Magento 1 reached official end of life in June 2020, almost six years ago at the time of writing. The retailers who continued on Magento 1 past that date had reasons – successful operations, deferred replatform projects, business priorities that outweighed the security risk, or skepticism about migration ROI. Six years into the post-EOL period, the operational situation has evolved in ways that deserve direct assessment.
This article describes what is still running well, what is starting to break, and what specific operational risks have materialized for retailers continuing on Magento 1 in 2026. The framing is factual rather than fear-driven; the goal is to give retailers the information they need to make a clear-eyed decision rather than to push migration as a forgone conclusion.
What Is Still Running Reasonably Well
The core Magento 1 platform continues to function for transactional commerce. Storefronts that have stable infrastructure, controlled customizations, and disciplined operational practice can continue processing orders, managing catalogs, and serving customers. The platform’s stability characteristics are well-understood, and well-operated Magento 1 storefronts can produce reliable uptime.
The third-party security patch ecosystem has continued to provide partial coverage. Mage One maintains a commercial security patch service. OpenMage maintains a community-driven fork that includes security patches and limited feature updates. The combination addresses known critical vulnerabilities reasonably quickly, though not all vulnerabilities are addressed and the cadence varies.
The major payment integrations have remained functional for retailers who have invested in maintenance. PayPal, Stripe, Adyen, and most major gateways continue to work with Magento 1, though typically through custom maintenance work rather than vendor-supported integration libraries. The retailers who have stable in-house teams or stable agency relationships have generally kept these integrations operating.
Existing third-party extensions that were stable in 2020 are largely still stable in 2026, provided they have not required updates to keep working with current PHP versions or new business requirements. Extensions that have not changed since 2020 and that fit unchanged business needs continue to do what they did.
What Is Starting to Break
The PHP version situation is increasingly constrained. Magento 1.9 was designed for PHP 5.x and 7.0. PHP 7.4 reached end of life in November 2022. PHP 8.0 reached end of life in November 2023. PHP 8.1 reached end of life in December 2025. The supported PHP versions in 2026 are 8.2 and 8.3, and compatibility patches for Magento 1 on these versions exist but are not universal. Some extensions break. Some customizations break. The compatibility work is ongoing.
The infrastructure provider situation has evolved similarly. Some hosting providers have phased out support for the PHP versions Magento 1 was designed for. Others have continued support but at premium rates that reflect the operational complexity of maintaining legacy stack support. Cloud providers’ baseline images no longer include the older PHP versions, requiring custom builds or maintained legacy images. The infrastructure cost of running Magento 1 in 2026 is higher than it was in 2020, and the trend is upward.
The integration partner situation has deteriorated. Tax calculation providers (Avalara, TaxJar, Vertex) have shifted their primary support to Magento 2, with Magento 1 versions in maintenance mode or deprecated. Shipping providers (FedEx, UPS, USPS API integrations) have updated their APIs in ways that require integration library updates that Magento 1 versions may not have received. Inventory management and ERP integration libraries have similarly fallen behind. The result is that retailers with active integration needs encounter integration friction more often than they did in 2020.
The security patch gap is widening over time. The third-party patch services catch the major vulnerabilities but cannot catch every vulnerability that affects the platform’s dependencies. The cumulative gap between what Adobe would have patched and what the third-party services have patched continues to grow. Penetration testing on Magento 1 storefronts in 2026 typically surfaces vulnerabilities that have public exploits.
What Has Materialized as Real Incident Risk
Several patterns of real-world incident have emerged that affect Magento 1 storefronts disproportionately. The first is credit card skimming attacks (Magecart-style) that exploit known vulnerabilities in older Magento 1 components. The attacks have been documented across multiple retailers, and the recovery cost typically exceeds $100,000 in incident response, customer notification, regulatory implications, and remediation work, in addition to the brand damage.
The second pattern is data exfiltration attacks targeting customer PII. Magento 1’s data storage patterns and the accumulated extension code create surface area for SQL injection and authentication bypass attacks. The attacks may not produce immediately visible damage but result in customer data appearing on dark web marketplaces months later, with the retailer eventually receiving notification from law enforcement, security researchers, or affected customers.
The third pattern is operational disruption from compatibility breakage. PHP version upgrades break extensions. New integration partner API versions break connectors. Infrastructure provider changes break deployment processes. The operational team spends increasing time responding to compatibility incidents rather than building new value. The incidents do not produce headlines but accumulate as cost and team morale impact.
The fourth pattern is the slow loss of operational capability as team members move on. The institutional knowledge required to operate Magento 1 effectively in 2026 is held by a shrinking population of practitioners. New hires are not learning Magento 1. Existing experts are moving to Magento 2, Adobe Commerce, or other platforms. The team that operated the storefront in 2020 is not the team that operates it in 2026, and the knowledge transfer has been incomplete in many organizations.
