How to Migrate From Shopify Without Losing Data

If you're paying $39–$399 a month for Shopify, another $50–$200 for apps, and 0.5–2% on every sale, you already know why so many merchants want out. The good news: you can learn how to migrate from Shopify without losing a single order, customer, or search ranking. This guide walks through the export, the move, the tricky edge cases, and the checks that keep your revenue intact — whether you're a first-time seller or running seven figures in GMV.

Why merchants are leaving Shopify in 2026

The number one reason people switch from Shopify is cost — but not the base plan. It's the stack on top of it. Most Shopify stores run multiple third-party apps to fill feature gaps, and those add-ons quietly turn a $39 subscription into a few hundred dollars a month. Shopify's own App Store lists thousands of paid extensions precisely because so much functionality lives outside the core product.

Then there's the friction. Abandoned cart recovery, wishlists, real customer Q&A, advanced product pages — none of these ship by default. Every one requires a paid app, and stacked plugins slow your site down and pile up security holes. On mobile, slow load times hurt both your SEO and your conversion rate.

Common triggers for leaving Shopify:

• Transaction fees eating margin on every sale when you don't use Shopify Payments
• App sprawl — multiple subscriptions to replicate features that should be built in
• Slow, template-y storefronts that are expensive to customize
• Rigidity — every change needs an app, a theme edit, or a developer

You can see current Shopify pricing on Shopify's own pricing page to tally your real monthly total before you move.

How to migrate from Shopify: the 5-step process

Migrating off Shopify takes five steps: export your data, choose a destination platform, import your catalog and customers, rebuild your checkout and settings, then redirect your URLs to protect SEO. Done carefully, the whole thing can happen in under a day with zero downtime.

Step 1: Export your Shopify store data

Start your Shopify data export from the admin. Shopify lets you download CSV files for products, customers, and orders directly from each section (Products → Export, Customers → Export, Orders → Export). For anything beyond CSV — like theme files or metafields — use the built-in store export or a migration tool.

What to pull before you do anything else:

• Product catalog (titles, descriptions, variants, images, SKUs, pricing)
• Customer list with contact details and order history
• Order records for accounting and returns
• Blog posts and page content
• Your full list of live URLs (you'll need these for redirects)

Keep these files backed up somewhere safe. This export is your safety net for the entire migration.

Don't forget the Shopify-specific data types

The standard CSV exports cover products, customers, and orders — but several Shopify data types live outside those files and are the most common cause of a broken migration. Plan for each one before you cut over:

• Metafields — custom fields for size charts, ingredients, specs, or badges don't appear in the default product CSV. Export them via the metafields option in a migration tool or the Admin API, or you'll lose structured data your theme depends on.
• Gift cards — outstanding gift card balances can't be exported through the standard CSV for security reasons. Reconcile balances manually and reissue codes on the new platform, or keep a record so you can honor them.
• Discount codes — automatic discounts and code-based promotions export separately (Discounts → Export). Recreate any active campaigns so ongoing promos don't break at launch.
• Subscription products — recurring billing is powered by third-party apps, and those contracts don't move with a CSV. Coordinate the migration of active subscribers directly with your subscription provider to avoid failed charges.
• Product reviews — reviews stored in an app (rather than native) need their own export from that app's dashboard.

Step 2: Choose where you're going

Where you land matters more than the export itself. The point of leaving Shopify is usually to cut the app bill and the complexity — so don't move to a platform that recreates the same problem. Here's an honest look at the main options.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is open-source and endlessly flexible, which is exactly why it can become a burden. You supply your own hosting, and you're responsible for updates, backups, and security patches across WordPress core, the WooCommerce plugin, and every extension. Core e-commerce features — subscriptions, advanced shipping, bookings — are separate paid plugins, and conflicts between them are common. It's a strong choice if you have a developer on hand and want total control; it's a poor choice if your reason for leaving Shopify was too much maintenance.

Wix and Squarespace

Both are excellent website builders that added commerce later, and it shows. They're fine for a small catalog and a handful of orders, but serious e-commerce features are paywalled behind higher tiers, and inventory, multi-channel selling, and automation tools are shallow compared with a purpose-built store platform. If you're scaling past a few hundred orders a month, you'll outgrow them.

BigCommerce

BigCommerce bundles more features into the base plan than Shopify and charges no additional transaction fees, which appeals to merchants tired of app stacking. The trade-offs are a steeper learning curve, fewer themes, and revenue-based plan thresholds that force upgrades as you grow.

Purpose-built, all-in-one platforms

If your goal is fewer moving parts and a lower monthly total, look for a platform where abandoned cart, loyalty, reviews, Q&A, and integrations are included by default — not sold separately — so your monthly bill stays flat as you add functionality.

Step 3: Import your catalog and customers

Once you've picked a destination, import the CSVs you exported. Modern platforms map Shopify's CSV structure automatically, so products, variants, and customer records land in the right place. Double-check image URLs and variant pricing — that's where most import errors hide.

