Shopware migrationfrom 5 to 6,planned properly

Starting point

What does the Shopware 5 end of life mean for your shop?

The Shopware 5 end of life means the vendor stopped all development at the end of July 2024, after a four year transition period, and has not shipped any security fixes since. Your shop keeps running, but nobody officially closes the vulnerabilities that become known. Every month, the gap grows between what attackers know and what your system can fend off.

Shopware explains that version 5 is built on technologies that no longer allow current requirements to be implemented sensibly, which is why Shopware 6 was developed from scratch. Existing subscription contracts remain in place and support still helps with questions about using the software, but no new updates are released. If you cannot make the switch yet, a third party sells paid security patches for Shopware 5. That buys time, but it is not a plan.

For your target version, look at the roadmap. Shopware has announced the next major version, 6.8, for 2027 (as of October 2026). So plan your new shop with an update routine from day one, because Shopware 6 does not stand still either. Our Shopware update guide shows what that looks like in practice.

The tool

What does the Shopware Migration Assistant transfer automatically?

The Shopware Migration Assistant is an extension for Shopware 6 that connects to your old shop and transfers its data in groups you select. The basic data is always mandatory, everything else you add as needed. According to its source code, the assistant ships with its own profiles for Shopware versions 5.4, 5.5, 5.6 and 5.7.

There are two ways to connect. Either through the API, in which case you also install an extension in the Shopware 5 shop and enter the API key and username of an administrator, or locally with direct database access if both systems run on the same server. As long as the connection exists, you can migrate again, for example to pull in the orders of the last few weeks shortly before go-live.

Some data needs your input first. You map payment methods, salutations and delivery times in the assistant to the matching entries in Shopware 6, and those entries have to exist beforehand. If your shop used extensions, further fields may need mapping.

Rebuild

What do you have to rebuild in a Shopware 5 to 6 migration?

In a Shopware 5 to 6 migration, three things mainly stay behind: the theme, the plugins and the shopping worlds. Shopware puts this down to the completely new architecture, so old templates can neither be reused nor transferred. You start with the default theme that comes with Shopware 6 or build your own on top of it.

The situation with plugins is just as clear. Extensions from the Shopware 5 world do not run on Shopware 6, so you replace them with current extensions or have them developed again. Shopware 5 has a check for this, which appears in the backend under the question mark as "Shopware 6 Update Check" and shows in a separate tab which of your installed plugins exist for Shopware 6. Whether to rent a Store extension or have one built for the gaps is covered in our guide Shopware plugin: buy or build.

Data that extensions kept in their own database tables belongs on the list as well. The documentation explicitly recommends checking extension settings and data by hand after the migration, and for shopping worlds the only route is rebuilding them as Shopping Experiences. That sounds like a lot of work, yet it is also the moment to drop old special solutions that nobody needs any more.

Customer accounts

What happens to customer passwords in a Shopware migration?

In a Shopware migration, the assistant takes the stored password hashes of your customers with it, according to its public source code, so customers can log in with their existing password. Passwords that Shopware 5 still stores with older methods such as MD5 are kept as legacy data, and Shopware 6 re-encrypts them with the current method at the next successful login. The user documentation on the migration, however, says nothing about this.

The sources do not agree here. In the Shopware forum, merchants report that old logins worked after the migration, and Shopware support wrote there that customer passwords should generally carry over without problems. Some guides online claim the opposite and say customers have to reset their password after the switch. So test it yourself with several real test accounts from different years before you announce anything to your customers.

If a login still fails, the cause often lies in the details of the mapping, for example which sales channel an account was assigned to. The migration creates the main shop and every subshop from Shopware 5 as separate sales channels, and you set up their domains yourself afterwards.

Process

How does a Shopware 6 migration run in phases?

A Shopware 6 migration runs most safely in five phases, and the order matters more than the pace. Shopware recommends finishing the data migration completely before you set up the theme, payment methods or Shopping Experiences, because a faulty run often requires a complete restart, and the setup work you have already done can then be lost. If you design first and migrate afterwards, you risk doing everything twice.

1. Phase ATake stockList all plugins, interfaces, shopping worlds, shipping rules and special logic. Run the Update Check in Shopware 5 and note what will be replaced, rebuilt or dropped.
2. Phase BTest environment and trial runInstall Shopware 6 in its own environment, create payment methods, salutations and delivery times, then transfer the data and compare it with the old shop: products, prices, customer groups, orders.
3. Phase CRebuildSet up the theme, extensions, Shopping Experiences, shipping costs with the Rule Builder, email templates and documents. Connect the interfaces to your ERP, payment and shipping.
4. Phase DAcceptanceRun orders through from start to finish, test customer accounts, check redirects and tracking. Only when all of that works is the date fixed.
5. Phase EGo-livePull in the latest data, switch the domain to Shopware 6, take the old shop off the main domain and watch error pages and rankings over the first weeks.

SEO and measurement

How do you protect rankings and tracking in a Shopware relaunch?

In a Shopware relaunch, you protect your rankings with a complete list of permanent 301 redirects from every old address to the matching new one. The assistant does transfer SEO URLs, but the documentation recommends checking them before going live, and as soon as categories or product names change, new addresses appear. Google recommends permanent server side redirects, ideally without chains, and advises keeping them for at least a year so that all signals pass to the new pages.

Build the list from several sources: the export of your old SEO URLs, the pages in Search Console that actually get clicks, and the addresses that external links point to. After go-live, submit the new sitemap and keep an eye on error pages. How a Shopware shop stays visible after that is covered in our article on Shopware SEO.

Tracking is simpler to describe and easier to overlook. Because the theme and plugins do not come along, no tag, pixel or consent banner that was built into them comes along either. Set up measurement again in the test environment and check purchases, the cart and consent before go-live, otherwise you will be missing exactly the figures you need to judge the move in the weeks after it. As part of Shopware development at Scalableloops, we have built our own extensions for Shopware 6.6 and 6.7 for this, such as the Google Tag Manager and the Consent Manager.

Checklist

Which checklist do you need before your Shopware migration goes live?

Before your Shopware migration goes live, the following points should be settled and tested in the test environment. The order roughly follows the path through the project, and every point can be answered with yes or no.

This week

How to start your Shopware migration this week

1. 01Write down what you haveList plugins, interfaces, shopping worlds and shipping rules, and run the Update Check in Shopware 5. This is the basis for any estimate.
2. 02Secure your addressesExport the pages with clicks from Search Console and the old SEO URLs. Your redirect list will be built from these.
3. 03Plan the test environmentDecide where Shopware 6 will run in parallel and who checks the trial run. If you have questions about the approach, a free consultation with our developers will help.