PrestaShop 1.6 is out of date: it no longer gets security updates, and modern modules and payment providers support it worse every year. Moving to 8.x is not a question of how the store looks. It is about security, speed and having a platform somebody still maintains. Here is what to know before the migration.
Why upgrade at all
- Security: old versions are a target, and an unpatched store is found by scanners long before it is found by customers
- Compatibility: new modules, themes and payment providers target 8.x
- Speed and stability: newer code, better performance
- Support: for 1.6 there is effectively no official help left
This is not an automatic update
The jump from 1.6 to 8.x is a large change, not a button. The old theme and modules are frequently incompatible and have to be replaced or reworked. That is why we always do the migration on a staging environment first and test it there, never on the live store. Anyone offering to upgrade a 1.6 store in place, on production, on a Friday, is offering you a bad weekend.
What to watch
- A backup before every step, and a tested one — a backup nobody has restored is a hope, not a backup
- Checking modules and the theme for compatibility, before quoting anything
- 301 redirects, so you keep the positions you have on Google
- A full test order and payment before the switch to production
Get faster while you are at it
A migration is a good moment to move to faster hosting and clear out the modules nobody uses. Done that way, the upgrade leaves you with a store that is not only newer but noticeably quicker — see why a PrestaShop store goes slow.
Running PrestaShop 1.6 or 1.7? A store audit tells you what the migration involves and what it will cost, in writing, before you commit to anything.