ChatGPT answers, unedited

If your main goal is owning your data and making the migration from a hosted platform as painless as possible, the best choice is usually not the most powerful platform — it is the one that matches your existing store complexity and technical resources.

Here are the main self-hosted options:

SwingIntel Open Business Network## My usual migration recommendations

Choose WooCommerce if:

• You are leaving Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, Squarespace Commerce, etc.
• Your catalog is relatively straightforward.
• You want the smoothest path with lots of import/export tools.
• You already know WordPress.

WooCommerce gives you direct database access to products, customers, orders, media, and content, and its ecosystem makes rebuilding common store features easier. The downside is that you become responsible for hosting, updates, backups, and plugin compatibility. SwingIntel

Choose PrestaShop if:

• You want a standalone ecommerce system rather than a CMS with commerce added.
• You have many products, variants, languages, currencies, or regional storefront needs.
• You want a traditional admin-driven store.

PrestaShop is often a good middle ground: more ecommerce-focused than WooCommerce but less operationally demanding than Magento. StableCommerce

Choose Magento Open Source if:

• You have:

• tens of thousands of SKUs,
• complex pricing rules,
• multiple warehouses,
• B2B accounts,
• custom workflows.

Magento has strong migration tooling and deep customization options, but the move is usually a project involving developers rather than a simple import. Experience League

Consider a headless platform if:

• You have developers.
• You want complete control over the storefront experience.
• You are building something closer to a custom commerce application.

Platforms like Medusa or Saleor give you a commerce backend you control, but the migration effort is higher because you are assembling more pieces yourself. Open Business Network

For a manageable migration, prioritize these features

Regardless of platform, check that you can migrate:

• Product catalog (SKUs, variants, attributes, images)
• Customer accounts
• Order history
• Reviews
• Discount codes
• SEO URLs and redirects
• Tax/shipping rules
• Payment integrations
• Email automation data

A common mistake is moving only products and customers while losing years of order history, SEO value, or customer account continuity.

A practical shortlist

• Small–medium store: WooCommerce
• Growing ecommerce brand: PrestaShop or Shopware
• Large/complex operation: Magento Open Source
• Developer-heavy custom business: Medusa or Saleor

If you tell me what hosted platform you are leaving (Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, Squarespace, etc.), approximate number of products/SKUs, and whether you have a developer, I can narrow this down to the most migration-friendly choice.

If your priorities are full data ownership + a migration that won’t become a giant custom-development project, I’d shortlist WooCommerce, Shopware 6, and PrestaShop.

How I’d compare them

WooCommerce is particularly straightforward if your current platform can export CSV/XML. Products live in your WordPress database, and WooCommerce provides built-in product CSV import/export; customer/order migration can also be handled through import/export tooling. WooCommerce WooCommerce

Shopware 6 is worth serious consideration if you're migrating a substantial store. Its Migration Assistant is designed specifically to move products, customers, orders and other datasets, with data checks and field mappings to handle differences between systems. Shopware also explicitly supports migrating from SaaS to a self-hosted installation. Shopware Documentation Shopware Documentation

PrestaShop has a built-in import system that accepts CSV and several spreadsheet formats, making it workable when your hosted provider gives you clean exports. PrestaShop Help

My practical recommendation

If you mean “I want to get off Shopify/BigCommerce/etc. without making migration my next full-time job”, I'd start with WooCommerce.

If you have tens of thousands of products, complex variants/pricing, multiple sales channels, B2B requirements, or sophisticated workflows, I'd investigate Shopware 6 first. Its migration tooling is more explicitly designed around transferring an existing commerce system rather than simply importing a catalog. Shopware Documentation GitHub

One important caveat: self-hosted doesn't automatically mean portable. Before choosing, I'd verify that you can export customers, orders, products/variants, media, discounts, tax data, URLs/SEO metadata, and custom fields in formats you control—not just that the platform itself is open source.

If you tell me what hosted platform you're migrating from (e.g. Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, Squarespace) and roughly how many products/orders you have, I can give you a much more concrete migration path and tell you which of these has the least data-cleanup work.

If your priority is self-hosting, owning the database, and keeping migration manageable, I’d shortlist WooCommerce and Medusa.

My practical recommendation

Choose WooCommerce if “manageable migration” is the dominant requirement. Product data lives in your WordPress database, WooCommerce has built-in CSV import/export, and its documentation has migration guides for platforms such as Shopify and Wix. It also gives you control over hosting and infrastructure rather than requiring a SaaS host. WooCommerce WooCommerce WooCommerce

Choose Medusa if “full control + developer flexibility” matters more than minimizing migration work. Its current tooling supports importing products, variants, prices, images, inventory, categories and tags, and its documentation specifically describes migration workflows from platforms including WooCommerce, Shopify, and Magento. The API-based approach can be made repeatable and resumable rather than being a one-off import. Medusa Docs Medusa Docs Medusa Docs

Saleor is another strong option if you're comfortable building a headless storefront. It's open source, API-first/GraphQL-based, and can be run locally without relying on Saleor Cloud. Saleor Commerce Saleor Documentation

The biggest migration question isn't actually the product catalog—it's customers, historical orders, subscriptions, discounts, images, SEO URLs, and integrations. For example, WooCommerce's customer/order importer can map orders to existing customers and products, while Medusa's migration tooling requires more explicit data-model mapping. WooCommerce Medusa Docs

If you tell me what hosted platform you're migrating from (Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, Squarespace, etc.) and roughly how many products/orders you have, I can compare the migration path specifically for your store.

If your priorities are full data ownership + a manageable migration, I’d put PrestaShop at the top of the list.

My shortlist

Why I'd choose PrestaShop: its migration tooling is unusually practical. It supports importing categories, products, variants, customers, addresses, brands, suppliers, etc. through CSV, with field mapping, and PrestaShop explicitly documents migrations from platforms including Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, OpenCart and Adobe Commerce. PrestaShop Help Center PrestaShop Help PrestaShop

It also means your store/database can live on infrastructure you control rather than being tied to a hosted SaaS provider. PrestaShop specifically describes this as giving merchants control over their customer and product data. PrestaShop

The important caveat

Don't choose based only on "can I export my products?" A migration usually has to account for:

• Products, variants, categories and images
• Customers and addresses
• Historical orders
• Discounts/coupons
• Reviews
• SEO URLs and redirects
• Taxes and shipping rules
• Payment integrations
• Custom fields/metafields from your current platform

PrestaShop's own migration guidance recommends migrating in roughly that order and emphasizes validating the imported record counts against the old store. PrestaShop Help Center

Medusa is attractive if by "full control" you mean I want to own the entire commerce architecture and build a custom frontend. Its current migration tooling can import products, variants, prices, images, inventory and categories, but it's a considerably more developer-oriented migration than moving into a traditional ecommerce platform. Medusa Docs Medusa

So my rule of thumb is:

• Want the least painful escape from SaaS → PrestaShop
• Already comfortable with WordPress → WooCommerce
• Want a custom/headless architecture → Medusa
• Huge catalog, B2B, complex pricing/multiple stores → Magento Open Source

If you tell me what hosted platform you're migrating from (Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, Squarespace, etc.), approximate product/order count, and whether you need subscriptions or B2B, I can narrow this to the best 1–2 choices and outline the actual migration path.

WooCommerce is usually the best balance of self-hosting, data ownership, and manageable migration. It has mature import/migration tooling and supports products, customers, and orders from several platforms. WooCommerce Webkul WordPress Documentation

• WooCommerce: Best overall for easier migration + full database/server control.
• PrestaShop: Good alternative if you want a dedicated ecommerce platform rather than WordPress.
• OpenCart: Lightweight and straightforward, but generally less flexible.
• Adobe Commerce/Magento Open Source: Maximum scalability/control, but migration and maintenance are substantially more complex. magehouse.co.uk

If you tell me what hosted platform you're migrating from (Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, etc.) and roughly how many products/orders, I can recommend the best route.

If your priorities are full data ownership + a manageable migration, I’d put WooCommerce at the top of the list.

My ranking

1. WooCommerce — best overall for an easier migration

• Self-host it on your own server/host.
• Your store data lives in your WordPress database, so you control the database and backups. WooCommerce WooCommerce
• Strong import/export tooling for products, customers, orders, coupons, reviews, subscriptions, etc. WooCommerce
• There are migration tools specifically for Shopify, Wix, PrestaShop, Magento, Square, and other platforms. WooCommerce WooCommerce WooCommerce
• Biggest ecosystem, meaning it's generally easier to find plugins, developers, hosting, and migration help.
• PrestaShop — good if you want a more dedicated ecommerce system

• More ecommerce-centric than WooCommerce.
• Self-hosted and open source, giving you strong control over the underlying data.
• I'd consider it if you have a substantial catalog and don't particularly want WordPress.
• Shopware — better for complex/large stores

• Powerful and highly customizable.
• Better fit for sophisticated catalogs, B2B, multi-store, or international setups.
• Migration and ongoing administration are generally more technically involved than WooCommerce.
• Medusa — best for developer-heavy/headless setups

• Very flexible and modern.
• Excellent if you want to build your own storefront and commerce architecture.
• I wouldn't choose it specifically because you want an easy migration; it's more of a platform for building a customized commerce stack.

Why I'd choose WooCommerce for your situation

The key distinction is "self-hosted" versus merely "open source." You want something where you can actually take the database, files, backups, and customer/order data and move them to another server without being dependent on the vendor.

WooCommerce fits that particularly well. Its documentation explicitly supports migrating product data through the WordPress database or CSV, and its import tooling can handle customers and orders with field mapping. WooCommerce WooCommerce

A typical migration would look like:

Hosted platform → export data → transform/map fields → WooCommerce → test → DNS cutover

I'd also do a staged migration, rather than trying to switch everything in one shot: import customers/products first, validate them, then orders, and finally perform a short final sync before switching DNS. WooCommerce's own migration documentation recommends an ordered import process for this reason. WooCommerce

If you tell me what hosted platform you're migrating from (Shopify, Wix, BigCommerce, Squarespace, etc.), I can tell you which self-hosted option would make that specific migration easiest and what data you'll likely be able to carry over.

