• Online Stores

Migrating from WooCommerce: When WordPress Stops Pulling a Catalog

Migrating your store from WooCommerce is not about products. The catalog is unloaded from the base in an evening, and the move breaks down on three other things: variations that are separate entries in WooCommerce, plugins that hold prices and shipping, and addresses that Google already knows, including tag archives. We count these three values ​​first. The move itself takes 20–40 working days from the approval of the TK, and the shop inspection before it is free.

See how it works
Price
after a free audit
Guarantee
30 days after project sign-off
The main figure of the estimate
not the number of products, but the number of plugins with business logic
Price
after a free audit
Guarantee
30
days after project sign-off
The main figure of the estimate
not the number of products, but the number of plugins with business logic
Term of moving
20–40
working days from the approval of the TK
Analysis of the store to estimate
3-5
working days, free of charge, with the document in hand
WordPress in our dimension
285.9
ms to first byte with 119.5 KB of HTML — and no working sitemap
The second measured WordPress
1,520.2
ms to first byte - slowest of 16 sites measured
What we check first
where the shop really stands: in three cards of our own portfolio, the stack did not match the dimension
Conditions
50%
down payment, two rounds of design edits, 30 calendar day warranty
Process steps

Transparent stages with approval at every step

Total duration:20–40 days

  1. Store breakdown and description of plugins

    3-5 working days

    We remove the volume of the catalog with variations, the list of addresses, the speed and state of the site map. In parallel, we list what each active plugin is responsible for and what is critical for orders.

  2. TK and map of correspondence of addresses

    3-6 working days

    We fix the list of functions of the new store and sign it. Here we collect the "old address → new" table from the site map, Search Console and, if there is access, server logs.

  3. Building a store on OpenCart

    5-12 working days

    Clean assembly, category structure, template, payment and delivery modules under the list fixed in TK. Functions that were previously provided by plugins are collected here or postponed with a note.

  4. Transferring the catalog with variations

    4-8 working days

    Export from the database, matching attributes with the fields of the new platform, loading goods and variations. After each pass, the number of entries is compared by category, not by the total amount.

  5. Redirects, integrations, test switching

    3-6 working days

    301 at the server level, traversal of the entire list of old addresses with response code verification, test order through every payment and shipping method on the technical domain.

  6. Launch and 30-day follow-up

    2-3 working days

    Switching in a window with minimal traffic, the old build remains in reserve. Next is a report on crawl errors, 404 and repeated speed measurement on the same pages.

Technologies & integrations

What we build on and what it connects to

Stack

  • OpenCart 4.x defaults to the development branch
  • OpenCart 3.x — when you need a module without assembly under 4.x; we fix the version in the TK before the start
  • PHP and MySQL; the limit is honest: variations live in the product options, and on tens of thousands of combinations requests have to be reviewed by hand
  • Direct access to the WooCommerce base — more precisely, by exporting a plugin, but without access to hosting is impossible
  • nginx, HTTP/2, HTTPS with HSTS — the certificate encrypts the channel and does not add security to the store by itself
  • 301-redirects at the server level are faster than the plugin, but each line must be checked with a separate request
  • Google Search Console is the only source of real crawl errors after switching

Integrations

  • LiqPay
  • WayForPay
  • Privat24
  • monobank
  • non-cash settlement
  • postpaid
  • Nova Poshta
  • Ukrposhta
  • XML feeds to marketplaces
  • Google Tag Manager
  • GA4
  • Google Search Console
  • eSputnik
What's included

Complete list of work and what you get as a result

  • Downloading the catalog directly from the WooCommerce base — more precisely, by exporting the plugin, which regularly loses the link between the variation and the price.
  • Transferring variations with the option-remaining-price link: the buyer chooses a size and sees the same availability as before.
  • Attributes become separate fields, rather than text in the description, and the directory filter then relies on them.
  • A written analysis of plugins: what we close regularly, what as a module, what we refuse. We sign the list before the start.
  • Address correspondence map along with archives of tags, authors and pagination - these are often forgotten when moving.
  • 301-redirects from all index addresses with a full list run after switching, not a sample of a dozen pages.
  • Technical SEO of the new store: CNC, canonical, unique title, sitemap without duplicates and Sitemap directive in robots.txt.
  • Payment, shipping, analytics, and feed rollover with test order verification instead of "module installed" flag.
  • Measurements of first response, full load and HTML weight before and after - so that two numbers speak for speed, not feelings.
  • Control of the first 30 days in Search Console: scanning errors, 404 report and on the activation of redirects.
  • Transfer: access, written instructions, administration meeting with the manager. 50% down payment, two rounds of edits, 30 day guarantee.
When this service isn't right

