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WooCommerce Performance & Infrastructure
HPOS Migration & Database Modernization
Moving to HPOS is a compatibility project, not a settings toggle. We run the audit, fix what fails, and do the cutover with sync on and rollback available the whole way.
19 extensions
Official WooCommerce extensions we maintain for Automattic
48 hours
Turnaround on the free written compatibility audit
What You’re Buying
A managed move from legacy order storage to HPOS, with the compatibility work included.
If your store was built before late 2023, your orders are stored the way WordPress stores blog posts. Enabling HPOS takes one checkbox. What makes it a project is everything attached to the orders table: plugins that write order meta directly, custom reports, a theme function someone added in 2019, the ERP that pulls orders overnight. Switch without checking those and the failures are quiet: the data looks right in the admin and wrong in the warehouse. This service is the checking, the fixing and the switching, in that order.
Why stores move now
The admin slows, and caching won’t help
Every lookup, refund and status change joins two general WordPress tables never built for commerce. The cost grows with order history, not traffic.
Plugins test HPOS first now
The compatibility badge is self-declared and points forward. A plugin that works on a fresh install can misbehave on legacy storage, and the gap widens each release.
Direct readers fail quietly
An ERP, fulfilment or loyalty system querying post meta instead of the order API works until it doesn’t. You hear about it from a customer.
Legacy storage is still supported, so there’s no deadline. But past a few thousand orders a month, with subscriptions or integrations in the mix, the cost of waiting compounds. The full technical picture is in our HPOS migration playbook.
What HPOS Does, and Doesn’t, Do
Judge it on order operations: that’s what it changes, and what we benchmark before and after.
What HPOS fixes
- Order lookups and status changes hit dedicated, indexed tables.
- Refunds and renewals stop paying the legacy join cost on every write.
- The order grid and exports stay usable as history grows past six figures.
- Your store runs the main code path, the one new installs use and plugin authors test against.
What it doesn’t fix
- Checkout speed. Cart and checkout don’t use order storage. A slow checkout is a front-end, plugin or hosting problem, and a different project.
- Catalog bloat. Products, variations and their meta stay in the WordPress tables. HPOS moves orders only.
- Old data. Years of orphaned order meta don’t clean themselves. Worth doing, quoted separately.
Do You Need This Now?
Your compatibility surface sets the timing, not the calendar.
Migrate this quarter
Under roughly 50,000 orders, 20 or fewer plugins, no custom order code.
Your own developer can run it, with our audit as the checklist.
Schedule it as a project
100,000+ orders, ERP or fulfilment integrations, active subscriptions, years of custom code.
The audit and fixes are the work. The switch takes an afternoon.
Fix first, then migrate
Custom code or a plugin writes to order meta directly.
Rewrite those paths first, or they will lose data without throwing an error.
Replatforming from Shopify or Magento within six months? Skip the standalone migration and we’ll handle HPOS inside the replatforming project.
How the Migration Runs
Moving the data is the quick part. The audit is the step most quotes skip, and the difference between a two-hour cutover and a three-week incident.
1. Free Compatibility Audit
Every plugin checked against HPOS, theme and custom code scanned for direct order-table queries, every integration reviewed. A written report within 48 hours, yours to keep.
2. Fix What Fails
We patch or replace what fails, move custom code onto WooCommerce’s order APIs, and work with your vendors where the fix is theirs. Nothing switches until the audit is clean.
3. Migrate With Sync On
HPOS goes on with compatibility mode active, so both storage systems stay in step while your order history backfills.
4. Verify
Data parity across every order, totals reconciled, recent orders opened end to end. Then a live test refund and a triggered subscription renewal, where silent breakage shows up.
5. Cut Over and Monitor
HPOS becomes authoritative in a low-traffic window, with sync on through a full billing cycle of real orders and renewals. Then we optimize, disable sync and archive the legacy data.
Rollback the whole way
Until sync comes off, going back is a setting change: no restore from backup, no lost orders. That’s why sync stays on for a full billing cycle.
What We Measured: The Mighty Kids Migration
A UK DTC supplements brand on legacy order storage with thousands of active subscriptions, benchmarked on the same host and PHP version before and after.
They came to us with a growing order base and a store that crashed most days. The full numbers are in the Mighty Kids case study.
4.5×
faster order queries, from 1.8s to 0.4s
3×
faster order processing, from 6s to 2.1s per order
0
minutes of downtime: no maintenance window, no checkout pause
100%
of plugins verified HPOS- and Subscriptions-compatible before cutover
“They made some very complex migrations to higher performance systems, developed several new features to improve our UX and support our internal operations, and swiftly dealt with any signs of trouble as they arose.”
James, Mighty Kids
We maintain 19 official WooCommerce extensions for Automattic and have shipped HPOS compatibility work in production code, so we know what the compatibility badge covers and what it leaves out. The rules behind every project are on our engineering standards page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it too late to migrate to HPOS in 2026?
No, and there’s no deadline. WooCommerce still supports the legacy order tables. What you’re paying is a compounding cost: slower order operations, and a plugin ecosystem that tests the other path first.
How long does an HPOS migration take?
Hours for a small store with a standard plugin set. 4 to 8 weeks for large order volume with ERP integrations, subscriptions and legacy custom code, because the audit and the fixes are the project, not the data move.
How much does it cost?
The compatibility audit is free. The migration is quoted after it, as a fixed price based on what the audit actually found rather than an average. Projects start at €2,500.
Can I roll back?
Instantly, while sync is on. Once sync is disabled the two systems diverge and going back means migrating in reverse. That’s why we leave sync running for a full billing cycle.
Will my order numbers change?
No. Order IDs and order numbers stay exactly as they are. What changes is which table they live in.
Is WooCommerce Subscriptions compatible with HPOS?
Yes, current versions are. We verify your exact version, plus every plugin in the renewal path, as part of the audit.
Do I need a developer on my end?
No. We handle the audit, the fixes, the migration and the verification. We need admin access, a staging environment, contact details for any integration vendor whose code needs a fix, and someone who can test staging and sign off before cutover.
Get Your Free HPOS Compatibility Audit
Send your store URL and plugin list. Within 48 hours you'll get a written report: what passes, what fails, and what needs fixing before any data moves. No charge and no sales pitch.
Who you'll work with
Not sure whether you need HPOS or a full replatforming? See how we handle platform migrations.