If your priorities are full data ownership + a manageable migration, I’d put WooCommerce at the top of the list.

My shortlist

Why I'd choose WooCommerce

WooCommerce is self-hosted and stores your store data in your WordPress database, so you control the database and hosting rather than depending on a SaaS vendor. WooCommerce WooCommerce

More importantly for migration, there's a mature import/export ecosystem. Products can be moved through CSV, and customer/order data can be imported and mapped separately. WooCommerce's migration tooling specifically supports moving customers, products, coupons, and orders, including data from other ecommerce platforms. WooCommerce WooCommerce

WooCommerce also maintains migration documentation for moving from hosted platforms, rather than leaving you to design the entire migration yourself. WooCommerce

When I'd pick something else

• PrestaShop — good if you want a purpose-built ecommerce application rather than WordPress. It has native import functionality and supports CSV and several spreadsheet formats, making catalog migration fairly straightforward. PrestaShop Help
• Medusa — better if you have developers and want a modern, headless TypeScript/Node architecture. It's powerful, but you're taking on substantially more engineering responsibility. Eryx Innovations Lab
• Saleor — attractive for a technically sophisticated operation that wants a GraphQL-first, headless architecture and strong multi-channel capabilities. It's less of a "plug it in and migrate" choice than WooCommerce. Eryx Innovations Lab

Bottom line: if you're migrating an existing hosted store and don't want the migration itself to become a major software project, WooCommerce is probably the safest choice. You get self-hosting and database-level control without having to build the commerce layer yourself.

If you tell me what hosted platform you're migrating from (Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, Squarespace, etc.), I can compare the actual migration path—including products, variants, customers, passwords, orders, subscriptions, SEO URLs, and historical data—and tell you which platform would involve the least pain.

More importantly for migration, there's a mature import/export ecosystem. Products can be moved through CSV, and customer/order data can be imported and mapped separately. WooCommerce's migration tooling specifically supports moving customers, products, coupons, and orders, including data from other ecommerce platforms.

If your priorities are full data ownership + a migration that doesn't become a multi-month engineering project, I'd shortlist these:

My pick: Shopware 6

For your particular goal, Shopware 6 is probably the best balance. Its Migration Assistant can move substantial portions of a store—including products, customers, orders, media, reviews, SEO URLs, promotions and other data—and it supports running the platform on your own server. Shopware Docs Shopware Docs

The migration process is also designed to be repeatable: it uses checksums to recognize previously migrated data, provides error resolution, and lets you rerun migrations rather than treating migration as one giant irreversible import. Shopware Docs

That makes it particularly attractive if you're leaving something like Shopify, BigCommerce, or another hosted platform and want to retain control of the database, files, backups, hosting and application code.

When I'd choose the others

• WooCommerce — choose this if minimizing migration complexity is your #1 concern. It's extremely mature, and products/orders can be imported/exported with detailed field mapping. WooCommerce WooCommerce
• PrestaShop — a good choice if you want a conventional, fully self-hosted ecommerce application. Its migration guidance explicitly covers categories → products → customers → orders → promotions → content, which is a sensible migration sequence. PrestaShop Help Center
• Medusa — I'd choose this if you have developers and want maximum architectural control, rather than the easiest migration. Its current tooling can generate repeatable migrations from other platforms, including products, variants, prices and inventory, but you'll be doing more engineering. Medusa Docs

One important distinction: "self-hosted" doesn't automatically mean "easy to migrate." I'd prioritize the platform whose data model maps cleanly to your existing store. Customer passwords, order history, subscriptions, product variants, discounts, reviews, SEO URLs and historical payment data are often much harder to migrate than the basic product catalog.

If you tell me what hosted platform you're migrating from (Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, Squarespace, etc.) and roughly how many products/orders you have, I can recommend the best target and lay out the migration path.

That makes it particularly attractive if you're leaving something like Shopify, BigCommerce, or another hosted platform and want to retain control of the database, files, backups, hosting and application code.

If your priorities are full data ownership + a manageable migration, I’d shortlist WooCommerce and Medusa, with the choice depending on how much rebuilding you’re willing to do.

My recommendation

• WooCommerce — easiest migration for most stores. It is self-hosted, your store data lives in your WordPress database, and it has built-in CSV import/export. There are also tools that can migrate products, customers, orders, coupons, subscriptions, reviews, and custom metadata. WooCommerce WooCommerce

Best if: you want to get off a hosted platform without turning the migration into a software-development project.

• Medusa — best if you want long-term technical control. It's a headless, API-first commerce engine, and its current tooling includes migration guidance for Shopify/other platforms plus CSV product imports. Its migration tooling can handle products, variants, prices, images, inventory, collections and categories, with orders/customers possible through extended migration work. Medusa Docs Medusa Docs Medusa

Best if: you have developers and want a clean, customizable commerce backend rather than another monolithic storefront.

• Saleor — powerful, but I'd choose it for a more sophisticated build. It's open source, self-hostable, GraphQL/API-first and explicitly designed around owning your stack and data. The tradeoff is that moving from a conventional hosted platform generally means rebuilding more of your storefront and integrations. Saleor Commerce Saleor Commerce

A simple decision rule

One important distinction: "self-hosted" doesn't automatically mean "easy to migrate." Your source platform matters enormously because products are usually straightforward to transfer, while customer passwords, historical orders, subscriptions, discounts, SEO URLs, tax rules, fulfillment data, and app-specific metadata can require custom mapping.

If you're migrating from Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, Squarespace, or another specific hosted platform, tell me which one and roughly how large the store is (e.g. 500 products / 50k orders). I can recommend the lowest-risk migration path and tell you exactly what data you can realistically carry over.

If your priority is full ownership of the data while keeping the migration manageable, I’d shortlist Shopware 6 first, with WooCommerce as the simpler alternative.

My ranking

1. Shopware — best overall for a serious migration

• It has a dedicated Migration Assistant designed to move products, customers, orders, media, categories, reviews, SEO URLs, promotions, etc. Shopware Documentation Shopware Documentation
• You can run Shopware yourself, giving you control over the application, database, hosting, and backups.
• Its migration process supports repeated migrations and checksums, which is useful for doing a test migration before the final cutover. Shopware Documentation
• Particularly attractive if you're coming from Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, or another established platform and have a moderately complex catalog.
• WooCommerce — easiest/most flexible

• Products live in your WordPress database, and WooCommerce provides conventional export/import mechanisms including CSV and WordPress migration tools. WooCommerce
• Huge ecosystem and relatively easy hosting.
• Best if your store is relatively straightforward and you already like WordPress.
• The downside is that a heavily customized WooCommerce installation can become its own maintenance project.
• PrestaShop — good traditional self-hosted option

• Mature, genuinely self-hostable, and oriented toward conventional ecommerce rather than requiring a headless architecture.
• PrestaShop explicitly recommends verifying that your current platform allows data export and retaining a copy of your existing store before migrating. PrestaShop Help Center
• I'd choose it over WooCommerce if you want a dedicated ecommerce application rather than WordPress underneath.
• Medusa — best for developer-heavy/custom stores

• Very flexible and designed around composable/headless commerce.
• You can self-host the application and infrastructure. Medusa Docs
• But migration is more of an engineering project: you'll likely be mapping your existing data into Medusa's model rather than relying on a polished migration wizard.
• I'd avoid it if "make the migration painless" is more important than architectural flexibility.

What I'd pick

If you mean "I want to leave Shopify/BigCommerce/etc., own my database, but don't want to spend months rebuilding everything", I'd go with Shopware 6.

Its migration tooling is the differentiator. For example, Shopware's migration process can import the actual catalog/customer/order/media/SEO data, identify problematic records, let you correct mappings, and run the migration again without blindly duplicating everything. Shopware Documentation

The important caveat is that no self-hosted platform can magically migrate every app's data. Payment integrations, proprietary app data, custom workflows, and some extensions usually need to be recreated. Shopware documents these limitations explicitly. Shopware Documentation

If you tell me what hosted platform you're migrating from (Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, Squarespace, etc.), approximate product/customer/order counts, and whether you need subscriptions, I can recommend the best target and outline exactly what will and won't migrate.

If your priority is full control over your data and a manageable migration from a hosted ecommerce platform, the best choice depends mostly on your store size, technical resources, and how much customization you need. Self-hosted platforms give you control over the database, code, hosting, and integrations, but you take on maintenance, security, and upgrades. CozyCommerce

Here are the strongest candidates:

1. WooCommerce — easiest migration for many stores

Best for: small to mid-sized stores, content-heavy brands, teams familiar with WordPress.

Why it’s migration-friendly:

• Large ecosystem of import/export tools.
• Product, customer, order, coupon, and content data are relatively straightforward to map.
• You own the WordPress database and hosting environment.
• Easier to find developers and agencies than many alternatives. Datafirefly

Trade-offs:

• Can become complex if you accumulate many plugins.
• Large catalogs and high traffic require careful database, caching, and hosting design. Ownfront

Choose WooCommerce if: you want the least disruptive move away from a hosted platform and don’t have a large engineering team.

2. PrestaShop — good standalone store platform

Best for: merchants who want a dedicated ecommerce system without adopting WordPress.

Strengths:

• Built specifically for ecommerce rather than added onto a CMS.
• Good support for international stores, multiple languages, and multiple shops. Datafirefly
• Cleaner separation between store data and content.

Trade-offs:

• Smaller developer pool than WooCommerce.
• Module compatibility needs attention during upgrades. PrestaService

Choose PrestaShop if: you want a true ecommerce application and operate across regions or languages.

3. Magento Open Source — maximum power, higher migration cost

Best for: large catalogs, complex pricing, B2B, multiple storefronts.

