Step-by-Step Guide: How to Safely Stay on Magento 1 in 2025 and Beyond

Magento 1 reached its official end-of-life (EOL) in June 2020, but that doesn’t mean your Magento 1 store has to go offline. If you’re still running Magento 1, you’re not alone — many merchants continue to operate stable and successful stores using this platform. The key is to make the right strategic and technical choices to ensure your store remains secure, compliant, and performant.

Here’s a step-by-step plan for staying on Magento 1 safely in 2025 and beyond.

Step 1: Understand the Two Main Options Available

To continue running your store on Magento 1, there are two primary paths you can choose from:

Option 1: Stay on the Last Magento 1 Release and Use Mage-One Patches

Mage-One is a commercial service that provides security patches and updates for Magento 1 beyond its EOL. The company works with a network of trusted developers and a bug bounty program to find and fix vulnerabilities. This is a paid service, but it offers reliable long-term security coverage without changing the core of your Magento installation.

Option 2: Migrate to OpenMage (Free Community Fork)

OpenMage is a community-driven fork of Magento 1. It’s open-source, actively maintained, and supports newer PHP versions. It’s a great choice for merchants who want to stay on Magento 1 but benefit from continued improvements and community patches — all for free.

Step 2: Upgrade to the Latest Official Magento 1 Release

No matter which path you choose (Mage-One or OpenMage), the first thing you should do is upgrade your store to the latest official Magento 1 release — Magento 1.9.4.5. This ensures you’re starting from the most stable and secure baseline before making further changes.

Step 3: Review and Refactor Custom Modules for PHP Compatibility

Magento 1 was originally designed to run on PHP 5.6 or 7.0. However, most modern servers now run PHP 7.4 or even 8.1. To keep your store secure and performant, your custom modules and code should be compatible with these newer versions.

How We Do It

At BroSolutions, we typically use Rector — a powerful tool for automated PHP refactoring — to scan and adapt custom code for newer PHP versions. This step is crucial before switching to OpenMage (which requires PHP 7.4+), or even to maintain compatibility on newer servers while staying on the legacy Magento 1 core.

💡 We described a real-life example of this process in one of our case studies.
It shows how we helped a client refactor a heavily customized Magento 1 store and migrate it to OpenMage with zero downtime.

Step 4: Choose Your Migration Path

Now it’s time to act on your chosen strategy:

✅ If you chose Mage-One, start subscribing to their service and apply the patches they provide regularly. This path allows you to keep the original Magento 1 codebase mostly untouched.
✅ If you chose OpenMage, proceed with the migration by replacing the Magento 1 core files with the latest stable OpenMage release. The migration is relatively straightforward but still requires proper backups and testing.

Step 5: Secure and Monitor Your Environment

Whichever route you take, it’s essential to maintain strong security practices:

✅ Use a Web Application Firewall (WAF)
✅ Regularly audit server configurations
✅ Keep extensions up to date
✅ Monitor logs for suspicious activity
✅ Set up automated backups

Need Help With Migration or Refactoring?

At BroSolutions, we’ve helped dozens of merchants stay on Magento 1 safely — whether through patching, OpenMage migration, or full PHP refactoring. We can: