A Shopify store can be profitable and still be expensive to operate. For a Nigerian merchant, a dollar-billed subscription, paid apps and possible third-party payment-provider fees may make WooCommerce attractive. But moving a working store is not the same as importing a product spreadsheet. You are changing the checkout, hosting responsibility, customer accounts and often the URLs Google already knows.
For initial planning in Nigeria, I would allow roughly ₦900,000–₦1.8 million for a straightforward professionally managed Shopify-to-WooCommerce move, ₦1.8m–₦4m for an established store, and ₦4m+ for custom integrations or complicated subscription and inventory workflows. These are my illustrative scoping allowances, not surveyed market averages, published tariffs or a quotation. A small products-only DIY import can cost much less.
The real question is whether the savings or control you gain will justify the migration, maintenance and sales risk.
What does a Shopify to WooCommerce migration actually cost?
| Starting situation | Illustrative one-off budget | What the work should cover |
|---|---|---|
| Small store with standard products | ₦900k–₦1.8m | New WooCommerce setup, theme configuration, product and customer transfer, payment/shipping setup, redirects and launch tests |
| Established store with order history and search traffic | ₦1.8m–₦4m | Above plus historical-order mapping, custom templates, app replacements, SEO inventory, stronger testing and supported cutover |
| Complex store with subscriptions, B2B or ERP integrations | ₦4m+ | Custom business rules, recurring billing transition, external systems, reconciliation, staged launch and extended support |
These figures exclude new hosting, premium extensions, payment-processing fees, content work and ongoing maintenance. Some stores will need less; large catalogues or fragile integrations can cost substantially more. Ask for a scope-based quote rather than a price per product.
For a general comparison of the two platforms before committing to either, see my Shopify vs WooCommerce guide for Nigeria. This article addresses the next decision: you already operate on Shopify and are pricing a move away from it.
Calculate the three-year decision before paying for a migration
WooCommerce’s core software is open source, but its hosting, updates, security, backups, extensions and developer support are your responsibility. Shopify bundles much of the infrastructure into its subscription. The cheapest monthly platform fee does not necessarily mean the cheapest operating system.
For Nigerian merchants using an eligible third-party gateway, Shopify’s current Nigeria pricing and transaction-fee documentation matter. The Basic plan currently lists a 2% third-party payment-provider fee, separate from the gateway’s own processing fee. Confirm your actual plan, payment methods, eligibility and billing terms; not every order attracts the same treatment.
Consider an illustrative store processing ₦5 million per month in payments subject to that 2% fee. The additional Shopify fee would be ₦100,000 monthly, or ₦1.2 million annually, before the payment gateway’s fee. That is arithmetic on an assumed sales mix, not a claim about your store’s turnover.
Now suppose moving to WooCommerce creates ₦600,000 more annual hosting and technical-support expense than the Shopify setup it replaces. Ignoring other subscription and app differences, the net annual saving in this example would be ₦600,000. A ₦1.5 million migration would take about 2.5 years to recover at that rate. If the extra WooCommerce running cost is higher, or your eligible Shopify payment volume is lower, the payback stretches. If Shopify app subscriptions are also removed, it may shorten.
Before requesting a build, calculate:
Expected annual Shopify fees and apps avoided − additional WooCommerce operating costs = estimated annual saving.
Then compare that with the migration quote, possible downtime, conversion risk and the value of greater technical control. Do not migrate purely because a social post says WooCommerce is free.
What moves from Shopify, and what does not?
WooCommerce’s official Shopify migration guide separates straightforward exports from data and workflows requiring specialised tools.
| Asset | What to expect |
|---|---|
| Products, images, variants and categories | Transferable, but SKUs, stock, images, variant attributes and categories need reconciliation |
| Customer profiles | Export/import is possible; existing Shopify customer passwords do not transfer |
| Historical orders | Shopify can export orders, but reconstructing accurate order/customer relationships in WooCommerce needs an appropriate importer and verification |
| Shopify theme and Liquid customisations | Do not transfer as a working WordPress theme; storefront templates need rebuilding or replacement |
| Shopify apps | Do not become WooCommerce plugins; each business function needs a replacement, custom work or deliberate removal |
| Subscriptions, gift cards and loyalty balances | Require a separate compatibility and continuity plan, not a standard catalogue import |
| Indexed product, collection and blog URLs | May change; old URLs need mapped permanent redirects and updated internal links |
| Checkout, shipping and tax rules | Must be configured and tested on WooCommerce |
Shopify’s own store-backup documentation explains which data can be exported, while its order-export guide describes order and transaction-history CSVs. An export file is not proof that the destination system can import every relationship correctly.