Strengths:

• Extremely flexible data model.
• Handles complex catalogs and business rules well.
• Designed for larger operations. SwingIntel

Trade-offs:

• Migration is usually a major technical project.
• Requires stronger infrastructure and experienced developers.
• Extensions and customizations can create long-term maintenance work. Ownfront

Choose Magento if: your current hosted solution has limitations around catalog complexity, pricing rules, workflows, or enterprise integrations.

4. Shopware — modern architecture option

Best for: teams wanting a more API-driven, customizable commerce stack.

Strengths:

• Strong for headless builds and custom storefronts.
• Good fit for teams that treat ecommerce as part of a larger software system. SwingIntel

Trade-offs:

• Smaller ecosystem in some markets.
• Usually needs more technical involvement than WooCommerce.

My practical migration ranking

For a migration where data ownership is the main goal, I’d usually start by evaluating WooCommerce first, unless your current store has enterprise-level complexity. It gives you the biggest improvement in ownership with the lowest migration risk. Datafirefly

A good migration plan should include:

• Exporting all products, variants, customers, orders, media, and URLs.
• Preserving IDs/SKUs where possible.
• Mapping customer accounts and passwords carefully.
• Creating URL redirects to protect SEO.
• Running the old and new stores in parallel until orders and checkout are validated. PrestaService

If you tell me your current hosted platform (Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, Squarespace, etc.), approximate product count, and whether you need subscriptions/B2B/multi-country support, I can narrow this down.

If your main goal is migrating away from a hosted ecommerce platform while keeping ownership of your data, the best choice depends on how much technical control you want versus how much migration effort you can tolerate. A few self-hosted platforms stand out because they make importing products, customers, orders, and content relatively manageable. Datafirefly Toolradar

Best overall for a manageable migration: WooCommerce

Best fit: small-to-mid-sized stores, content-heavy brands, teams familiar with WordPress.

Why it’s migration-friendly:

• Large ecosystem of import/export tools and migration services.
• Product, customer, order, coupon, and content data can be stored in your own database.
• You control hosting, backups, plugins, themes, and code.
• Easier for many teams to maintain than heavier enterprise platforms. Datafirefly StableCommerce

Trade-offs:

• You are responsible for updates, security, hosting, and plugin compatibility.
• Large catalogs or complex B2B workflows may require careful optimization. Datafirefly

Choose WooCommerce if: you want the least disruptive move from a hosted platform and don’t need enterprise-level catalog complexity.

Best for serious control and complex stores: Adobe Commerce

Best fit: large catalogs, multiple stores, B2B, complex pricing, custom workflows.

Advantages:

• Deep control over data models and business logic.
• Strong multi-store and catalog capabilities.
• Designed for organizations with developer resources. SwingIntel Open Source Groups

Trade-offs:

• Migration is usually more involved.
• Requires experienced developers and stronger infrastructure.
• Higher maintenance burden. Elogic Commerce

Choose Magento if: you are leaving a hosted platform because its limitations are blocking growth, not just because you want ownership.

Best middle ground: PrestaShop

Best fit: independent retailers, international sellers, multilingual stores.

Advantages:

• Built as a dedicated ecommerce platform rather than a CMS plugin.
• Good support for multiple languages, currencies, and regional selling.
• Full database and code ownership. Datafirefly StableCommerce

Trade-offs:

• Smaller ecosystem than WooCommerce.
• Some advanced features may require paid modules.

Choose PrestaShop if: you want a standalone store platform but don’t need Magento-level complexity.

Best for a developer-led, headless approach

Consider:

• Shopware
• Medusa
• Saleor

These are better when you want a custom frontend, APIs, mobile apps, or a composable architecture. They usually require more engineering work during migration. CozyCommerce OpenReplay Blog

Migration difficulty ranking (typical)

From easiest → hardest:

1. WooCommerce — easiest for most small/mid stores
2. PrestaShop — manageable standalone ecommerce migration
3. Shopware / headless platforms — flexible but more custom work
4. Magento — powerful but usually the biggest project

SwingIntel Toolradar

Before choosing, make sure you can export and migrate:

• Product catalog (SKUs, variants, images, attributes)
• Customer accounts
• Order history
• Reviews
• Discounts/coupons
• SEO URLs and redirects
• Tax/shipping rules
• Payment and fulfillment integrations

A platform can be self-hosted but still make migration painful if its data model does not match your existing store.

If you tell me what hosted platform you’re leaving (Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, Squarespace, etc.), your catalog size, and whether you need B2B/multi-store, I can narrow this down to the best migration path.

If your priorities are full data ownership + a manageable migration, I’d shortlist WooCommerce and Medusa.

My pick: WooCommerce

WooCommerce is probably the least painful migration target if you want a conventional online store rather than a highly customized headless architecture.

• Your products and store data live in your own WordPress database, so you control the underlying data. WooCommerce
• It has mature import/export tooling for products, customers, orders, coupons, subscriptions, reviews, and custom fields. WooCommerce
• Huge ecosystem means there's usually already an integration/plugin for whatever your hosted platform currently does.
• You can host it on your own VPS, dedicated server, or cloud account and move hosts later without being locked into the platform.

Best if: you're migrating a fairly standard Shopify/BigCommerce-style store and want the migration to be predictable.

Consider Medusa if you're technical

Medusa is more interesting if you want maximum architectural control and have developers comfortable with Node/TypeScript.

Its current documentation actually provides a Shopify-to-Medusa migration workflow covering products, variants, prices, images, inventory, collections, and categories, with API-based imports designed to be repeatable/resumable. Medusa Docs It also supports custom data models and migration scripts, which is useful when your existing platform has unusual data that doesn't map neatly to a standard ecommerce schema. Medusa Docs Medusa Docs

Best if: you're willing to build/customize the storefront and want ecommerce to function as an API/backend rather than a WordPress site.

Quick decision

I would not choose purely on "open source". The critical migration question is how cleanly you can move products, variants, customers, orders, discounts, subscriptions, media, SEO URLs, and historical data without losing relationships between them.

If you tell me what hosted platform you're migrating from (Shopify, BigCommerce, Squarespace, Wix, etc.) and roughly how many products/orders you have, I can recommend the best target and lay out a practical migration path.

If your priorities are full ownership of the data + a migration that won’t become a huge engineering project, I’d put WooCommerce at the top of the list.

My ranking

1. WooCommerce — easiest overall migration

• Self-host the entire WordPress/WooCommerce stack and control the database, files, backups, and hosting.
• Products have built-in CSV import/export, and WooCommerce has migration documentation specifically for moving from other platforms. WooCommerce WooCommerce
• Customer and order migrations are also well-supported through import/export tooling, including field mapping and dry runs. WooCommerce
• Best if: you want a mature ecosystem and relatively straightforward migration without building much yourself.
• Downside: WordPress + plugins can become complicated as the store gets highly customized.
• PrestaShop — best dedicated ecommerce alternative

• Designed as a standalone ecommerce platform rather than an ecommerce layer on top of a CMS.
• Its importer handles categories, products, combinations/variants, customers, addresses, brands, etc. PrestaShop Help PrestaShop Help Center
• PrestaShop's own migration guidance explicitly covers moving order history, customers, catalog, discounts and other store data. PrestaShop Help Center
• Best if: you want a conventional, self-hosted ecommerce application and don't particularly need WordPress.
• Medusa — best for maximum technical control

• API-first/headless architecture gives you substantially more freedom over how your commerce data and frontend are structured.
• Its current migration tooling can migrate products, variants, prices, images, inventory, categories and tags, with customers/orders also possible through customized migrations. Medusa Docs Medusa
• Best if: you're comfortable with development and want to build a highly customized commerce system.
• Downside: migration is more of an engineering project than a conventional platform migration.

What I'd choose

If you're coming from Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, Squarespace, etc., I'd generally choose:

Hosted platform → WooCommerce → self-hosted server/database

It's the lowest-risk path to owning your data while keeping migration manageable. You can export the existing catalog/customer/order data, map it into WooCommerce, run a test import, validate it, then cut over. WooCommerce even documents importing customers before products/orders so relationships remain intact. WooCommerce WooCommerce

If your goal is "I never want another hosted platform controlling my data", I'd lean WooCommerce or PrestaShop. If your goal is "I want complete control and I'm willing to have developers build the commerce layer around my requirements", I'd choose Medusa.

If you tell me what hosted platform you're migrating from (Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, etc.) and roughly how many products/orders/customers you have, I can recommend the best migration path and tell you what data you're likely to lose or have to remap.

If your priorities are full data ownership + a manageable migration, I’d shortlist these:

1. WooCommerce — easiest migration

This is my default recommendation if you want to minimize migration risk.

• Runs on your own hosting and stores store data in your WordPress database, so you control the underlying data. WooCommerce
• Has mature CSV import/export tooling for products and variations. WooCommerce WooCommerce
• Customer and order data can also be exported/imported, including custom fields and metadata with the appropriate tooling. WooCommerce WooCommerce
• Huge ecosystem means there's a good chance your current hosted platform's features have a WooCommerce equivalent.
• Downside: WordPress + plugins can become fairly complex as the store grows.

Best if: you're migrating an established conventional store and want the least painful transition.

2. Medusa — best for maximum control

Medusa is more developer-oriented and is a better choice if you're deliberately moving toward a custom commerce stack.

• Headless architecture gives you considerably more control over the storefront and backend.
• Its current tooling supports CSV product migration, and it has documented migration approaches from platforms such as WooCommerce and Magento. Medusa Documentation Medusa Documentation
• Its migration tooling can build API-based, repeatable imports rather than requiring a one-shot migration. Medusa Documentation
• You can also create your own database/data migrations. Medusa Documentation
• Downside: more engineering work than WooCommerce, particularly for customers, orders, custom business rules, and integrations.

Best if: "full control" means you have developers and want the commerce engine to become part of your own software stack.

