Upgrading Magento: 5 Costs You Need to Know About

Joe McFerrin· CEOMay 23, 2026(updated May 22, 2026)9 min read

Upgrading Magento: The 5 Costs Involved

We’ve talked about the cost of Magento before, but if you’re interested in upgrading your Magento site, you’re probably well aware of the popular platform’s price tag.

Instead, you’re curious about what it costs to upgrade Magento to its latest version.

And, if you’re like a lot of business owners who contact our Magento development agency, you might be especially curious to find out how much it costs to upgrade Magento.

The 5 Biggest Reasons Behind the Price of Upgrading Magento

While upgrading Magento does typically come with a significant investment, the outcome should be more than worth it.

At IWD, we’ve actually pioneered a specific approach to Magento upgrades that ensures our clients get the exact site they want (the Magento update + any extras they need) without breaking the bank.

I’ll go over the five biggest costs that usually add to a Magento update’s price tag now, but read until the end because I’ll also go through the approach we take that recently saved a client an unheard of $82,492!!!

But for the moment, let’s look at these major costs.

Cost #1 Auditing the Current Magento Site

The first step to upgrading a Magento website is auditing its current structure to ensure it has the necessary system requirements for the upcoming work. Otherwise, you could spend a lot of time and money upgrading your Magento site to the newest version only to discover that the agency has wasted your investment.

If you’re curious, here is the list of system requirements that must be met before a site can support a Magento upgrade.

But a common example of one of these requirements is when a PHP upgrade is needed to proceed.

However, once that PHP upgrade occurs, the site then needs to be retested. Otherwise, there’s a good chance frontend functionality will break (which, as you can probably guess, is a bad thing).

Similarly, Magento upgrades shouldn’t be undertaken unless the agency first conducts an audit of all third-party extensions the site currently depends on.

After conducting one of these audits, we usually find that many of these extensions are no longer needed, so they’re simply slowing the site down unnecessarily. Removing them is an easy way to improve performance ASAP.

Of course, we always explain to clients why we think an extension is unneeded before carrying out its removal.

For most companies, this is a no-brainer. If you’re interested in upgrading your site to the newest version of Magento to provide guests with the best possible user experience, getting rid of excess weight on your load time is a no-brainer.

Cost #2 Conducting All Procedural and Required System Upgrades

For the same reason, we also want to check to make sure that all necessary extensions have been upgraded to their latest version. These upgrades are often required to successfully update Magento. Even if they’re not, most clients will ask us to carry out these extension updates anyway, so we can retest the site to make sure they’re working properly.

If NetSuite is your source of truth, keep data aligned during upgrades with our Magento NetSuite integration is built to handle version changes.

Cost #3 Testing the New Magento Website

Once your Magento update has been carried out “in development”, it can be moved on to “staging.” Doing this allows us to conduct dry runs and handle quality assurance and UAT (User Acceptance Testing).

Among other things, we will:

Fully test the upgraded Magento website and prepare a list of defects
Prepare a list of said defects
Create a budget for addressing them
Prioritize and coordinate the resolution of these defects with our client
Produce a prospectus for resolving any lingering defects for client approval

This is a unique approach that we’ve come up with at IWD. If you recall earlier, I mentioned how we were able to save a client tens of thousands of dollars this way. In the next section, I’ll go into detail about why this novel procedure is so much more cost-effective than the way other Magento agencies tend to do it.

Cost #4 Taking the Site Live

Alright, so all of the preliminary work has been done. Your Magento site has been successfully updated in staging.

Now, it’s time for that all-important step: going live.

After the entire project is scoped out, your agency should coordinate with you to set a “go live” date for the upgrade.

During this step, your system will be put into maintenance mode at the date and time you both agreed upon in order to launch the new, updated site.

Your system will then be restored back from maintenance mode and your site – with its new Magento update – will be live for customers to visit.

Depending on the work involved, this last step may also entail project cleanup and post-upgrade hyper care, but any additional costs will be included in the scope that was initially outlined.

Cost #5 Managing Every Step of the Process

Finally, one of the most important costs you’ll need to cover when you upgrade to the newest version of Magento is the price of project management.

As you’ve now seen, these upgrades can quickly become very complicated. They can involve numerous steps and moving parts for completely different processes.

Project managers who are experienced with these kinds of upgrades are essential to achieving the desired result.

Not only will they keep the entire process on track, but they’ll also make sure you’re informed about the team’s progress the entire time (e.g., if they find extensions they recommend removing).

If these kinds of additional initiatives are discovered during the upgrade and are approved by the client, it’s the project manager who will be responsible for allocating the resources necessary for tackling them in a timely and cost-effective manner.

Recent Case Study: How We Saved a Client $52,000+ on Their Magento Migration

As I touched on at the beginning, we recently migrated a client to Magento and saved them $52,000 in the process.

Being a famous household name in an extremely competitive industry, our client needed something very specific from their Magento upgrade. Their industry isn’t especially friendly to sites that can’t keep up with customer demands, so the client wanted to stay one step ahead with some impressive functionality, too.

While we won’t go into details about the specifics of this unique upgrade, we can give you the following breakdown of the estimated and actual costs:

Original Estimate: $137,227
Estimate with the New Strategy: $72,495
Final Time Spent: $54,735 (we delivered under budget!!)

