your sign-off: a Shopify setting, an app, a Shopify Function, a custom app or retirement.

  2. Variable products don’t map one to one

    How we solve it

    WooCommerce allows any number of variation attributes, plus “Any” variations that cover every value in one row; Shopify allows up to 2,048 variants per product but only three options, and every variant must exist on its own. We expand “Any” variations into real variants, restructure products with more than three attributes, and move descriptive attributes and Advanced Custom Fields data into metafields and metaobjects. You approve the product model before any data moves.

  3. Your WordPress URLs don’t survive the move

    How we solve it

    WooCommerce paths such as /product/, /product-category/ and dated blog URLs like /2024/05/post-name/ can’t exist on Shopify, which uses fixed /products/, /collections/ and /blogs/ paths. We build a per-pattern 301 map from every indexed URL, fold in the redirects you already run in Yoast or the Redirection plugin so each old link makes one hop, and redirect high-value image and PDF links under /wp-content/uploads/. Titles and meta descriptions carry over, canonical tags are checked, and we monitor rankings through cutover.

  4. Your checkout customizations are rebuilt, not copied

    How we solve it

    On WooCommerce, checkout is code you control – PHP templates and hooks on the classic checkout, or extensions to the newer block checkout. On Shopify Plus you extend checkout instead: extra fields and content become checkout UI extensions, payment and delivery rules become Shopify Functions, and tracking moves to web pixels. We itemize every checkout field editor, checkout plugin and checkout hook at discovery, so the rebuild is priced up front.

What happens to your WordPress blog and content?

You decide where content lives after launch. For most commerce-led stores we move it into Shopify, so there is one platform to run; WordPress stays when content is a business in its own right.

  • Move it into Shopify

    Best when
    The blog supports your products and a small team publishes.
    What to know
    Posts become Shopify blog articles: one admin, one domain, nothing left to patch. Shopify’s blog is simpler than WordPress – tags instead of categories, no custom post types, basic comments.

  • Keep WordPress on a subdomain

    Best when
    You have a large archive, or an editorial team built around WordPress workflows and plugins.
    What to know
    Editors keep WordPress, but you still host and patch a smaller WordPress site. Content moves to a new hostname such as blog.yourstore.com, so every old post URL redirects there.

  • Keep WordPress as a headless CMS

    Best when
    Editors want WordPress, but content must live on the store’s domain.
    What to know
    Posts sync into Shopify through the WordPress REST API when they are published, or feed a headless storefront. One more integration to own and monitor.

Want the blog at yourstore.com/blog? That isn’t a standard Shopify setup: Shopify doesn’t support a reverse proxy in front of a store’s domain, so the dependable route is a headless storefront that serves the store and the blog together. It is a bigger build with more to run, so we recommend it only when the blog’s search traffic justifies it.

Whichever you choose, we handle

  • Posts move with authors, dates, featured images and SEO metadata.
  • Shortcodes and page-builder markup are cleaned out, so nothing shows up as raw [brackets] after launch.
  • Landing pages built in Elementor, Divi or WPBakery are rebuilt as theme sections your team can edit.
  • Images move to Shopify’s file storage, and links inside posts point straight at their new URLs – no redirect hops.
  • Every old post, page and category URL gets a 301 to its new home.

Decisions we make with you

  • Where content lives: Shopify, a WordPress subdomain or headless WordPress.
  • How categories map: tags on one Shopify blog, or several blogs.
  • Which thin or outdated posts to retire, each redirected to the closest relevant page instead of migrated.
  • Who publishes after launch, and in which tool.

Can WooCommerce Subscriptions move to Shopify?

Yes. Active subscribers move to Recharge, Skio or Shopify Subscriptions with their products, prices, billing intervals and next renewal dates. Two things decide how smooth it is: whether stored cards can move, and how renewals switch over from WooCommerce to the new app.

  • Stored cards move where the gateway allows

    WooCommerce Subscriptions doesn’t hold card numbers – your payment gateway does, usually Stripe. Saved cards from Stripe, Braintree and Authorize.net, and PayPal billing agreements, can be imported into Shopify, so most subscribers re-enter nothing; the old gateway account stays connected to charge those migrated subscriptions. Where a gateway can’t export, we plan a card-update campaign before launch.

  • Renewals switch over in one window

    WooCommerce runs renewals from its own scheduled-actions queue. At cutover we pause renewals there and switch them on in the new app in the same window, then check the first renewal run against the old schedule.

  • Legacy prices stay legacy

    Grandfathered prices, subscriber discounts and unusual billing intervals are kept per subscriber, never reset to today’s price list.

