PrestaShop Upgrade Checklist: 15 Checks Before Updating a Live Store

Upgrading a live PrestaShop store requires more than checking whether a newer version is available.

Your modules, theme customizations, hosting environment, payment gateways, third-party integrations, tracking setup, and custom code can all affect how smoothly the store moves to the new version.

The safer approach is to audit first, create a restorable backup, test the upgrade on staging, verify critical store workflows, prepare a rollback plan, and only then deploy to production.

PrestaShop’s current guidance similarly recommends checking server requirements, module and theme compatibility, backups, documentation, critical store paths, and a pre-production environment before updating a live store.

This checklist walks through the checks worth completing before, during, and after a PrestaShop upgrade.

What Should You Check Before Upgrading PrestaShop?

Before upgrading PrestaShop, confirm your current and target versions, server requirements, backups, staging environment, modules, theme, custom code, integrations, checkout, payments, SEO setup, and analytics.

Then run the update on staging, test the complete customer and back-office journey, prepare a rollback process, and monitor the live store after deployment.

PrestaShop Update vs Upgrade: What Do We Mean?

PrestaShop’s current official tool is called Update Assistant, and its documentation refers to moving the store to a newer version as an update. The tool supports updating, backing up, and restoring a PrestaShop store through the web interface or CLI.

In this guide, PrestaShop upgrade refers to the broader project of moving an existing store to a newer PrestaShop version including compatibility checks, testing, deployment, and post-update validation.

PrestaShop Upgrade Checklist at a Glance

#	What to Check	Why It Matters
1	Current and target versions	Defines the upgrade path
2	Server requirements	Identifies environment conflicts
3	Full backup	Creates a recovery point
4	Staging environment	Keeps initial testing off production
5	Modules and customizations	Identifies compatibility risks
6	Theme and templates	Protects storefront functionality
7	Custom code and overrides	Finds upgrade-sensitive changes
8	Third-party integrations	Protects connected business systems
9	Checkout and payments	Protects revenue-critical workflows
10	SEO baseline	Helps detect unintended search changes
11	Analytics and tracking	Protects reporting continuity
12	Rollback plan	Defines recovery if the update fails
13	Staging upgrade	Reveals problems before deployment
14	Critical-path testing	Confirms real store workflows
15	Post-upgrade monitoring	Finds issues after launch

1. Confirm Your Current and Target PrestaShop Versions

Start by recording the exact PrestaShop version running on the store today and the version you intend to move to.

Not every upgrade has the same level of complexity.

A relatively recent store using standard functionality may require a different upgrade plan from a store that is several versions behind and contains years of custom development.

This becomes especially important with major releases. PrestaShop describes version 9 as a major version that introduces changes incompatible with previous versions and specifically advises merchants to check module and theme compatibility before moving to it.

Document:

• Current PrestaShop version
• Target PrestaShop version
• PHP environment
• Database environment
• Theme and version
• Important modules
• Known custom development
• Connected external systems

This inventory gives the rest of the upgrade a clear starting point.

2. Check Server and Hosting Requirements

Before updating the application, confirm that the environment underneath it supports the target version.

Review the target PrestaShop version’s requirements for:

• PHP
• Database
• Required PHP extensions
• Memory limits
• Execution limits
• Web-server configuration
• Cron jobs
• Command-line access where needed

PrestaShop recommends verifying PHP, MySQL, and other server prerequisites before starting an update.

Avoid copying technical requirements from an old tutorial because the correct environment depends on the version you are targeting.

If hosting changes are required, include them in the upgrade plan rather than treating them as an unexpected deployment problem.

3. Create a Full, Restorable Backup

Do not stop at asking:

“Do we have a backup?”

Ask:

“Can we restore the store from it?”

Before changing the installation, create a current recovery copy that covers the parts of the store you would need if the deployment had to be reversed.

This normally includes:

• Database
• PrestaShop files
• Product and category media
• Theme
• Modules
• Configuration
• Custom code
• Important integration settings

PrestaShop recommends keeping complete, reliable backups and knowing how to restore them. Its guidance specifically mentions files, database, and modules.

Also document:

Backup location: Where is it stored?
Access: Who can retrieve it?
Restore method: How will it be restored?
Recovery time: Approximately how long could restoration take?

A backup that nobody has verified or knows how to restore is a weaker safety net than it appears.

4. Create a Staging Copy of the Store

Production should not be the first environment where you discover compatibility problems.

Create a staging or pre-production copy of the store before running the upgrade.

PrestaShop recommends systematically testing updates in pre-production before applying them to the live store.

