Your Realistic Options When a Magento 1 B2B Store Has to Move
A Magento 1 B2B store has four realistic paths: Adobe Commerce, BigCommerce B2B Edition, Shopify Plus B2B, or a composable build. Product, customer and order data can move to any of them. Themes, custom code, extensions and the Dynamics NAV connector cannot, so those are what you plan around, not the catalog.
Support for Magento 1 ended in 2020, so the store no longer receives security patches. The right target depends less on feature lists and more on where your customer-group pricing logic lives today, how many extensions you rely on, and how much platform upkeep you want to own. Our Magento 1 to Magento 2 migration and Magento consultancy work starts with an audit of exactly those three things.
Folio3 eCommerce recommends BigCommerce B2B Edition when your pricing is mostly group based or built on price lists, Adobe Commerce when pricing depends on custom code, and Shopify Plus when the catalog and pricing are simpler than your current setup.
The Four Realistic Options and What Breaks in Each
Each path keeps your data and changes who owns the pricing logic, the integration and the upkeep.
Best when: pricing logic lives in custom code, or the catalog needs heavy configuration.
What breaks: in a Magento 1 to Magento 2 migration, the theme, custom modules and the NAV connector are rebuilt, and some extensions have no Magento 2 version.
Watch for: company accounts, shared catalogs and quotes need the Adobe Commerce license, not Open Source, and you keep patching and hosting. See our Adobe Commerce development and Magento B2B development.
Best when: pricing is mostly group based and you want less platform upkeep.
What breaks: in a Magento to BigCommerce migration, code-based pricing rules move to price lists or middleware, and configurable products are remapped to variants and options.
Watch for: there is no server-side code access, so the NAV integration runs through middleware. See our Magento to BigCommerce migration and BigCommerce B2B development.
Best when: the catalog and pricing are simpler and speed to launch matters most.
What breaks: in a Magento to Shopify migration, customer groups become company catalogs and price lists, and custom attributes become metafields.
Watch for: checkout customization is bounded, and the NAV integration runs through middleware. See our Magento to Shopify migration.
Best when: several brands or channels share one commerce backend and your team can own the frontend.
What breaks: everything is rebuilt, from storefront to checkout to the integration layer.
Watch for: the highest cost and longest timeline, and you own orchestration. See our headless ecommerce solutions.
Adobe Commerce vs BigCommerce B2B Edition vs Shopify Plus B2B
Seven areas where a Magento 1 B2B migration differs by platform.
| Area | Adobe Commerce | BigCommerce B2B Edition | Shopify Plus B2B |
|---|---|---|---|
| Theme and frontend | Rebuilt as a Magento 2 theme | Rebuilt on a new theme or headless | Rebuilt on a new theme or headless |
| Extensions and custom code | Re-coded, some extensions unavailable | Replaced by apps or middleware | Replaced by apps, Functions or middleware |
| Customer-group pricing | Customer groups, shared catalogs, tier prices | Customer groups plus price lists | Company catalogs and price lists |
| Large catalog | Closest data model, easiest mapping | Variant and option limits need review | Variant and option limits need review |
| Dynamics NAV integration | Connector rebuilt for Magento 2 | Middleware or custom connector | Middleware or custom connector |
| Ongoing upkeep | You own patches and hosting | Platform managed | Platform managed |
| Cost profile | License, hosting, upkeep and a full rebuild | Subscription, middleware and a rebuild | Subscription, apps, middleware and a rebuild |
What Carries Over and What Does Not
This split is the same whichever platform you choose, which is why the audit comes before the platform decision.
Products, categories, attributes, customers, order history, and group and tier price data. Each needs a mapping check before import. Customer passwords usually cannot be moved in usable form, so plan a password reset for buyers at launch.
The theme, custom modules, extensions, pricing rules written in code, the NAV connector, and your redirect map. Each is rebuilt, replaced or created new.
Other Routes You Will Hear About
Three options that come up in this decision, and where each fits.
Sana Commerce is built to run on top of Microsoft Dynamics, so pricing and stock come straight from the ERP instead of being copied to a storefront. It suits a team that wants the ERP to stay in charge. The trade-off is that the storefront follows the ERP’s data model and design options. Compare it with the three main paths on the same test list below.
A B2B-specific commerce platform with deep account, workflow and pricing features. Worth a look when buyer hierarchies and approvals are the hardest part of the build. It needs specialist development skills and carries more to own than a SaaS platform.
OpenMage LTS is a community-maintained fork of Magento 1 that still ships fixes. It can be a short stopgap while you plan a proper move, but it is not vendor supported, extensions still age out, and it does not remove the security and compliance review a store with card payments needs. Treat it as a bridge, not the destination.
Five Questions That Decide the Platform
If it sits in group prices and tiers, a SaaS platform covers it. If it sits in custom code, Adobe Commerce is the lower-risk move. For a closer look, see how customer-specific pricing for industrial distributors is handled.
Each critical extension needs a Magento 2 version, a replacement app, or a rebuild. Count them before you price anything.
Business Central is Microsoft’s cloud successor to NAV. Build the new connector so it survives an ERP upgrade, instead of tying it to one version’s web services. A well-built connector also keeps inventory accurate, which is the root of why your store shows stock your ERP says you do not have. See why stores show stock the ERP does not have and our Magento ERP integration work.