  • Subscribers know what changed

    Customers get a new portal to skip, swap or cancel. We time the “your subscription has moved” email and test the first sign-in, so your support inbox doesn’t take the hit.

Which app? Shopify Subscriptions, Shopify’s own free app, suits straightforward subscribe-and-save programs. Recharge and Skio add deeper customer-portal, bundling and retention options for subscription-led brands. We recommend one after reading your current setup; app fees are billed by the vendor.

How long does a WooCommerce migration take?

3–⁠10 weeks. Where your store lands depends on what it does – plugins, custom code, subscriptions and content – more than on how many products it sells.

What moves a WooCommerce migration toward each end of the range
DriverCloser to 3 weeksCloser to 10 weeks
Plugins and custom codeA standard plugin stack with direct Shopify equivalentsCustom plugins, functions.php logic and checkout code to rebuild
Product modelSimple products, or variations within three optionsMany variation attributes, “Any” variations and custom-field data to restructure
SubscriptionsNone, or a small programActive WooCommerce Subscriptions to move with stored cards
ContentA modest blog moving into ShopifyA large archive, page-builder landing pages or a headless WordPress setup
IntegrationsEmail, shipping and tax appsERP, 3PL or custom API connections
DesignYour current design recreated as a Shopify themeA full redesign

What does a WooCommerce migration cost?

Typically $25,000–⁠$60,000. A store that fits the “closer to 3 weeks” column above starts near $25,000, and each item in the “closer to 10 weeks” column adds to the price. The free assessment gives your band, and the price is fixed in writing before work starts.

  • Billed separately by Shopify and each app’s vendor: the Shopify Plus subscription (from $2,300/month on a three-year term or $2,500/month on a one-year term, as of October 2026) and app subscriptions.
  • Staying on a payment gateway other than Shopify Payments adds a Shopify transaction fee (currently reported as 0.20%) on top of your processor’s fees – count it when you compare.
  • SEO preservation – URL map, 301s, metadata, structured data and post-launch monitoring – is always included.
  • Compare both sides of the bill: what you stop paying (hosting, premium plugin renewals, security services, update hours) against what you start paying (Shopify Plus and apps).
Find your band: free migration assessment What drives migration cost – the full guide What Shopify Plus costs to run

How a WooCommerce migration runs

Seven steps, each with an output you check before the next one starts. Your team’s time goes mainly into approving the maps, reviewing the build and signing off the launch rehearsal.

  1. 1

    Discovery

    Inventory plugins, custom code, data, content, integrations, URLs and the behaviors your business relies on.

    Output: written inventory and plan

  2. 2

    Mapping

    Decide where everything goes: plugin map, product model, content plan and 301 map.

    Output: maps you approve

  3. 3

    Build

    Theme, apps, Shopify Functions, checkout extensions and integrations, in a separate development store.

    Output: a working store to review

  4. 4

    Pilot and reconcile

    Import a representative sample, compare counts, totals and links with WooCommerce, then fix and repeat.

    Output: reconciliation report

  5. 5

    QA and launch rehearsal

    Test functionality, checkout, apps, integrations, SEO and page speed, take your team’s sign-off, then run the cutover end to end: redirects, payments, order flow and the subscription renewal switch.

    Output: QA sign-off, tested cutover and rollback plan

  6. 6

    Launch

    Freeze changes, import the final delta of orders, customers and subscriptions, switch the domain and verify checkout.

    Output: live store, verified

  7. 7

    Monitor and optimize

    Watch orders, renewals, errors, rankings and Core Web Vitals, tune speed and conversion, then hand over to your team or to an OUXP retainer and maintenance plan.

    Output: handover

Why OUXP for your WooCommerce migration

  • Commerce engineers since 2011

    We have built on WooCommerce and WordPress as well as Shopify Plus, so we read your plugins, hooks and snippets before we map them – including the logic that never shows in a plugin list.

    15+ years · 300+ projects delivered

  • Priced from your code, not your product count

    Plugins, functions.php snippets, subscriptions and content are inventoried before we quote, so the price and timeline cover what your store actually does.

    Fixed before work starts

  • AI-accelerated, senior-reviewed

    AI tooling shortens the slow parts of a migration. A senior engineer reviews every AI-assisted change before it reaches your store.

    Used for data mapping, test suites, code review and QA

  • Performance first

    We optimize every migration for speed, Core Web Vitals, SEO and conversions. Page speed is tested in the launch rehearsal, and Core Web Vitals are tracked after launch.

    SEO preservation always included

  • Subscription fixes others struggled with

    “…resolved the challenge that we were having with Recharge in a day - where other developers seemed to struggle to provide a resolution.”

