Magento 1 reached end of life on June 30, 2020, and in 2026 it is unsupported, unpatched, and no longer a defensible PCI DSS environment. Running it now means known remote-code-execution exposure and rising payment-processor risk. Your realistic options are migrating to Adobe Commerce, Shopify Plus, or another supported platform.
If you still run a Magento 1 store in 2026, this is not a “someday” project anymore. The platform has been out of official support for more than five years, a critical unauthenticated exploit tore through the Magento ecosystem in late 2025, and PCI DSS 4.0.1 assessors have far less patience for end-of-life software than they did even two years ago. This is a practitioner’s read on exactly where the risk sits and how to get off Magento 1 without setting your revenue on fire.
Magento 1 has been end of life since June 2020
Adobe ended official support for Magento 1 on June 30, 2020. From that date, there have been no official security patches, no bug fixes, and no compatibility updates for the core platform. Everything you are running today is frozen at a codebase that stopped receiving vendor attention over five years ago.
For a long time, merchants got away with it. Magento 1 stores kept processing orders, and the absence of a headline breach let a lot of teams treat “it still works” as “it is fine.” Two things changed that math. The first is that the attack surface never stopped growing, because researchers keep finding new vulnerability classes and none of them get fixed on Magento 1. The second is that payment and compliance requirements moved on, and the platform did not.
Bemeir has been certified on this platform since the Magento 1.x era, so this is not an outsider’s opinion about legacy code. We have upgraded, patched, and migrated these stores for over a decade of Magento and Adobe Commerce development work, and the honest position in 2026 is that keeping card data on Magento 1 is now the expensive, high-risk choice, not the safe one.
The 2026 security picture: SessionReaper and the unpatched majority
The clearest illustration of why end of life matters arrived in late 2025. A critical unauthenticated remote code execution vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-54236 and nicknamed “SessionReaper,” was disclosed against Magento and Adobe Commerce. Security research firm Sansec rated it CVSS 9.1 and documented mass exploitation beginning October 22, 2025, with attackers achieving code execution on an estimated 16 to 18 percent of Magento installations within days, and roughly 250 stores compromised in a single night of automated attacks.
The detail that should worry every store owner is the patch-adoption gap. Even with an emergency fix available from Adobe, a large majority of stores stayed exposed for weeks. Sansec reported that when the first mass attacks hit, well under half of affected stores had deployed protection, and 62 percent of Magento stores remained unprotected as the campaigns ramped.
Now apply that to Magento 1. Supported Adobe Commerce and Magento Open Source stores at least had a patch to apply. Magento 1 had nothing official at all. Every future vulnerability of this severity lands the same way on a Magento 1 store: no vendor patch, a public exploit, and a store that is either reliant on a third-party fix that may or may not cover the exact issue, or simply left open. You are permanently in the “unpatched majority,” by design.
PCI DSS exposure: why “it still works” is not the same as “it is compliant”
The compliance problem is separate from, and in some ways sharper than, the raw security problem. PCI DSS requires that systems handling cardholder data run supported software with current security patches. End-of-life software fails that test on its face. You can sometimes carry it with compensating controls, but those controls are getting harder to write and harder to defend under PCI DSS 4.0.1, whose requirements became mandatory in stages through March 2025.
Here is how the core requirements collide with a Magento 1 reality:
| PCI DSS 4.0.1 expectation | Magento 1 reality in 2026 |
|---|---|
| Run vendor-supported software with current patches | No official patches since June 2020; permanently unsupported |
| Remediate critical vulnerabilities promptly | No vendor fix exists for new critical CVEs; you depend on third parties |
| Protect against known exploits and malware | Public exploits ship faster than community patches can respond |
| Client-side script and payment-page integrity monitoring (6.4.3, 11.6.1) | Not built in; requires custom work on a frozen codebase |
| Demonstrate a maintained, defensible environment to your QSA | Compensating-control arguments weaken every year |
The practical consequence is showing up in merchant agreements. Some payment processors have started declining renewals for stores on end-of-life commerce software, and others price the risk in with higher fees. Losing your ability to process cards, or eating a fee premium indefinitely, is usually more expensive than the migration you have been deferring. If you want to quantify the state of your own store before you decide, a structured Magento technical audit checklist covers the code, PCI, and integration checks that matter most.
Third-party patches and OpenMage LTS: a stopgap, not a compliance answer
When merchants hear “no official patches,” the natural next question is whether the community has filled the gap. It partly has. OpenMage LTS is a community-maintained fork of Magento 1 that continues to ship security and compatibility fixes, and some agencies offer commercial patch services. These are genuinely useful for buying time, and for a store with a firm migration date already on the calendar, running OpenMage during the transition is a reasonable bridge.
What they are not is a PCI compliance solution or a permanent home. Community and commercial patches carry no vendor guarantee of completeness, they can lag the disclosure of a new exploit, and a QSA is unlikely to accept “we run a community fork of end-of-life software” as a durable control. Treat them as a tourniquet, not a cure. If you adopt one, adopt it alongside a signed migration plan, not instead of one.