The most expensive migration defects are often invisible at first: a bestseller with the wrong variation price, a returning customer unable to sign in, a subscription not renewing, or an old Google result landing on a 404 page.
Five workstreams a professional quote should include
1. Audit the actual store, not just its product count
Count products, variations, customers, orders, refunds, gift cards, reviews and content pages. List each Shopify app by the job it performs: subscriptions, abandoned carts, wholesale pricing, shipping, loyalty, email automation or analytics.
Agree which historical records must remain usable in WooCommerce and which can be retained securely as an accessible archive. A quote that promises “all data” without defining the fields is not a reliable scope.
2. Build the destination store and its operating environment
WooCommerce needs hosting appropriate to your traffic and catalogue, a theme, security, backups, caching, transactional email and an update process. Make sure the business owns the domain, hosting account, WordPress administration, payment account and any paid plugin licences.
The new store does not need to reproduce every Shopify app. It needs to reproduce the business outcome that mattered. Sometimes a simpler workflow is better; sometimes a custom integration is essential.
3. Preserve search traffic with URL-level redirects
A product URL such as /products/item-name may become a different WooCommerce permalink. Export the current URL inventory, identify pages with search traffic and links, map old addresses to the new pages and test the redirects.
Google Search Central’s site-move guidance recommends permanent server-side redirects, updated canonicals and internal links, a new sitemap and post-launch monitoring. It specifically warns against redirecting unrelated pages to the homepage.
A migration should not erase years of product rankings just to make the new design look cleaner. My SEO migration checklist covers the checks worth including in the handover.
4. Rebuild and test the full Nigerian checkout journey
Paystack provides an official WooCommerce setup guide, including test/live configuration and webhook setup. Installing the plugin is only the beginning.
Test the full mobile journey: select a product variation, choose a delivery area, pay, see the correct order status, receive the right email and find the order in the merchant dashboard. Also test failed payments, delayed confirmations, duplicate callbacks, refunds and inventory adjustments. A successful payment screen without a correctly recorded order is a business failure.
If you are budgeting custom payment work, read my payment integration cost guide.
5. Reconcile data and plan a reversible launch
Run the migration first on a staging store. Compare counts and sample records before declaring success. For a store that continues taking orders on Shopify while WooCommerce is being built, plan a final sync or controlled order-freeze window so late orders are not lost.
Agree who approves the cutover, how DNS and redirects will change, which backup can be restored, how customer password resets will be communicated and how long the old store remains available for checking. Do not cancel the Shopify account before financial, customer and order records have been verified.
After launch, monitor real orders, email delivery, failed checkouts, redirects and Search Console. WooCommerce’s update guidance also recommends staging and testing checkout, shipping and order emails before applying future updates. This ongoing responsibility belongs in the business case.
When I would advise staying on Shopify
Stay if your store is stable, the apps you use are essential, your sales volume does not justify the one-off move, or you have no one to maintain WordPress. A custom WooCommerce build is not an improvement if every routine update becomes an emergency.
Consider moving if the verified three-year economics work, you need deeper control of content or custom workflows, you already have dependable WooCommerce support, and you can fund a proper migration with testing and SEO preservation.
A business that mainly needs a better-looking storefront may only need a Shopify redesign. A store with broken checkout may need targeted repair. The platform should not be blamed for a problem that can be solved without moving it.
What to send a developer before asking for a quote
You can get a useful initial estimate without sharing passwords or customer records. Prepare your Shopify plan, approximate monthly eligible payment volume, product and order counts, list of active apps, current URL/domain, must-keep integrations and the reason you want to leave.
Ask the developer to return a written scope covering data types, storefront rebuild, app replacement, redirects, payment and delivery tests, customer-account transition, launch plan, rollback, ownership and post-launch support. Ask what will explicitly not migrate. A quote with only “Shopify to WordPress transfer” is missing most of the work.
For broader context, compare my website migration cost guide and ecommerce website budgeting guide.
My recommendation: decide with the actual cost and risk of your existing store, not platform loyalty. If you are considering a Shopify-to-WooCommerce move and need a realistic scope before spending money, tell me about the store. I can assess the migration, redesign or repair route and help plan the work through my web design and development service.
