The short answer
Shopify migration tools move data. They read products, customers, orders and sometimes content from your old platform and write them into Shopify, quickly and cheaply. The best of them are very good at it.
What they don’t do is decide anything. They don’t restructure a messy catalogue, choose which attributes should become filters, design your new store, judge where a discontinued product should redirect, connect your stock system or check your tracking. On a small, simple store, those decisions are few and you can make them yourself. On an established store, they’re most of the work.
I use migration tools on almost every project; I’ve migrated over 500,000 products across more than 350 Shopify stores in 20 years, and the right tool saves days. This guide compares the four I see most often and gives an honest view of when an app on its own is enough.
Want an honest view on whether a tool is enough for your store? Ask in the free audit.
Book a free auditWhat migration tools do, and don’t
| Job | Migration tools | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Copy products, customers and orders | Yes | Their core job |
| Copy blog posts and pages | Some | Varies by tool and source platform |
| Create redirects for old URLs | Some, often as a paid option | Covers matched products and categories, not judgement calls |
| Restructure attributes into options and metafields | Limited | Tools map fields; they don’t decide what the fields should be |
| Design and build the new store | No | A theme still needs choosing, building and configuring |
| Connect EPOS, ERP and other systems | No | Integrations are separate work |
| Rebuild tracking and conversions | No | Analytics and ad platforms need setting up and testing |
| Monitor rankings after launch | No | Needs a baseline and someone watching |
There’s a useful way to think about it. A migration has three layers: the data, the decisions about the data, and everything around the data. Tools are excellent at the first layer, offer some help with the second through field mapping, and don’t touch the third. The bigger and older your store, the more of the work sits in the second and third layers.
That isn’t a criticism of the tools. It’s a description of what they’re for. Choosing a tool is choosing how the data gets moved; it isn’t choosing how the migration is run.
Shopify’s Store Migration app
Shopify’s own free app, previously called Store Importer, is now called Store Migration. According to Shopify’s July 2026 announcement, it imports products and customers from Square, WooCommerce, Etsy, Wix, Amazon, eBay, Clover and Lightspeed (R and X series). It doesn’t import orders, collections, navigation, SEO data, blogs or pages, reviews, redirects or metafields.
Shopify’s own help pages are more cautious in places: its WooCommerce guide describes the app as early access, for certain stores, and products only. Magento, BigCommerce and most proprietary platforms aren’t listed as sources.
Best for: small stores on a supported platform, moving products (and possibly customers) where order history and search rankings matter little.
Matrixify
Matrixify, by the developer ITissible, is a Shopify app for importing and exporting data with spreadsheets. It handles almost every Shopify data type: products, collections, customers, orders, draft orders, discounts, pages, blog posts, redirects, files, metafields and metaobjects. It has set migration processes for Magento, BigCommerce, Lightspeed, WooCommerce and WordPress; for other platforms you convert your data into its spreadsheet template.
Its Shopify App Store listing shows a free plan, then Basic at $20, Big at $50 and Enterprise at $200, billed every 30 days, with per-file limits by plan. On Basic, for example, a file can hold up to 5,000 products, 1,000 orders, 2,000 customers and 10,000 redirects.
Best for: anyone comfortable with spreadsheets, and migrations where the data needs reshaping before import. It’s also the usual tool for moving data between two Shopify stores, and for bulk corrections after launch.
Cart2Cart
Cart2Cart is an automated migration service that connects to your old store and your Shopify store and moves data between them. Its pricing “depends on the volume of data for the transfer”, counted by products, customers, orders and other entities, with a minimum fee of $29.
Extras are priced as options. On its EKM to Shopify page, for example, creating 301 redirects is $29, migrating SEO URLs $29 and preserving order IDs $25, with a discount for taking all options. Entities it moves depend on the source platform; for EKM, it lists products, categories, customers, orders, reviews, CMS pages, blog posts, coupons and manufacturers.
Best for: straightforward platform-to-platform transfers where the data is already in good shape and someone will handle the design, checks and launch.
LitExtension
LitExtension is another automated migration service, with a long list of supported source platforms, including smaller and UK platforms such as ShopWired, EKM and Actinic. Its pricing “starts from $59 and depends on the number of entities you want to migrate”, counted by products, orders, customers and blog posts.
It offers two routes: automated migration you run yourself, which includes a number of additional options free, and an all-in-one service where its team runs the migration with all additional options included. SEO URL migration and 301 redirects are among the additional options.
Best for: stores on less common platforms, and retailers who want the transfer run for them without commissioning a full migration.
