PrestaShop 1.7 · 8 · 9
Upgrade PrestaShop
without closing the store
If you are still on 1.7 you no longer get security patches, and every year that passes makes the migration more expensive. We tell you which modules survive before you pay anything.
The questions nobody answers
Look at competitors’ pages and you will see promises about security and performance. What you will not see is any of these six answers, which are exactly what is at stake.
What happens to my modules?
This is what really decides whether an upgrade goes well, and almost nobody mentions it. Many third-party modules have no version for 8 or 9, and some never will because the author abandoned them. The first thing we do is the inventory: which are still alive, which have an alternative and which need rebuilding or dropping. You know that before we start, not halfway through.
How long will the store be closed?
It will not. The migration is done on a copy, in parallel, while your current store keeps selling. The switch happens at a specific agreed moment, once the new one has been tested. If something does not add up that day, we do not switch and nothing happens.
What if it goes wrong?
You roll back. The original store is not touched at any point in the process: it stays there, working, until the switch is decided. It is not a promise that nothing will fail — it is that if it does, you are not left without a store.
What is included and what is billed separately?
Agreed in writing before we start, with the inventory in front of us. What the quote covers and what it does not. A module that has to be rebuilt from scratch is separate work and quoted separately, but you will know at the start and not at the end.
Who is responsible if a third-party module is incompatible?
We handle the ticket with the vendor instead of leaving you on hold. What we cannot do is force them to release a new version. That is why the inventory comes first: so that conversation happens before you pay anything, not after.
Will payments still work?
The payment gateway is the part that allows no surprises, and the Spanish ones have their own small print. Redsys is configured, tested in its test environment and moved to live with a real verified payment before opening. A store does not open without having taken one payment first.
Sometimes upgrading is not the answer
A big version jump drags along years of configuration, disabled modules still sitting in the database and fixes nobody remembers the reason for. There is a point where debugging an inherited install costs more than building a clean one and migrating only the business data: products, customers and orders.
We do not say this to sell more: the clean install is usually the shorter route, not the pricier one. But it is a decision to make with the inventory in front of you, not out of habit.
How we do it
Inventory and diagnosis
Current version, installed modules, theme, customisations and gateway. From there comes what can be kept and what cannot. It is the step that decides the quote, and until it is done any figure is made up.
Decide: upgrade or rebuild clean
Fighting an upgrade is not always worth it. Sometimes a clean install of the new version with only the business data migrated — products, customers and orders — is faster and healthier. It depends how much customisation you carry, and it is decided with data.
Built in parallel
The new store is built separately, without touching the one that is selling. Theme, modules, languages, taxes, carriers and gateway.
Tested with real money
A complete order end to end: cart, shipping, payment, confirmation emails and the order showing in the back office. Plus an order that should fail, to check it fails where it is supposed to.
Switch and watch
The switch happens at the agreed moment and what matters is watched afterwards: that orders come in, that emails go out and that Google does not lose the URLs. Redirects go in the same day.
Frequently asked questions
Is it worth upgrading from PrestaShop 1.7 to 8 or 9?
If you are still on 1.7, yes: that branch no longer receives security patches, and each passing year makes the migration more expensive as abandoned modules and unsupported PHP versions pile up. The question is usually not whether to upgrade but to which: 8 is the conservative jump, 9 is the one you will not have to repeat soon.
Will I lose orders and customers?
No. Products, customers, orders and history are migrated. What sometimes does not survive are theme customisations and third-party modules with no new version, and that is known at the inventory stage, before we start.
What about Google rankings?
They are kept if URLs stay the same or are redirected. It is the same work as any web migration: a map of old addresses to new ones and redirects in place on switch day, not the following week.
How much does it cost?
It depends almost entirely on the modules and how customised the theme is, not on the number of products. That is why the first step is the inventory: until we know what can be kept, any quote is a number pulled from the air. Write to us with your store URL and current version.
Do you only work in Madrid?
For this you do not need to be nearby: a store is migrated remotely. We work from Madrid across Spain.
What if I would rather change platform than upgrade?
That is a legitimate option and sometimes the right one. If your catalogue is small and your needs have changed, building on another platform may beat dragging ten years of PrestaShop along. We will tell you if we think that is your case, even if it means a smaller project for us.
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