Migrating Magento webshop

Magento remains one of the most powerful and flexible open-source eCommerce platforms on the market, trusted by global brands and mid-sized businesses alike. Ensuring your Magento webshop performs optimally often depends on the quality of your hosting environment. If your site is experiencing performance issues, downtime, or scalability limits, it may be time to consider a Magento migration. Curious about Magento and whether it’s the right fit for your business? In this post, we’ll break down why you might choose Magento over WooCommerce (or not), walk you through the Magento webshop migration process, and share how we handled a real-life Magento migration for one of our clients. Keep on reading..

Magento is an open-source e-commerce platform built with PHP. It helps developers create online stores where businesses can sell products. Magento was first released on March 31, 2008, by a company called Varien, and it was built using the Zend Framework. It gives store owners the tools to build their own online shop and offer a smooth shopping experience to customers. It works similarly to other e-commerce platforms like WooCommerce, Shopify, Wix, BigCommerce, etc.

According to BuiltWith, there are over 100,000 active websites currently using Magento. Many businesses, including big brands like Nike and Samsung, have used Magento to run their online stores. While there are many e-commerce platforms to choose from, these numbers show that Magento is still a strong and trusted option in the market. If you’re looking for a reliable and flexible platform to build your online store, Magento is a good choice to consider.

Best eCommerce Platforms: A Spotlight on Leaders in 2025 (Source: Techliance)

Curious about the difference between WooCommerce and Magento? Let’s take a closer look.

Just for comparison, let’s break down the main differences between WooCommerce and Magento.

WooCommerce is one of the leading e-commerce CMS. It’s a free, open-source plugin for WordPress that’s great for small to medium-sized businesses. It’s popular because it’s easy to use, highly customizable, and has a large library of free and paid extensions and themes. You don’t need much technical knowledge to get started, making it ideal for users who want a simple and flexible eCommerce solution.

Magento, on the other hand, is a more advanced open-source platform designed for larger businesses with complex needs. It’s powerful and scalable, but it requires technical expertise and developer support. The open-source version is free, while the cost of Enterprise version starts from $22,000/year, depending on features and support.

Now, let’s take a closer look at the key differences between Magento and WooCommerce.

 

Payments gateways

Magento and WooCommerce offer a solid amount of options. Both platforms support major payment gateways. WooCommerce comes with built-in support for PayPal, Stripe, bank transfers, and more, plus easy extensions for services like Google Pay and Amazon Pay. Magento includes PayPal, Authorize.net, and Braintree (some payment methods may need to be added manually in newer versions).

Ease of use

Magento is built for developers and requires technical skills and coding knowledge, which can make it challenging for regular users. To use Magento effectively, it’s helpful to understand basic code and technical terms. It’s a more complex platform that often needs developer support, but it can be fully customized to meet your business needs. On the other hand, WooCommerce is beginner-friendly and easy to use, especially for those already familiar with WordPress. 

Speed and Performance

According to some studies, Magento generally shows faster loading times than WooCommerce. However, performance and speed depend on many factors like hosting, number of plugins, and image optimization. WooCommerce can still perform well because it does have some extremely fast themes.

Security

Both Magento and WooCommerce require proactive security management since they’re open-source. You need to choose a solution that will help protect your data and your customer’s personal information, such as payment details.

However, Magento generally relies on fewer plugins and offers more robust security features, including dedicated security patches. Applying those patches often requires developer support. WooCommerce can be secure too, but may need more third-party plugins to match Magento’s level. Magento might be a better option.

Scalability

When it comes to comparing the scalability of Magento vs WooCommerce, Magento is a strong contender (especially the Enterprise version). 

Both can handle large stores and high order volumes. However, Magento Enterprise is built for serious scalability, while WooCommerce relies more on powerful hosting to achieve similar performance. Hosting quality plays a key role for both platforms.

Extensibility

Magento offers a wide range of features (free and paid), including multi-language options, multi-store capabilities, and complex configurable products.

WooCommerce, on the other hand, offers fewer built-in features by default and tends to be more affordable than Magento’s. On the other hand, because Magento’s extensions are more complex, they tend to be more powerful. However, both platforms can be extended through plugins, themes, and add-ons.
Installing plugins is also simpler with WooCommerce. Since Magento is a more advanced platform, setting up and managing its extensions often requires technical knowledge or developer support.

Marketing and SEO

WooCommerce is built on a CMS originally designed for blogging, so it includes strong built-in content and SEO features, along with popular plugins like Yoast SEO.

Magento, on the other hand, doesn’t have built-in blogging functionality—you’ll need an extension for that. However, the Enterprise version includes advanced marketing tools.

Support

Both platforms have large communities and plenty of online resources. WooCommerce offers a public knowledge base, but direct support is only available for paid extensions.

Magento also relies on community support for its free version, while direct, dedicated support (like email or ticketing) is only included in the Magento Commerce plan. For complex issues, hiring a developer is often necessary.

Pricing

Magento and WooCommerce are open-source, meaning you can download and use the core code for free.

However, WooCommerce extensions and themes are generally more affordable, while Magento’s premium features and add-ons tend to be more expensive, especially with the Enterprise version. Costs can vary depending on how much you customize your store.

