Magento 1 was good. But, Magento 2 is better than that.

Even after the Magento 2 release thousands of stores still run on Magento 1. We understand that business owners are so comfortable with Magento 1 that they don’t want to upgrade to Magento 2.

But unfortunately, Magento has stopped supporting its Magento 1 version which puts eCommerce businesses running on it into serious trouble. This makes it essential for store owners to migrate from Magento 1 to 2.

Other than this Magento 2 has numerous technology updates & innovative features which help you to own a faster and safer eCommerce store.

Thus, switching from Magento 1 to 2 is not only the need of the hour but also a performance boost that you can give to your website.

How to upgrade Magento 1 to Magento 2?

Below is the step-by-step procedure to seamlessly migrate your store from Magento 1 to 2.

Step #1. Create migration roadmap & backup

Prior to migration, it is important to have a plan in hand. Thus, gather all the information needed for migration and create a clear roadmap.

Evaluate your existing theme, functionalities, and the ones available in Magento 2.

Create a necessary backup of the store’s data.

Step #2. Data migration

Once everything is set, install Magento 2 on a test server and initiate migration of the product attributes.

Migrate all the fundamental information of the store and customer data like categories, orders, invoices, and cart prices.

Step #3. Migration of extensions

Next, check if your extension requirements are covered by the native Magento 2 settings and compile the list of third-party extensions that you want to be transferred to the Magento 2 version.

Once the list is approved, install and configure the extensions in the new version and replace the ones not available with native Magento 2 functionalities and customizations.

Step 4: Testing

To check the performance of your store test each and every element in it including the third-part extensions added. Based on the results, make necessary fixes. Also make sure that your new website works seamlessly as per your expectations.

Step #5: Theme migration

Finally, migrate your Magento 1 theme to the new version and optimize it as per your needs.

For certain stores, it’s a new theme installation while for a few others customization or complete theme redesign may be needed.

After designing and optimization, ensure that the website has a fast loading speed and offers a friendly user experience.

Magento 1 vs Magento 2 performance

Below are a few frequently asked questions to help you understand the prominent differences between Magento 1 and 2 performance.

How’s the performance and loading time?

Magento 2 offers full-page caching, instant server response times, and faster page loading than Magento 1.

Also, Magento 2 can process 39% more orders/hour, 66% faster add-to-cart, and 51% faster checkout than Magento 2.

Is It more SEO & mobile-friendly?

Magento 2 is built better in terms of SEO compared to Magento 1.

Few of its notable features include:

• Canonical tag to avoid duplicate content
• Meta tags for individual pages – Meta title, description, and keywords
• Magento is optimized for mobile users making it much more user-friendly

Has the Architecture Changed?

Yes, to improve the performance of the website, Magento 2 has been built with an exceptional technology stack. Few to mention are,

• Apache
• Nginx
• MySQL Percona
• Redis
• Symfony
• Composer
• RequireJS / Knockout.js
• Memcached
• Varnish

Is There Conflict with Extensions?

Though there were many third-party extensions available for Magento 1 the major issue faced was that the extensions try to rewrite the same functionalities. It was expensive and time-consuming to solve this issue as it could only be done manually.

But this has been sorted in Magento 2. Here the plugins let the codes & core code overlap instead of overriding it.

Is the Admin Easy to Use?

Unlike Magento 1’s complex and messy dashboard design Magento 2 has adopted a simple, user-friendly, and interactive dashboard style making store management easy for business owners.

It is easy to navigate and access frequently used functions such as average orders, top searched terms, and last orders.

Is Security an Issue?

Absolutely not. Magento has improved its hashing algorithms used in password management in Magento 2. It also supports Argon2ID1 now.

As support for Magento 1 has been dropped by Magento, no updates or security patches will be released here after making it more vulnerable. On the other hand, Magento is releasing consistent updates for Magento 2 to enhance its security.

Can I Get Customer Support?

Yes, Magento offers support to Magento 2 but is not supporting Magento 1 anymore.

Who Wins the Battle, Magento 1 vs. Magento 2?

When Magento 1 and Magento 2 are compared, Magento 2 is the sure-shot winner. Magento 2 is much more advanced and loaded with features compared to Magento 1.

Magento 2 has been improvised in all aspects including architecture, SEO, loading time, performance, new extensions, themes, security, and payment gateways.

It’s a complete package for all types of eCommerce businesses to flourish and grow.

If you’re looking for more details on migrating your eCommerce store from Magento 1 to Magento 2, feel free free to reach out to our seasoned Magento experts.