What's not included — so there are no surprises at delivery

  • Transferring the blog with the entire comment history, unless you order it separately
  • Reproduction of the functionality of plug-ins, which have no analogues, without a separate evaluation
  • Guarantees of saving positions in the search
  • Post-launch advertising
  • Hosting, domain, acquiring
Who it's for

Situations where this service delivers results

Scenario 1 of 4

The catalog grew, and the administrator began to think

WooCommerce keeps each variation in a separate record, and its price, balance, and attributes in separate metadata rows. Two thousand models of five sizes are not two thousand records, but twelve thousand and several hundred thousand lines around them. The list of products in the admin goes exactly there, so it's not "WordPress that's bad" that slows down, but a specific table under a specific catalog.

We'll review your situation in a free audit
Migrating vs streamlining your existing WooCommerce

How this option differs from the alternative

Stick to WooCommerceOur approach
Business logicextensions from different authors, each with its own update cycle and licensestandard mechanisms of the platform plus modules, the composition is fixed in the TOR before the start
Variationsa separate entry for each variation and its own set of metadata around itproduct options in the core, the balance is carried out on combinations
Addresses in the indexnothing changes - this is the main and underestimated advantage of stayingmatch map and 301 to every old address, including tag archives
Money and timecheaper now; if the store is normal, we will write so in the audit document20-40 business days once, then upgrade without license fees
Riskan update that will once break checkout after hoursmoving in the season, so we choose the switching window according to your traffic
Free audit

Free audit: we count what keeps your store

WooCommerce is rarely clean: over the years it has grown to a dozen plugins, half of which are critical for orders. The audit makes a list of them and shows what will have to be reproduced after the move.

What we measure

  1. Plugins and business logicWhich extensions are responsible for prices, shipping, discounts, exchanges. This is the main factor in the budget and the main reason why moves fail.
  2. The volume of the catalog and variationsHow many products and how many variations. Variable goods are transferred differently than simple ones, and the number of variations is often two to three times greater than the number of items.
  3. Addresses in the indexHow many pages will have to be redirected. In addition to products and categories, archives of tags and authors often accumulate in WordPress - a separate category of addresses that must also be closed.
  4. Speed ​​to moveFirst response, full download and HTML weight - measure before to compare numbers after the move. For reference, on the WordPress site we measured, the first response was 285.9ms with an HTML weight of 119.5KB, and that's without a directory.
  5. Site mapDoes she exist at all? On the WordPress site we measured, all three typical sitemap URLs returned 404s, and there was no Sitemap directive in robots.txt.
  6. Update and security statusCore, theme and plugin versions. Often, this is where the real reason for the move lies — the store is scary to update.

What you get

  • A list of plugins with a note on what is critical for orders and what can not be ported.
  • A document with numbers: catalog volume with variations, addresses, speed, HTML weight, sitemap status.
  • Estimation of the number of lines in the map of correspondence of addresses.
  • Conversation for 30–40 minutes on the document.

Timeline: 3-5 business days - Plugin analysis takes longer than a normal audit

Why is it free

Because without a list of plugins, the cost of moving from WooCommerce is a guess. One plugin with its discount logic can cost more than moving the entire catalog, and both parties should be aware of this before the contract.

What's next

After the audit — the amount and term by stages with dates, contract, invoice, report. If it turns out from the numbers that it is cheaper to bring the current WooCommerce up and running, we will write that way.

Short form: your contact and site URL

Did not find your case?

Describe how it works on your side — we will tell you whether “Transferring the store from WooCommerce to OpenCart” fits and what it means in your situation. No brief and no call: one question, one answer.

Contract and paperwork

We work officially

Contract, act and invoice — for every project, not just large ones.

Trusted by6 brands

Trusted by: Kvant Energy, GYPSUN, Naturel Cosmetics, Pancer Protection, LUGI, BeeTech

Terms fixed in writing8 points

  • Contract, act and 30-day warranty

    Every project gets a written contract: scope, deadlines, amount, acceptance procedure. After delivery — act and invoice, then 30 calendar days of warranty.

  • Sole proprietor & bank transfer

    The contractor is a registered sole proprietor. Payment by invoice with closing documents.

  • Rights & access — yours

    Code, design and materials transfer to you after full payment. Domain, hosting, repository and analytics are registered to you.

  • Client portal instead of email chains

    During the project you get access to a portal: contracts, invoices, acts and project status in one place.

  • Sites in nine countries

    Our sites run in nine countries: besides Ukraine — Poland, Germany, Austria, England, Norway, Bulgaria, Moldova and Spain.

  • Verifiable numbers

    Every case in the portfolio comes with a link to a live site and a technical measurement.