	Magento	WooCommerce
Payment gateways	Built-in payment options + add-ons (e.g. PayPal, Braintree)	Built-in payment options + add-ons (e.g. PayPal, Stripe)
Ease of use	Designed for developers; not beginner-friendly	Beginner-friendly
Speed and performance	Depends on hosting, setup, and optimization	Depends on hosting, setup, and optimization
Security	Strong security options, but needs developer to manage updates and patches	Good built-in security; many free/paid plugins to improve it
Scalability	Supports an unlimited number of product, can handle large stores	Supports an unlimited number of products, can handle large stores, depending on hosting
Extensibility	Highly extendable with thousands of extensions, but they tend to be pricey	Thousands of free and premium extensions
Marketing & SEO	Needs extra tools for blogging and SEO	Built-in blogging functionality; SEO plugins available (Yoast)
Support	Online support forums; dedicated support available with Commerce package	Knowledgebase; dedicated support available for paid extensions
Pricing	Free (with premium Commerce version available)	Free to start; add-ons usually cost less than Magento’s

Choosing a platform for your e-commerce business is not an easy task. Choosing between WooCommerce and Magento depends on your needs and skills. There are a lot of factors to consider, especially when you’re comparing Magento vs WooCommerce, both of which are robust solutions with plenty to offer.
WooCommerce is ideal for smaller businesses and users without much technical knowledge.
Magento is better suited for larger, more complex stores with developer support and higher budgets.

If your website is experiencing slow load times, frequent downtime, or struggles during traffic spikes, it might be time to switch to a more reliable hosting provider.

As your store grows, you’ll also need a scalable and flexible hosting environment that can handle more products, categories, and users — without driving up costs.

Lastly, if your current host has high or unpredictable pricing, migrating to a provider with transparent and cost-effective plans can improve both performance and budget control.

Magento is a powerful platform, but it needs strong hosting to perform well. If your current provider isn’t meeting your needs, it might be time to switch.

Steps to move a Magento hosting involve transferring your Magento website from one hosting provider to another. Magento migration may sound complex, but it usually follows a few clear steps: backup your data, move it to the new server, and update your settings.

1. Backing up your files
   Before backing up your Magento site, clear the cache in System → Cache Management.Next, create a backup using File Manager or an FTP app like FileZilla (recommended for reliability). You can either download all files as they are or compress them into a single archive.The goal is simple: save a full copy of your site to your local device.
   
2. Export Magento database
   Magento uses a database, so you need to move the table and your website files.Create a backup for the database using phpMyAdmin in your hosting control panel. Select your Magento database, click the Export tab, choose SQL format, and click Go button. Your database file will download to your local device.
   
3. Move Magento files
   Once you’ve backed up your Magento files and database, it’s time to move them to your new hosting account. Use FTP or the File Manager to upload all your Magento files to the new server.
   
4. Move Magento database
   Just like with the backup, the database needs to be moved to your new host separately from the files. Log in to phpMyAdmin on your new host, create a blank database and database user, then import the saved SQL file into the new database.
   
5. Update database details
   After importing your database, you’ll need to update the database details in Magento. Look for a file named local.xml to match your new database name, username, and password. This ensures everything works smoothly with your new hosting.
   
6. Modify the URLs in your database (if migrating to an entirely new domain name)
   If you are migrating to an entirely new domain name, this step is necessary. If you’re keeping your old domain name, you can safely skip this step.
   Go to phpMyAdmin, open your Magento database and find the core_config_data table. Update these entries with your new URL:
   • web/unsecure/base_url
     
   • web/secure/base_url
     
7. Refresh cache and reindex
   At this point, you should be able to access your Magento dashboard.
   Now, just refresh the cache – head back to the System → Cache Management → Select all & disable cache management. Once again, head to System → Index Management → select all the fields that show a Reindex required status → Reindex Data → click on Submit. Finally, delete all files in the /var/session and /var/cache folders. Your Magento migration is complete, and your site should be running smoothly.

The Client

The client is a modern online grocery store that offers customers a simple way to buy everyday products from home. With a focus on convenience and fast home delivery, their goal is to make grocery shopping easy and stress-free. In addition to offering a wide range of daily essentials, the store also supports local producers by encouraging customers to choose locally made products. This helps strengthen the local economy while giving shoppers more meaningful choices.

The Challenge

The client contacted Sysbee with a request for assistance with their Magento webshop stability. As most customers turned to online shopping, and as a result, their webshop experienced heavy load and outages. After unsuccessfully trying to resolve the issue with their previous provider, they have decided to migrate their webshop to a new infrastructure.

The Solution

The customer decided that our Magento service was the right fit for their needs, so they shared access details with us to start the migration. Our system engineers prepared the new server and began the migration process right away. Everything was completed by the next morning, and the new server was up and running.

We used our Magento service, which is built to support medium-sized Magento stores. It allows up to 90 users at the same time and includes 24/7 proactive support, monitoring dashboards, and regular backups. On the technical side, the solution runs on an AWS instance with 16 CPUs, 32 GB of RAM, 150 GB SSD storage, and 1 TB of monthly bandwidth.

The Result

With the help of our engineers and Magento optimized solution, the client was able to reactivate their webshop after experiencing several days of instability on their previous infrastructure. The webshop is up and running as we speak, and the client is able to ensure proper service for their customers.

Migrating a Magento webshop might seem like a complex task — but with the right preparation, reliable hosting, and expert support, it can significantly improve your store’s performance, security, and scalability. Whether you’re outgrowing your current hosting provider, dealing with frequent slowdowns, or planning for long-term growth, migrating your Magento store can be right next step toward improving performance and stability.

Need help migrating your Magento store? Get in touch with us — we’ll make sure your webshop runs smoother, faster, and more reliably than ever.