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Adobe Commerce 2.4.4/2.4.5 End of Support: Upgrade or Replatform? A Decision Guide

13 Nov 2026
Albert Wood
Albert Wood
Adobe Commerce 2.4.4/2.4.5 End of Support: Upgrade or Replatform? A Decision Guide

Adobe Commerce 2.4.4 lost support on April 14, 2026, and 2.4.5 on August 11, 2026. Businesses on these versions no longer get regular security or bug fixes. If you operate on one of them, you have two choices: upgrade to a supported Adobe Commerce version (2.4.8 or 2.4.9), or move to a different platform such as Shopify Plus or BigCommerce. Doing nothing is also a choice, but it carries the most risk.

ioVista builds and maintains stores on Adobe Commerce, Shopify Plus and BigCommerce. Because ioVista works across all three platforms, the goal isn’t to push you toward one option. This guide gives you the dates, the risks, the four options, and a scoring table so you can decide based on your own store.

What the End-of-Support Dates Mean

Adobe gives each Adobe Commerce version three years of standard support, followed by a possible extra year of extended support. For 2.4.4, 2.4.5 and 2.4.6, Adobe added a one-time “security-only” period after that. Here are the dates as of September 2026, taken from Adobe’s lifecycle policy.

Version Standard Support Ended Extended Support Ended Security-Only Period Ends Status Today
2.4.4 April 12, 2025 April 14, 2026 May 31, 2027 Unsupported. Limited security fixes only.
2.4.5 August 9, 2025 August 11, 2026 May 31, 2027 Unsupported. Limited security fixes only.
2.4.6 August 11, 2026 August 31, 2027 May 31, 2028 Extended support (Adobe Commerce license only).
2.4.7 May 31, 2027 May 31, 2028 Not announced Supported.
2.4.8 April 2028 To be announced Not announced Supported. Recommended upgrade target.
2.4.9 2029 To be announced Not announced Supported. Latest release.

 

These points from the table above matter most:

  • The security-only period gives 2.4.4 and 2.4.5 stores limited and isolated security fixes only. No bug fixes, no PHP or database updates, no support tickets. Adobe says to treat it as time to migrate, and not as support.
  • If you run on Magento Open Source (the free version), none of the extended or security-only periods apply. Support ended on the standard dates.
  • If you run Adobe Commerce Cloud, Adobe will suspend traffic to environments still on unsupported versions from June 1, 2027. The store goes offline. Environments that stay non-compliant after that can be decommissioned.

First step: confirm your exact version and patch level, and whether you hold an Adobe Commerce license or run on Magento Open Source. Many teams get this wrong. Ask your developer or check Admin → System → Web Setup Wizard (or the footer of the admin panel).

What Happens if You Stay on an Unsupported Version

The store keeps running. Nothing breaks on the date itself. The problems come later and get bigger over time.

Security

New Magento vulnerabilities keep emerging, and unsupported versions are more exposed, because newly discovered issues may never get patched. Card-skimming attacks (Magecart) target Magento stores more than any other platform.

PCI Compliance

PCI DSS 4.0 requires that you run software that receives security patches. Running unsupported software can raise PCI DSS compliance concerns, since security updates and vendor support are key to maintaining a secure payment environment. Your payment processor can raise your fees, demand extra scans, or in some cases stop processing payments.

Underlying Software Reaches End of Life Too

2.4.4 and 2.4.5 run on PHP 8.1, which reached end of life in late 2025. MySQL 8.0 and MariaDB 10.6 reach end of life in 2026. Adobe doesn’t patch these for you on old versions (except PHP 8.1 for Cloud customers). Your hosting provider may refuse to keep them running.

Extensions and Integrations

Extension vendors test against current versions. Over time, payment, shipping, ERP and marketing extensions stop working on 2.4.4 and 2.4.5, and the vendor will not fix them.

Cost of Waiting

The gap between your version and the current one grows. An upgrade from 2.4.4 to a currently supported release is more predictable today than it will be after more platform changes pile up. An upgrade from 2.4.4 to 2.4.10 in 2027 will cost more because more will have changed, and by then the Cloud enforcement date will be a few months away.

