A Shopify to WooCommerce migration costs about $69–$300 if you only move the data with an automated tool. A full migration, where a developer rebuilds the store properly, starts at around $2,000 with a vetted specialist and around $5,000 with an agency (Codeable). The tools move products, customers and orders. They don't move your theme, your apps, your customers' passwords or your URL structure, and that's where most of the cost and the risk sits.
Most guides on this come from WooCommerce itself or from a company selling a migration tool. I'm Mohit Goyal. I build WooCommerce stores for clients in the UK and India, and this is the independent version: what the tools leave out and what it costs to fill the gaps. This is general advice drawn from building WooCommerce stores, not a migration case study.
How much does a Shopify to WooCommerce migration cost?
With a tool, a data-only migration costs $69–$300. A vetted WooCommerce specialist starts at $2,000, and agencies charge $5,000 to $50,000+ (Codeable). What separates them is whether the price covers the theme, apps, redirects and checkout, or just the data.
| Route | Typical cost | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Manual CSV export and import | $0 in fees | Products through the WooCommerce importer, then days or weeks of cleanup (Codeable) |
| Official WooCommerce extension | $79 a year | Products, categories, orders, coupons, blogs and pages (WooCommerce.com) |
| StoreShift plugin | $79–$249 one-time | Products, orders, customers, coupons and redirects (StoreShift) |
| Cart2Cart | From $69 per migration, rising with data volume | Automated data transfer (WP Hive) |
| LitExtension All-in-One | From $169 | Data moved by their team, with QA testing (LitExtension) |
| Freelancer marketplaces | $15–$75 an hour | Anything from a data move to a rebuild; quality varies (Codeable) |
| Vetted WooCommerce specialist | From $2,000 (basic) or $4,000 (advanced) | Full migration at $80–$120 an hour (Codeable) |
| Agency | $5,000 to $50,000+ | Rebuild with project management (Codeable) |
Tool prices cover data and nothing else. LitExtension's own page says theme design, app replacement, custom plugin development, payment gateway setup and integrations cost extra unless your plan includes them (LitExtension). StoreShift reckons a developer needs 4–8 hours, or $200–$1,200, for a clean WooCommerce setup (StoreShift). That assumes a stock theme and a simple store. If yours has a customised theme and a handful of paid apps, I'd budget for the developer-led end.
Running costs change too. Shopify adds a transaction fee on every sale unless you use Shopify Payments, and the percentage depends on your plan (Shopify). WooCommerce charges no platform fee, but you pay for hosting, roughly $30–$100 a month for good managed hosting (Codeable). If you haven't decided to move yet, read Shopify vs WooCommerce first.
What moves automatically, and what doesn't?
Tools move records: products, variants, images, customers and order history. They don't move the theme, apps, customer passwords, gift card balances, or your payment, shipping and tax settings.
They read your store through Shopify's API or its CSV exports, so data is what they're good at. Anything that lives in code, in settings or inside a third-party app is a different job.
| Item | Moved by a tool? | What it actually takes |
|---|---|---|
| Products, variants, images | Yes | Check variant images and attributes on a sample first |
| Collections | Mostly | They become WooCommerce categories. Products in Shopify's automatic, rule-based collections have to be assigned again |
| Customer records | Yes | Names, emails and addresses move; passwords don't |
| Order history | Yes | Records move, but internal IDs can change |
| Reviews | Sometimes | Export from your Shopify review app, import into a WooCommerce equivalent |
| Theme and design | No | Rebuilt in WordPress |
| Apps | No | Replaced with WooCommerce plugins or custom code |
| Gift card balances, loyalty points, Shopify Flow | No | Moved by hand or rebuilt (Codeable) |
| Payments, shipping zones, tax | No | Set up from scratch |
| URLs | Partly | Some tools create redirects; every one still needs checking |
Most tools offer a free demo migration. Run it before you pay, and open a few of your most complicated products to check them by hand.
Why does the Shopify theme have to be rebuilt?
Shopify themes are written in Liquid, WordPress themes in PHP, and nothing converts one into the other (Codeable). So you're choosing between three routes. Cheapest is a ready-made WooCommerce theme customised to your brand, though it can end up looking generic. In the middle is a build on a page builder like Bricks or Elementor from a Figma design. At the top is a fully custom theme.
The theme usually decides the budget. It's also your chance to fix whatever annoyed you on Shopify. For Nortek LED, I built a pixel-perfect WooCommerce store from Figma on a custom Oxygen Builder theme, with advanced product filters, custom product pages and an optimised checkout. After launch, the client's analytics showed sessions 30% longer, conversion rate up 20% and pages loading 35% faster. That store didn't come from Shopify, but it's the bar a rebuilt store should clear.
Which Shopify apps need WooCommerce plugin replacements?