3. Saleor — powerful, but migration isn't my first choice

Saleor is another serious headless/open-source option, particularly for larger technical teams. But if migration simplicity is the primary criterion, I'd put WooCommerce and Medusa ahead of it.

My recommendation

One important distinction: self-hosting doesn't automatically make migration easy. The difficult part is usually not products—it is historical orders, customer accounts/passwords, subscriptions, discounts, images, URLs/SEO, and integrations.

If you tell me which hosted platform you're migrating from (Shopify, BigCommerce, Squarespace, Wix, etc.) and roughly how many products/orders you have, I can recommend the lowest-risk migration path and tell you what data you can realistically bring over.

If your priority is full ownership of the data while keeping the migration manageable, I’d shortlist Shopware 6 and WooCommerce, with the choice depending on how complex your store is.

My recommendation

1. Shopware 6 — best for a serious, complex migration

Shopware is probably the strongest fit if you're coming from a hosted platform with substantial products, variants, customers, orders, categories, media, shipping rules, and integrations.

• It has a dedicated Migration Assistant designed to transfer data from other ecommerce systems. Shopware Shopware
• Its migration tooling supports mapping and validation, which is useful when your old platform's data model doesn't line up perfectly with the new one. GitHub
• You can run it self-hosted on your own infrastructure, keeping the database and application under your control. Shopware
• Particularly attractive if you're running a larger catalog, B2B workflows, multiple sales channels, or expect significant customization.

There's an especially relevant point for your situation: Shopware's current migration documentation explicitly covers SaaS → self-hosted Shopware migrations. Shopware

2. WooCommerce — easiest if you want a familiar, relatively simple stack

If your store isn't extremely complex, WooCommerce is arguably the easiest migration target.

• It's open source and self-hosted through WordPress.
• Your product data resides in your WordPress database, so you have direct control over it. WooCommerce
• It has built-in CSV import/export for products, including variants and bulk updates. WooCommerce
• There are extensive migration guides and tooling for moving from hosted platforms. WooCommerce

The downside is that WooCommerce can become fairly plugin-dependent. A migration from a sophisticated hosted platform can turn into recreating your existing functionality through a collection of WordPress plugins, which can make long-term maintenance messy.

What I'd choose

Saleor and Medusa are worth considering if you're deliberately moving toward a custom/headless architecture, but I'd not pick them solely because you want to escape SaaS. They generally require more engineering work than a conventional ecommerce platform. Saleor itself describes its target audience as teams wanting control and flexibility and comfortable working with engineers. Saleor Commerce Saleor Commerce

The important migration question

Before choosing the platform, I'd map your existing hosted store into:

Products → variants → inventory → customers → addresses → orders → payments → discounts → shipping → tax → media → SEO URLs → content → integrations

The platform that can import the most of that without losing relationships between records will make your migration much easier than one that merely supports CSV product imports.

If you tell me which hosted platform you're migrating from (Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, Squarespace, etc.), plus roughly how many products/orders you have, I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 options and explain exactly how difficult the migration would be.

If your priority is full control over data and a migration that is not a multi-year engineering project, I’d usually shortlist these platforms:

Datafirefly Toolradar## My default recommendation

For most migrations from a hosted platform (Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, Squarespace, etc.):

Choose WooCommerce if:

• You have fewer than ~5,000–10,000 products
• You already use WordPress or want strong blogging/content capabilities
• You want the easiest path to export/import customers, products, orders, and SEO data
• You have limited developer resources

WooCommerce gives you direct database access and avoids vendor lock-in, but you’ll need discipline around hosting, backups, updates, and plugins. Datafirefly StableCommerce

Choose PrestaShop if:

• The store itself is the main focus (not a WordPress site)
• You sell internationally
• You need multiple languages, currencies, or regional catalogs

It is often a smoother “true ecommerce” migration than moving into a WordPress-based stack. Datafirefly Elogic Commerce

Choose Magento Open Source if:

• You have complex business rules: - wholesale pricing
• customer groups
• large catalogs
• multiple storefronts
• complicated inventory flows

It gives enormous control, but the migration and ongoing operations are much heavier. SwingIntel

Migration features I would prioritize

Regardless of platform, make sure you can migrate:

• Product catalog: - SKUs
• variants
• images
• categories
• attributes
• Customer records
• Historical orders
• Reviews
• Discount codes
• SEO: - URLs
• metadata
• redirects
• structured data
• Analytics history where possible

A common mistake is migrating only products and customers, then losing years of SEO value.

A practical migration path

For lowest risk:

1. Export everything from your hosted platform.
2. Build the new store privately.
3. Import a test subset of products/customers.
4. Validate checkout, taxes, shipping, payments, emails.
5. Crawl old and new URLs.
6. Switch DNS only after redirects and backups are ready.

If you tell me:

• your current hosted platform,
• number of products/SKUs,
• monthly order volume,
• whether you need B2B or multi-store,
• your technical comfort level,

I can narrow this down to 1–2 platforms.

If your priorities are full data ownership + a migration that won't become a giant custom-engineering project, I’d shortlist WooCommerce and Shopware 6, with WooCommerce as the easiest default choice.

My pick: WooCommerce

WooCommerce is probably the least painful transition if you're coming from a hosted platform such as Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, etc.

Your store data lives in your WordPress database, rather than being locked into a SaaS provider. WooCommerce provides built-in CSV import/export and documentation specifically covering migrations between stores and systems. You can also export/back up the underlying database yourself. WooCommerce WooCommerce

woocommerce.com

The big advantage is the ecosystem: if your current platform can export products, variants, customers, orders, images, categories, coupons, and redirects, there are established migration tools and workflows for getting those into WooCommerce.

When I'd choose Shopware instead

Shopware 6 is more compelling if this is a substantial operation rather than a relatively straightforward store.

Shopware has an actual Migration Assistant designed to bring over things like customers, orders, products, categories, media, reviews, SEO URLs, shipping information, and more. Shopware Documentation Shopware Documentation

It also has a strong import/export system based on CSV, and its self-hosted installation gives you control over the underlying infrastructure. Shopware Documentation Shopware Documentation

The downside is complexity: you'll generally have more infrastructure and platform expertise to manage than with WooCommerce.

One important distinction

"Self-hosted" doesn't automatically mean easy to migrate.

The hard part is usually mapping the old platform's data model to the new one. Products are easy; things like:

• historical orders
• customer accounts/passwords
• subscriptions
• discounts
• product variants
• tax rules
• fulfillment status
• reviews
• SEO URLs
• custom fields
• app/plugin data

can require special handling. Even Shopware's migration documentation explicitly notes that some extension data and configuration won't migrate automatically. Shopware Documentation

So if you tell me what hosted platform you're migrating from (e.g. Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, Squarespace) and roughly how many products/orders you have, I can recommend the best self-hosted target and lay out the migration path.

woocommerce.com

The big advantage is the ecosystem: if your current platform can export products, variants, customers, orders, images, categories, coupons, and redirects, there are established migration tools and workflows for getting those into WooCommerce.

When I'd choose Shopware instead

Shopware 6 is more compelling if this is a substantial operation rather than a relatively straightforward store.

Shopware has an actual Migration Assistant designed to bring over things like customers, orders, products, categories, media, reviews, SEO URLs, shipping information, and more. docs.shopware.com docs.shopware.com

It also has a strong import/export system based on CSV, and its self-hosted installation gives you control over the underlying infrastructure.

The downside is complexity: you'll generally have more infrastructure and platform expertise to manage than with WooCommerce.

One important distinction

"Self-hosted" doesn't automatically mean easy to migrate.

If your priorities are full data ownership + a manageable migration from a hosted platform, I’d shortlist Shopware, WooCommerce, and PrestaShop, with Shopware 6 being my first choice for a serious standalone store.

My ranking

Why Shopware stands out: its Migration Assistant is specifically designed to move products, customers, orders and other data from existing ecommerce systems, with data validation and mapping along the way. Shopware also explicitly supports migrating from SaaS/cloud environments to a self-hosted installation. Shopware Documentation Shopware Documentation

WooCommerce is probably the easiest if your store isn't too complex. Product data lives in your own WordPress database, and WooCommerce provides CSV import/export plus tools for importing customers and historical orders. WooCommerce WooCommerce The tradeoff is that a large WooCommerce installation can become plugin-heavy, and your data model may end up depending on those plugins.

PrestaShop is another solid middle ground. Its official migration guidance covers moving from other ecommerce systems and recommends a structured migration of categories, products, customers, orders, etc. PrestaShop Help Center

What I'd choose

• Simple store / WordPress already familiar: WooCommerce
• Serious ecommerce operation and you want a clean, dedicated platform: Shopware 6
• Large catalog, multilingual/multistore needs, but want something more traditional: PrestaShop
• Very large enterprise operation with developers available: Adobe Commerce / Magento Open Source

One important point: self-hosted doesn't automatically mean migration is easy. The difficult part is usually translating your hosted platform's customers, orders, product variants, discounts, URLs, images, subscriptions, and custom fields into the new data model. Shopware's migration tooling is particularly attractive here because it performs checks and lets you map data that doesn't line up cleanly. Shopware Documentation

If you tell me which hosted platform you're migrating from (Shopify, BigCommerce, Squarespace, Wix, etc.), roughly how many products/orders/customers you have, and whether you need subscriptions or B2B, I can recommend the best target and outline the migration path.

PrestaShop is another solid middle ground. Its official migration guidance covers moving from other ecommerce systems and recommends a structured migration of categories, products, customers, orders, etc.

What I'd choose

If your priorities are full data ownership + a manageable migration from a hosted platform, I’d put WooCommerce at the top of the list.