Where practical, staging should resemble production in the areas that matter:

• PHP environment
• Database environment
• PrestaShop configuration
• Theme
• Modules
• Custom code
• Important integrations

Prevent Staging From Triggering Live Actions

A test environment should not accidentally:

• Charge real payment methods
• Create real shipments
• Send customer campaigns
• Change live inventory
• Send test orders to a production ERP
• Trigger real fulfilment workflows

Use sandbox credentials or disable production actions where necessary.

5. Audit Modules and Customizations

Modules are one of the first places to look for upgrade risk.

PrestaShop recommends confirming compatibility with the target store version and testing modules and themes in a test environment.

Create a module inventory before upgrading.

Module	Business Purpose	Compatible?	Customized?	Required Action
Payment gateway	Payments	Yes / No / Unknown	Yes / No	Test / Update / Review
Shipping module	Fulfilment	Yes / No / Unknown	Yes / No	Test / Update / Review
ERP connector	Orders & inventory	Yes / No / Unknown	Yes / No	Technical review
SEO module	Search configuration	Yes / No / Unknown	Yes / No	Test

Pay extra attention to modules that are:

• No longer maintained
• Several versions behind
• Business-critical
• Dependent on another module
• Developed specifically for the store
• Modified directly by a previous developer

Check Modified Modules Before Clicking Update

A standard third-party module and a modified third-party module are not the same upgrade problem.

PrestaShop warns that module updates may overwrite specific development made directly inside module files. It recommends backing up module files and configuration and testing modules individually when updating them.

If custom code exists inside a module, document it first and decide whether the correct action is to:

update → adapt → replace → rebuild → remove

rather than blindly installing the latest module version.

6. Check Theme and Template Compatibility

A successful back-office login does not prove the storefront survived the upgrade.

Themes may depend on:

• Templates
• JavaScript
• Hooks
• Modules
• Checkout components
• Platform-specific behavior

Review:

• Theme version
• Supported PrestaShop versions
• Customized templates
• Product-page changes
• Category-page changes
• Header and navigation
• Checkout templates
• Custom JavaScript
• Mobile layouts

PrestaShop recommends checking compatibility with the exact store version and testing modules and themes in a test environment first.

After the upgrade, review important storefront pages on both desktop and mobile.

“Compatible with PrestaShop” should not replace testing your actual implementation.

7. Document Custom Code, Hooks, and Overrides

Before upgrading, identify where the store differs from a standard PrestaShop installation.

Create an inventory of:

• Custom modules
• Modified third-party modules
• Theme customizations
• Hooks
• Overrides
• Core modifications, if any
• Custom API endpoints
• Import/export scripts
• Cron jobs
• Custom checkout logic

PrestaShop’s current maintenance guidance recommends documenting modules, customizations, modified files, hooks, and server history. It also recommends favouring hooks and avoiding overrides where possible.

This step becomes particularly important on inherited stores.

If nobody can explain what a customization does, investigate it before the upgrade rather than after it stops working.

8. Test Third-Party Integrations

A storefront can look normal while an important system behind it has stopped synchronizing.

List every external platform that exchanges business-critical data with PrestaShop.

Examples include:

• ERP
• CRM
• Warehouse systems
• Inventory platforms
• Shipping services
• Marketplaces
• Accounting systems
• Email platforms
• Product feeds
• Custom APIs

Do not only test whether the connection returns a successful response.

Test the business workflow.

For example:

Place test order → order reaches ERP → fulfilment status changes → updated status returns to PrestaShop

Create similar end-to-end tests for the integrations your store relies on.

An API being online does not necessarily mean the business process still works correctly.

9. Test Checkout, Payments, and Shipping

Checkout deserves dedicated testing because it directly affects whether the store can accept orders.

PrestaShop’s update guidance recommends checking critical paths including the cart and payment workflow.

Test the scenarios relevant to the store:

• Guest checkout
• Registered-customer checkout
• Add and remove items
• Product combinations
• Discount codes
• Tax calculation
• Different shipping methods
• Payment success
• Payment failure
• Order creation
• Confirmation emails
• Customer order history
• Back-office order visibility

If multiple payment gateways or shipping providers matter to the business, test each important path separately.

A homepage loading correctly is not enough to call an eCommerce upgrade successful.

10. Capture an SEO Baseline

Before deployment, record how important store pages behave from a technical SEO perspective.

Check:

• Important indexable URLs
• HTTP status codes
• Canonical tags
• Robots directives
• XML sitemap
• Internal links
• Structured data
• Important redirects
• Search Console
• Analytics

The purpose is not to guarantee unchanged rankings.

