If you are still on Magento 1 in 2026, the migration math has already been decided for you. Magento 1 was end-of-lifed by Adobe on June 30, 2020, which means more than five years without security patches, without modern PHP compatibility, and without updates from most third-party extension authors. Roughly 14 percent of Magento-based stores still run on Magento 1, according to Magento statistics from WiserReview, and every month they stay is operationally more expensive than the last.
The reasons most teams give for staying, customization complexity and migration cost, are real, but they describe a one-time project, not a recurring risk. The risk of staying compounds: unpatched vulnerabilities, payment gateways that stop certifying old stores, and a developer pool that has almost entirely moved on. The migration is a known, scoped piece of work. The status quo is an open-ended liability.
How much does a Magento 1 to Magento 2 migration cost?
A Magento 1 to Magento 2 or Adobe Commerce migration typically runs from about $100,000 for a basic catalog migration to $350,000 or more for a complex replatform with B2B and ERP integration, with most projects landing in 4 to 8 months. Those brackets come from IWD Agency’s 2026 migration playbook, and the variables that move the number are predictable: the volume of custom code on the old store, catalog size, how much order history you carry over, and the depth of ERP and checkout customization.
Custom code is the biggest lever. A near-vanilla Magento 1 store migrates cheaply, while one carrying thirty or more custom modules can cost two to three times more because each module has to be rewritten for Magento 2’s architecture. This is also where a disciplined team saves you money: often 30 to 50 percent of old customizations can be replaced with native Adobe Commerce features rather than rebuilt, which is only possible if someone audits the store honestly before quoting. A migration that skips the audit is the one that blows its budget at week twelve.
What data has to survive the migration?
The data that must survive intact is customer accounts, order history, catalog and attributes, pricing rules, and the full map of old URLs to new ones. Customer passwords can often be migrated so users do not have to reset, though some hash formats force a reset on first login. Order history, tier and customer-group pricing, inventory, and content all need row-count validation, not a visual spot check, because “it looks right” is how silent data loss ships to production.
The single most underestimated line item is the 301 redirect map. URL structures usually change between Magento 1 and Magento 2, and every changing URL needs a redirect to preserve search rankings. Teams that skip this can lose a large share of organic traffic for months. The fix is unglamorous but decisive: map old URLs to new, redirect them, resubmit a fresh sitemap, and keep metadata identical so the migration is invisible to Google. The same care applies if you are also moving the frontend to Hyva for Core Web Vitals during the project.
Should you migrate to Magento Open Source 2 or Adobe Commerce?
Choose Magento Open Source 2 for simpler stores with no B2B needs and an in-house technical team, and Adobe Commerce when you need native B2B, Adobe support, or are operating at meaningful scale. The two share the same core codebase, so the decision is about features and support, not raw capability. Adobe Commerce’s native B2B alone can save tens of thousands in third-party extension development for stores that need company accounts, quotes, and custom catalogs.
Sequence the project as audit, plan, build in parallel with the live store, migrate data, test, then cut over with a rollback path and a watch window. Each stage has a failure mode, and the most expensive one is treating the migration as a 1:1 port that preserves all the architectural debt that made Magento 1 painful. Used well, the migration is the cheapest chance you will get to reset the foundation. Our Magento and Adobe Commerce migration team scopes the audit first precisely so the cost and the risk are known before the build begins, not discovered during it.
