Migration quotes that come back at suspiciously round numbers usually hide the same things. The hosting that wasn't priced in. The redirect work treated as housekeeping. The 90 days post-launch where the real fixes happen. Here's what a Shopify Plus migration actually costs across audit, build, apps, integrations, and the part most quotes leave out.
What "migration cost" actually covers
Migration cost is not a single number. It's five categories of spend that compound over the project and the year that follows.
Audit. The discovery phase. Catalogue audit, integration inventory, redirect surface area, custom code review, redirect surface mapping, build spec output. Usually 1 to 3 weeks of work.
Build. The platform migration itself. Catalogue migration scripts, theme build (or Hydrogen headless build), apps configured, integrations connected, 301 redirect map loaded, migration sandbox populated, cutover rehearsed.
Platform and licence fees. Shopify Plus base licence, payment processing, app subscriptions, integration tooling, search platform, headless CMS if applicable.
Post-launch stabilisation. The 30 to 90 days after cutover where edge cases surface. Often run as a retainer with the migration partner.
Internal cost. Project management, stakeholder time, content sign-off, customer communications, sales enablement for any new commerce flows.
The published quote you see usually only covers the build line. The other four are real costs that need to be planned alongside.
Audit phase costs
The audit is the cheapest part of the migration. It's also the part that determines whether the rest of the project lands on budget.
A discovery audit for a typical mid-market brand runs $5K to $25K and takes 1 to 3 weeks. The output is:
Brands that skip this step get quotes built on assumptions. When the assumptions are wrong, the quote slips. The audit is the cheapest insurance available.
If you're paying audit fees that get credited against the build if you proceed, that's a fair model. If the audit is "free" and the agency is racing to a build quote, the audit isn't actually happening.
App and integration costs
The app and integration line is often bigger than the build line over a 3-year window.
Standard Shopify Plus app stack. A typical mid-market brand runs 12 to 25 apps in production. The total monthly cost lands at $2,500 to $6,500 per month, or $30K to $80K per year.
Common categories and price ranges (per month, USD):
Integration tooling. Middleware (Boomi, Workato, Celigo) usually $1K to $4K per month. Custom connectors built once cost $10K to $40K per integration. ERP connectors (NetSuite, SAP, Microsoft Dynamics) are $20K to $80K to build, plus subscription fees.
Headless infrastructure. If you're running Hydrogen headless on Oxygen, hosting is included. If you're running a custom front-end on Vercel, Netlify, or AWS, plan $200 to $2,000 per month depending on traffic. CDN bandwidth and image hosting often add another $100 to $1,000 per month at scale.
The migration is the right moment to audit this stack. Most brands enter migration with 30 to 50 apps. Most exit with 12 to 20. The reduction usually saves $20K to $50K per year and reduces the integration surface area to monitor.
Platform licence
Shopify Plus licence pricing changes from time to time, so we won't quote specific numbers here. The current published structure is on Shopify's website.
What's worth knowing:
Payment processing
Payment processing fees aren't a migration line item, but they affect the year-one financial picture and are worth understanding before you sign.
Shopify Payments rates are competitive with most processors. Brands using third-party gateways pay an additional fee per transaction. For high-volume brands this difference is meaningful, and the migration is sometimes a moment to consolidate to Shopify Payments.
International payment handling, alternative payment methods, and B2B-specific gateways may need separate evaluation.
Post-launch retainer
The line nobody includes in the original quote.
The first 30 to 90 days post-launch are where things break and get fixed. Redirect gaps surface. Integration edge cases appear. Customer support tickets reveal what didn't quite carry over. Schema validation needs adjustment.
A reasonable post-launch retainer is $5K to $25K per month for the first 6 months. After that, brands either move to a smaller maintenance retainer ($3K to $10K per month) or reduce to ad-hoc engagement.
A migration partner who hands off at launch is a partner who hasn't done many migrations. The post-launch period is where the platform actually pays back.
Hidden costs that actually aren't hidden
Three line items get described as "hidden costs" but are actually predictable if you ask the right questions.
Content rework. Migrating product descriptions, category copy, and editorial content takes time. A team of 2 content people working 4 weeks across 1,500 SKUs is a real cost. Brands sometimes use migration to clean up content. That's good but it adds budget.
Customer communications. Email campaigns to inform customers about the migration, the password reset, and any changes to their account. Plan 2 to 4 emails over 60 days, designed and sent through Klaviyo or your ESP.
Sales enablement. For B2B-heavy brands, the sales team needs training on the new platform's quote workflows, B2B catalogues, and customer self-service. 1 to 2 weeks of training time.
These all have real costs. They show up in the project plan or they show up as overruns. Better to plan them.
What blows up budgets
After running a lot of migrations, three things consistently push projects over budget.
Scope creep. The build was scoped for the existing design. Mid-project, leadership decides to add a redesign, a new merchandising structure, or a new B2B program. Each addition is reasonable on its own. Combined, they double the scope.
