Your PrestaShop store, fully owned and built to last.
PrestaShop remains the most widely used French e-commerce CMS in France, for good reasons: the software is open source, the store belongs to you end to end, and no platform subscription takes its cut every month. But in 2026, a PrestaShop build comes down to precise choices: the right version from day one, modules chosen rather than stacked, a theme that carries your brand, and hosting sized for your sales peaks. And for thousands of French stores still running PrestaShop 1.6 or 1.7, versions that no longer receive any security fixes, the question is no longer creation but rebirth: migrating cleanly, without losing the catalog or the rankings. We do both, with the same rigor.
Custom PrestaShop store, catalog and design included
Migration from 1.6/1.7 or another platform, without SEO loss
Modules chosen and developed cleanly, not stacked
Why build your store on PrestaShop
PrestaShop has one argument neither Shopify nor hosted platforms can offer: full ownership. The code is open source, the database is yours, the hosting is yours, and no platform subscription or imposed transaction fee adds to your costs. For a merchant building long term, that changes the economics: what you invest in your store belongs to you.
The second asset is native e-commerce depth. Complex product combinations, price rules per customer group, multi-store from a single admin, fine-grained management of carriers: PrestaShop was born in the French commerce ecosystem and it shows in every corner of its back office. Rich catalogs and B2B logic find native ground here that simplified platforms only offer through app stacking.
The third is the technical moment: PrestaShop 9, released mid-2025 and consolidated since, moved the platform onto a modern foundation, Symfony 6.4 and PHP 8, with a back office markedly faster than legacy versions. Building a store today means starting directly on that foundation, without the technical debt historical stores carry. Provided the version, module and theme choices are right from day one, which is exactly where we come in.
A successful PrestaShop store is decided in the foundations: the version chosen, the catalog architecture, the module selection and the hosting sizing. The stores suffering today on dead versions are the ones where those choices were never made consciously.
Our PrestaShop store creation includes:
- •E-commerce scoping: catalog, combinations, buying journey and conversion goals
- •Custom design, on a deeply reworked default theme base or a custom theme
- •Complete setup: payments, carriers, taxes, transactional emails
- •Migration and 301 redirects if you come from 1.6, 1.7 or another platform
The goal fits in one sentence: a store you own, ready to sell at launch and healthy for the next five years.
The real questions before launching your PrestaShop store
Versions, modules and theme: the choices that commit you
The first committing choice is the version. For a new build, the answer is clear: branch 9, on its latest stable release, a modern foundation without technical debt. For an existing store to evolve, the answer depends on your modules and theme: the ecosystem of 9-compatible modules is growing fast but not complete, and most post-migration problems observed come precisely from module incompatibilities. We audit before deciding, never the other way around.
The second choice is modules. Unlike the WordPress world where free dominates, the PrestaShop Addons ecosystem is largely paid, often tens to hundreds of euros per module, with updates sometimes billed. Every added module is therefore a real budget and maintenance decision. Our rule: native first, PrestaShop natively covers far more than people think, clean custom development next for your specific needs, and marketplace modules only when they do something better than anyone, with a reliable publisher behind them.
The third is the theme. The modern default theme provides a sound base, but a store that wants to convert deserves more than a base: a design that carries your brand, product pages built to answer objections, a frictionless checkout funnel. We rework in depth or build custom, depending on ambition, always mobile first, because that's where your customers buy.
What our PrestaShop store creation includes
E-commerce scoping and catalog architecture
Categories, combinations, faceted filters, price rules and navigation designed for your customers and for Google at once. On PrestaShop, catalog architecture conditions everything else, and it's designed before the first mockup.
Design and custom theme
On a deeply reworked default theme base or a fully custom theme. In both cases: your identity, your journeys, flawless mobile rendering and product pages that sell instead of merely describing.
Module development and integrations
Your specific needs get coded cleanly, as dedicated modules that respect PrestaShop's architecture and survive updates. ERP, logistics, accounting, merchant feeds: your store integrates into your system, not the other way around.
