What’s Wrong with Magento
Magento was built for an earlier era of ecommerce—an era when flexibility mattered more than speed, and customizability mattered more than usability. If you’re feeling like your store is becoming harder (and more expensive) to manage, you’re not imagining it. The problems are structural.
At Stage Two Commerce, we’ve helped brands like yours break free from the drag of Magento and rebuild a faster, simpler, more scalable ecommerce operation on Shopify. Below, we’ve outlined the most common reasons companies decide to migrate.
High Cost of Ownership
Magento is deceptively expensive. Even if you’re not paying for Magento Commerce licenses, the total cost of running a Magento store often includes:
-Dedicated developers on retainer (or worse, on-call)
-Hosting and infrastructure costs
-Security patches, updates, and version upgrades
-Long development timelines for simple changes
-Downtime and firefighting costs when things break
A single site update can cost thousands. And when you're stuck waiting on dev availability to launch a new campaign or fix an issue, that’s opportunity cost, too.
Shopify, by contrast, is hosted, secure, and requires no infrastructure or core maintenance. Most changes can be made by your team—no dev dependency.
Developer Dependence
On Magento, your marketing team likely can't:
-Add new product attributes
-Update filters or swatches
-Adjust homepage layout
-Modify navigation
-Run new landing pages
All of this requires a developer—and sometimes a multi-day ticket cycle.
On Shopify, your team can move faster. The backend is intuitive, well-supported, and flexible enough for non-technical users to control 80%+ of the experience.
Slower Site Speed
Magento sites tend to be slower—especially if they’ve been heavily customized over the years.
-Magento’s architecture isn’t optimized for front-end speed
-Third-party modules and plugins can add bloat
-Hosting configurations vary, and caching is fragile
In ecommerce, speed = conversions. Shopify is built for fast load times and optimized mobile UX out of the box.
Fear of Breaking Things
Many Magento stores are fragile. Even simple changes can break unexpected areas of the site, especially if built on older versions or maintained by multiple devs over time.
This fear leads to hesitation:
-Your team avoids editing pages
-Launches get delayed
-Bugs stack up
When fear creeps into your workflows, progress stalls. Shopify gives your team confidence to move quickly.
Lack of Integrations and Apps
Shopify has a robust app ecosystem with 1-click installs, seamless support, and thousands of vetted solutions.
Magento, by contrast:
-Has fewer high-quality extensions
-Often requires custom development to integrate tools
-Comes with compatibility issues and limited documentation
If you’re trying to connect email, reviews, customer support, or inventory tools, Shopify is the modern standard.
Painful Updates and Upgrades
Upgrading from Magento 1 to Magento 2 was nearly a replatforming. And even minor version upgrades in Magento 2 can:
-Break existing functionality
-Require dev time to test/fix
-Force downtime or rollback plans
With Shopify, there are no major upgrades. The platform evolves silently and continuously without burdening your team.
Operational Drag
Magento creates hidden friction across your team:
-Higher training time for new hires
-Complicated workflows for fulfillment, merchandising, and content
-More time spent troubleshooting instead of growing
Shopify simplifies operations. Your team can focus on growth—not maintenance.
You Can’t Scale Like This
If your internal systems are built around Magento, you're scaling complexity, not efficiency.
-Every new initiative adds tech debt
-Cross-functional work slows down
-Growth feels like pushing a boulder uphill
We’ve seen it over and over: once brands switch to Shopify and rebuild their tech stack, they regain momentum and start scaling with confidence.
Ready to Switch?
Let’s scope your migration. We’ll create a free roadmap showing exactly what it would take—and how much easier your life will be after.