When to migrate your store to PrestaShop 9 (and when to wait)

PrestaShop 9 brings a more modern core (Symfony 6.4, PHP 8.1 or higher), a faster back office, a new default theme (Hummingbird) and the Admin API. But migrating has a cost, and it does not always pay to do it right now.

Signs that it is time to migrate

• Your store is on PrestaShop 1.6 or 1.7: unsupported, with old PHP and more and more modules that are no longer updated.
• Your hosting is about to drop the PHP version you use.
• You need features that depend on newer versions: modern image formats, the Admin API, recent modules.
• Back office performance is slowing down daily work.

When to wait

• You are on PrestaShop 8, it works well and your key modules do not support 9 yet.
• Your peak season is around the corner. Never migrate just before Christmas or Black Friday.
• You do not have time to test: a migration without testing is a gamble.

What it involves

1. Theme: a 1.6 theme will not work. A 1.7/8 child theme of Classic may work, but the version change is a good moment to move to a Hummingbird child theme.
2. Modules: review them one by one. Some will have a new version, others will have to be replaced.
3. Overrides: adapt them to the new core signatures or remove them.
4. Data: orders, customers and products are kept; so is the URL structure, if it is done properly.