Which tools work for your platform
The first filter is simply whether a tool supports the platform you’re leaving. Based on each vendor’s own pages in October 2026:
| Leaving | Tools that list it | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| WooCommerce | Store Migration, Matrixify, Cart2Cart, LitExtension | Store Migration covers products (and customers per its announcement) only |
| Magento / Adobe Commerce | Matrixify, Cart2Cart, LitExtension | Not a Store Migration source |
| BigCommerce | Matrixify, Cart2Cart, LitExtension | Not a Store Migration source |
| Wix, Etsy, Square | Store Migration | Often small stores where it may be enough; check the automated tools’ lists too |
| Lightspeed (R and X series) | Store Migration, Matrixify | Decide the POS question first |
| EKM, ShopWired, Actinic | LitExtension; Cart2Cart for EKM via CSV | Exports vary by platform |
| WordPress content | Matrixify | Posts and pages, alongside the store |
For platform-specific detail, see my guides to Magento to Shopify migration, WooCommerce to Shopify migration and moving a UK ecommerce platform to Shopify.
The tools side by side
| Store Migration | Matrixify | Cart2Cart | LitExtension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Made by | Shopify | ITissible | Cart2Cart | LitExtension |
| Pricing model | Free | Monthly plan, free tier | By data volume, from $29 | By entities, from $59 |
| Products and customers | Yes (supported sources) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Orders | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Blog and pages | No | Yes | Depends on source | Blog posts counted |
| Redirects | No | Imports a redirects sheet | Paid option | Paid or included option |
| Metafields | No | Yes | Depends on source | Depends on source |
| Done-for-you option | No | No | Yes | Yes |
What tools cost in practice
The headline prices are starting points. What you actually pay depends on how each tool counts:
- Entity-based pricing (Cart2Cart, LitExtension) rises with the number of products, customers, orders and posts. Order history is usually the biggest number, so deciding how many years of orders to bring makes a real difference.
- Options such as redirects, SEO URLs or preserved order numbers are often extra, so compare like with like.
- Monthly plans (Matrixify) are paid while you use them, so a migration that takes two months costs two months, and per-file limits may push a large store onto a higher plan.
- Re-runs may cost again. If the first full migration needs repeating after data fixes, check whether the vendor charges for it.
- Your time is the largest cost on the DIY route: cleaning data, checking results, setting up the theme and testing.
Get a quote for your exact record counts and options from each vendor before you decide.
What tools leave behind
Even the most complete tool leaves some things to be set up by hand on Shopify:
- Theme content and design: banners, home page sections and layout belong to the new theme.
- Navigation menus, which need rebuilding around the new collections.
- Store settings: shipping rates, tax, payments, notifications and policies.
- App data: reviews, loyalty points, wishlists and subscriptions usually move through the new app’s own import tools.
- Passwords: Shopify says they can’t be migrated by CSV, and vendor add-ons vary; customers sign in with a one-time email code.
- Tracking and integrations, which are configured and tested separately.
Questions to ask a tool vendor
- Which entities move from my platform?By name, for your exact source and version.
- What does it cost for my record counts?Including the options you need.
- How are attributes and custom fields handled?Mapped to metafields, flattened into descriptions, or dropped?
- Can I run it again?For a re-run after fixes, and for a final delta sync on launch day.
- Are redirects 301s, and which URLs are covered?Products and categories only, or pages and posts too?
- What happens if something fails?Support hours, and whether failed records are reported.
When an app is enough
Honestly, quite often. A migration app on its own is usually enough when most of these are true:
- The catalogue is small and tidy: a few hundred products, simple variants, consistent data.
- Search traffic is modest: Search Console shows a handful of pages earning clicks, so a short redirect list will cover them.
- There are few integrations: payments and shipping, and not much else.
- You’re happy with a Theme Store theme, configured by you or your team.
- Someone has the time to check the data, set up the theme and test checkout.
If that’s you, save your money: pick the tool that supports your platform, test it on a sample, and use my Shopify migration checklist to make sure nothing is missed.
When an app isn’t enough
- The catalogue needs restructuring. Years of inconsistent attributes, specifications in description text, or products with more option dimensions than Shopify allows.
- Rankings carry real revenue. Thousands of ranking URLs, filter pages with links, and content that earns traffic need a considered redirect map and post-launch monitoring.
- Integrations run the business. EPOS, ERP, warehouse, marketplaces and finance providers need connecting and testing.
- Trade customers or multiple markets need B2B or Markets set up properly.
- Nobody in-house has the time. The app finishes in hours; the checking, design and launch take weeks.
That’s when a managed migration earns its fee. My Shopify data migration guide explains what the work around the tool involves, and my Shopify migration SEO guide covers the redirect map.
Two stores, two answers
Two illustrative examples show how the same tools lead to different decisions.
A small gift shop on Wix
Around 150 products with simple variants, a few hundred customers, little search traffic and no stock system beyond the platform itself. Shopify’s Store Migration app brings the products and customers across; the owner picks a Theme Store theme, sets up shipping and payments, adds redirects for the handful of pages that earn clicks, and tests checkout. A managed migration would be money spent on decisions the owner can make in an afternoon.