The Compliance and Insurance Reality
The compliance landscape has shifted in ways that affect Magento 1 retailers. PCI DSS 4.0 introduced more stringent requirements that took effect in March 2025. Some of the new requirements (around authentication, encryption, and vulnerability management) are harder to satisfy on Magento 1 without compensating controls that introduce their own complexity. Retailers undergoing PCI assessments in 2026 increasingly find that Magento 1 compliance requires more documentation and more compensating controls than it did in 2020.
The cybersecurity insurance landscape has similarly shifted. Insurers increasingly exclude Magento 1 storefronts from standard coverage or require explicit risk acknowledgments. Premium increases for Magento 1 storefronts have been documented across the industry. Some insurers no longer cover Magento 1 at any premium level. The insurance situation has not yet forced migration decisions broadly, but it is a factor that increasing numbers of retailers are accounting for in their migration ROI calculations.
The state-level privacy regulation environment (CCPA, CPRA, Virginia, Colorado, and the growing patchwork of similar regulations) has produced compliance burden that is harder to satisfy on Magento 1 than on Magento 2. The data subject request workflows, the consent management infrastructure, and the audit trail requirements all have more mature support on Magento 2. Retailers operating in regulated states with significant customer bases face increasing operational friction on Magento 1.
| EOL Impact Area | 2020 Status | 2026 Status |
|---|---|---|
| Security patches | Adobe-supported | Third-party only, incomplete coverage |
| PHP version support | PHP 7.x current | PHP 8.2/8.3, Magento 1 compatibility patchy |
| Extension ecosystem | Active development | Maintenance mode or deprecated |
| Integration libraries | Vendor-supported | Maintenance work required |
| Hosting cost | Standard rates | Premium for legacy stack support |
| PCI compliance | Standard process | Requires more compensating controls |
| Cybersecurity insurance | Standard coverage | Exclusions or premium increases |
| Operational expertise | Broadly available | Shrinking practitioner population |
| Incident risk | Manageable with discipline | Documented Magecart, data exfiltration |
What Retailers Are Actually Doing
The pattern across mid-market retailers in 2026 falls into a few categories. The first is retailers who have completed migration during the 2020-2025 window – the majority of mid-market Magento 1 retailers have moved to Magento 2, Adobe Commerce, Shopify Plus, BigCommerce, or other platforms. These retailers have the operational situation behind them and are focused on optimizing their new platform.
The second is retailers actively executing migration in 2026, with vendor selected, plan documented, and timeline committed. These retailers have made the decision and are working through it. The execution typically takes six to fourteen months depending on complexity, and the retailers are now beyond the decision phase.
The third is retailers who have not made the decision and continue to defer. The deferrals usually come with a rationalization – “we have other priorities this year,” “we’re profitable on Magento 1,” “the third-party patches are good enough,” “we’re not in a regulated industry.” The rationalizations are sometimes correct in narrow terms but typically underweight the accumulating risk. These retailers are increasingly the minority of Magento 1 holdouts, and the operational situation continues to deteriorate around them.
The fourth is a small population of retailers who have deliberately decided to stay on Magento 1 indefinitely, usually because the storefront is in run-off mode, the business is winding down, or the retailer has accepted the risk profile explicitly with full awareness. This is a legitimate position but a shrinking one.
What to Do If You Are Still on Magento 1
The right move in 2026 for most retailers still on Magento 1 is to make a deliberate migration decision in the next quarter. The deliberation should include the platform decision (Magento 2 Open Source, Adobe Commerce, Shopify Plus, or another platform), the partner selection (the agency that will execute the migration), the timeline commitment (typically a six-to-fourteen-month engagement), and the budget commitment (typically $120,000 to $900,000 depending on complexity).
The decision should not be deferred another year on rationalizations that have been used in prior years. The structural risks have continued to accumulate. The operational situation has continued to deteriorate. The cost of waiting has continued to grow. The reasons that made deferral feel right in 2022 or 2023 are no longer accurate in 2026.
Bemeir’s Magento 1 to Magento 2 migration practice handles the deliberate migration scenario, with discovery designed to surface the actual complexity (custom modules, extensions, integrations, data) rather than producing a generic estimate. The discovery typically takes two to four weeks and produces a documented plan that the retailer can act on. For retailers whose business has evolved into territory where Shopify Plus fits better than Magento 2, the discovery includes that platform conversation rather than assuming Magento 2 is the answer.
For deeper reference on the Magento 1 EOL situation, the Adobe Commerce official EOL communications provide Adobe’s perspective, the Mage One security service and OpenMage community fork provide the third-party context, and the PCI Security Standards Council documentation provides the compliance reference. Industry analysis from Forrester on legacy commerce platforms provides broader strategic framing on the EOL situation across enterprise software categories.