The purpose is to make unintended technical differences easier to identify after the upgrade.

If URLs Are Changing

If the upgrade also changes URL structures, plan the migration separately.

Google recommends preparing a URL mapping, using appropriate redirects, updating canonicals and internal links, submitting the new sitemap, and monitoring Search Console when URLs change.

Do not change URLs simply because the platform is being upgraded unless there is a valid reason to do so.

11. Verify Analytics and Conversion Tracking

A store can continue processing orders while marketing and analytics tracking silently stop working.

Before and after the upgrade, check the tracking events relevant to your setup.

These may include:

• Page views
• Product views
• Add-to-cart events
• Checkout events
• Purchases
• Conversion tags
• Advertising pixels
• Consent behavior

Compare post-upgrade data with the baseline captured before deployment.

Tracking should be treated as part of functional QA, not an unrelated marketing task.

12. Prepare a Rollback Plan

Decide how the team will respond if the upgraded store does not pass final testing.

Make this decision before deployment.

Your rollback plan should answer:

• Which backup will be restored?
• Who can perform the restore?
• Who makes the rollback decision?
• Which failures trigger rollback?
• How much troubleshooting time is acceptable?
• What happens to orders created during the deployment window?
• How will stakeholders be informed?

PrestaShop’s current Update Assistant supports update, backup, and restoration workflows.

A clear rollback process reduces the number of decisions that need to be made while the store is experiencing a production problem.

Upgrading a customized PrestaShop store?
Get the existing setup reviewed before making production changes.

Request a PrestaShop Store Review

13. Run the Upgrade on Staging First

Once the compatibility audit is complete, run the update against staging.

PrestaShop’s official Update Assistant formerly known as 1-Click Upgrade supports update, backup, and restore processes through the web interface and command line.

Use the current official documentation for the exact update procedure instead of relying on an old screenshot tutorial.

The update tool can manage the platform update itself, but it cannot understand every business-specific dependency in your store.

Your project still needs to verify:

• Custom functionality
• Checkout behavior
• External systems
• Tracking
• SEO configuration
• Deployment readiness

Do not move directly to production because the update process reports success.

Run QA first.

14. Run Critical-Path Testing

Test what customers and internal teams actually do with the store.

PrestaShop’s current post-update checklist recommends reviewing the front office, creating an account, placing an order, and checking module status after an update.

Build on that with a store-specific QA plan.

Storefront

• Homepage
• Navigation
• Search
• Category pages
• Product pages
• Product images
• Pricing
• Product combinations

Customer Accounts

• Registration
• Login
• Password reset
• Addresses
• Order history

Checkout

• Cart
• Discounts
• Taxes
• Shipping
• Payment
• Order confirmation

Back Office

• Products
• Customers
• Orders
• Module Manager
• Important admin workflows

Connected Systems

• ERP
• CRM
• Shipping
• Inventory
• Email
• APIs

If a revenue-critical workflow fails on staging, production is not ready.

15. Monitor the Store After Deployment

The upgrade is not complete when the first page loads successfully.

Some problems only become visible when:

• Real customers begin checking out
• Scheduled tasks run
• Live APIs exchange data
• Payment gateways process transactions
• Production traffic increases

Monitor:

• Application errors
• Server logs
• PrestaShop logs
• Successful orders
• Failed payments
• Checkout errors
• Integration failures
• Emails
• Cron jobs
• Unexpected 404s
• Search Console
• Analytics
• Page performance

PrestaShop’s maintenance guidance recommends monitoring logs, errors, store performance, modules, and critical paths as part of ongoing store maintenance.

Compare post-deployment behavior with your pre-upgrade baseline rather than relying only on visual checks.

What Makes a PrestaShop Upgrade More Complex?

Two stores running the same version can require very different upgrade plans.

The difference is often the number and type of dependencies around the core installation.

Store Condition	What Changes in the Upgrade Plan
Standard theme + maintained modules	Compatibility work may be simpler
Custom theme/templates	More storefront regression testing
Modified third-party modules	Code review before module updates
Custom checkout	Payment and order testing becomes critical
ERP/CRM/API integrations	End-to-end synchronization tests required
Several versions behind	Wider compatibility review
Overrides or core changes	More technical investigation
Unknown inherited code	Audit before defining scope
High transaction volume	Stronger deployment and rollback planning

A large catalog does not automatically make an upgrade complex.

A smaller store with custom checkout logic, modified modules, and several integrations may require more preparation than a much larger store running a relatively standard setup.

This is why the upgrade should be scoped around dependencies, not just the number of products or pages.