My shortlist

Why I'd choose WooCommerce

WooCommerce stores its product data in your own WordPress database, so you control the database, hosting, backups, and files rather than relying on a SaaS provider. Its documentation explicitly supports product export/import through CSV and WordPress tools. WooCommerce WooCommerce

More importantly for migration, WooCommerce has established import paths for products, customers, orders, coupons, reviews, and subscriptions. Its import tooling supports field mapping, custom metadata, batch processing, and migration from platforms such as PrestaShop, OpenCart, BigCommerce, and Square. WooCommerce WooCommerce WooCommerce WooCommerce

That means you can treat the migration as a controlled data transformation rather than trying to recreate the store manually.

When I'd choose something else

• PrestaShop — I'd consider this over WooCommerce if you have a large catalog, multiple languages/currencies, or multiple storefronts and want those capabilities more natively.
• Shopware Community Edition — attractive if you're running a complex B2B operation or expect substantial customization. Shopware specifically emphasizes self-hosting as giving you control over code and infrastructure, but acknowledges the greater operational burden. Shopware
• OpenCart — worth considering for a relatively straightforward store where you want something lighter than a WordPress/WooCommerce stack.

The important migration issue

Don't choose solely based on how easily products migrate. The difficult parts are usually:

• customer accounts and password handling
• historical orders
• product variants/options
• categories and attributes
• images and URLs
• discounts/coupons
• subscriptions
• SEO redirects
• tax/shipping rules
• integrations with payment, fulfillment, email, and accounting systems

For example, WooCommerce's migration documentation notes that customer passwords generally cannot simply be transferred from another platform when the source API doesn't expose them. WooCommerce

So my recommendation would be:

WooCommerce if you want the least painful path to genuine ownership and control.
PrestaShop if your store is catalog/international-commerce heavy.
Shopware if you're building toward a sophisticated B2B/enterprise setup.

If you tell me what hosted platform you're migrating from (Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, Squarespace, etc.), approximate SKU count, and whether you need to preserve historical orders/customers, I can recommend the best target and lay out a practical migration plan.

If your priorities are full ownership of the data + a manageable migration from a hosted platform, I’d shortlist WooCommerce and Shopware 6, with WooCommerce usually being the easier migration for a small-to-mid-sized store.

My recommendation

1. WooCommerce — easiest overall migration

• Your store data lives in your own WordPress database, so you control the database and hosting. WooCommerce
• Products have built-in CSV import/export, making catalog migration relatively straightforward. WooCommerce
• Customers, orders, coupons, and other data can be imported through CSV tooling, with field mapping and dry runs available for migrations. WooCommerce WooCommerce
• Huge ecosystem means there's a good chance someone has already built an importer for your current hosted platform.

Best if: you want maximum flexibility, relatively low infrastructure complexity, and you're comfortable with WordPress.

2. Shopware 6 — better for a more sophisticated store

Shopware is particularly attractive if you're migrating a larger/complex operation. Its self-hosted edition lets you run it on your own server/hosting provider, with local data storage and extensive customization. Shopware

It also has a dedicated Migration Assistant designed to bring over products, customers, orders and other store data, including data mapping and validation. Shopware Documentation GitHub

Best if: you have a developer, substantial catalog, B2B requirements, multiple sales channels, or expect the store to become technically sophisticated.

How I'd choose

One important distinction: self-hosted doesn't automatically mean "easy migration." The difficult parts are usually customer accounts/passwords, historical orders, product variants, images, subscriptions, discounts, SEO URLs, and integrations—not copying the database itself.

If you tell me which hosted platform you're migrating from (Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, Squarespace, etc.) and roughly how many products/orders you have, I can tell you which of these would make your specific migration easiest.

If your main goal is full control of customer data, orders, catalog, and infrastructure, the easiest migration path usually depends on how complex your store is. The best self-hosted options are not all equally migration-friendly. Datafirefly Open Source Groups

Best choices for a manageable migration

1. WooCommerce — easiest transition for many merchants

Best if you:

• Are coming from Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, Squarespace, or another hosted platform
• Have a small-to-medium catalog
• Want the largest ecosystem and simpler administration

Why migrations are manageable:

• Products, customers, orders, coupons, and content can usually be imported through established tools
• You control the WordPress database and hosting
• Huge plugin ecosystem for filling gaps after migration

Trade-offs:

• You become responsible for WordPress updates, security, backups, and plugin compatibility
• Large catalogs or complex B2B workflows may require careful optimization SwingIntel

Good fit: most independent stores that want ownership without building a large engineering team.

2. PrestaShop — strong dedicated ecommerce migration target

Best if you:

• Want a standalone ecommerce system rather than WordPress
• Have multiple languages, currencies, or international operations
• Need more built-in commerce features

Strengths:

• Designed as an ecommerce platform from the start
• Good support for catalogs, inventory, taxes, and regional selling
• Full database/code ownership when self-hosted SwingIntel Datafirefly

Trade-offs:

• Smaller general developer pool than WordPress
• Extensions/modules need careful vetting

Good fit: growing stores that want a traditional ecommerce backend.

3. Magento Open Source — maximum control, higher complexity

Best if you:

• Have a large catalog
• Need complex pricing, B2B, multiple stores, or integrations
• Have developers or an agency

Strengths:

• Extremely customizable
• Handles enterprise-level commerce requirements

Trade-offs:

• Migration is usually a bigger project
• Hosting, upgrades, and customization require more technical expertise SwingIntel Elogic Commerce

Good fit: businesses where ecommerce is a core operational system.

4. Headless platforms (Medusa, Saleor, etc.) — maximum flexibility

Best if you:

• Have a development team
• Want a custom frontend/app experience
• Treat commerce as an API backend

Trade-off:

• Migration is less of a “move my store” project and more of a rebuild. Toolradar

My general recommendation for a hosted-to-self-hosted migration

• Under ~5,000 products, normal B2C store: WooCommerce
• International store or ecommerce-first business: PrestaShop
• Large catalog, B2B, complex workflows: Magento Open Source
• Engineering-led company building custom experiences: Medusa/Saleor

Before choosing, I’d audit these migration points:

1. Export quality from your current platform (products, variants, customers, orders)
2. SEO URL preservation and redirects
3. Customer password migration (often the hardest part)
4. Payment and tax integrations
5. Hosting/security responsibilities after launch

If you tell me what hosted platform you’re leaving (Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, etc.), catalog size, and whether you need B2B/multi-store, I can narrow it to the best migration path.

If your priorities are full control over the data + a migration that doesn't become a multi-month engineering project, I’d shortlist Shopware and WooCommerce, with the right choice depending on your store.

My pick: Shopware

Shopware is probably the strongest fit if you're moving from a hosted platform and want a serious, independently hosted commerce system.

• Self-hostable: you control the server, database, code, and backups.
• Migration tooling: Shopware 6 has an official Migration Assistant that can move data such as products, manufacturers, customers, and other datasets. It also supports mapping data that doesn't line up cleanly between systems. Shopware Documentation GitHub
• Good long-term architecture: it's API-oriented and supports headless/custom storefronts, so you're not locking yourself into the presentation layer.
• Better fit for complex catalogs/B2B: particularly if you expect multiple sales channels, languages, customer groups, or sophisticated pricing.
• Important caveat: self-hosting means you're taking on updates, security, backups, and infrastructure yourself. Shopware

docs.shopware.com

WooCommerce: easiest if your store is relatively conventional

WooCommerce is the one I'd choose if simplicity, ecosystem, and low migration friction matter more than having a purpose-built commerce platform.

WooCommerce stores product data in your own WordPress database, and it has built-in CSV import/export for products. Customer/order data can also be exported and imported, including mapping orders to customers and products. WooCommerce WooCommerce

That's particularly attractive if you're coming from something like Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, Squarespace, etc., because you can generally:

export → transform/map → import → validate

rather than having to recreate the entire data model manually.

woocommerce.com

How I'd choose

I wouldn't start with Magento/Adobe Commerce unless you already have substantial technical resources or unusually complex enterprise requirements. It's extremely capable, but "I want migration to be manageable" points me toward Shopware or WooCommerce instead.

One important point: the source platform matters more than the destination platform for migration difficulty. The hard parts aren't usually moving product names and prices—they're preserving customer accounts, order history, variants, discounts, tax rules, URLs/SEO, images, subscriptions, custom fields, and integrations.

If you tell me what hosted platform you're migrating from (e.g. Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, Squarespace, Volusion, etc.), approximate number of products/orders, and whether you need customer/order history, I can tell you which of Shopware vs. WooCommerce would make your specific migration easier.

If your priorities are self-hosting, ownership of the database, and a migration that doesn't become a giant custom-development project, I'd shortlist these:

My pick: WooCommerce

For a migration where you want full control without making the migration itself a major software project, WooCommerce is probably the safest choice. Product data lives in your WordPress database, and WooCommerce provides built-in CSV import/export plus WordPress-level migration options. WooCommerce

The enormous WordPress/WooCommerce ecosystem also means you're much more likely to find an existing importer for whatever hosted platform you're leaving.

If you're a larger/complex business: Shopware 6

I'd choose Shopware 6 Community Edition over WooCommerce if you have complex catalogs, multiple sales channels, B2B requirements, sophisticated pricing, or substantial integrations.

Shopware explicitly supports self-hosting with local data storage and extensive customization. It also has a dedicated Migration Assistant and migration documentation covering customers, orders, products and other store data. Shopware Shopware

One nice characteristic is that Shopware's migration process can be run iteratively against a staging store, allowing you to test and correct mappings before going live. Shopware

If you want maximum technical control: Medusa

Medusa is interesting if you have developers and want an API-first/headless architecture rather than a traditional all-in-one storefront.

Its current migration tooling specifically supports importing products, variants, prices, images, inventory, collections/categories, and potentially orders/customers from other platforms. Its API-based approach can be idempotent, resumable, and rerunnable, which is excellent for a complicated migration. Medusa Docs Medusa Docs

The tradeoff is that you'll be building more yourself. I wouldn't choose it just because you want to escape SaaS.