The Four Options

Option 1: Upgrade in Place to Adobe Commerce 2.4.8 or 2.4.9

You keep Adobe Commerce, your data, your theme, and most of your customizations. The work is: update the core, update PHP, MySQL, or MariaDB, OpenSearch and Composer dependencies, test and update every extension and custom module, fix what breaks, and retest checkout, search, and integrations.

Best For: Stores with heavy customization, complex B2B rules (company accounts, negotiated pricing, quotes, and requisition lists), large catalogs with many attributes, or deep ERP integrations that would be expensive to rebuild.

Typical Timeline: It typically takes 6–12 weeks. Potentially longer if you have many custom modules or extensions that haven’t been updated in years.

Typical Cost: Typically starts around $15,000 for a lightly customized store and can run $80,000 or more for a heavily customized B2B store. Most of the cost is testing and fixing extensions, not the core upgrade.

What It Doesn’t Fix: Ongoing hosting and maintenance costs, the need to repeat this every two to three years, and the Adobe Commerce license fee if you are on the paid edition.

Option 2: Upgrade and Move to Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service (SaaS)

Adobe now offers a fully managed SaaS version of Adobe Commerce. Adobe handles upgrades, hosting and security, which shifts much of the platform upgrade, hosting, and security maintenance responsibility to Adobe. Customization works differently: you build on top of the platform with APIs and App Builder rather than editing the core.

Best For: Adobe Commerce license holders who want to stay in the Adobe ecosystem (Experience Manager, Analytics, and Target) and are willing to rebuild custom code as extensions rather than core changes.

Typical Timeline: It typically takes 4–8 months, because custom modules will need to be rebuilt.

Typical Cost: Similar to a Replatform. Ask Adobe for current SaaS pricing.

Option 3: Replatform to Shopify Plus

Shopify Plus is a hosted platform. There are no version upgrades, no servers to manage, and no security patches to apply. B2B features (company accounts, price lists, net terms, and quotes) are built in on Shopify Plus.

Custom checkout logic is built with Shopify Functions. Note that Shopify Scripts were removed on June 30, 2026, so any checkout customization must be built with Functions from the start.

Best For: Stores that spend a lot on Magento maintenance, want a simpler operation, sell mainly through a standard catalog and don’t rely on deep Magento-only features.

Typical Timeline: It typically takes 8–12 weeks for a standard store, and up to 6 months for large B2B catalogs with ERP integration.

Typical Cost: Projects typically run $25,000 for a simple store to $150,000 or more for complex B2B builds, on top of the Shopify Plus monthly fee. Every URL changes, so a full URL mapping and redirect plan is required.

What to Check First: Whether your product structure fits within Shopify’s limits (100 variants per product, three options per product, and flat collections with no subcategories) and whether your ERP has a supported Shopify connector.

Option 4: Replatform to BigCommerce

BigCommerce is also a hosted platform, with no upgrades to manage. It allows more control than Shopify over URL structure, product options and nested categories, which makes it a closer match to how Magento stores are built. BigCommerce B2B Edition covers company accounts, price lists, quotes and buyer roles.

Best For: Catalog-heavy B2B stores that want a hosted platform but need nested categories, many product options, customer groups and their existing URL structure. It’s also a good fit if you want to keep the Magento URLs and avoid many redirects.

Typical Timeline: It typically takes 8–16 weeks, similar to Shopify migrations.

Typical Cost: Similar to Shopify Plus. BigCommerce charges by plan tier rather than a percentage of revenue, which can be cheaper at high order volumes.

Side-by-Side Comparison

Factor Upgrade in Place Adobe Commerce SaaS Shopify Plus BigCommerce
Time to Complete 6–12 weeks 4–8 months 2–6 months 2–6 months
One-Time Cost Lowest High Medium to high Medium to high
Ongoing Maintenance High. Repeat every 2–3 years Low Low Low
Keep Custom Code Yes, after testing No. Rebuild as apps No. Rebuild as apps or Functions No. Rebuild as apps
Keep URLs Yes Mostly No. All URLs change Mostly. URL format is adjustable
Nested Categories Yes Yes No Yes
B2B Features Strong (Adobe Commerce B2B module) Strong Good, and improving Strong (B2B Edition)
Product Variant Limits None None 100 variants, and 3 options 600 variants, and 250 options
Hosting and Security Your responsibility Adobe Shopify BigCommerce
SEO Risk During Change Low Medium High without a redirect plan Medium

 

How to Decide: A Scoring Table

Answer the eight questions below. Add up the points in each column. The column with the highest score is your starting recommendation.