The best tools preserve your branding, catalog, and customer accounts in one pass. On Rovela's Shopify migration, for example, an existing store migrates in about 30 minutes with branding, catalog, and customers intact — no manual re-entry.

Step 4: Rebuild checkout, shipping, and settings

Reconnect your payment processor (Stripe is the standard), set up shipping zones and rates, and reconfigure tax settings. Recreate your transactional emails — order confirmations, shipping notifications, and abandoned cart flows. This is also the moment to reconnect marketing integrations like Klaviyo, Meta, and Google Ads so you don't lose your audiences.

Step 5: Redirect URLs and cut over your domain

This is the step most people skip — and it costs them traffic. Map every old Shopify URL to its new equivalent with 301 redirects so Google passes your rankings forward. Google's own documentation on 301 redirects confirms this is the correct way to preserve link equity during a site move.

Then handle the domain itself. When you update your domain's DNS records to point at the new platform, changes don't take effect instantly — DNS propagation can take anywhere from a few minutes to 48 hours depending on your registrar and the record's TTL. To minimize risk:

• Lower your DNS TTL to 300 seconds a day or two before the cutover so changes propagate faster when you flip the switch.
• Verify SSL is active on the new store before pointing the domain, so visitors never hit a security warning.
• Cut over during a low-traffic window and keep Shopify live in the background until propagation completes worldwide.
• Test the domain from multiple devices and networks (or a DNS checker tool) to confirm it resolves everywhere.

What to check before you switch from Shopify

Before you flip the switch, run through a short pre-launch list. A rushed Shopify migration is where orders slip through cracks and rankings drop.

• Test a real checkout end to end with a live card before going public
• Verify product counts match your export exactly — no missing SKUs
• Confirm customer accounts imported with order history attached
• Reconcile edge-case data — metafields, gift card balances, active discounts, and subscriptions
• Check mobile speed — this is often where Shopify hurt you most
• Set up 301 redirects and crawl the site to catch broken links
• Point your domain only after everything above passes, and allow for DNS propagation

Keep your Shopify store live but private for a week after launch. If anything's wrong, you still have the original to reference.

Shopify vs. the alternatives: total cost compared

When you migrate Shopify to another platform, compare the total cost — base plan plus apps plus transaction fees — not just the headline price. Here's how the common options stack up. Base and app figures below reflect each platform's published pricing tiers; verify current numbers on the vendor's own pricing page before you decide.

Platform	Base cost/mo	Apps & add-ons	Transaction fees	Key features built in
Shopify	$39–$399	$50–$200	0.5–2%	Limited — most need apps
WooCommerce	$30–$100 hosting	Plugins + dev	Varies	You assemble it
BigCommerce	$39–$399	Fewer needed	0%	More built in, revenue caps
Wix / Squarespace	$17–$399	Paywalled	Varies	Shallow e-commerce
Rovela	Flat subscription	None — 100+ included	0% commission	Abandoned cart, loyalty, reviews, Q&A, automations

The difference adds up. Consider a store on Shopify's $105/month Grow plan running six apps that average $30 each: that's $105 + $180 = $285/month before transaction fees, or roughly $3,400 a year. Add a 1% fee on $300,000 in annual sales ($3,000) and you're near $6,400 a year in platform and plugin costs alone. A flat subscription that includes those same features — with no per-sale commission — is where the savings and the reclaimed admin time come from. You can see how a flat-price model works on the Rovela pricing page.

Common questions about Shopify store migration

Will I lose my SEO rankings when I move off Shopify?

Not if you set up 301 redirects correctly. Map every old URL to its new one and Google carries your rankings forward. Rankings can wobble for a week or two, then recover — that's normal during any site move.

How long does a Shopify migration take?

It depends on catalog size and the destination. A manual move to WooCommerce can take days. With an AI-driven import that preserves branding, catalog, and customers automatically, an existing store can migrate in about 30 minutes — though edge-case data like subscriptions and gift cards still needs manual reconciliation.

Can I export my Shopify store myself?

Yes. You can export products, customers, and orders as CSV files straight from the Shopify admin, no developer required. That covers the core data; images and content usually come across in the same files or via a migration tool. Metafields, gift cards, and discount codes require separate exports.

Do I own my store after I leave Shopify?

That depends where you go. Some platforms lock you in. Others, like Rovela, run on standard Next.js code you can download and own outright — so any developer can take over if you ever leave.

Ready to move off Shopify?

The playbook is straightforward: export your data (including the edge-case types), pick a platform that includes what you actually need, import your catalog and customers, rebuild checkout, and redirect your URLs before a careful domain cutover. Do those five steps in order and you'll switch from Shopify without downtime, lost orders, or dropped rankings.

If your reason for leaving Shopify is the endless app bill and the maintenance, Rovela was built by operators who ran $15M+ in real GMV and the team behind 400,000+ PrestaShop merchants. Every store ships with 100+ features included, Stripe checkout, and a 30-minute migration that keeps your branding, catalog, and customers. Start with a free store build, or browse more e-commerce migration guides before you make the switch.