  • Audit first, then pricing

    There is no price list on the site intentionally: the scope of the same work differs multiples between clients.

  • We say "no" when unsure

    If the task isn't ours or the deadline is unrealistic — we tell you upfront.

  • Contract, act and 30-day warranty

    Every project gets a written contract: scope, deadlines, amount, acceptance procedure. After delivery — act and invoice, then 30 calendar days of warranty.

  • Sole proprietor & bank transfer

    The contractor is a registered sole proprietor. Payment by invoice with closing documents.

  • Rights & access — yours

    Code, design and materials transfer to you after full payment. Domain, hosting, repository and analytics are registered to you.

  • Client portal instead of email chains

    During the project you get access to a portal: contracts, invoices, acts and project status in one place.

  • Sites in nine countries

    Our sites run in nine countries: besides Ukraine — Poland, Germany, Austria, England, Norway, Bulgaria, Moldova and Spain.

  • Verifiable numbers

    Every case in the portfolio comes with a link to a live site and a technical measurement.

  • Audit first, then pricing

    There is no price list on the site intentionally: the scope of the same work differs multiples between clients.

  • We say "no" when unsure

    If the task isn't ours or the deadline is unrealistic — we tell you upfront.

We sign NDAs on request. After completing the work, we delete our access to your services ourselves.

What affects the price

Why two seemingly identical tasks are priced differently

  • Plugins with business logicThe main line of the estimate. One plugin with its discount system can cost more than transferring the entire catalog, because it will have to be described as TK and reassembled.
  • Number of variations, not productsWe count the variations separately: they are usually several times more than the items, and it is precisely on them that automatic transfers break down. We compare the number in each category before and after.
  • How many addresses are in the indexIn addition to cards and categories, WordPress is home to archives of tags, authors, and pagination pages. Each such address is a row in the compliance map and one redirect that someone has to check.
  • Where do we get the data from?Access to the base is a few days of work. Only admin without a base means plugin export and manual reconciliation of variations, and this is another volume.
  • What are we doing with the blog?Transfer with the structure, leave on the old domain or close with redirects - three different estimates. The decision is made at the audit, because it changes the number of lines in the address map.
  • Language versionsWPML and Polylang multiply addresses by the number of languages, and sometimes keep separate sets of products. A second language is not a plus ten percent to work, but another catalog to compare.
Cases

Tasks and results in numbers — all metrics measured by us

Dr.Chaustovic Estetisk Klinikk (Крістіансанн, Норвегія)

an aesthetic medicine clinic abroad is our external dimension, not our migration

Task
Check how the site actually behaves on WordPress and what will have to be restored when moving.
Solution
The speed, volume of the site and the state of the site map were taken. The volume was calculated via the WordPress open REST API: the X-WP-Total header in the /wp-json/wp/v2/pages response immediately gives the number of published pages.
Result
26 pages, first server response 285.9 ms, full load 439.4 ms at 119.5 KB - the lightest full HTML in the sample. At the same time, /sitemap.xml, /sitemap_index.xml and /wp-sitemap.xml return 404, and there is no Sitemap directive in robots.txt: the list of addresses for moving here would have to be collected in a detour. Measured on 07/31/2026.

a furniture store for the Spanish market is our external dimension

Task
Check what platform the store is actually on before considering moving from WooCommerce.
Solution
We calculated the catalog using two independent methods — a product map and an internal search — and compared the features of the platform in the markup.
Result
76 products, matching of two methods with a difference of 0, 88 addresses in the site map. The first response is 348.2 ms with 374 KB of HTML. The main thing to evaluate the move: in the portfolio card, the stack is indicated as WordPress/WooCommerce, but in fact it is OpenCart 3. We found the same gap in two more cards out of 33. Measure 07/31/2026.

a 300-item irrigation system store is a target platform dimension

Task
Show what moving to OpenCart doesn't do on its own.
Solution
We measured the speed, catalog and checkout of the store on OpenCart 3 with nginx, HTTP/2 and brotli.
Result
300 products in 40 categories on 4 levels, first response 235 ms (median of five measurements), 143.6 KB HTML and 22.5 KB in brotli, 6 delivery methods and 3 payment methods in checkout. And nearby: /sitemap.xml gives 200 with zero body, no analytics at all. The platform is useless here - no one has checked it. Measurement 01.08.2026.
What we need from you

We can't start without this — best to prepare in advance

  1. Access to the WordPress admin and, preferably, to the database — uploading from the database is more precisely via plugin export.
  2. List of active plugins; if there is no access, we will collect it ourselves during the audit.
  3. Access to Search Console if rights are confirmed.
  4. Access to hosting, DNS and domain.
  5. The decision we make with the blog: we move it, leave it or close it with redirects.
  6. One person with the right to make decisions on the structure of the directory.
If something is missing — let us know, we'll help you gather it or do it as a separate task.
FAQ

Most frequently asked questions — with concrete answers

Why go with WooCommerce at all?

