Website Migration Cost — Any Platform to Any Platform

A website migration costs $800-$80,000+ in 2026 depending on source platform, target platform, content volume, and how strict your SEO preservation needs to be. According to projectcostestimator.com's analysis of 600+ projects, the median small business migration is $4,200, the median ecommerce migration is $12,500, and the median enterprise re-platform is $45,000. Migrations cost 2-4x more than people expect because URL redirects, SEO preservation, and data integrity each consume 30-40% of the budget. Get your migration cost at projectcostestimator.com/calculator.

Here's the real picture from the 38 platform migrations I've scoped or led in the last 24 months:

For migrations specifically from WordPress see our WordPress migration cost 2026 deep-dive — this post covers all other source/target combinations.

Estimate your migration cost → — select "Re-Platform" project type for migration-specific scoping questions.

Most migration quotes I audit lowball one or more of these. Real cost is a function of:

1. Content volume (40-60% of total cost)

• - Pages: $20-$120 per page to migrate (template adaptation, content cleanup, internal links)
• Products: $15-$60 per SKU (data mapping, image migration, variants, SEO fields)
• Blog posts: $25-$80 per post (formatting, image re-upload, internal links, SEO meta)
• Customer accounts: $0.50-$3.00 per customer (auth migration, password reset flow)
• Orders / historical data: $200-$2,500 flat (data export, ETL, re-import)

A 200-page site with 500 products and 100 blog posts: 200 × $60 + 500 × $30 + 100 × $50 = $32,000 in pure content migration before any design or feature work.

2. URL structure changes (15-25% of total cost)
Every URL that changes needs a 301 redirect. SEO preservation requires:

• - Redirect map authoring: $0.50-$2.00 per URL
• Implementation + testing: 8-30 hours at $80-$180/hr
• Post-launch monitoring + fixing 404s: 10-25 hours over first 90 days

A 5,000-URL ecommerce migration: redirect map ($2,500-$10,000) + implementation ($1,200-$5,400) + monitoring ($1,000-$4,500) = $4,700-$19,900 just for SEO preservation.

3. Design adaptation (10-25% of total cost)
You almost never migrate to a "same design" on a new platform. Budget:

• - Theme-to-theme adaptation (similar layout): $1,500-$6,000
• Light redesign during migration: $3,000-$15,000
• Full custom redesign: $8,000-$50,000+

4. Integration re-wiring (10-20% of total cost)
Email tools (Klaviyo, Mailchimp), analytics (GA4, Mixpanel), payment processors (Stripe, PayPal), shipping (ShipStation, EasyPost), CRM (HubSpot, Salesforce). Each integration costs $500-$4,000 to re-wire on the new platform.

5. QA + UAT (10-15% of total cost)
Pre-launch testing, parallel-run validation, post-launch monitoring. Skipped on most cheap quotes, then bites you in the first week.

For broader cost-of-scope-creep examples see our project cost estimate guide 2026.

Different source-target combos have wildly different cost profiles. Here's what I've actually billed:

Wix → WordPress ($2,500-$10,000)

• - Easy: brochure sites with low SEO value
• Hard: complex Wix sites with custom features that don't map cleanly
• Real project: Brooklyn restaurant, 18-page Wix site → WordPress with Bricks theme + WPRocket + ACF. $4,200, 3 weeks.

Wix → Shopify ($3,500-$15,000)

• - The most-requested migration in my pipeline right now
• Wix's ecommerce export is weak; manual product re-entry is common
• Real project: Cosmetics brand, 80 SKUs on Wix → Shopify Dawn theme + Klaviyo + ReCharge. $8,500, 6 weeks.

Squarespace → Shopify ($4,000-$15,000)

• - Better data export than Wix; cleaner migration
• Design transition usually requires a fresh Shopify theme purchase ($180-$350)
• Real project: Furniture maker, 45 SKUs Squarespace → Shopify Sense theme. $6,800, 5 weeks.

WooCommerce → Shopify ($4,000-$18,000)

• - "Cart2Cart" or "Matrixify" automated tools cover 70-80%
• The 20-30% always-fails-to-migrate: custom meta fields, product attributes, third-party plugin data
• Real project: Apparel store, 320 SKUs WooCommerce → Shopify Plus + ReCharge. $11,400, 8 weeks.

Shopify → Shopify Plus ($8,000-$35,000)

• - Same platform, but Plus features (Launchpad, Flow, B2B) require re-engineering
• Often combined with theme refresh during the transition
• Real project: Skincare brand $4M GMV → Plus + B2B portal + multi-storefront. $24,000, 12 weeks.

