If you are researching a Magento 1 to Magento 2 upgrade in 2026, the conversation has changed. This is no longer about whether Magento 2 has better features. Magento 1 reached end of life in June 2020, which means every M1 store still running today has gone six years without an official security patch, a compatibility update, or a supported payment integration.
We have migrated Magento 1 stores since the day Magento 2 shipped, including a build that lifted QC Supply's revenue by 61.72% after their move. This guide covers what an upgrade actually involves now, what it fixes, and how to do it without losing the revenue and rankings you have built.
First, the honest framing: it is a migration, not an update
Magento 2 is a different platform than Magento 1. There is no in-place upgrade button. A Magento 1 to Magento 2 upgrade means:
- Your data moves. Products, categories, customers, and order history migrate with Adobe's data migration tool plus custom mapping for anything non-standard.
- Your code does not. Themes and custom modules are rebuilt on Magento 2's architecture. Extensions are replaced with their M2 equivalents or with native features that did not exist in M1.
- Your URLs can survive. With a proper redirect map, your SEO equity carries over. Skipping this step is how stores lose half their organic traffic in a migration.
Framing it this way matters because it sets the right expectations for scope, timeline, and budget. Merchants who expect a version bump abandon the project midway. Merchants who plan a migration ship it once and are done.
Why staying on Magento 1 costs more than upgrading
Security and compliance exposure grows every quarter
No official patches have shipped since June 2020. Community patching (OpenMage) covers some gaps, but PCI DSS 4.0 makes it progressively harder to certify an unsupported platform, and card networks have flagged unpatched M1 stores since the Magecart attack waves. If your store takes credit cards, an unsupported platform is a standing liability with your acquirer, your insurer, and your customers.
The ecosystem has moved out
Payment gateways, shipping carriers, tax services, and marketing tools have retired their Magento 1 modules. Every year, another integration your store depends on stops working, and the fix is custom code on a dead platform. That is money invested in something you will replace anyway.
Developer time gets more expensive
Magento 1 runs on PHP versions that reached their own end of life years ago. Developers who still maintain M1 stores are increasingly rare, and the work is slow because modern tooling no longer supports the stack. The same feature costs meaningfully more to build on M1 than on M2, and the gap widens.
What you actually gain on Magento 2 in 2026
The 2018 version of this article listed full-page caching and a nicer admin panel. Those are still true, but the platform has compounded since:
- Performance: Full-page caching, Varnish support, and modern frontends. Pair Magento 2 with a Hyva theme and you get storefronts that hit strong Core Web Vitals without a headless rebuild.
- Native B2B: Company accounts, shared catalogs, negotiable quotes, requisition lists, and purchase order workflows ship in the platform. On M1, every one of those was a third-party extension or custom build. If wholesale matters to you, see our Magento B2B solutions practice.
- A real upgrade path: Magento 2 has a supported release cadence, and the same codebase carries you to Adobe Commerce if you outgrow Open Source. Your investment compounds instead of expiring.
- Modern checkout: Streamlined guest checkout, saved payment methods, and an extension ecosystem that is actively maintained.
- An admin your team will use: Drag-and-drop content staging, better product management, and role-based permissions that do not require a developer for everyday changes.
The upgrade path that protects your revenue
This is the sequence we run on every Magento migration:
- Audit what you have. Catalog size, custom modules, extensions, integrations, and the customizations nobody documented. This is where the real scope lives.
- Map extensions to Magento 2. Many M1 extensions are now native M2 features. The rest get their modern equivalent or a purpose-built module.
- Migrate the data. Products, customers, orders, and credit memos move with Adobe's migration tool plus custom scripts for anything the tool does not cover.
- Rebuild the storefront. A fresh theme on Magento 2, usually Hyva for speed. This is the moment to fix the UX debt your M1 theme accumulated over a decade.
- Reconnect the integrations. ERP, PIM, email, shipping, tax. Each one gets rebuilt on supported connectors instead of legacy bridges.
- Preserve the SEO. Full URL mapping with 301 redirects, metadata carry-over, and structured data. Rankings you spent years earning should arrive intact.
- Stage, test, cut over. A parallel environment, real-data testing, and a planned cutover window, so launch day is boring.
Done this way, the store that comes out the other side is faster, cheaper to maintain, and easier to grow. QC Supply's migration is the proof we point to: conversion up 18.29%, revenue up 61.72%, sessions up 44.46% after moving from M1 to M2.
What does a Magento 1 to Magento 2 upgrade cost?
It depends on three things: catalog complexity, how much custom code your M1 store carries, and the integrations that need rebuilding. A lean catalog with standard extensions is a very different project from a 50,000-SKU store with a custom ERP bridge. We scope every migration against your actual store and give you a firm, itemized quote on the first call, with no long sales cycle. For a breakdown of the cost drivers, see our guide to the cost of upgrading Magento.
Frequently asked questions
Can you still upgrade from Magento 1 to Magento 2 in 2026?
Yes. The migration tooling still works, and we run these projects regularly. The urgency has simply changed: what was once a competitive upgrade is now a security and compliance necessity, and the longer a store waits, the more brittle its extension and integration stack becomes.
How long does a Magento 1 to Magento 2 migration take?
A focused migration for a straightforward store runs roughly three to four months. Complex catalogs, heavy custom code, or ERP integrations push that to six months or more. The audit in week one gives you a real timeline for your store, not a generic estimate.
Will we lose our Google rankings when we upgrade?
Not if the migration includes a complete URL redirect map, metadata carry-over, and structured data on the new store. SEO loss in migrations comes from skipped redirects and changed URL structures, both of which are preventable with planning. We treat ranking preservation as a launch requirement, not an afterthought.
Should we move to Magento 2, Adobe Commerce, or another platform entirely?
If Magento fits your business, Magento 2 Open Source or Adobe Commerce is the natural path, and your team's platform knowledge carries over. Some M1 merchants are better served by a different platform, and we will tell you when that is the case. A store health check is the fastest way to get an honest recommendation against your own numbers.
Is Magento 1 still supported at all?
Not officially. Adobe ended support in June 2020. The OpenMage community fork provides some patches, but it is not a substitute for a supported platform when payment compliance, integrations, and developer availability are all moving on.
Related reading
Magento migration services · Magento upgrade services · Cost of upgrading Magento · Magento 1 end of life · What is Magento
Work with IWD
We have built and migrated Magento stores since 2008, and moving merchants from Magento 1 is some of the most valuable work we do. If your store is still on M1, book a 15-minute store health check and get a prioritized migration plan, or go straight to our Magento migration services and Magento development services.