PrestaShop to Shopify · MigrationPrestaShop to Shopify: no more module chaos and hosting, live in 4 weeks.
PrestaShop is open source and free, but every module costs, every update is a risk and the server is yours. We move your shop to Shopify: products with combinations, customers, orders, several languages and every URL. You keep the rankings and lose the technology.
5.0 out of 5from 30 reviews in the Shopify Partner Directory- 4 weeksto go-live for a standard scope
- Every URLredirected, per language
- No more hostingupdates, backups, security with Shopify
- 30 minutes, freeintro call with Robert
BERLIN ORGANICSLOUIS XVIHildegard
One team. Every channel. More growth.
Growth never comes from one channel alone. Your shop, SEO, ads and email have to work together. That is exactly what we do, all from one team.
A shop that sells.
Fast, clear and built on Shopify. Every visitor finds what they need and checks out without friction.
Found on Google.
Customers find you on their own, every day, without paying per click.
Sales right away.
Google and Meta ads bring new buyers now, while SEO keeps growing in the background.
Customers come back.
Klaviyo flows turn first-time buyers into regulars and bring back abandoned carts.
You focus on product and shipping. We handle everything online.
Talk to usWhat happens after your enquiry.
Intro call, 30 minutes, free
We look at your shop or your concept and tell you honestly what makes sense and what does not.
Written scope
Deliverables, timeline and responsibilities in writing before we start. No open-ended hourly budgets without a goal.
A fixed team
One point of contact, sprints, previews in a staging shop. After launch come SEO, ads and email.
Nothing goes live without approval
Every change to a live shop is agreed in advance and shown in staging first.
The code is yours
Theme, apps and integrations run in your own Shopify account. No lock-in.
Reply within 24 hours
On business days, also after launch. Written into the contract.
Talk to us.
We take on at most two new brands per month, so every project gets the attention it needs.
Book 30 minutes with Robert from Rankist
Free, you pick the time. Robert looks at your shop beforehand and tells you honestly what makes sense and what does not.
Or by email to hello@rankist.ch or WhatsApp +41 76 604 55 83
Sound familiar?
Every update is a gamble
PrestaShop 1.6 to 1.7 to 8: every version breaks modules and themes. Wait too long and you sit on a version without security patches.
The modules cost more than the platform
Payment methods, shipping, SEO, reviews, blog: all paid modules from the Addons marketplace, often with an annual fee and their own developer.
Hosting and security are your job
Server, PHP version, backups, firewall and performance during campaigns are with you or your host. With Shopify they are with the platform.
The checkout loses customers
Multi-step, no Shop Pay or Apple Pay, mandatory fields nobody needs. Every change means a module or code.
PrestaShop vs Shopify in daily life
What changes for you after the migration, in one table. The technology follows in the text below.
| PrestaShop | Shopify | |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting and updates | Your own server, version jumps break modules | Included, automatic, no downtime |
| Extensions | Paid modules of varying quality | Apps reviewed by Shopify for compatibility |
| Security | Backups, patches, PHP are your responsibility | PCI DSS, SSL, fraud analysis included |
| Checkout | Multi-step, changes via modules | One page, Shop Pay, TWINT, Apple Pay, Klarna ready |
| Languages and countries | Multilingual in core, taxes per country manual | Shopify Markets with currency, language, taxes per country |
| Combinations | Attributes and combinations in core | Up to 3 options, metafields, bundles via app |
| Finding developers | PrestaShop developers are rare in Switzerland | Largest shop community worldwide, Liquid included |
Everything moves, nothing stays behind
PrestaShop stores products, combinations and languages in many tables. We export directly from the database and translate everything into Shopify’s data model.
How the PrestaShop to Shopify migration runs
Week 1: analysis and redirect map
Database export, module inventory, rankings from Search Console. Every old URL gets its new target, per language.
Weeks 2 and 3: shop and data import
Theme in your design, import of products, customers and orders into a staging shop, translations created.
Week 4: testing and go-live
Test orders per language, payment methods, taxes, shipping. Domain switch in minutes.
After: 30 days of monitoring
Search Console, 404 report and revenue checked daily. Anything odd gets fixed at once.
PrestaShop shops are often multilingual and have grown over years, with a stack of modules nobody remembers the purpose of. The fear of the next version jump is usually the trigger. After the move to Shopify the first thing people notice is that nobody installs updates anymore and no module expires. Then the checkout: one page, express payment, Shop Pay. And the languages run through Shopify Markets with currency and taxes per country, instead of through modules.
More about our shop projectsWhat changes after the move to Shopify
A checkout that converts
Shop Pay remembers customers across all Shopify stores. Shopify reports up to 50 % higher conversion for Shop Pay versus guest checkout, measured in a study Shopify commissioned.
No server, no modules
Hosting, scaling, security, backups and updates sit with Shopify. What used to be a module is built in or a reviewed app.
Marketing from one team
After the move we take care of SEO, Google and Meta ads and email. You do not have to coordinate three agencies.
Ready to move? 30 minutes with Robert, free, and you know what the migration needs.
Request PrestaShop migrationFrequently asked questions.