Magento → Shopify Plus ($15,000-$80,000)

• - Magento's complex data model rarely maps cleanly to Shopify
• Customer accounts, B2B pricing tiers, multi-store inventory all need refactoring
• Real project: Industrial supplier, 2,800 SKUs Magento 2 → Shopify Plus + Stocky + Searchspring. $48,000, 22 weeks.

Drupal → WordPress ($8,000-$40,000)

• - Drupal's content model maps awkwardly to WP custom post types
• Module-by-module replacement is expensive
• Real project: University department site, 600 pages Drupal 7 → WordPress + ACF. $22,000, 14 weeks.

Custom legacy → Next.js / modern stack ($20,000-$120,000+)

• - Almost always combined with redesign and feature additions
• The "lift and shift" path rarely makes sense — usually a partial rebuild
• Real project: B2B portal on jQuery + PHP 5 → Next.js + tRPC + Postgres. $78,000, 28 weeks.

For specific platform cost comparisons see Magento vs Shopify cost 2026 and WordPress vs Shopify cost 2026.

The #1 reason migrations cost more than expected: SEO preservation. Done badly, you lose 20-60% of organic traffic and never get it back. Done right, you preserve 85-95% within 60 days.

What proper SEO preservation actually involves:

1. Pre-migration crawl + URL inventory ($300-$2,000)
Screaming Frog or Sitebulb scan of the current site, exported with: URL, title tag, meta description, H1, word count, internal links, backlinks (Ahrefs), rankings (SEMrush), traffic (GA4).

2. URL mapping spreadsheet ($500-$8,000)
Every old URL mapped to its new URL. For a 5,000-URL site, this is 20-80 hours at $60-$150/hr. Mistakes here mean 404s on indexed pages, which Google penalizes within 30-60 days.

3. 301 redirect implementation ($400-$5,000)
Server-level redirects (preferred) or .htaccess / Cloudflare Workers / Vercel rewrites. Plus catch-all rules for parametrized URLs.

4. Hreflang preservation (multilingual only) ($1,000-$8,000)
If you have multiple languages, the hreflang relationships need to be rebuilt on the new platform. See multilingual website cost 2026.

5. Structured data re-implementation ($500-$3,000)
Product schema, Article schema, Breadcrumb, FAQ, Review — none of these auto-port between platforms.

6. XML sitemap + Search Console setup ($200-$800)
New sitemap.xml submitted to GSC, change-of-address signal where applicable, monitor coverage in week 1-4.

7. Internal link rebuild ($800-$6,000)
Old internal links pointing to old URLs need updating throughout the new site. Skipping this means redirect chains that Google de-prioritizes.

8. Post-launch monitoring + fixing ($1,500-$8,000 over 90 days)
404 reports daily for 30 days, ranking drops weekly for 90 days, Core Web Vitals monitoring continuously.

Total SEO preservation cost: $5,200-$40,800 on top of the base migration. Most cheap quotes include $500-$2,000 of this work, which is why they fail.

Real SEO impact data from my migrations:

• - Migrations with full SEO preservation: average 12% traffic dip in week 1-2, recovered by week 6-10
• Migrations without proper preservation: average 38% traffic dip, only 65-80% recovery within 6 months
• Worst case I've audited: 71% traffic loss permanent (site moved without any redirect work)

For SEO infrastructure cost context see our website maintenance cost 2026 and hidden website costs 2026 guides.

From auditing 16 migrations that went over budget, here's the consistent surprise list:

1. Customer password reset emails — $600-$3,000
Migrating customer accounts almost always means everyone has to reset their password (encryption schemes differ between platforms). The "reset your password" email campaign, support tickets, and lost customers cost real money.

2. App / plugin re-purchase — $200-$5,000
The Shopify apps you're using don't exist on WordPress. The WP plugins don't exist on Webflow. Budget $200-$5,000 to repurchase equivalent functionality.

3. Custom integration rebuilds — $2,000-$15,000 per integration
A custom integration with your warehouse management system, ERP, or POS that took 80 hours to build on the old platform needs to be rebuilt on the new one. Worst case I've scoped: a $42,000 rebuild of an NetSuite integration.

4. Email deliverability re-warming — $500-$2,500
New domain, new sending IP, new email service. Email reputation has to be re-warmed. Bad sender score = inbox-to-spam.

5. Image re-optimization at scale — $300-$3,000
Different platforms have different image CDN expectations. Re-cropping, re-compressing, re-uploading 1,000-10,000 images takes 15-80 hours.