An established retailer on Magento
Twelve thousand products with years of inconsistent attributes, trade customers on special pricing, an EPOS and stock system, a decade of rankings and a blog full of buying guides. A tool such as Matrixify or LitExtension will move the records, but someone still has to decide how the attributes become options and filters, map tens of thousands of URLs, connect the stock system without it overwriting the cleaned data, rebuild tracking and watch rankings after launch. Here the tool is one part of a larger plan.
Most stores sit somewhere between the two. The audit is how you find out where.
What automatic redirects cover
Redirect options in migration tools are useful, and worth paying for if you’re going the app route. They typically create a redirect from each migrated product’s and category’s old URL to its new Shopify URL, because the tool knows both ends of the match.
What they can’t know about is everything that wasn’t migrated: discontinued products, old categories that were merged, filter and search pages that earned links, content pages from other systems, and URLs that already redirected on the old platform. Those need a human decision about where each should go. Shopify also only follows a redirect when the old URL would otherwise return a 404, so every redirect should be tested on the live store after launch, whoever created it.
How to use a migration tool well
- Clean firstMerge duplicate customers, normalise option names, remove dead products. The tool moves whatever you give it.
- Run a test firstWhere the vendor offers a demo or test migration, use it, and check the results field by field before the full transfer.
- Set up structure firstCreate metafield definitions and collections before the full import, so data lands in the right place.
- Import in orderProducts, then customers, then orders, as Shopify recommends, with order notifications switched off.
- ReconcileCompare counts and order totals with the source, and check your best sellers by hand.
- Plan the deltaRun a final sync on launch day for orders and customers created during the build.
- Check redirects separatelyEven if the tool creates them, test every old URL after launch.
After the tool finishes
A migration tool reports success when the records are written. That’s the start of the checking, not the end of it. Before you build on the imported data:
- Compare counts of products, variants, customers and orders with the source, and find out why any differ.
- Open your twenty best sellers and check options, prices, images, stock and descriptions against the old store.
- Check a sample of customers for addresses, tags and marketing consent.
- Check a sample of orders for line items, totals, tax, shipping and the customer they’re linked to.
- Look at descriptions on the new theme, because old formatting and platform-specific codes often show up only when the page is rendered.
- Check collections contain the products they should, and that filters work on the imported data.
Fix problems at the source and re-run where you can, rather than patching records by hand in Shopify, so the final launch-day sync doesn’t bring the same problems back.
Tools inside a managed migration
A managed migration doesn’t replace the tools; it uses them inside a plan. On my projects, a migration tool or script usually does the bulk transfer, a spreadsheet tool handles restructuring, metafields and corrections, and the API covers anything unusual. Around that sit the parts the tools don’t do: the data audit, the redirect map, a custom theme, integrations, tracking, launch and 30 days of monitoring.
My Shopify migration package starts from $19,997 USD, or £14,997 + VAT for UK clients, with flexible plans depending on the deposit paid, and runs over four weeks from signed brief to a live store. I’m UK-based and work remotely with retailers all over the world. Outside the UK, the package starts from $19,997 with no VAT, quoted in US dollars after the free store audit. My Shopify migration cost guide compares the full cost of each route.
Common mistakes
Treating the tool as the migration. It moves data; the design, redirects, integrations and launch still need doing.
Skipping a test run. A small test shows problems before you pay for the full transfer.
Migrating dirty data. Duplicates and inconsistencies arrive intact on Shopify.
Trusting automatic redirects blindly. They cover matched URLs, not discontinued products, filter pages or old links.
Importing everyone as subscribed. Check consent comes across as it was recorded.
Forgetting the delta. Orders placed during the build need bringing across at launch.
Choosing a tool
If you’re going the app route, a simple way to choose:
- On a platform Store Migration supports, with a small catalogue? Start there; it’s free.
- Comfortable with spreadsheets, or moving between Shopify stores? Matrixify gives you the most control.
- Want it automated, platform to platform? Compare Cart2Cart and LitExtension quotes for your exact record counts and options, and test with a small sample first if the vendor allows it.
- On an unusual or UK platform? Check LitExtension’s and Cart2Cart’s supported lists for your platform by name.
And if your store is established and the answer to “is an app enough?” is “probably not”, see my Shopify migration service.
Get an honest answer on app or managed, for your store.
Book a free auditShopify migration tools: FAQ
Sources
Shopify Store Migration app: Shopify blog, 21 July 2026, and Shopify Help Center, migrating to Shopify and migrating from WooCommerce, accessed 24 October 2026. Matrixify: Shopify App Store listing (apps.shopify.com/excel-export-import) and matrixify.app/migrate-to-shopify, accessed 24 October 2026. Cart2Cart: shopping-cart-migration.com Shopify migration and EKM to Shopify pages, accessed 24 October 2026. LitExtension: litextension.com pricing and supported carts pages, accessed 24 October 2026. Import order: Shopify Help Center, accessed 24 October 2026. KA Consultancy prices and proof points as published on the Shopify migration services page.