  1. Do you have more than 5 custom modules or 20 paid extensions? → Upgrade: 2
  2. Do you use Adobe Commerce B2B features such as company accounts, shared catalogs, quotes or requisition lists? → Upgrade: 2, BigCommerce: 1
  3. Do you spend more than $5,000 a month on Magento hosting, patches and developer time? → Shopify Plus: 2, BigCommerce: 2
  4. Does your catalog use nested categories more than two levels deep, or products with more than 100 variants? → Upgrade: 1, BigCommerce: 2
  5. Does organic search bring in more than 40% of your revenue? → Upgrade: 2, BigCommerce: 1
  6. Is your in-house team small, with no developer who knows Magento? → Shopify Plus: 2, BigCommerce: 2
  7. Is your ERP (NetSuite, Acumatica, Dynamics, or SAP) already connected through a supported connector for Shopify or BigCommerce? → Shopify Plus: 1, BigCommerce: 1
  8. Do you plan to add new sales channels, regions or brands in the next two years? → Shopify Plus: 2, BigCommerce: 1

A store that scores high on questions 1, 2, and 5 should upgrade now and review replatforming again in two years. A store that scores high on 3, 6, and 8 will usually save money over five years by migrating. A store that scores high on 4 and 5 and wants to leave Magento should look at BigCommerce before Shopify.

Common Store Profiles and What Usually Fits

Store Profile Usual Fit Why
Industrial distributor, 20,000+ SKUs, customer-specific pricing, and ERP-driven Upgrade in place, or BigCommerce B2B Edition Deep B2B rules and large catalogs are expensive to rebuild. BigCommerce is the closest hosted match.
Consumer brand with under 2,000 SKUs, light customization, and a small team. Shopify Plus Maintenance cost drops sharply. Feature gap is small.
Manufacturer with configurable products and quote requests Upgrade in place Configurators and quote flows are strongest on Adobe Commerce.
Multi-brand or multi-region group already using Adobe Experience Cloud Adobe Commerce SaaS Keeps the Adobe stack and ends the upgrade cycle.
Magento Open Source store with no budget for a full replatform this year Upgrade to 2.4.8 now, and plan the replatform for 2027 Open Source has no extended support. Upgrading buys two years to plan properly.
Adobe Commerce on Cloud, on 2.4.4 or 2.4.5 Decide by December 2026, complete by April 2027 The June 1, 2027 traffic suspension leaves no room to slip.

 

If You Upgrade: What the Project Might Look Like

  • Audit: List every extension, custom module, and integration. Check each one for 2.4.8 compatibility on the vendor’s site. This audit decides most of the cost.
  • Environment: Set up a staging server with PHP 8.3 or 8.4, MySQL 8.4 or MariaDB 11.4, OpenSearch 2.x or 3, and Composer 2.
  • Core Upgrade: Upgrade the Adobe Commerce core and run the setup upgrade.
  • Extensions and Modules: Update, replace, or remove each one. Remove anything you no longer use. This is where most of the time goes.
  • Theme: Fix template and JavaScript changes. Be sure to test on mobile.
  • Testing: Checkout, payment, shipping, search, customer accounts, B2B flows, ERP sync, email, cron jobs, and admin tasks.
  • Go-Live: Schedule a low-traffic window. Take a full backup. Keep the old environment ready to roll back for 48 hours.
  • After Launch: Establish a regular patching process and apply Adobe security updates according to their release schedule and your organization’s risk management procedures.