Migration and version upgrades
From end-of-life PrestaShop 1.6 or 1.7, or from another platform: full catalog, customer and order transfer, a URL-by-URL 301 redirect plan, and a switch without interrupting sales. A successful migration is one neither your customers nor Google notices.
SEO and launch content
Tags, product structured data, clean URLs, category linking and product page optimization: rankings are built into the foundations. Your store ships indexable and ready to climb on your commercial queries.
Training and autonomy
At delivery, you master your back office: catalog, orders, promotions, carriers, content. PrestaShop is deep, and we hand it over properly so that depth becomes an advantage, not a burden.
Thousands of French stores still run on PrestaShop 1.6 or 1.7, and their owners rarely know what that means: these versions no longer receive any security fixes, 1.7 since the release of PrestaShop 9, and major module publishers, payment and shipping first, are progressively ending their support. Every passing month exposes revenue a little more to an unpatched flaw or a payment module that stops working overnight.
The good news: a 1.6 or 1.7 store that works commercially has already proven the essential, its market exists. The project isn't starting from zero, it's rebirthing the existing on a healthy foundation: catalog, customers and order history carried over in full, rankings preserved through a complete redirect plan, and the theme rethought along the way, because a 2018 store no longer converts a 2026 visitor.
On method, no shortcuts: module compatibility audit before any commitment, version upgrades through supported paths, full testing in a staging environment, checkout and payment included, and a switch planned outside activity peaks. The budget is scoped before starting, not along the way.
Is your store still running PrestaShop 1.6 or 1.7?
Launch your PrestaShop store with Synerium
Your e-commerce project deserves a store you own, built cleanly from the start. With Studio, your PrestaShop is created end to end in fixed monthly payments, all inclusive. With Infinity, it keeps evolving after launch: conversion optimization, content, SEO and new features, with no per-task billing.
After launch: performance, SEO and evolutions
A self-hosted PrestaShop store gives you control, and control is something you work on. The first weeks reveal what scoping anticipated: where visitors hesitate, which categories attract traffic, which product pages convert. It's the moment to iterate, not to consider the project finished.
We track what matters: Core Web Vitals, because a self-hosted store's speed depends on its code and hosting, two things we control, buying behavior to feed conversion optimizations, and SEO positions on strategic categories and product pages. The database gets cleaned, the cache tuned, images compressed: that's the upkeep that keeps a store fast.
That's Infinity's territory: your store evolves every month, content, pages, tests, optimizations, with no repeated quotes. And when the time comes, version upgrades are planned serenely instead of endured in emergency, because a store that's looked after never gets left behind by its platform.
PrestaShop isn't the right choice for everyone, and telling you so is part of the job. Against Shopify, the trade-off is sharp: PrestaShop offers full ownership, zero platform subscription and native e-commerce depth, in exchange for responsibility over hosting and maintenance. Shopify offers the peace of mind of a managed platform and a formidable checkout, in exchange for a subscription, fees and a closed framework. Our Shopify creation page covers the other side.
Against WooCommerce, the line runs through the project's nature: WooCommerce excels when the store leans on a content site, the WordPress ecosystem being unbeatable on editorial, while PrestaShop takes the lead on complex catalogs, rich combinations and native multi-store. Our WooCommerce creation page lays out that choice.
What we guarantee is advice based on your project: catalog, volumes, team, content needs, three-year ambitions. The right platform is the one that costs you the least energy to sell the most, and our website creation page widens the question beyond e-commerce.
PrestaShop or Shopify, WooCommerce: how to choose
PrestaShop for B2B, multi-store and complex catalogs
Structured projects are where PrestaShop reaches full dimension. Native multi-store lets you run several storefronts, brands or markets from a single admin, with shared or distinct catalogs: where other platforms multiply instances that drift apart, PrestaShop centralizes.