All of them. Shopify apps don't run on WordPress, so each one gets replaced, rebuilt or dropped. Write down every app installed on your store and make that call for each. Typical swaps:
| Shopify feature or app | WooCommerce replacement |
|---|---|
| Shopify Payments | WooCommerce Stripe Payment Gateway (free plugin; Stripe's fees still apply) |
| Shopify Markets currencies | A currency switcher plugin |
| Recharge subscriptions | WooCommerce Subscriptions |
| Judge.me reviews | Judge.me for WooCommerce |
| Klaviyo | Klaviyo's WooCommerce integration |
| Search & Discovery filters | A product filter plugin |
| Shopify Flow | AutomateWoo or custom code |
Premium WooCommerce plugins usually cost $75–$300 a year each (Codeable), which is often less than the monthly app fees they replace. Where no plugin fits, I'd rather write a small custom plugin than stack three generic ones.
Multi-currency is the swap people worry about most. For Wow Vastra, a UK Indian fashion boutique, I built a new WooCommerce homepage, a currency switcher and worldwide checkout, and the store loads in 1.5 seconds. Not a migration either, but it shows international selling works fine on WooCommerce.
Do customer passwords transfer from Shopify to WooCommerce?
No. Shopify's customer export doesn't include passwords, so every customer sets a new one on the new store (WP All Import, LitExtension). Saved card details don't transfer directly either (LitExtension), which hurts if you sell subscriptions.
How I'd handle it:
- Import customers with WordPress's new-account emails switched off, so nobody gets a confusing message halfway through the migration.
- On launch day, send one branded email that explains the move and includes a set-password link.
- Keep guest checkout on, and put a clear password reset link on the login page.
- Contact subscription customers separately if they need to enter their card details again.
How do you stop URLs breaking when /products/ becomes /product/?
Either with 301 redirects or by setting WooCommerce's permalink bases to match Shopify's. Shopify's URL structure is fixed, with /products/ and /collections/. WooCommerce defaults to /product/ and /product-category/. Leave it like that and every URL Google has indexed returns a 404 (Codeable).
| Shopify URL | Default WooCommerce URL |
|---|---|
| /products/blue-kurta | /product/blue-kurta/ |
| /collections/dresses | /product-category/dresses/ |
| /collections/dresses/products/blue-kurta | /product/blue-kurta/ |
| /pages/about-us | /about-us/ |
| /blogs/news/spring-edit | Depends on your permalink settings |
| /products/blue-kurta?variant=123 | /product/blue-kurta/ |
Keep most URLs the same
In WordPress, go to Settings → Permalinks. Set the product base to products, the category base to collections and the post structure to /blogs/news/%postname%/, and most of your old Shopify URLs keep working. You still need redirects for pages, nested collection URLs and variant links.
Then build a full redirect map. Crawl the live Shopify site and export your top pages from Search Console. Match every old URL to its new one, load them as 301s through the Redirection plugin or your server rules, test them, and watch Search Console for 404s after launch (Codeable). My free Redirect Map Builder is made for WordPress-to-Next.js moves and outputs Next.js code, so it won't write WordPress rules for you. You can still paste your old and new pairs into it to catch chains, loops and duplicates before you load the list into WordPress.
How long does a Shopify to WooCommerce migration take?
A tool moves the data in a few hours. Manual CSV work can take days or weeks (Codeable). The storefront rebuild sets the real timeline, and that mostly comes down to the theme. Doing things in the right order matters more than doing them fast:
- 1
Audit
List your products, Shopify apps, integrations and top URLs from Search Console, plus anything stored inside apps, such as gift card balances or loyalty points.
- 2
Build on staging
Set up hosting, WooCommerce, the theme and the plugin replacements on a test site, away from the live Shopify store.
- 3
Test migration
Import your data into the test site and check products, variants, customers and orders by hand.
- 4
Redirects and checkout
Load the redirect map and set up Stripe, shipping, tax and SMTP email. Then place real test orders.
- 5
Final import and launch
Import the orders and customers added since the test, switch DNS and send the set-password email.
- 6
Monitor, then cancel Shopify
Watch Search Console, checkout errors and page speed for a few weeks before you close the Shopify account.
If you bought your domain through Shopify, ICANN's Transfer Policy blocks a transfer for 60 days after the purchase or a previous transfer. In the meantime you can point the DNS at your new host. Just don't cancel Shopify until the transfer has finished. DNS and hosting moves are part of my migration and maintenance work.
What should you ask a developer before hiring?
Ask exactly what the quote covers beyond the data: theme, app replacements, redirects, customer passwords, payments and support after launch. These questions flush that out:
- Which data will you move, with which tool, and will I see a test migration first?
- Will the theme be built from a design, or is it a customised ready-made theme?
- What replaces each of my Shopify apps, and what does each one cost per year?
- Who builds the redirect map, and how will you test it?
- How will customers set new passwords, and what happens to gift cards and subscriptions?
- Who sets up Stripe, shipping, tax and order emails?
- Will the new store be as fast as my Shopify store on mobile? (Ask about Core Web Vitals directly.)
- What support do I get after launch, and for how long?
If a developer can't answer these, the quote probably covers the data and not much else.
Ready to plan your move?
Start with two lists: your Shopify apps and your top 50 URLs from Search Console. Between them, they show most of the real scope. I build WooCommerce stores with Stripe payments, currency switching and custom plugins. If you want a second opinion on a migration quote, or want me to scope the rebuild, book a call and bring both lists.
