In this guide (6)
- 1The technical specifics of migrating from PrestaShop
- 2The pre-migration checklist for PrestaShop stores
- 3How technical migration from PrestaShop to KeideaCMS works
- 4SEO: the PrestaShop problems that migration solves
- 5The real cost of PrestaShop that migration eliminates
- 6When it makes sense to migrate and when to wait
Anyone who has been running an e-commerce store on PrestaShop for a few years recognizes the moment.
The catalog has grown. You've added modules to manage SEO, reviews, advanced checkout, shipping, invoicing. Each module has its own license, its own update cycle, its own likelihood of conflicting with the others. The site that used to load in two seconds now takes five. The latest major PrestaShop update broke three modules and you spent a week fixing things.
PrestaShop is a solid platform for those just starting out — the problem emerges as the business grows. And when it does, the solution isn't to add another module.
This guide explains how to migrate from PrestaShop to an integrated system while preserving your catalog, customers, order history and SEO rankings. Without interrupting sales.
The technical specifics of migrating from PrestaShop
PrestaShop has a complex internal architecture that makes migration different compared to WordPress or Joomla. Knowing these specifics before starting avoids costly surprises.
The PrestaShop database is structured to manage complex e-commerce data: products with attributes and combinations, prices by customer group, discount rules, multi-warehouse stock management, orders with multiple statuses and full history. It's not a flat structure — it's a relational system with dozens of interconnected tables. A superficial export loses critical data.
PrestaShop modules often modify the database structure by adding custom tables or fields. Data managed by an invoicing module, a shipping module or a loyalty program does not appear in the standard export — it must be explicitly identified and extracted.
The PrestaShop URL structure is configurable but tends to accumulate variants over time: URLs with parameters, URLs with product ID, URLs with or without category slug. This variability makes the redirect map more complex to build compared to systems with a fixed URL structure.
The pre-migration checklist for PrestaShop stores
1. Complete inventory of the catalog and module functionality
Before the technical export, a functional inventory is needed. For each installed module — active or not — identify what it actually does and whether that functionality is critical to the business. A deactivated module that is still present in the system is still a potential vulnerability: migration is the right time to remove it permanently.
Critical functionalities to document explicitly: shipping management and cost calculation, integration with the invoicing management software, loyalty program and customer points, returns and refunds management, marketplace integrations (Amazon, eBay, Google Shopping), configured payment gateways.
Every functionality must have a clear answer before go-live: how is it replicated in the new system? Who tests it? When?
2. Structured export from the database
The standard PrestaShop export from the admin panel covers products, categories and customers in CSV format. It's not enough for a complete migration.
The following must be explicitly extracted from the database: product combinations (attributes such as size and color with availability and price per combination), customer groups with their pricing rules, the complete order history with progress statuses, discount rules and vouchers, product images with their alt text, the SEO metadata of each product and category (fields meta_title, meta_description, link_rewrite in the ps_product_lang and ps_category_lang tables).
SEO metadata is particularly critical: it is the synthesis of the optimization work done over time and must be fully preserved in the new system.
3. Complete URL scan and redirect map
Run a scan with Screaming Frog before any other operation. The resulting file is the map of all public URLs — product pages, categories, CMS pages, modules with their own URLs. Cross-reference it with Google Search Console data to identify which URLs have significant organic traffic.
Every URL that changes structure during migration must have a 301 redirect. On KeideaCMS, redirect management is native in the panel — no configuration files, no paid modules, no risk of faulty syntax taking the entire store offline.
How technical migration from PrestaShop to KeideaCMS works
Phase 1 — Product catalog migration
The catalog is the most complex part to migrate in a PrestaShop e-commerce site. The combination structure — a "T-shirt" product with size variants S/M/L and color white/black/blue, each with its own SKU, price and availability — must be fully replicated in the new system without losing data.
Product images must be downloaded from the PrestaShop servers and re-imported. PrestaShop automatically generates multiple versions of each image in different formats (thumbnail, medium, large) — in the new system this optimization is handled natively without the need for additional modules.
