Magento 1 reached End of Life in June 2020. That is over five years without official security patches. Despite this, some stores still run on this platform – often because it “somehow works” and migration seems costly and risky. Both arguments are true. But the risk of staying on M1 grows every month.
What lack of support actually means
New security vulnerabilities discovered in PHP, dependent libraries or Magento itself are no longer patched. Attackers actively scan stores for known M1 vulnerabilities – and find them. A store on M1 has a higher risk of break-in, customer data leaks and payment card data theft than a comparable store on a current platform.
Payment processors and courier companies are gradually withdrawing support for APIs compatible with M1. PCI DSS certificates become harder to maintain. Hosting providers are ending support for older PHP versions that M1 requires.
Why migration is postponed
Cost is the obvious argument, but not the only one. Data migration – customers, orders, history – is complex and risky. Third-party modules that work on M1 may have no equivalents on M2 or may be significantly more expensive. ERP integrations written for M1 need rewriting. This is real effort and real cost.
But migration costs are one-time. The costs of a security incident – data breach, GDPR fines, reputation loss, store downtime – can be many times higher and are not one-time.
What a well-planned migration looks like
A good M2 implementation starts with an audit of the existing store: which modules are used, which can be replaced by native M2 functionality, what data needs migrating, what integrations need rewriting. This produces a realistic quote and timeline. Data migration is tested multiple times before launch. The old store remains in read-only mode for a few weeks as a backup.
If any of the signals described sound familiar, it is worth analysing before the problem grows. I offer a free initial consultation – write to biuro@tews.pl or visit tews.pl.