6. URL parameter handling
Old platform may have used /products?id=123, new platform uses /products/product-name. Search-engine indexed URLs need to be redirected; tracking parameters often break analytics.

7. Tracking and analytics rebuild — $800-$4,000
GA4 events, Facebook Pixel, TikTok Pixel, GTM containers — all need to be re-wired on the new platform with new selectors and event triggers.

8. Legal page rewrites
Your privacy policy probably mentions the old platform's data processors. Update or face GDPR penalties. $200-$1,500 in legal review.

9. CDN warm-up period
First 2-4 weeks after launch have higher origin requests and slower delivery. May need to over-provision hosting temporarily ($100-$1,000 extra).

10. Old platform shutdown costs
Most platforms charge for the final month even after migration. Plan for 1-3 months of "double subscription" overlap ($30-$2,300/mo depending on platforms).

11. Documentation and training for your team
Your content editors need to learn the new CMS. Budget 4-20 hours of training at $100-$200/hr = $400-$4,000.

12. Parallel running and rollback insurance
Best practice is to run both platforms in parallel for 1-2 weeks. Doubles hosting and tooling cost during that window.

Annualized hidden cost across most migration projects: $6,000-$35,000 above the headline quote.

Migration timelines are routinely underestimated by 40-80%. Here's the realistic schedule:

Phases that consistently take longer than estimated:

1. Discovery / scoping (1-4 weeks)
The hidden integrations, the undocumented features, the "wait, what does this script do?" code that nobody can explain. Always longer than expected on legacy systems.

2. Data mapping (2-8 weeks)
Custom fields, product attributes, customer meta, order history — every site has more "stuff" than the project lead remembers. Usually 2x estimated.

3. SEO preservation (2-6 weeks)
URL mapping, redirect implementation, validation. Skipped on most cheap quotes, then bites you.

4. Content cleanup (variable)
"While we're migrating, can we also fix the duplicate content / clean up the blog / re-categorize products?" — every client adds 30-60% scope here.

5. UAT (1-3 weeks)
Stakeholder review, edge case testing, parallel-run validation.

6. Post-launch stabilization (4-12 weeks)
404 reports, conversion-rate watching, performance tuning, customer support spike.

Don't plan a migration in Q4 if you're ecommerce. I've done it three times. Lost six-figure revenue each time. Migrate in Q1 or Q2.

For project timeline pricing see how to estimate project cost 2026.

1. Don't redesign during migration.
Combining migration + redesign + new features triples scope. Migrate first, redesign in Phase 2. Saves 30-50% on the migration project and keeps risk isolated.

2. Use automated migration tools where they exist.
Cart2Cart, Matrixify, LitExtension, Next-Cart. These handle 70-90% of common platform migrations for $100-$1,500. Worth it for ecommerce. Plus dev cleanup for the remaining 10-30%.

3. Migrate categories of content separately.
Pages first, then products, then blog, then customers. Phased approach reduces risk and lets you stop if SEO tanks early.

4. Skip migrating historical orders past 24 months.
Most ecommerce regulations only require 7-year retention, and you can archive instead of migrating. Saves $500-$5,000 in data work.

5. Use the migration as a chance to delete dead content.
The average site I migrate has 25-40% of pages that get under 5 visits per year. Don't migrate them. Don't even redirect them. 410 status (Gone) signals Google to drop them.

6. Buy a premium theme, don't custom-build.
Migrating to a premium theme on the new platform ($180-$500) saves 40-80 hours of custom design work. Customize after launch.

7. Pre-write all redirects in a spreadsheet.
Most migration cost overruns happen because redirect work is done piecemeal during/after launch. Map all URLs in a single spreadsheet before development starts. Saves 15-30 hours.

8. Lock the timeline for ecommerce migrations to Q1.
Q1 has lower traffic, fewer marketing campaigns running, and you have time to recover from SEO turbulence before peak season.

9. Hire a migration specialist, not a generalist.
A WooCommerce-to-Shopify specialist (find on Toptal or Shopify Experts) delivers the same migration for 30-50% less than a generalist agency by reusing past playbooks.

10. Negotiate a fixed-price + scope-buffer contract.
Migrations are notoriously scope-creep prone. A fixed-price contract with 15-25% scope buffer locks risk. Pure T&M migrations routinely go 50-100% over.

Get your migration estimate → — pick "Re-Platform" for migration-specific scoping. For broader budget planning use the website cost calculator.