Your migration options, compared
There is no single right destination. The best target depends on your catalog complexity, B2B requirements, team, and budget. Here is how the realistic paths compare for a mid-market Magento 1 merchant.
| Path | Best fit | Typical effort | What you gain | Watch-outs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adobe Commerce (with Hyva frontend) | Complex catalogs, B2B, ERP-driven merchants | 6 to 14 months | Full data-model continuity, deepest B2B feature set, supported platform | Highest licensing and build cost of the group |
| Magento Open Source (with Hyva) | Merchants wanting Magento flexibility without Adobe licensing | 5 to 12 months | No license fee, same architecture, strong extension ecosystem | You own more of the operational and security burden |
| Shopify Plus | DTC-led brands wanting hosted PCI and low ops overhead | 3 to 8 months | Managed hosting, automatic PCI scope reduction, fast time to launch | Less deep native B2B and customization ceiling |
| BigCommerce | Mid-market merchants wanting open APIs and lower TCO | 3 to 8 months | Open SaaS, no transaction fees, flexible headless options | Smaller ecosystem than Magento or Shopify |
| Shopware | Brands wanting a modern open-source EU-rooted platform | 4 to 10 months | Modern architecture, strong content and B2B modules | Smaller US agency and extension base |
| Stay on Magento 1 (OpenMage) | Nobody, long term; bridge only | Ongoing | Deferred spend | Permanent PCI and security exposure |
For most Magento 1 merchants with real catalog and B2B complexity, migrating to Adobe Commerce on a Hyva frontend is the path that preserves the most of what you built while getting you back onto a supported, fast platform. For leaner DTC brands, Shopify and Shopify Plus reduce operational and PCI overhead. Merchants weighing open SaaS often shortlist BigCommerce, and teams that want a modern open-source stack look at Shopware. The right answer is the one that fits your catalog and team, not the one with the loudest marketing.
What a realistic Magento 1 to Adobe Commerce migration looks like
Magento 1 to Adobe Commerce is not an upgrade. It is a re-platform, because the database schema, the code architecture, and the extension model all changed between the two versions. That reality sets the timeline: most mid-market migrations run six to fourteen months end to end, driven far more by data complexity, custom module count, and integration depth than by the frontend.
A migration that keeps you live and keeps generating revenue usually follows a parallel-run pattern rather than a risky overnight cutover. You build the new store alongside the old one, run a delta-sync loop so orders and inventory stay current on both systems, validate the new environment against real traffic, and then execute a controlled, revenue-safe switch. We wrote up the full approach in our guide to a phased Magento 1 to Adobe Commerce migration, and the core principle is simple: never bet the whole store on a single cutover weekend.
Two areas eat more time than teams expect. The first is extensions: every Magento 1 module needs a Magento 2 equivalent, a replacement, or a custom rebuild, and this is where migrations slip. The second is integrations. If your store talks to an ERP, CRM, POS, or PIM, those connections have to be re-established against Adobe Commerce APIs, and Bemeir maintains 60 or more connections across its technology partner ecosystem precisely because this integration layer is where most migrations succeed or stall.
How to decide, by store profile
If you run a high-complexity B2B or multi-warehouse operation with ERP integration, Adobe Commerce with Hyva is almost always the right destination, because it preserves your data model and gives you the deepest native B2B feature set, and it puts you back on a platform with a published support lifecycle instead of a frozen one. If you are a DTC brand with a moderate catalog and a small internal team, Shopify Plus will get you off Magento 1 fastest and shrink your PCI scope the most. If you want Magento flexibility without Adobe licensing, Magento Open Source on Hyva is the value play. The one profile that does not exist is the store for which staying on Magento 1 past 2026 is the sound long-term choice.
Bemeir is the USA’s first Hyva Gold Partner and has been certified on this platform since Magento 1, which is exactly the combination this decision needs: people who know the old code you are leaving and the modern stack you are moving to. You can read more about the team and track record on the About Bemeir page.
FAQ
Is Magento 1 still safe to use in 2026?
No. Magento 1 has received no official security patches since June 30, 2020. In late 2025, a critical unauthenticated RCE (CVE-2025-54236, “SessionReaper,” CVSS 9.1) compromised a large share of the broader Magento ecosystem, and Magento 1 has no vendor patch path for issues like it. Every new critical vulnerability leaves a Magento 1 store exposed by default.
Can a Magento 1 store still be PCI DSS compliant?
In practice, no, not defensibly. PCI DSS requires supported software with current patches. Magento 1 is end of life, so you are relying on compensating controls that are increasingly hard to justify under PCI DSS 4.0.1. Some payment processors now decline renewals or charge risk premiums for stores on end-of-life commerce software.
Do OpenMage or third-party patches make Magento 1 compliant?
They help you stay safer during a transition, but they do not make you compliant. OpenMage LTS and commercial patch services carry no vendor guarantee, can lag new exploits, and a QSA is unlikely to accept a community fork of end-of-life software as a durable control. Use them as a bridge to a migration, not as a destination.
How long does a Magento 1 to Adobe Commerce migration take?
For a mid-market store, expect six to fourteen months end to end. The timeline is driven by catalog size, the number of custom modules that need rebuilding, and the depth of your ERP, CRM, and POS integrations, far more than by the frontend theme.
What is the fastest way off Magento 1?
If speed is the priority and your catalog and B2B needs are moderate, a hosted platform like Shopify Plus or BigCommerce is usually the fastest exit, often three to eight months, and it reduces your PCI scope. If you need to preserve complex B2B logic and ERP integration, plan for a longer phased migration to Adobe Commerce that keeps the old store live until cutover.