PrestaShop Upgrade Go-Live Checklist

Use this as the final handoff between staging approval and production deployment.

Before Deployment	During Deployment	After Deployment
Create fresh backup	Follow approved deployment plan	Test checkout
Confirm staging QA passed	Put store into appropriate maintenance/cutover state	Verify payments
Confirm module compatibility	Deploy only approved changes	Verify new orders
Check integrations	Watch application/server errors	Check shipping workflows
Confirm rollback process	Avoid unrelated code changes	Test integrations
Record SEO baseline	Record deployment actions	Check important URLs
Confirm analytics baseline	Keep responsible team available	Verify analytics
Inform relevant stakeholders	Escalate against agreed rollback criteria	Monitor logs and errors

Do not add unrelated redesigns, module experiments, or feature work to the production upgrade window unless they have already been tested as part of the same release.

Keeping the deployment focused makes troubleshooting easier if something goes wrong.

Common PrestaShop Upgrade Problems and Where to Look First

Do not treat every symptom as having one universal cause.

Use this table as an investigation starting point.

Problem	Possible Area to Investigate
500 error	PHP environment, module conflict, custom code, incomplete update
Broken storefront	Theme, templates, JavaScript, modules
Checkout failure	Payment module, checkout customization, JavaScript
Module disabled	Compatibility or module state
Missing images	Media configuration or thumbnails
API stops syncing	Authentication, integration code, endpoint behavior
Unexpected URL changes	Routing, SEO configuration, redirects
Back office inaccessible	Environment, application error, module/custom code

PrestaShop’s own troubleshooting documentation identifies module compatibility, cache, code conflicts, and incomplete updates as possible areas behind 500 errors after module changes. Its post-update checklist also includes checking disabled modules, front-office functionality, missing images, and backup restoration when necessary.

Treat the symptom as a clue not a diagnosis.

When Should You Get Expert Help With a PrestaShop Upgrade?

Not every update requires an outside developer or agency.

A straightforward update may be manageable internally when:

• The store runs a recent version
• Theme and modules are actively maintained
• Custom development is limited
• A staging environment exists
• Backups are tested
• Someone on the team can troubleshoot and restore the store

A deeper technical review becomes more useful when:

• The store is several versions behind
• You are moving to a major new version
• Important modules contain custom code
• The theme is heavily customized
• Checkout behavior has been modified
• ERP, CRM, marketplaces, or custom APIs are involved
• Previous updates have failed
• The codebase was inherited from another team
• Nobody has a complete customization record
• Failed transactions or downtime would create significant business impact

In those situations, audit the store first and define the upgrade scope from what the audit discovers.

Talk to Our PrestaShop Experts

Frequently Asked Questions

Is It Safe to Upgrade PrestaShop Directly on a Live Store?

Testing in a staging or pre-production environment first is the safer approach.

PrestaShop’s current guidance recommends systematically testing updates in pre-production before applying them to the live store.

This gives you an opportunity to identify module, theme, checkout, integration, and custom-code problems before customers encounter them.

Will My Existing Modules and Theme Work After a PrestaShop Upgrade?

It depends on the module or theme and the version you are moving to.

Check compatibility with the target PrestaShop version and test the actual implementation on staging. PrestaShop recommends verifying exact compatibility and testing modules and themes before production use.

Modules containing direct customizations require additional review.

What Should I Test After Upgrading PrestaShop?

Test the complete store journey rather than a few pages.

At minimum, verify storefront pages, accounts, cart, checkout, payments, orders, emails, important modules, back-office workflows, tracking, and critical integrations.

PrestaShop’s official post-update checklist also recommends checking the front office, account creation, order placement, and module state.

When Should I Hire a PrestaShop Developer for an Upgrade?

Specialist support becomes more useful when the store has a large version gap, custom modules, a modified theme, custom checkout functionality, external integrations, inherited code, or a previous failed upgrade.

The more dependencies the store has outside the standard PrestaShop installation, the more valuable a technical audit becomes before production changes begin.

Planning a PrestaShop Upgrade?

A successful upgrade is not simply one where the new PrestaShop version installs.

The updated store still needs to:

• Display products correctly
• Accept payments
• Calculate taxes and shipping correctly
• Create and manage orders
• Communicate with connected systems
• Preserve important SEO configuration
• Record analytics accurately
• Remain maintainable after deployment

If your store includes custom modules, third-party integrations, a heavily modified theme, custom checkout logic, or an inherited codebase, start by understanding those dependencies before updating production.

Talk to Our PrestaShop Experts