How Much Does a CMS Migration Cost?
BeginnerQuick Answer
TL;DR
CMS migration costs range from $5,000–$25,000 for small sites, $25,000–$100,000 for mid-size sites, and $100,000–$500,000+ for enterprise projects. The total includes platform licensing, development fees, content cleanup, QA, and team training. The largest variable is developer time — content modeling, migration scripting, integration work, and testing account for 60–70% of most migration budgets.
Key Takeaways
- Developer time is the dominant cost driver — not platform licensing fees
- Content cleanup (removing outdated pages, fixing broken assets) is often underbudgeted and can add 20–30% to project costs
- Ongoing platform costs (SaaS subscriptions, hosting) should be factored into total cost of ownership, not just the one-time migration fee
- A headless CMS with a free tier lets you prototype and test the migration before committing to paid plans