Bottom line

• Want the easiest migration + huge ecosystem: WooCommerce
• Want serious commerce capabilities + self-hosting: Shopware 6
• Have a strong development team + want an API/headless platform: Medusa
• Want something simpler and lightweight: OpenCart

One important distinction: "I own my data" and "I control my infrastructure" aren't quite the same thing. If your goal is genuinely to eliminate vendor dependency, I'd favor a platform where you can directly access the database, files, backups, and application code—not merely a platform that offers a "self-hosted" deployment.

If you tell me what hosted platform you're migrating from (Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, Squarespace, etc.), approximate product/order count, and whether you need subscriptions/B2B/multiple stores, I can narrow this to one recommendation and explain exactly how I'd approach the migration.

If you're a larger/complex business: Shopware 6

I'd choose Shopware 6 Community Edition over WooCommerce if you have complex catalogs, multiple sales channels, B2B requirements, sophisticated pricing, or substantial integrations.

Shopware explicitly supports self-hosting with local data storage and extensive customization. It also has a dedicated Migration Assistant and migration documentation covering customers, orders, products and other store data. shopware.com docs.shopware.com

One nice characteristic is that Shopware's migration process can be run iteratively against a staging store, allowing you to test and correct mappings before going live. docs.shopware.com

If you want maximum technical control: Medusa

Medusa is interesting if you have developers and want an API-first/headless architecture rather than a traditional all-in-one storefront.

Its current migration tooling specifically supports importing products, variants, prices, images, inventory, collections/categories, and potentially orders/customers from other platforms. Its API-based approach can be idempotent, resumable, and rerunnable, which is excellent for a complicated migration.

The tradeoff is that you'll be building more yourself. I wouldn't choose it just because you want to escape SaaS.

Bottom line

If your priority is full control over data and a manageable migration from a hosted ecommerce platform, I’d usually shortlist these:

SwingIntel Open Source Groups## My practical recommendation

Choose WooCommerce if you want the smoothest exit from a hosted platform

WooCommerce is often the easiest migration path because it has mature import/export tooling and a large ecosystem. You can host it anywhere, own the database, and directly access products, customers, orders, content, and media. WooCommerce WooCommerce

Good choice if you have:

• Fewer than ~10,000 products (or a catalog that is not extremely complex)
• A marketing/content-heavy site
• A team comfortable managing WordPress
• A desire to avoid a large engineering project

Watch out for:

• Too many plugins creating maintenance issues
• Performance tuning as traffic and catalog size grow

Choose PrestaShop if you want a "real ecommerce system" without Magento complexity

PrestaShop is a standalone ecommerce application rather than a CMS plugin. It is a good middle ground for merchants who want product/catalog/order management built around commerce from the start. Elogic Commerce Datafirefly

Good choice if you have:

• Multiple languages or regions
• A traditional retail catalog
• A need for more ecommerce-native workflows

Choose Magento Open Source if your business is already complex

Magento gives the most flexibility, but the migration and ongoing operations are significantly more demanding. It makes sense when you need things like:

• Large catalogs
• Multiple stores
• Advanced pricing rules
• B2B purchasing workflows
• Heavy customization

It is usually not the "easy migration" choice. SwingIntel

Migration approach I’d use regardless of platform

1. Export everything first

• Products and variants
• Categories
• Customers
• Orders
• Discounts
• Reviews
• Images/files
• SEO URLs and metadata
• Run both systems temporarily

• Build the new store privately
• Import and validate data
• Test checkout, payments, emails, tax, shipping
• Preserve URLs

• Map old URLs to new URLs
• Keep redirects
• Monitor search traffic after launch
• Keep your data portable

• Use your own database backups
• Avoid storing critical business logic only in proprietary plugins
• Prefer open APIs and documented schemas

A simple rule of thumb

• Solo/small team → WooCommerce
• Growing retail brand → PrestaShop or Shopware
• Enterprise/B2B → Magento Open Source
• Engineering team wanting a custom stack → Saleor or Medusa

If you tell me what hosted platform you’re leaving (Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, Squarespace, etc.), your product count, and whether you need subscriptions/B2B/multistore, I can narrow this down considerably.

If your priorities are full data ownership + a migration that doesn't become a giant engineering project, I’d shortlist these:

My default recommendation: WooCommerce

WooCommerce is probably the least painful transition from a hosted platform if you want to own the infrastructure and database.

WooCommerce stores product data directly in your WordPress database, and its tooling supports CSV import/export. There are also migration tools for customers, orders, coupons, reviews, and subscriptions. WooCommerce WooCommerce

The big advantage is that you aren't locked into a proprietary data store: you control the WordPress/WooCommerce database, filesystem, hosting, backups, and code.

woocommerce.com

When I'd choose Shopware instead

Shopware is particularly compelling if you're running a larger catalog, multiple storefronts, B2B, multiple languages/currencies, or a more sophisticated commerce operation.

Its Migration Assistant is specifically designed for moving data from another ecommerce system and can migrate things such as products, manufacturers, and customers. It performs data checks and provides mappings for data that doesn't line up cleanly between systems. Shopware Docs Shopware Store

That's a meaningful advantage over simply dumping CSVs into a new store.

docs.shopware.com

What I'd avoid unless you have a specific reason

Magento Open Source gives enormous control, but I'd only pick it if you actually need Magento's enterprise-level architecture. The migration and ongoing infrastructure burden is substantially higher.

Medusa is excellent if you have developers and specifically want a headless, API-first architecture. But if your goal is "make this migration manageable," it generally isn't my first choice—you'll be taking on considerably more implementation work.

The important question is your current platform

The best choice depends heavily on what you're migrating from. Shopify → WooCommerce is a very different project from Salesforce Commerce Cloud → Shopware, for example.

If you tell me your current hosted platform, approximate number of products/orders, and whether you need to preserve customer accounts/order history, I can recommend the best target and lay out a practical migration path.

If your priorities are self-hosting, full data ownership, and making the migration as painless as possible, I’d shortlist WooCommerce and Shopware 6.

My ranking

I'd pick WooCommerce if minimizing migration pain is the priority. Your products live in your own WordPress database, and WooCommerce has built-in product CSV import/export. Its ecosystem also has tooling for migrating customers and orders, including field mapping. woocommerce.com

WooCommerce migration documentation

I'd pick Shopware 6 if you're moving from a substantial hosted store and want a more dedicated ecommerce platform. Its Migration Assistant is specifically designed to transfer things such as products, manufacturers, customers and other datasets, performs data checks, and supports mappings when source and destination structures don't line up. It can also migrate from cloud to self-hosted. docs.shopware.com

Shopware migration documentation

One important distinction

If by "full control over data" you mean I want the database, files, backups, and infrastructure under my control, both WooCommerce and Shopware fit.

If you also mean I don't want to be locked into the platform's data model, I'd lean WooCommerce. Its WordPress-based storage and CSV/XML tooling make it relatively straightforward to extract and transform data independently of the platform. woocommerce.com

For a highly technical team, Medusa is worth considering too: its migration tooling is explicitly designed to map data from Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento and other platforms into its own models, and migrations can be rerun. It's much more of a developer-oriented/headless approach, though. docs.medusajs.com

If you tell me what hosted platform you're migrating from (Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, Squarespace, etc.), plus roughly how many products/orders you have, I can tell you which of these would make the migration easiest and what data is likely to be painful to transfer.

If your priority is full data ownership and a manageable migration from a hosted ecommerce platform, I’d usually shortlist these:

1. WooCommerce — easiest migration path for many merchants

Best if you want the least disruption.

Good fit when:

• You already have a content-heavy site or use WordPress
• Your catalog is small-to-medium
• You want lots of extensions and developers available
• You want direct access to your database, files, and hosting

Migration advantages:

• Many import tools exist for products, customers, orders, coupons, and reviews
• Familiar admin experience for non-technical teams
• Easy to export your data because it lives in your own database

Trade-offs:

• Large catalogs and complex workflows may require careful database tuning
• Heavy reliance on plugins can create maintenance overhead Datafirefly SwingIntel

2. PrestaShop — a strong middle ground

Best if you want a dedicated ecommerce application rather than building on a CMS.

Good fit when:

• You sell internationally
• You need multiple languages/currencies
• You want a standalone store platform
• You want ownership without Magento-level complexity

Migration advantages:

• Purpose-built catalog, checkout, inventory, and order systems
• Data model is more ecommerce-focused than WooCommerce
• Good balance between flexibility and operational complexity Velocity AI Railway

Trade-offs:

• Module quality varies, so extensions need careful evaluation
• You’ll manage hosting, updates, backups, and security

3. Adobe Commerce (Magento Open Source) — for complex businesses

Best if you need enterprise capabilities.

Good fit when:

• You have large catalogs
• You need advanced pricing rules, B2B features, multiple stores, or complex integrations
• You have developers or an agency budget

Migration advantages:

• Extremely flexible data model
• Handles complex commerce logic well

Trade-offs:

• Migration is usually a larger engineering project
• Hosting and maintenance requirements are significantly higher SwingIntel

4. API-first options (for technical teams)

Platforms such as Medusa or Saleor can give maximum control, especially if you want a custom frontend, but migrations are usually less “lift and shift” and more of a rebuild. Open Source Groups

My practical recommendation

For a hosted-to-self-hosted migration:

• Small business / DTC store: WooCommerce
• Growing brand wanting a real ecommerce engine: PrestaShop
• Large catalog, B2B, complex operations: Magento Open Source
• Engineering-led company wanting total architectural control: Medusa/Saleor

Before choosing, I’d audit your current platform export and confirm you can migrate:

• Product variants and attributes
• Customer accounts (including password migration limitations)
• Historical orders
• Reviews
• SEO URLs and redirects
• Tax/shipping rules
• Payment gateway data (usually cannot be transferred directly)

A “manageable” migration is often less about the platform itself and more about how cleanly it can preserve your existing data model and URLs. shopping-cart-migration.com

If you tell me your current hosted platform (Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, Squarespace, etc.), catalog size, and whether you sell B2B or DTC, I can narrow this down.

