There is no useful migration price without a scope. A five-product storefront with standard checkout is a different project from a catalog with bundles, subscriptions and a warehouse integration. The code builder's name does not settle the cost.
This guide gives you a budget method, not a market average or a Meetanshi quote. The earlier broad price and first-party audit claims are not a reliable basis for your decision. Ask vendors to price the same feature map, with the same acceptance tests.
Count the work before comparing hourly rates
Use the Shopify migration guide to identify which data types have a suitable transfer route. Then add the tasks specific to your app.
| Work area | What to count | Main uncertainty |
|---|---|---|
| Catalog cleanup | Products, variant structures, images and custom fields | Inconsistent source data |
| Storefront | Templates and unique interactions | Design changes during implementation |
| Integrations | Payments, fulfillment, tax and external systems | Unsupported workflows or missing access |
| Data history | Customer records and historical orders required | What the chosen transfer method supports |
| Search continuity | Important old URLs, content and redirects | Missing URL inventory |
| QA and cutover | Test cases, reconciliation and rollback work | Problems found only during complete order tests |
| Support | Monitoring and fixes after launch | Unclear maintenance ownership |
Record what you are intentionally leaving behind. An excluded feature should not surprise the team at launch. Use the migration steps to turn the inventory into a sequence.
Separate one-time spending from running cost
One-time costs may include assessment, data cleanup, theme work, integration development and testing. Ongoing costs may include the platform plan, apps, payment processing, hosting for retained services and maintenance.
Check each vendor's current price and tax treatment before committing. This article does not freeze Shopify or app prices. A plan that looks cheaper in development may need a different tier or additional app for your required workflow.
Keep internal staff time in a separate column. It affects the business decision but is not the same as cash paid to a contractor.
A fictional calculation you can replace
The following numbers are invented to show the arithmetic. They are not typical hours, agency rates, a client result or a quote.
| Fictional task | Assumed hours |
|---|---|
| Discovery and feature map | 6 |
| Catalog cleanup and import trial | 10 |
| Theme and navigation | 12 |
| One integration | 8 |
| QA, redirects and cutover | 12 |
| Total | 48 |
At an assumed rate of $40 per hour, labor would be 48 x $40 = $1,920. With an assumed $150 one-time theme charge, the one-time subtotal is $2,070, before tax, apps and other charges. Replace every input with a real estimate and current vendor price. A more difficult integration can change this calculation substantially.
Do not hide uncertainty inside a precise total. Ask the vendor which assumptions could change the estimate and how they would price that change. A contingency should reflect identified risks, not an unexplained standard percentage.
Compare quotes line by line
Give every vendor the same product sample, feature list, old URL inventory and access constraints. Ask each to mark included, excluded and unresolved items. Compare these before comparing totals:
- Which customer and order history is transferred, and how is it reconciled?
- Who buys and owns app subscriptions, themes and accounts?
- What counts as a passed checkout, refund and fulfillment test?
- Who handles downtime, rollback and fixes after launch?
- Which changes require a new quote, and who approves them?
If a quote only names a page count, ask how payments and data are tested. A migration can look finished while orders still fail downstream.
Decide whether migration pays for itself
Compare migration with repairing the existing app. List the failure you are trying to remove, its evidence and the cost of supporting either setup. Avoid assigning invented revenue uplift to a new platform. Measure actual errors, manual work and running costs instead.
For a narrow bug, use the Bolt troubleshooting workflow. For unknown code quality, start with the developer handoff assessment. A scoped migration assessment can turn those findings into a quote; this worksheet itself is not a commitment to buy.