The SEO metadata of each product page — title tag, meta description, URL slug — is fully preserved. This is where most of the accumulated SEO value is concentrated: losing it means starting the optimization work on hundreds or thousands of pages from scratch.
Phase 2 — Customer and order data migration
Customers are migrated with all their personal data, shipping and billing addresses, and their group membership. As with Shopify, passwords cannot be transferred — customers will receive an email to reset their password on first login.
The order history is migrated with all details: products purchased, quantities, prices, discounts applied, shipping status, and status change history. This data is critical not only for the customer relationship, but also for any tax and accounting obligations.
Loyalty points and active vouchers are migrated to the extent that they are exportable from the PrestaShop database. Customers with active vouchers are notified during the transition.
Phase 3 — Replicating module functionality
Every functionality provided by PrestaShop modules is replicated in the KeideaCMS core or through API integrations. Advanced SEO, form builder with data encryption, shipping management, electronic invoicing, courier integrations — all integrated without depending on third-party modules with recurring licenses.
This is the step that produces the most immediate savings: the PrestaShop module licenses you pay for every year disappear. You can see the full technical comparison between KeideaCMS and PrestaShop here — including an analysis of the real cost of modules over time.
Phase 4 — Full testing in staging
The new store is tested in staging while PrestaShop remains active. Sales continue without interruption throughout this phase.
Pre-go-live testing for an e-commerce site is more extensive than for an editorial site: the entire purchase flow must be verified on all devices, shipping calculation for every configured zone, the application of discount rules and vouchers, invoice generation, automatic email notifications (order confirmation, shipping, returns). A checkout issue discovered after go-live costs real conversions every hour.
Phase 5 — Go-live and post-migration monitoring
The DNS change transfers traffic to the new store. 301 redirects go into effect immediately for all URLs that have changed structure.
In the first 48 hours after go-live: sitemap update in Search Console, manual reindexing of high-traffic pages, checking for 404 errors, verifying Analytics tracking and conversions in paid campaigns. The security of the new system is built into the core — native WAF, no third-party modules, zero manual updates to manage.
SEO: the PrestaShop problems that migration solves
PrestaShop has some structural SEO limitations that emerge with large catalogs. Canonical tag management for product variants is not always correct by default — with catalogs featuring many combinations, the risk of duplicate content is real. Speed degrades as modules are added: each module adds database queries and frontend scripts, and the result is an LCP that grows along with the catalog.
Schema.org structured data for products — essential for Google Shopping rich results — requires a dedicated module on PrestaShop. On KeideaCMS, it's built into the core for every product page: price, availability, reviews, breadcrumbs, all correctly reported to Google with no additional configuration.
After migration, Core Web Vitals improve structurally because the architecture is optimized from the ground up, not patched with caching modules added on top of a system not designed for speed.
The real cost of PrestaShop that migration eliminates
PrestaShop is open source and free. The modules are not.
An average PrestaShop e-commerce site with competitive features accumulates licenses that easily reach 800-2,000 euros a year: advanced SEO module, one-page checkout module, electronic invoicing module, carrier integration module, verified reviews module, advanced catalog filter module. Each with its own annual renewal, its own update cycle, its own risk of conflict with the others.
Then there are development costs: every major PrestaShop update requires a developer to check module compatibility and step in when something breaks. With a large catalog and many modules, this isn't a rare event — it's part of routine management.
KeideaCMS has a fixed fee that includes everything. No module licenses, no updates to manage, no emergency intervention to pay for by the hour.
When it makes sense to migrate and when to wait
Migrating from PrestaShop to KeideaCMS makes sense now if module costs have become significant, if updates have caused recurring compatibility issues, if site performance is worsening as the catalog grows, or if you're planning an e-commerce expansion that would require additional modules.
It makes less sense if the catalog is small and stable, if the installed modules are few and well maintained, and if you don't have significant performance or management cost issues.
If you want to understand concretely what migration would involve in your case — timelines, costs, management of the catalog and orders in progress — the starting point is an audit of your current store.