How long does a migration from PrestaShop to Shopify take?
A standard scope takes 4 weeks from kickoff to go-live. Large catalogues, several languages or many integrations need 6 to 8 weeks. You get the schedule in writing after the analysis.
What happens to my PrestaShop modules?
We review every module: Shopify has many functions built in, for the rest there are reviewed apps. Whatever neither Shopify nor an app covers, we build as a custom function.
Do my languages stay?
Yes. Every language is created as a Shopify translation and served via Shopify Markets, with currency and taxes per country. The old language URLs are redirected individually.
Will I lose rankings when moving from PrestaShop to Shopify?
Not if every old URL points to its new target with a 301 and titles, copy and images move with it. We check this in Search Console for 30 days after go-live.
Is the shop offline during the migration?
No. The new shop is built in parallel in staging. On go-live day we switch the domain, which takes minutes.
PrestaShop to Shopify is the move from an open-source shop you run yourself and extend with modules to a platform that takes over operations. PrestaShop is common in French-speaking Switzerland, France and Spain and is often built multilingual. This text explains what happens to products, combinations, languages and URLs during the move, which modules disappear and when PrestaShop should stay after all.
Why PrestaShop shops move to Shopify
PrestaShop has no licence fee, but almost everything else costs: modules for payment methods, shipping, SEO, reviews and blog come from the Addons marketplace, often with an annual fee. Every version jump, from 1.6 to 1.7 to 8, breaks modules and themes, which is why many shops stay on old versions without security patches. Hosting, PHP version, backups and performance during campaigns are with you or your host, and PrestaShop developers are rare in German-speaking Switzerland.
Shopify removes these layers. Hosting, security, checkout and updates are part of the platform, apps are reviewed by Shopify for compatibility, languages and countries run through Shopify Markets. You pay a fixed plan instead of hosting, module fees and maintenance hours.
PrestaShop to Shopify: products, combinations and features
PrestaShop knows products with attributes, combinations, features, references and images per combination, spread across many tables and languages. Shopify has products with up to three options, metafields for everything beyond that, and collections instead of categories. We export directly from the database, write a mapping for every field and every language, import into a staging shop and check samples against the old shop so that combinations, prices, stock and images are correct before anything goes live.
Customers move with accounts, addresses, customer groups and order history. Passwords cannot be exported from PrestaShop, so customers set a new one at first login. We carry over orders with status, invoice and order numbers so customer service and accounting keep seeing the history.
Multilingual PrestaShop shops on Shopify
Many PrestaShop shops run in German, French and Italian or sell to France and Spain. Shopify maps languages with translations and countries with Shopify Markets, including currency, taxes and shipping per country, in one shop with local domains or subdirectories. We carry over every language with titles, descriptions, metadata and URLs and redirect the old language URLs individually. How Shopify handles multilingual shops in Switzerland is shown in our Shopify Switzerland guide.
Redirects in a PrestaShop to Shopify migration
PrestaShop URLs often contain IDs, such as /12-product-name.html or /3-category, plus friendly URLs per language and parameters for combinations. Shopify uses /products/handle and /collections/handle. Without redirects every Google click lands on a 404 page. We export every indexed URL from PrestaShop and Search Console, assign its new target and create the 301 redirects before go-live, per language. How the redirect mapping works in detail is explained on the Shopify migration page.
Modules that disappear after the move to Shopify
Payment methods such as TWINT, PostFinance, credit card, PayPal, Klarna and invoice run via Shopify Payments or partners. SEO basics, sitemap, canonical tags, product schema, image optimisation, caching and SSL are part of the platform or the theme. For newsletters, reviews and upsells there are reviewed apps. In practice, 40 modules often leave 5 to 8 apps. Whatever is special we build as a custom function in the theme.
Checkout and conversion after the move to Shopify
The PrestaShop checkout is multi-step and grows with every module. The Shopify checkout is a single page, knows Shop Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay and TWINT and is tested continuously by Shopify itself. Shopify reports up to 50 percent higher conversion for Shop Pay compared with guest checkout, measured in a study commissioned by Shopify. In our own projects we regularly see more completed orders after the migration. How we then grow traffic and revenue is described on the Shopify SEO agency page.
When PrestaShop to Shopify is not the right decision
If your business relies on custom development in the PrestaShop core, prices have to come from an ERP in real time, or you must run servers and code yourself for compliance reasons, PrestaShop can stay. We have built both and tell you before the project.
PrestaShop to Shopify with Rankist
We have been in e-commerce since 2015, have supported 293 shops and are one of three Shopify Plus Partners in Switzerland. Multilingual shops for Switzerland and the German-speaking market are our daily work. After the move we stay on board for SEO, ads and email if you want, as a Shopify Plus agency from one team. The first step is a free 30-minute call in which we look at your PrestaShop shop and tell you what the move needs.
Let's talk about your shop.
Free intro call. You get an honest assessment of what makes sense for your shop. Reply within 24 hours on business days.
Shopify, SEO and ads, once a month.
What works right now in e-commerce, from 293 shops. No spam, unsubscribe any time.