If your priority is full ownership of the data while keeping migration manageable, I’d shortlist WooCommerce, Shopware 6, and PrestaShop.

My ranking for migration ease

I'd pick WooCommerce for the least painful migration. Its products live in your WordPress database, and WooCommerce provides built-in CSV import/export plus documented approaches for migrating products and entire sites. woocommerce.com

Shopware 6 is my choice if you're coming from a more sophisticated hosted platform. Its Migration Assistant can transfer products, customers, orders, media, categories, SEO URLs, settings and more, and it supports repeated migration runs with checksums. docs.shopware.com It also has native CSV import/export with dry-run validation, which is particularly useful for testing a migration before touching production data. docs.shopware.com

PrestaShop is a good middle ground, particularly if you need multilingual or multistore capabilities. Its own migration guidance emphasizes getting exports/database access from the existing provider before starting; without that access, some data may have to be recreated manually. help-center.prestashop.com

The important catch

"Self-hosted" doesn't automatically mean everything migrates cleanly. The difficult pieces are usually:

• customer accounts/passwords
• historical orders
• product variants
• subscriptions
• discounts/promotions
• reviews
• SEO URLs and redirects
• images/media
• custom fields
• integrations and payment history

So I'd choose based heavily on what your current hosted platform can export. If it gives you clean CSV/API/database exports, the migration becomes dramatically easier.

Rule of thumb:

• Under ~10k products and relatively straightforward store → WooCommerce
• Complex catalog/B2B/multiple sales channels → Shopware 6
• Multilingual/multistore traditional ecommerce → PrestaShop

If you tell me which hosted platform you're migrating from (Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, Squarespace, etc.) and roughly how many products/orders/customers you have, I can recommend the easiest target and lay out what will and won't migrate.

If your priority is full ownership of the data + a migration that doesn't become a custom-engineering project, I’d put Shopware 6 at the top of the list.

My shortlist

Why Shopware 6 stands out: its official Migration Assistant is specifically designed to bring over products, customers, orders, categories, media, reviews, promotions, SEO URLs and other store data. It supports iterative migrations, checks data mappings, keeps migration logs, and can recognize unchanged records so you can repeat the migration safely. docs.shopware.com

It also explicitly supports self-hosting on your own server or hosting provider, with local data storage and extensive customization. www.shopware.com

Shopware self-hosted download
Shopware migration documentation

When I'd choose the others

• WooCommerce — probably the easiest choice if your store is relatively straightforward and you're already using WordPress. Product data lives in your WordPress database, giving you direct ownership and database-level control. woocommerce.com
• Medusa — excellent if you have developers and want the commerce backend to be a composable building block rather than a conventional all-in-one storefront. It also supports straightforward product CSV exports. docs.medusajs.com
• Magento Open Source — powerful for complex catalogs, B2B, multiple stores and sophisticated pricing, but I'd avoid it if migration/manageability is your primary concern unless you already have Magento expertise.

My recommendation:
If you're coming from Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, Squarespace Commerce, etc. and want to get away from hosted infrastructure without giving up a mature ecommerce system, Shopware 6 is probably the best balance of migration tooling, data ownership, and extensibility.

If you tell me what hosted platform you're migrating from, approximate number of products/orders/customers, and whether you have a developer, I can narrow this down to the best 1–2 options and explain exactly what will and won't migrate.

If your main goal is full control over data while keeping the migration from a hosted platform manageable, I’d usually shortlist these:

www.datafirefly.comwww.velsof.com

My practical recommendation

For the easiest migration with real ownership:
→ WooCommerce
Good choice if your current hosted store has fairly standard data:

• products
• variants
• customers
• orders
• coupons
• blog/content

You can keep your database, files, and hosting under your control. The WordPress ecosystem also gives you many migration tools and integrations. The downside is that you need discipline around plugins, updates, and performance tuning. www.datafirefly.comswingintel.com

For a cleaner “store-first” system:
→ PrestaShop
I’d consider this if you want ecommerce to be the center of the system rather than a WordPress site with commerce added. It has strong catalog management and multi-language capabilities. www.datafirefly.com

For a serious enterprise migration:
→ Magento Open Source
Choose this if you have:

• tens of thousands of SKUs
• complex pricing rules
• multiple warehouses
• B2B accounts
• custom workflows

It gives enormous control, but migration is more like a software project than a platform switch. www.velsof.com

Migration features I would prioritize

Regardless of platform, make sure you can export/import:

• Product IDs and SKUs (preserve them if possible)
• Variant relationships
• Customer accounts
• Order history
• Reviews
• SEO URLs and redirects
• Images/media
• Tax and shipping rules
• Discount codes
• Inventory history (if important)

A common mistake is moving only products and customers, then discovering years of order history and SEO value were lost.

A simple decision rule

• Under ~5,000 products + you want manageable operations: WooCommerce
• Need a dedicated ecommerce engine + international selling: PrestaShop
• Large catalog or complex business rules: Magento Open Source
• Developer-heavy custom storefront: Shopware or Medusa

swingintel.com

If you tell me what hosted platform you’re leaving (Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, Squarespace, etc.), approximate product count, and whether you need subscriptions/B2B/multi-store, I can narrow this down.

If your priority is self-hosting + full data ownership + a manageable migration, I’d shortlist these:

My default recommendation: WooCommerce

If you're coming from a hosted platform such as Shopify, Wix, BigCommerce, Squarespace, etc., WooCommerce is probably the least painful transition.

It is open source and self-hostable, and your product data lives in your own WordPress database. WooCommerce also has documented migration paths and CSV import/export tooling. woocommerce.com

For a full migration, WooCommerce's tooling can handle customers, products, reviews, coupons, orders, and subscriptions, with mappings available for fields that don't line up cleanly between platforms. woocommerce.com

WooCommerce migration documentation

When I'd choose Shopware instead

If this is a substantial store with lots of customers/orders, multiple storefronts, B2B requirements, multiple languages/currencies, or complex business rules, I'd seriously consider Shopware 6.

Its Migration Assistant is specifically designed to transfer things like products, customers, categories, media and other store data, and it supports repeated migration runs so you can test and refine the process before going live. docs.shopware.com

That's a big advantage over choosing a platform where migration essentially means writing your own import pipeline.

Shopware Migration Assistant documentation

When not to pick WooCommerce

I'd lean toward Medusa or Saleor if you're intentionally moving away from a traditional monolithic ecommerce CMS and have developers who want an API-first/headless architecture. Both are designed to be self-hosted and highly customizable, but you're likely doing more application development rather than simply transferring a store. saleor.io

In short:

• Want the easiest migration: WooCommerce
• Want robust self-hosted commerce for a larger/complex business: Shopware
• Want a modern custom/headless stack: Medusa
• Want GraphQL + enterprise-grade composable commerce: Saleor

If you tell me what hosted platform you're migrating from (e.g. Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix) and roughly how many products/orders/customers you have, I can narrow this down considerably and tell you which platform will involve the least migration pain.

If your priorities are full data ownership + a manageable migration, I’d shortlist these:

My default recommendation: WooCommerce

WooCommerce is probably the least painful migration target if you're coming from a hosted platform and don't have unusually complex requirements.

It's open source, self-hostable, and WooCommerce explicitly emphasizes full ownership of the store and its data. Product data lives in your WordPress database, and there are documented mechanisms for importing/exporting products and migrating the entire database. woocommerce.com

The big advantage is the ecosystem: you're much more likely to find an importer, connector, or migration tool for your current platform rather than having to build the migration yourself.

When I'd choose Shopware instead

Shopware is the stronger choice if you're running a serious catalog, B2B operation, multiple sales channels/stores, or expect substantial customization.

Shopware supports self-hosting with local data storage and full control over the infrastructure. More importantly for your situation, it has a dedicated migration assistant and documentation covering migration of products, customers, orders, and other store data. www.shopware.com

So if your definition of "manageable" includes having the destination platform provide an actual migration framework, Shopware is particularly compelling.

One important distinction

Don't confuse "I can export my data" with "migration is easy."

The difficult parts are usually:

• customer accounts/passwords
• historical orders
• product variants/options
• categories and URLs
• discounts/promotions
• subscriptions
• tax/shipping rules
• images and media
• SEO redirects
• integrations and webhooks
• payment tokens

I'd therefore choose the platform based heavily on how closely its data model matches your current store, rather than simply picking the platform with the most features.

If you tell me what hosted platform you're migrating from (Shopify, BigCommerce, Squarespace, Wix, etc.), approximate SKU count, and whether you need B2B/multi-store/subscriptions, I can recommend the specific self-hosted platform and outline the lowest-risk migration path.

If your priority is full control over your data while keeping the migration manageable, I’d shortlist Shopware 6 and WooCommerce, with Shopware 6 as my first choice for a serious standalone store.

My pick: Shopware 6

Shopware is particularly attractive for migration because its Migration Assistant is designed specifically to move products, customers, orders, media, categories, reviews, promotions, SEO URLs and other data from an existing shop. docs.shopware.com

It can also run on your own server, so you're not giving up the data ownership you're trying to regain. Shopware explicitly supports migrating from cloud installations to self-hosted installations. docs.shopware.com

A useful feature for migration is that you can keep the source store running while doing subsequent migration passes, which makes it easier to stage the new store and perform a controlled cutover rather than doing everything in one risky operation. docs.shopware.com

When I'd choose WooCommerce instead

Choose WooCommerce if your store isn't particularly complex and you want the largest ecosystem and straightforward access to the underlying database. WooCommerce stores product data in your WordPress database and provides built-in CSV import/export as well as full database migration options. woocommerce.com

WooCommerce is probably the easiest migration destination for a relatively simple store. Shopware becomes more compelling as you have complex catalogs, multiple sales channels, B2B requirements, multiple languages, or substantial order/customer history.