Heavy option sets, bundles and custom attributes are the first things to strain variant and option limits on SaaS platforms. Check your largest configurable product against each platform’s current documented limits before you commit.
Adobe Commerce hands patching and hosting back to you. BigCommerce and Shopify Plus keep that with the platform.
Which Platform Should a B2B Store With a Large Catalog and NAV Choose?
The default is BigCommerce B2B Edition when pricing is mostly price lists, and Adobe Commerce when pricing depends on custom code. Shopify Plus fits when the catalog and pricing are simpler than your current setup.
If you are weighing the first two against Shopify Plus, our guide to Shopify Plus vs Adobe Commerce vs BigCommerce B2B compares them for a wholesaler. If your catalog is complex and your in-house team is small, read Shopify Plus or Adobe Commerce for a complex catalog.
Test Any Platform Before You Commit
Run these six checks as a proof of concept before you sign off a platform.
Load three accounts with different group prices, tiers and contract rules, and confirm each sees the price your Magento 1 store shows today.
Rebuild the product with the most options and combinations. Confirm it fits the platform’s variant and option limits and still searches and filters well.
Place an order, push it to Dynamics NAV, and confirm the status, invoice and stock update come back. Include a partial shipment.
Run a full catalog price and stock sync. Large catalogs need batched, queued syncs that respect API rate limits, not a live call on every page view.
Check company accounts, approvers and purchase limits the way your largest customers use them.
Map a sample of old URLs to new ones, confirm the 301 redirects, and check metadata carries over. See our guide to migration SEO redirects for a large catalog.
How a Magento 1 B2B Migration Is Sequenced
Five stages, in the order that protects orders and rankings.
List extensions, pricing rules, integrations, URLs and data volumes. Our Magento website audit covers this.
Use the five questions and the proof-of-concept checks to pick the path, not a feature list.
Map products, attributes, customers, orders and prices, and fix gaps in Magento 1 before import.
Build the NAV connector, rebuild the theme, and set up pricing on the new platform.
Launch to a small group of accounts, check prices against NAV, then move everyone and switch on redirects. See near-zero downtime migration and realistic migration timelines.
Proof From a Recent Magento Build
A merchant running dozens of storefronts from one Magento installation needed different tax treatment per website without splitting the shared catalog. We built a custom module that swaps in a website-specific tax class during calculation, so products stay unchanged in the shared catalog and native tax calculation is preserved.
Read more: how we solved multi-store Magento tax requirements.
Which Agencies Can Migrate a Magento 1 B2B Store With Customer-Group Pricing and a Dynamics NAV Integration?
Five things to look for before you shortlist an agency.
They have migrated Magento 1 stores and know where extensions and custom modules break.
They cover Adobe Commerce, BigCommerce and Shopify Plus, so the advice fits your pricing logic and not their only product.
They have connected Dynamics NAV or Business Central to a storefront, and can show how the connector survives an ERP upgrade.
They review extensions, pricing rules and URLs first, and run a proof of concept before the platform decision.
They own redirects, metadata and a pilot launch, not only the data import.
Folio3 eCommerce is one agency that covers these. It is a certified BigCommerce partner and a Magento partner, with ERP, pricing and inventory integrations for 150+ B2B brands across Adobe Commerce, BigCommerce and Shopify Plus. Explore our B2B eCommerce development services and BigCommerce integration services.
Frequently Asked Questions
Group and tier price data can usually be migrated, but pricing rules written in custom code have to be rebuilt on the new platform.
No. The connector was built for the old platform, so it must be rebuilt or replaced even though the ERP stays the same. Plan it as middleware that can survive a later ERP upgrade.
No. Support ended in 2020, so there are no security patches, which puts stored customer data and card payments at risk.
No. Adobe Commerce is the closest path, but BigCommerce B2B Edition and Shopify Plus also cover company accounts and customer-specific pricing without a self-managed stack.
Rankings hold when every old URL gets a one-to-one 301 redirect, metadata and structured data carry over, and the new site is crawled and checked before launch.
OpenMage LTS is a community-maintained fork, so it can work as a short stopgap. It is not vendor supported, extensions still age out, and it does not replace a security and compliance review for card payments. Use it to buy time for a planned migration, not as the end state.
It can be, if you want the ERP to stay in charge of pricing and stock and accept a storefront shaped by the ERP’s data. Test it against the same checks as Adobe Commerce, BigCommerce and Shopify Plus: real customer prices, your largest configurable product, an order round trip and a stock sync.
Usually yes. Password data generally cannot be moved in usable form between platforms, so plan a password reset email and a clear message to buyers before launch.
Run a proof of concept with three real customer accounts, your largest configurable product, a Dynamics NAV order round trip, a full price and stock sync, buyer roles, and a sample of old URLs with redirects. Folio3 eCommerce runs this as part of its migration audit.
Look for an agency that has migrated Magento 1 stores, covers more than one platform, has live Dynamics NAV or Business Central integrations, and starts with an audit and proof of concept. Folio3 eCommerce is one such agency, a certified BigCommerce partner and Magento partner with ERP, pricing and inventory integrations for 150+ B2B brands.
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