Shopify to Shopware: what drives cost and timeline

The six things that decide the effort

1. Catalogue structure, not size. Ten thousand simple products migrate faster than one thousand products with many variants, metafields and bundle logic. How products are modelled on Shopify — options, metafields, tags used as filters — decides how much mapping work the move to Shopware’s properties and variants needs.
2. Apps that hold data or logic. Reviews, subscriptions, loyalty, product options, B2B pricing: on Shopify these usually live in apps. Each one needs its data exported separately and an equivalent on Shopware — a standard feature, an extension from the Shopware Store, or custom development.
3. Frontend. Adapting an existing Shopware theme is the fastest route. A fully custom design takes longer, and a headless storefront longer again.
4. Integrations. ERP, warehouse, PIM, accounting, marketplaces, email marketing. Every connection has to be rebuilt or reconfigured and tested end to end.
5. B2B requirements. Customer-specific prices, quotes, company accounts and approval flows are often the reason for moving — and a significant part of the work.
6. SEO scope. Shopify’s fixed /products/ and /collections/ paths always change. The more URLs rank and the more content you have, the more redirect mapping and checking is needed.

Typical timeline

For a typical B2C store with an adapted theme and a handful of integrations, expect roughly 8–14 weeks from audit to launch. B2B requirements, many integrations or a headless frontend extend that. Our timeline estimator gives you an indicative range for your situation.

Costs after launch

Compare running costs honestly. On Shopware you pay for hosting, the edition’s licence where applicable, extensions, and ongoing maintenance and upgrades. On Shopify you pay the plan, apps and — unless you use Shopify Payments — transaction fees. For growing stores with many apps, Shopify’s recurring costs often exceed what they expected; for small stores, Shopify is usually cheaper to run.

The fairest comparison is total cost over three years, including development in both scenarios.

How to keep the cost down

• Clean up before you move. Discontinued products, unused apps and dead pages are cheaper to delete than to migrate.
• Start from a good theme. Save the custom design for the pages that sell.
• Prefer standard features. Shopware covers a lot out of the box. Custom code should be for what genuinely makes your business different.
• Phase it. Launch with what you need, then add nice-to-haves once the new shop is stable.

Is it worth it?

Moving is worth it when Shopify is blocking something concrete: B2B, checkout control, data location, or app and fee costs that keep climbing. If none of those apply, optimising your Shopify store may be the better investment — and we will tell you so. See also Shopify vs Shopware and how we migrate from Shopify to Shopware.