One important caveat

"Self-hosted" doesn't automatically mean easy to migrate. The difficult part is usually not products—it is things like:

• customer accounts/passwords
• historical orders
• subscriptions
• discounts/promotions
• product variants
• images and media
• SEO URLs and redirects
• tax/shipping rules
• custom fields
• third-party integrations
• payment data/tokenization

I'd therefore choose the platform based on how well it can represent your existing data, not just how easy it is to install.

If you tell me what hosted platform you're migrating from (Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, Squarespace, etc.), roughly how many products/orders you have, and whether you need subscriptions or B2B, I can narrow this down to the best migration path.

If your priority is full data ownership + a migration that doesn't become a major engineering project, I'd shortlist these:

My default recommendation: WooCommerce

If you're coming from a hosted platform such as Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, Squarespace, etc., WooCommerce is probably the least painful migration.

Your store data lives in your own WordPress database, and WooCommerce provides built-in CSV import/export plus WordPress-level database/site migration options. woocommerce.com

The important advantage isn't just "self-hosted." It's that there's a huge ecosystem for importing products, customers, orders, URLs, reviews, subscriptions, etc. You can run it on your own VPS, managed server, or even your own infrastructure.

I'd choose it if you have:

• a conventional storefront
• hundreds to tens of thousands of products
• standard customer/order/catalog data
• a desire to minimize custom migration code
• a preference for a mature ecosystem

Shopware 6 is the stronger alternative

If your store is more complicated—multiple storefronts, countries/languages, sophisticated catalog rules, B2B, large product catalogs—I'd seriously consider Shopware 6.

Shopware explicitly supports self-hosting and local data storage. www.shopware.com More importantly for your situation, its Migration Assistant is designed to move products, customers, orders, media, categories, reviews, promotions, SEO URLs, settings, etc. from another commerce system. docs.shopware.com

It also has a useful iterative migration process: you can run migrations repeatedly, with checksums preventing unchanged data from being unnecessarily duplicated. docs.shopware.com

That makes Shopware particularly attractive if you're trying to make migration repeatable rather than a one-shot database surgery.

What I'd avoid for a straightforward migration

Medusa is excellent if your goal is an API-first, headless architecture and you have developers who want to own the entire application stack. But you're effectively building more of the commerce experience yourself. It's not my first choice if "make migration manageable" is the primary objective.

Magento Open Source gives you enormous control, but that control comes with substantial operational and development complexity. I'd only choose it if your business requirements actually justify it.

The key question

The best choice depends heavily on what you're migrating from.

For example, migrating:

Shopify → WooCommerce
is a very different project from:

Shopify → Shopware 6

and both are much easier than trying to preserve every bit of data from a heavily customized hosted system.

If you tell me which hosted platform you're leaving, approximate number of products/orders/customers, and whether you need subscriptions/B2B/multiple countries, I can recommend the best target and map out what data will and won't migrate cleanly.

If your priorities are self-hosting, full data ownership, and a migration that doesn’t become a custom-engineering project, I’d put Shopware 6 at the top of the shortlist.

My recommendation: Shopware 6

Shopware is particularly migration-friendly because it has a dedicated Migration Assistant, rather than making you build the migration entirely around generic CSV imports. Its documented migration process can transfer products, customers, orders, media, categories, reviews, promotions, SEO URLs, and other store data. docs.shopware.comdocs.shopware.com

It also supports running on your own server or hosting provider, with local data storage and substantial customization. www.shopware.com

The big caveat is that themes, some extension-specific data, payment configuration, and certain custom workflows generally require rebuilding or manual checking. docs.shopware.comdocs.shopware.com

How I'd compare the main choices

WooCommerce is arguably the easiest choice if your store isn't particularly complex. Its products live in your WordPress database, and it has built-in CSV import/export plus migration documentation. woocommerce.com

Medusa gives you a lot of architectural control, but I'd choose it when you specifically want a developer-oriented/headless stack rather than simply wanting an easier migration. Its documented product migration, for example, relies on CSV imports. docs.medusajs.com

The deciding factor

If you tell me what hosted platform you're migrating from (Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, Squarespace, etc.) and roughly how many products/orders/customers you have, I can tell you which self-hosted option will make your specific migration easiest and what data you're likely to lose or have to rebuild.

If your main goal is full control over your data while keeping the migration from a hosted platform manageable, I’d usually shortlist these:

www.datafirefly.comswingintel.com

My default recommendation for a manageable migration

For most businesses leaving Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, Squarespace, or another hosted platform, I’d start with WooCommerce:

• Familiar data model: products, customers, orders, coupons, media, pages.
• Large migration ecosystem and many import/export tools.
• You control the database, files, hosting, and integrations.
• Easier to find developers and maintain long term. swingintel.com

It’s especially attractive if your store also relies on content marketing, blogs, SEO, or editorial pages because it inherits WordPress’s ecosystem. www.datafirefly.com

Choose something else if:

• You have 50k+ products, complicated catalogs, wholesale pricing, multiple warehouses, or heavy B2B workflows: look at Magento Open Source / Adobe Commerce. It gives deeper commerce modeling but requires more engineering. www.datafirefly.comswingintel.com
• You sell internationally with many languages, currencies, and regional rules: PrestaShop is often a smoother fit. www.datafirefly.com
• You want a custom frontend (React/Next.js, mobile apps, multiple sales channels): consider Shopware or a headless platform. cozycommerce.dev

For a smooth migration, prioritize these regardless of platform:

1. Export and archive all source data from the hosted platform:
   • products/SKUs
   • customers
   • orders
   • refunds
   • reviews
   • images/files
   • SEO metadata
   • redirects
2. Preserve:
   • product IDs/SKUs where possible
   • customer history
   • URLs (or create 301 redirects)
   • structured product data
3. Test a full migration on a staging server before switching DNS.
4. Keep the old store available in read-only mode until orders and customer records are verified.

If you tell me what hosted platform you’re leaving, your catalog size (number of products), and whether you need B2B/multi-store/international sales, I can narrow this to one or two choices.

If your priorities are full data ownership + a manageable migration, I’d shortlist WooCommerce, Shopware, and PrestaShop, with WooCommerce as the easiest default for most small-to-mid-sized stores.

My pick: WooCommerce

WooCommerce stores its product data in your own WordPress database, and its built-in CSV/XML tooling makes importing and exporting relatively straightforward. WooCommerce also maintains migration guides for several hosted platforms. woocommerce.com

WooCommerce migration documentation

The big advantage is that you're not just moving to another hosted ecosystem—you control the database, files, hosting, backups, and code. The tradeoff is that you become responsible for security, updates, backups, and performance.

When I'd choose Shopware instead

If you have a large catalog, complex product structures, B2B requirements, or multiple storefronts, I'd seriously consider Shopware 6. Its Migration Assistant is specifically designed to transfer things such as products, manufacturers, customers and other datasets, and it supports self-hosted installations. docs.shopware.com

Shopware Migration Assistant documentation

It's more technically demanding than WooCommerce, but potentially a better long-term foundation for a sophisticated store.

PrestaShop

PrestaShop is another strong choice if multi-store or multilingual commerce is important. It is genuinely open source and self-hostable, but I'd put it slightly behind WooCommerce for migration simplicity unless its native commerce features specifically match your needs. PrestaShop itself recommends doing a requirements/specification exercise before migration because changing platforms isn't trivial. help-center.prestashop.com

One important point: the platform matters less than the quality of your migration plan. Before choosing, make an inventory of products/variants, customers, orders, passwords, reviews, coupons, images, URLs/SEO metadata, subscriptions, tax data, and integrations. Some of these—especially customer passwords and subscription/payment tokens—usually can't simply be copied between systems.

If you tell me what hosted platform you're migrating from (Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, Squarespace, etc.) and roughly how many products/orders you have, I can recommend the least-painful target and migration path.

If your priorities are full data ownership + a manageable migration, I’d shortlist WooCommerce, Shopware, and PrestaShop rather than jumping straight to Magento/Adobe Commerce.

My pick: WooCommerce

WooCommerce is probably the easiest migration target for most small-to-mid-sized stores. Its product data lives in your WordPress database, and it has built-in CSV import/export plus established tools for moving products, customers, orders, reviews, subscriptions, and other data. woocommerce.com

Why I’d choose it:

• Self-hosted: you control the server, database, files, and backups.
• Migration-friendly: CSV/database-based import/export is mature.
• Huge ecosystem: easier to find migration plugins, developers, and integrations.
• Flexible: you aren't locked into a particular hosting provider.
• Lower operational complexity than Magento/Adobe Commerce.

The main downside is that WordPress/WooCommerce can become maintenance-heavy if you accumulate lots of plugins or have a very large/complex catalog.

If you're more technical: Shopware

Shopware is my choice if "full control" means you want a more purpose-built commerce system rather than WordPress.

Shopware Community Edition can be self-hosted on your own infrastructure, with local data storage and extensive customization. It also has a migration assistant specifically designed to bring over products, customers, orders, and other store data. www.shopware.com

It has particularly strong advantages if you need:

• large/complex catalogs
• multiple sales channels
• B2B
• multiple languages/stores
• headless/API-driven architecture
• a dedicated development team

Its tradeoff is more technical complexity than WooCommerce.

PrestaShop is another good middle ground

PrestaShop is worth considering if you're running a fairly traditional catalog-based store, particularly with international/multilingual requirements.

PrestaShop's own migration documentation explicitly covers importing categories, products, customers, order history, discounts, pages, and reviews, and recommends keeping the old store operational while validating the migration. help-center.prestashop.com

Quick decision

One important point: migrating away from a hosted platform is rarely a simple "export → import." The difficult parts are usually customer passwords, order history, product variants, URLs/SEO, subscriptions, discounts, tax rules, images, and custom fields. I'd select the destination platform partly based on how cleanly it can represent the data you already have.

If you tell me which hosted platform you're migrating from (Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, Squarespace, etc.), approximate SKU count, and whether you need to preserve customer accounts/order history, I can narrow this down to the best option and outline the migration path.