Data surprises. The audit didn't catch something because it wasn't in the documentation. A custom subscription plan for a single high-value customer. A bespoke pricing rule embedded in the theme rather than the platform. A reporting dashboard that pulls from a database table nobody documented.
Integration depth. The integration list at audit time was 8 integrations. The real count after digging in is 14. Each new integration is 1 to 4 weeks of work and $5K to $20K of cost.
The audit is designed to surface these before contracting. The risk register names them explicitly. Brands that read the risk register before signing the build quote land on budget more often than brands that don't.
Where to start
If you're scoping a Shopify Plus migration and want a real cost picture before deciding, the first step is an audit. We document your catalogue, integration list, custom logic, and redirect surface area, then return a build spec with a fixed-price Phase 1 quote and a year-one TCO estimate.
For broader context on Shopify Plus migrations, see the complete migration guide. For platform-specific costs, the Magento, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce playbooks have detail on what drives cost variance per source.
For the cost line items that show up in every migration regardless of source, the hidden costs of platform migration is the deeper read. For SEO costs specifically, how to preserve SEO when migrating to Shopify Plus covers the redirect map and schema work in detail.
Or browse the rest of our Platform Migration insights for more on cost, conversion impact, and the operational decisions that come with a re-platform.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a Shopify Plus migration cost in 2026?
Build costs range from $40K to $500K depending on source platform and integration depth. WooCommerce and BigCommerce land at $80K to $200K. Magento and Adobe Commerce at $120K to $300K. Salesforce Commerce Cloud, SAP Commerce Cloud, and Oracle Commerce migrations run $180K to $500K because of integration depth and B2B complexity. Total year-one investment including post-launch retainer, apps, and integrations typically lands at $225K to $600K.
Why do migration quotes vary so widely?
Two reasons. First, the audit phase determines real scope, and quotes written without an audit are typically 30 to 50% off reality. Second, integration count drives more cost variance than catalogue size. A brand with 4 integrations migrates faster than a brand with 12, regardless of how many SKUs each carries.
Is the migration audit worth paying for?
The audit is the cheapest part of the migration and the part that determines whether everything else lands on budget. A discovery audit runs $5K to $25K and outputs a complete catalogue inventory, integration list, redirect surface estimate, theme audit, risk register, and a fixed-price Phase 1 build quote. Brands that skip this step get quotes built on assumptions, and when assumptions are wrong, quotes slip.
What's not included in a typical migration quote?
The published quote usually only covers the build line. Four other categories of spend are real costs that need to be planned alongside: platform and licence fees, post-launch stabilisation retainer, app subscriptions, and internal cost (PM, stakeholder time, content sign-off, customer communications). Brands who don't budget these separately typically finish 20 to 40% over the original quote.
How much will I spend on Shopify Plus apps each year?
A typical mid-market brand runs 12 to 25 apps in production at $30K to $80K per year. The biggest line items are usually Klaviyo ($400-$2,500/month), subscriptions tooling like Recharge or Skio ($300-$2,000/month), and search platforms like Algolia or Taglays ($200-$2,000/month). Migration is the moment to audit the stack, since most brands enter with 30 to 50 apps and exit with 12 to 20.
How long do I need to budget post-launch support for?
Plan for $5K to $25K per month for the first 6 months, then either move to a smaller maintenance retainer ($3K to $10K per month) or reduce to ad-hoc engagement. The first 30 to 90 days is where edge cases surface, redirect gaps appear, and integration issues get fixed. A migration partner who hands off at launch hasn't done many migrations.
Does Shopify Plus actually save money compared to Magento or custom builds?
Year one is usually break-even because migration costs are concentrated. The financial argument holds up most clearly in years two and three, when run-rate costs drop 30 to 50% compared to running Magento, Adobe Commerce, or a custom platform at the same revenue tier. Hosting, dev hours, security patching, and integration maintenance all reduce significantly. The compounding gap is what makes the migration pay back.
A Shopify Plus Agency for Strategic Design & Advanced Engineering
Building something ambitious?
- Most mid-market Shopify Plus migrations land between $80K and $400K for the build itself, plus $30K to $150K per year for apps, integrations, and ongoing platform costs. Variance is wide because data quality and integration count matter more than catalogue size.
- The audit phase is usually $5K to $25K and is non-negotiable. Anyone quoting a fixed migration price without doing one is guessing. The audit pays itself back in scope accuracy.
- The most under-budgeted line is the redirect map. Done well it's 60 to 200 hours of work. Done poorly it costs 6 to 18 months of rankings, which is the most expensive line item in the entire migration.
- App fees compound. A typical Shopify Plus brand runs $30K to $80K per year in apps. Migration is the moment to audit, replace, and consolidate the stack.
- Post-launch retainer is the line nobody includes. Plan $5K to $25K per month for the first 6 months. The first 90 days is where edge cases surface and rankings stabilise.
