OpenCart Upgrade Compatibility Audit

Compatibility audit before a store upgrade

An inexpensive way to learn what an upgrade will cost you before you begin. Particularly useful when contractors quote wildly different numbers and it is unclear who to believe.

What I check

• exact version and fork — everything else depends on this;
• a complete list of modifications, each assessed for whether it will apply to the target version;
• the theme: how custom it is and what will break inside it;
• paid modules: whether versions exist for the target branch, what they cost, whether the author is still active;
• custom code and in-house changes;
• compatibility with the PHP version you will have to move to;
• database health: whether accumulated problems will obstruct the transfer.

What you receive

A report in three parts: moves as is, needs work (with effort estimates), and does not exist for the new version (with replacement options). Plus an honest answer to the main question — whether to upgrade at all.

The audit often concludes that you should stay on your current branch and solve one specific problem instead. That is a legitimate outcome — better to learn it for the price of an audit than for the price of a migration.

What happens next

The report is written so any developer can work from it, not only me. If you then order a migration, the cost of the audit is credited towards it.