B2B is the other playground: customer groups with dedicated pricing, volume discounts, quick ordering by reference, catalogs restricted by profile. These mechanics exist natively or get developed cleanly, without twisting the platform, and it's precisely the kind of project where owning the code becomes a strategic advantage: your commercial logic remains yours.
For rich catalogs finally, thousands of references, multiple combinations, faceted filters, automated supplier feeds, PrestaShop holds up structurally well, provided hosting is sized and the database maintained. We design the architecture for the catalog you'll have in three years, not just the launch one.
How much does creating a PrestaShop website cost?
On the French market, a professional store generally sits between 5,000 and 15,000 € with an agency, more for complex projects with ERP integrations or multi-store. Paid modules and hosting come on top. At Synerium, Studio finances the complete build in fixed monthly payments, all inclusive, and Infinity covers builds and evolutions in an unlimited subscription, with no repeated quotes.
Is PrestaShop really free?
The software, yes: open source, downloadable, with no platform subscription and no imposed transaction fees. The rest gets budgeted honestly: hosting, domain name, marketplace modules that are often paid, the theme if you start from a premium base, and maintenance. It's a different economic model from Shopify, not a cost-free one: you invest in an asset you own instead of renting a platform.
Which PrestaShop version should I choose in 2026?
For a new build: branch 9 on its latest stable release, modern foundation, fast back office, no technical debt. To evolve an existing store: it depends on your modules, whose 9-compatibility is progressing but not total, and an audit decides better than a general opinion. What's no longer up for debate: staying on 1.6 or 1.7, which no longer receive any security fixes.
How long does it take to launch a PrestaShop store?
For a store on a reworked theme base with a ready catalog, expect one to two months. A project with custom design, developed modules or data migration takes longer, depending on complexity. As always in e-commerce, the real timeline factor is content: photos, descriptions and logistics ready upfront shorten everything.
My store runs PrestaShop 1.6 or 1.7, should I migrate or rebuild?
Migrate, in the vast majority of cases: your catalog, customers and SEO history are assets that carry over in full. The migration follows supported paths, with a module compatibility audit before any commitment, full staging tests and exhaustive 301 redirects. The budget is scoped after the audit, and market ranges go from a few thousand euros for a simple store to considerably more for complex, ERP-integrated catalogs.
PrestaShop or Shopify: how to choose?
PrestaShop if you want full ownership of your store, zero platform subscription and native depth on catalogs and B2B, taking on hosting and maintenance. Shopify if you prefer a fully managed platform with an exceptional checkout, accepting the subscription and the closed framework. Our Shopify creation page details the other option, and we advise based on your project, not our comfort.
PrestaShop or WooCommerce: how to choose?
WooCommerce if your store leans on a strong content strategy, the WordPress ecosystem remaining unbeatable on editorial. PrestaShop if your project is first and foremost a commerce operation: rich catalog, complex combinations, multi-store, B2B. Both are open source and belong to you, the line runs through the project’s nature. Our WooCommerce creation page goes deeper on that choice.
Does a PrestaShop migration lose rankings?
Not if it's run as an SEO project: full URL inventory before migration, exhaustive 301 redirects, transfer of ranking tags and content, and Search Console monitoring in the weeks after the switch. Done well, the migration is invisible to Google, and moving onto a faster foundation ends up serving rankings.
Does PrestaShop handle B2B and multi-store?
Yes, it's even one of its home grounds. Multi-store is native: several storefronts run from a single admin. On the B2B side, customer groups, dedicated pricing, volume discounts and restricted catalogs exist natively or get developed cleanly. For these structured projects, owning the code is a strategic advantage: your commercial logic stays yours.
What happens after my store launches?
The work continues: conversion optimization, SEO content, database and cache upkeep, and version upgrades planned rather than endured. With Infinity, these evolutions are covered continuously, with no repeated quotes. A well-maintained PrestaShop store stays fast, secure and current; a store delivered then forgotten becomes someone else's 1.7 store five years from now.