    Small Beer, via Shopify Partner Directory (external site)

  • Support after launch

    Retainers from $2,500 a month, month-to-month with 30 days’ notice, cover fixes and ongoing Shopify Plus development after launch, with an optional 24/7 emergency add-on.

    First response within 30–⁠60 minutes in business hours

Migration and subscription work, in clients’ words

  • Rated 5 out of 5

    “OUXP was highly communicative and quick to respond. Store migration is successfully done by a top-notch team on Shopify. They met the requirements and provided high-quality work, just as requested.”

    Lordstown Motorsvia Shopify Partner Directory (external site)Store migration

  • Rated 5 out of 5

    “Implemented a recharge shopify checkout conversion and I could not be happier with how smooth everything went.”

    FANGORIAvia Shopify Partner Directory (external site)Apps & integrations
Read more client reviews See all work

Where does your store sit in the 3–⁠10 week range, and what will it cost? Get a free written answer in 2 business days – no store access needed.

Get a free migration assessment

WooCommerce migration questions

Something else on your mind? Ask an engineer – first response within 30–⁠60 minutes in business hours.

What happens to our WordPress blog when we migrate?

You choose where it goes. You can move posts into Shopify’s blog, keep WordPress on a subdomain such as blog.yourstore.com, or keep WordPress as a headless CMS whose posts sync onto your store’s domain. Most commerce-led stores move the blog into Shopify so there is one platform to run; WordPress stays when content is a business of its own. Every option includes 301 redirects for old post URLs and carries over titles and meta descriptions.

How do you replace our WooCommerce plugins and custom code?

WordPress plugins can’t run on Shopify, so each one is mapped during discovery: to a Shopify app, a native Shopify feature, custom code such as a Shopify Function, or retirement. Security, caching and many SEO plugins simply go away, because Shopify handles that work. The plugin list usually shrinks, custom code in functions.php is mapped the same way, and you approve the full map before the build starts.

Can WooCommerce Subscriptions move without customers re-entering their cards?

Usually, yes. Subscribers move to Recharge, Skio or Shopify Subscriptions with their products, prices, intervals and next renewal dates. Stored cards live in your payment gateway, not in WooCommerce, and Shopify can import them from Stripe, Braintree and Authorize.net, plus PayPal billing agreements; the old gateway stays connected to charge them. Where a gateway can’t export cards, we run a card-update campaign before launch. Renewals are paused on WooCommerce before they start in the new app, so no renewal runs on both systems.

How long does a WooCommerce to Shopify Plus migration take?

3–⁠10 weeks. A store with a standard plugin stack, simple products and a modest blog sits near 3 weeks. Custom plugins and functions.php logic, products with many variation attributes, active subscriptions, a large WordPress content estate, ERP integration or a full redesign push it toward 10. The free migration assessment places your store in that range, and a fixed timeline with milestones is agreed before work starts.

How much does a WooCommerce to Shopify Plus migration cost?

Most WooCommerce migrations cost $25,000–⁠$60,000. A store with a standard plugin stack, simple products and a modest blog starts near $25,000; custom code, subscriptions, product restructuring, integrations and design scope move the price more than catalog size does. A free assessment gives you a cost band, and the price is fixed in writing before work starts, with SEO preservation always included. Shopify Plus itself starts at $2,300 a month on a three-year term, as of October 2026.

How do you protect our search rankings during the migration?

With a per-pattern 301 map and checks before and after launch, though nobody can honestly promise rankings won’t move at all. Product, category and blog URLs all change on Shopify, so we build the map from your full URL set, merge the redirects you already run in Yoast or the Redirection plugin, carry over titles and meta descriptions, check canonical tags, rebuild structured data and monitor rankings and crawl errors after launch. SEO preservation is part of every migration, never an add-on.

Can customer accounts and passwords be migrated from WooCommerce?

Customer accounts, addresses and order history move, and guest orders are linked to customers by email. Passwords can’t: Shopify can’t read WordPress password hashes. Customers don’t need them either. A new Shopify store uses Shopify’s customer accounts, so returning customers sign in with a one-time code sent by email – no password to reset and no activation invite to send. WordPress users who aren’t customers, such as editors and authors, are left behind.

What happens on launch day when we leave WooCommerce?

Your store is offline only briefly. WooCommerce keeps taking orders while the Shopify store is built and the cutover is rehearsed end to end, including the subscription renewal switch and a rollback plan. On launch day we freeze changes, import the final orders, customers and subscriptions, switch the domain and verify checkout – the same steps already tested in the rehearsal.

Ready to move off WooCommerce?

Send your store URL and current setup. Within 2 business days an engineer sends a free written assessment: platform verdict, timeline band, cost band and the risks specific to your store – yours to keep whether or not you hire us.

Get a free migration assessment Talk to an engineer