If You Replatform: What the Project Might Look Like

  • Platform selection: Confirm the fit using the scoring table above and a demo with your real product data. Our platform discovery service runs this in two to three weeks.
  • Data Audit: Count products, variants, categories, customers, orders, reviews, and CMS pages. Decide what moves and what gets cleaned up.
  • URL Mapping: Build the redirect map before the new site is built, so the new product and category handles match the plan. Our URL mapping guide walks through this for Shopify, Magento and BigCommerce.
  • Design and Build: Rebuild the theme and any custom features as apps or Functions.
  • Integrations: Connect ERP, payment, shipping, tax, email, and reviews.
  • Data Migration: Move products, customers, and order history. Test with a sample, then run the full import.
  • SEO Check: Titles, descriptions, schema, canonicals, sitemap, and feed.
  • Launch and Monitor: Turn on redirects, submit the sitemap, and run 30 days of daily checks in Search Console.

Our eCommerce platform migration service covers steps 2–8 as one project.

What to Do This Month, Whatever You Choose

  • Confirm your version, edition (Adobe Commerce or Open Source), and hosting type (Cloud, on-premises, or third-party host).
  • Apply the latest available security patch for your version. Even during the security-only period, apply what Adobe releases.
  • Put a web application firewall (Cloudflare, Fastly, or similar) in front of the store if you don’t have one.
  • Run a malware scan and check for unknown admin users and unknown JavaScript on checkout pages.
  • Get a written cost estimate for both an upgrade and a replatform. You cannot compare options without both numbers.
  • Set a decision date. Stores without a date tend to still be on 2.4.5 a year later.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will my store stop working after the end of support?

No. The store keeps running. What stops is new security patches, bug fixes, and support tickets. The one exception is Adobe Commerce on Cloud: from June 1, 2027, Adobe will suspend traffic to stores still on unsupported versions.

What is the security-only transitional period?

A one-time period for 2.4.4, 2.4.5, and 2.4.6 during which Adobe releases limited security fixes for the core application only. No bug fixes, no PHP or database updates, and no support. For 2.4.4 and 2.4.5 it ends May 31, 2027. Adobe has said it will not be extended.

Does the extended support apply to Magento Open Source?

No. Extended support and the security-only period are for Adobe Commerce license holders. Open Source 2.4.4 and 2.4.5 stores have had no official patches since April and August 2025.

Which version should I upgrade to?

2.4.8 or 2.4.9. Both are supported into 2028 and 2029. 2.4.8 has been out longer, so more extensions are tested against it. Don’t upgrade to 2.4.6 or 2.4.7; you will be back in the same position within a year.

How much does a Magento upgrade cost?

From about $15,000 for a store with few extensions to $80,000 or more for a heavily customized B2B store. The number of custom modules and outdated extensions is what drives the cost, not the size of the catalog.

How much does it cost to move from Magento to Shopify Plus or BigCommerce?

From about $25,000 for a simple store to $150,000 or more for complex B2B stores with ERP integration. Add the platform’s monthly fee. Compare this with five years of Magento hosting, patching, and developer time to get a fair picture.

Will I lose SEO if I move off Magento?

Not if every old URL is redirected to its matching new page and the page content stays intact. Moving to BigCommerce lets you keep most URLs as they are. Moving to Shopify changes every URL, so a full redirect map is required.

Can I do both: upgrade now and replatform later?

Yes — and for many stores, this is the right plan. Upgrading to 2.4.8 removes the immediate security and compliance risk and gives you two years to plan a replatform without pressure.

How do I know which option is right for my store?

Use the scoring table above, then get a cost estimate for both paths. ioVista provides a free 30-minute review of your current version, extensions, and integrations and tells you which option we would recommend and why.

Need expert guidance? Contact us to schedule your free review and get a personalized recommendation for your store.

Albert Wood
Albert Wood linkedin

Albert Wood is an accomplished eCommerce Business Analyst. As a technology futurist and sales motivator at ioVista, Albert is dedicated to transforming struggling eCommerce businesses into thriving enterprises. With a keen focus on client’s business processes, user experience (UX), and leveraging the power of digital marketing, he helps businesses optimize their online presence and drive sustainable growth. Albert’s passion is for virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR), immersing himself in unforgettable experiences and exploring the limitless possibilities they offer. His enthusiasm for these emerging technologies fuels his drive to push the boundaries of innovation in eCommerce.

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