Not always worth it. Valid reasons — the catalog has grown and the administration has become slow, the business logic is held by a dozen plugins that are scary to update, or the store has already crashed after updating the kernel. Bad reason - "WordPress is not for stores": Our sample has a WordPress site with a first response of 285.9ms and 119.5KB of HTML, better than half of the measured stores on other platforms. The decision should be based on your numbers.

What happens to product variations?

We transfer the option — the balance — the price while keeping the connection. This is the most delicate place: variations are usually several times more than products, and it is precisely on them that automatic transfers break down. We compare the quantity in each category separately, not the total: the total matches even when half of the sizes came to the wrong models.

I have a dozen plugins - will everything transfer?

No, and it's more honest to say it right away. Some of the functions are covered by standard means of the new platform, some by a module, and there is no analogue for some: it must be written or deliberately abandoned. Therefore, the analysis begins with a list of plugins. Without it, the estimate is a guess, and the phrase "and it should have worked too" appears at startup.

What about a blog and tags?

This is a separate category of addresses that is mentioned last. WordPress accumulates archives of tags, blog categories, authors, and pagination pages—all of which could end up in the index. They should either be moved or closed with redirects to meaningful pages. The decision is made at the audit: it directly affects the number of lines in the compliance map.

Will the store be faster?

Speed ​​depends on page weight, server configuration and number of requests, not platform name. Therefore, we measure before and after the move: first response, full download, HTML weight. We do not name the specific percentage of acceleration before measurement. In our sample, two sites on the same builder gave 285.9 ms and 1,520.2 ms — the difference lies in the setting, not in the platform.

How long does the move take?

20–40 working days from the approval of the TK. The spread is large precisely because of plugins: a store with standard logic moves quickly, a store with its own system of discounts and exchange - for a long time. We call the exact term after the audit, when the list of functions is fixed and signed.

Will the store be unavailable during the switchover?

The new store is being assembled in parallel on the technical domain, so the work goes on without stopping sales. Unavailability is possible at the moment of switching and takes minutes, not hours; we choose the window according to your own statistics - where the traffic is the lowest. The old assembly remains raised in reserve so that there is somewhere to return to the same day.

What about customers, orders and coupons?

Clients and order history are transferred, if it is in the contract: technically, they are in the same tables as the catalog. Passwords are never transferred in a readable form - buyers restore access through mail, and this is a normal process. Coupons and accumulated bonuses depend on the plugin that calculated them: if the logic is non-standard, it falls into the same list of functions as the rest of the plugins.

Will traffic drop after the move?

Fluctuations in the first weeks are normal: the search engine has to work around the new structure. We will not promise to maintain positions, because it is not in our control zone. In our area, it's different: no old address is 404ing, the new sitemap doesn't contain duplicates, and we look at crawl errors in Search Console every week for the first 30 days. Our advice is to keep the old build up on the tech domain, closed from indexing, for a month after the move: it's the cheapest insurance you can buy.

Demo

Your catalogue on a phone screen

This is how your store can look on a phone: a collection banner, popular products and a cart one tap away. Tap “Add to cart” and the counter in the header updates, just like in a real store.

  • Collection bannerThe first screen shows what is new, not a logo.
  • Product cardsPhoto, price and a button — no extra page to open.
  • One-tap cartThe counter in the header updates instantly, like in a real store.
Stores in the portfolio
This is a demo interface, not a client's store. Live projects are in the portfolio.
SHOP
New collectionAutumn / WinterExplore
PopularAll products ›
  • Essentials Hoodie1 290 ₴
  • Urban Backpack1 490 ₴
  • Classic Cap690 ₴
  • Basic Tee590 ₴
  • Street Sneakers2 390 ₴
  • Active Shorts890 ₴

Send access to the admin - we will count plugins, variations and addresses.

In response — a document with catalog numbers, a list of plug-ins with a criticality mark, and an estimate of work by stages. If it turns out that it's cheaper to upgrade your existing WooCommerce, you'll read this first line.

From measured cases26 pages, first server response 285.9 ms, full load 439.4 ms at 119.5 KB - the lightest full HTML in the sample

View cases
  • Reply within 2 hours
  • No commitment
  • We work under a contract

There is no price list on the site on purpose: the same work differs several times over between two clients, and a “from” figure explains nothing in that case. First a free audit — we count your pages, duplicates and speed — then we name the sum and the deadline and fix both in the contract.