Again, we didn’t save our client this money by cutting corners. This well-known household name wouldn’t have accepted anything short of what they required to continue dominating their market.

This wasn’t the discount version of a “real” Magento upgrade.

It’s a cost-effective (emphasis on “effective”) way to update websites to the latest version of Magento without adding unnecessary time to the scope of work or money to the budget.

Speak with a Magento Developer Today About Your Upcoming Upgrade

Is it time to update your company’s Magento site?

Have you put it off for too long or are you just trying to stay ahead of the competition?

Whatever the reason, hiring an experienced Magento agency that understands the process backwards and forwards is essential to a successful upgrade (it’ll also make you feel a lot better about the entire process). If you've already switched to the platform, we can conduct a Magento code audit for your site, too.

At IWD, we pride ourselves on having that level of knowledge when it comes to Magento. If you’d like to speak with one of our experienced developers about how this knowledge can be applied to your successful upgrade, contact us today.

Updated for 2026: Real Magento Upgrade Cost Ranges

Magento upgrade cost depends heavily on which upgrade we're talking about: Magento 2.x to 2.y (minor version, in-place), Magento 1 to Magento 2 (major migration), Magento 2 to Adobe Commerce (license upgrade), or Magento on-prem to Adobe Commerce Cloud (hosting migration). Below are the cost ranges we've seen across IWD engagements in 2024 to 2026.

Four headline takeaways from the 2026 update on updated for 2026: real magento upgrade cost ranges.

Magento 2.x to 2.y minor upgrades (e.g., 2.4.4 to 2.4.7): 8K to 35K depending on custom module count, theme complexity, and integration depth. Typical 2.4.x stores hit the 12K to 20K bracket. Includes composer updates, module compatibility patches, regression testing, deploy.
Magento 1 to Magento Open Source 2: 75K to 200K. Data Migration Tool execution, theme rebuild on M2 architecture, custom module rewrite, integration rebuild, post-launch SEO monitoring. Timeline: 10 to 18 weeks.
Magento 1 to Adobe Commerce: 100K to 350K. Same scope as M1 to M2 plus B2B Edition configuration, Page Builder setup, Sensei AI integration, Adobe Commerce Cloud deploy pipeline. Timeline: 12 to 24 weeks.
Magento Open Source 2 to Adobe Commerce 2: 30K to 120K. License upgrade plus B2B Edition configuration, Page Builder, advanced reporting setup. Timeline: 6 to 14 weeks.
Adobe Commerce on-prem to Adobe Commerce Cloud: 25K to 80K. Hosting migration, Fastly CDN configuration, deploy pipeline rebuild on Adobe Cloud's Git-based workflow. Timeline: 4 to 10 weeks.
Theme upgrade Luma to Hyva: 35K to 80K standalone (without other upgrade scope). Often bundled with version upgrade for combined budget efficiency.

What changed in 2026: outdated thinking versus the playbook our team uses today.

Frequently asked questions

What's the cheapest Magento upgrade?

Minor version upgrades (2.4.x to 2.4.y) are the cheapest, typically 8K to 35K depending on custom module count. Most stores running 2.4.4 to 2.4.6 should plan a quarterly or twice-yearly upgrade cadence to stay current and avoid accumulating compatibility debt.

Is Magento upgrade cost worth it vs migrating to Shopify?

Depends on your B2B needs and operational requirements. If you're scoping a major upgrade (M1 to M2 or Open Source to Adobe Commerce), comparing against a Shopify Plus migration is reasonable. Plus migration cost is typically similar (100K to 300K) but you lose Magento-specific customisation depth and gain Shopify Plus native B2B + faster operations.

How often should we upgrade Magento or Adobe Commerce versions?

We recommend quarterly or twice-yearly upgrade cadence for security patch hygiene. Stores that fall more than 2 minor versions behind start accumulating compatibility debt that makes the next upgrade significantly more expensive. Most clients on retainer ship version upgrades 2 to 3 times per year.

What drives Magento upgrade cost variance?

Five factors: custom module count (each module needs compatibility review), theme architecture (Hyva is simpler to upgrade than custom Luma), integration depth (ERP, PIM, OMS connectors need re-testing), B2B configuration complexity (Adobe Commerce B2B Edition adds upgrade scope), and current version gap (skipping versions costs more than incremental).

Can we DIY Magento upgrades or do we need an agency?

Stores with strong in-house Magento dev teams can self-upgrade for 2.x to 2.y. Major migrations (M1 to M2, on-prem to Cloud, Open Source to Adobe Commerce) typically need agency help because the migration patterns are platform-specific and the data migration tooling has gotchas. Our Magento support retainers handle ongoing upgrades for clients without in-house Magento capacity.

What's a realistic Adobe Commerce Cloud migration timeline?

On-prem Adobe Commerce to Adobe Commerce Cloud: 4 to 10 weeks. Fresh Adobe Commerce Cloud build: 14 to 24 weeks. Most migrations include hosting rearchitecture (Adobe Cloud's container model), Fastly CDN configuration, and deploy pipeline rebuild on Adobe's Git-based workflow.

The five-stage workflow our team applies on engagements covering updated for 2026: real magento upgrade cost ranges.

Work with IWD

Planning a Magento upgrade or move? Explore our Magento migration services, Magento to Shopify migration, and Magento speed optimization.