WordPress, CodeIgniter, legacy PHP, migrated to modern Laravel.

Migrate to Laravel when your current stack is actively slowing the business down. The honest signals are: development time per feature has doubled in the last twelve months, your hosting bill keeps growing without traffic growing, security patches are skipped because the codebase is fragile, hiring developers is harder because the stack is outdated, the existing platform cannot model new business rules without workarounds, and your security or compliance team is escalating risk. If three or more of these apply, the cost of staying is already higher than the cost of migrating.

A focused WordPress to Laravel migration (one site, custom theme, basic plugins) takes 6 to 12 weeks. A CodeIgniter or CakePHP to Laravel migration with a medium codebase typically runs 3 to 5 months. A complex enterprise migration from legacy PHP, ColdFusion, or classic ASP with thirty plus integrations usually takes 6 to 12 months. The actual timeline depends on codebase size, integration count, and how clean the existing data model is. We share a week by week estimate after the discovery audit.

A focused WordPress or basic CodeIgniter migration starts at $10,000 to $25,000. A mid sized migration with custom features, 5 to 10 integrations, and reasonable data complexity lands between $30,000 and $80,000. Enterprise migrations with many integrations, compliance work, and strangler fig rollout typically run $80,000 to $250,000. Dedicated Laravel engineers at Acquaint Softtech start at $22 per hour or $3,200 per month full time. A full breakdown sits on our Laravel development cost page.

Sometimes yes, often no, and the honest answer matters. WordPress is worth keeping for content sites, blogs, simple marketing sites, and stores with basic Shopify-like needs. It is worth migrating when you have outgrown the plugin ecosystem, plugin conflicts cause production incidents monthly, you need custom business logic that plugins cannot model, security audits keep flagging the WP attack surface, or you are running an application masquerading as a content site. Our Laravel vs WordPress comparison covers this in detail.

Six steps. One, code audit of the existing CodeIgniter codebase, including dependency inventory and database schema review. Two, Laravel architecture proposal with the new ERD and module structure. Three, build the new Laravel app alongside the CodeIgniter app with feature parity, shipping in two week sprints. Four, data migration scripts that move records from CodeIgniter tables to the new Laravel schema. Five, shadow testing where both apps run with mirrored traffic to verify behaviour. Six, cutover with 301 redirects, DNS switch, and CodeIgniter retired. Most CodeIgniter migrations take three to five months.

Yes, completely. Zero data loss is a fixed requirement on every migration we deliver. We write idempotent migration scripts (so they can be run safely multiple times), run them on a copy of production first, verify every record count and checksum, and rehearse the cutover at least twice before the live switch. SEO URLs are preserved through 301 redirects, customer accounts and password hashes survive the migration, order history and audit logs are imported with original timestamps, and file uploads move to the new storage with original paths preserved.

Yes, with the strangler fig pattern. The new Laravel application runs alongside the legacy system on a separate domain or subdomain. Specific bounded contexts (a checkout, a dashboard, a customer area) cut over from old to new in stages while the rest of the legacy system keeps serving traffic. Data sync runs through change data capture or scheduled jobs during the transition. Final DNS switch happens during a low traffic window with TTL set to five minutes, so rollback takes minutes if anything looks off. We have run this pattern on production migrations with zero unplanned downtime.

Five common risks. One, hidden business logic baked into legacy code (we mitigate with detailed code audits and behavioural shadow testing). Two, undocumented integrations and webhooks (we trace network traffic on the legacy system before cutover). Three, SEO drop from broken URLs (we map every URL and ship a complete 301 redirect set). Four, customer authentication breaking (we migrate password hashes with the right hashing strategy, no forced password resets). Five, third party integrations failing on cutover day (we test every integration on staging with the new application before going live).

Yes, when migration is done correctly. We map every URL on the old site to its new path and ship a complete 301 redirect set applied at the web server level. Page titles, meta descriptions, structured data, and canonical URLs are preserved. XML sitemaps are regenerated and submitted to Google Search Console. Core Web Vitals usually improve after migration because Laravel applications load faster than aging WordPress or CodeIgniter sites. We monitor rankings for the first six weeks post launch as part of the stabilisation sprint.

Yes, completely. Source code ownership and IP transfer terms are agreed in writing before kick off, the NDA is signed before any project discussions, and the repository is yours from commit one. There are no surprise licence fees later, no usage limits, and no white labelled dependencies that lock you in.