Planning a Shopware 6 major upgrade

Minor vs. major updates

Shopware 6 versions are numbered 6.MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH. Minor and patch updates are designed to be safe to install. Major versions — 6.4, 6.5, 6.6, 6.7 — are where shopware removes deprecated code, raises system requirements and changes APIs. That is where plugins and themes break.

Skipping majors does not make the work disappear; it piles up. A shop that goes from 6.4 straight to 6.7 has to absorb every breaking change of three releases at once.

Where the effort actually goes

• System requirements. Recent majors require newer PHP and database versions. Check your hosting early — a server upgrade can be a project of its own.
• Storefront. Shopware 6.5 removed jQuery from the storefront and moved to Bootstrap 5. Themes and plugins with custom JavaScript or templates from the 6.4 era usually need rework.
• Administration. The administration moved from Vue 2 to Vue 3 during the 6.5–6.6 cycle. Custom admin modules and components often need the most attention.
• Third-party plugins. Each needs a version compatible with the target. Some vendors charge for major updates; some plugins are abandoned and need a replacement.
• Custom plugins. Your own code has to follow every removed API and changed service. The deprecation notices in the release’s UPGRADE file are the checklist.

A process that works

1. Inventory. List every plugin, app and theme with its version, vendor and whether it is still needed.
2. Compatibility check. For each item, decide: update, replace, rebuild or remove. Estimate each one.
3. Staging with production data. Upgrade a copy of production, not a clean install — real data finds real problems.
4. Code migration. Update custom plugins and the theme, remove deprecations, fix what the static analysis and tests find.
5. Test the money paths. Checkout with every payment and shipping method, customer accounts, promotions, and every integration (ERP, PIM, newsletter, marketplaces).
6. Plan the launch. A maintenance window, a fresh database backup, a tested rollback path, and someone watching orders and error logs afterwards.

How long does it take?

A shop with few plugins and a standard theme can be upgraded in days. A shop with many custom plugins, a heavily customised theme and several integrations can take several weeks. The compatibility check is what turns this range into a real number — which is why we always start there.

Staying current afterwards

The cheapest upgrade is the one you do soon after a major is released. Budget for one planned major upgrade a year and install minor updates regularly, and upgrades stay a routine job instead of a project.

Want the compatibility check done for you? Our fixed-price Shopware Audit includes it, and single custom plugins can be brought up to date with a fixed-price plugin update.

More on how we handle it: Shopware upgrades. Still on Shopware 5? Read Shopware 5 end of life.