Migration guide
Switching translation apps without losing the work
One question decides how much your next translation app costs you, and it is not its price. It is where your current app keeps your translations. If they are in Shopify, switching is an import. If they are on someone’s servers, switching is a re-translation. Here is how to find out which one you are facing — before you uninstall anything.
- Works with any app
- Nothing to uninstall first
- Imports cost 0 credits
In Shopify’s translation layer
They are your store’s. The next app reads them, they stay live the whole time, and the move costs nothing.
On the app’s own servers
They leave when the app does. Export what you can, then budget for a re-translation and a theme clean-up.
The check in step 1 takes about a minute and works on any app.
The four steps
Do these in order and nothing gets lost
None of this is specific to Lingomatic. It is the order that protects your work whichever app you are moving to.
- 1
Find out where your translations actually live
In Shopify admin, open a product you have translated and look at its translations for one of your languages. Text there means the app published into Shopify and your work is portable. An empty field while the live storefront shows the translation means the app is serving it from outside Shopify. Confirm it by viewing the page source of a translated page: native translations are already in the HTML, a storefront script swaps them in a second later.
- 2
Publish everything before you touch anything
Drafts do not transfer. Whatever sits in the old app unpublished exists only inside that app, so publish every language you intend to keep while it is still installed and still paid for. This is the step people skip, and it is the one that turns a free migration into a paid one.
- 3
Install the new app and sync before you remove the old one
Run a full sync with both apps installed, then read coverage per language. Anything showing as untranslated did not come across, and that list is what a re-translation would actually cost you. Two apps overlapping for a day is cheap; discovering the gap after the uninstall is not.
- 4
Clean up what the old app leaves behind
Four places: theme code for snippets and switcher markup, DNS records if it used subdomains, redirects for chains pointing at the old URL scheme, and your card statement. An app billed outside Shopify keeps charging until you cancel it with the vendor — uninstalling does not stop it.
Shopify documents its own translation layer in the localization and translation guide.
What transfers
App by app, roughly what to expect
Based on how each developer describes its own architecture and on what merchants report publicly. It is a starting expectation, not a promise about your store — run the check in step 1 before you plan around any row.
| Leaving | Transfers? | What to expect |
|---|---|---|
| Shopify Translate & Adapt | Transfers | Writes into Shopify’s Translations API. Everything transfers. |
| T Lab | Transfers | Native app. Published translations sit in Shopify and transfer. |
| LangShop | Partly | Mostly native, with an optional client-side layer. Whatever was published natively transfers. |
| Hextom | Partly | Editor overlay on top of Shopify. Check a product’s translations before you decide. |
| langify | Check first | Works through theme code and its own tags. Expect to re-translate, and to clean the theme. |
| Transcy | Check first | Renders through an injected snippet. Only whatever reached Shopify transfers. |
| Weglot | Check first | Serves translated pages through its own layer and subdomains. Usually nothing to import. |
Arriving at Lingomatic
What an import looks like on our side
Lingomatic reads the translations Shopify already holds for every language you have added, and everything it can match arrives as published — word for word as you left it, live on your storefront the whole time.
Zero credits. A copy is not a translation. Check your balance before and after the first sync — it is the same number.
No product-limit cost. Two imported languages do not eat the allowance you need for the new ones.
Left alone afterwards. An import is redone only if you rewrite the source text of that field, or ask for a fresh translation yourself.
Two honest limits. Only languages you have added as targets are imported, and only translations attached to content we synced. Anything else shows as untranslated in coverage.
The full detail, including what does not come across, is in our import documentation.
German
1,284 translations imported
French
1,284 translations imported
Dutch
Nothing found in Shopify
Credit balance before: 50,000 · after: 50,000
In their words
Why this is worth an hour of your time
Lock-in is not a theoretical risk in this category. It is one of the most common things merchants write about after the fact — and all three of these were avoidable with the four steps above.
“I can’t switch to another app because then all my progress would be gone and I would have to re-translate everything.”
“Unfortunately, I’m now stuck with them because everything has already been translated through their system, and leaving would mean losing my entire investment.”
“I removed the app. almost 2 years ago and still have tags and scripts that mess up my URLs and redirect to 404 dead links.”
Quoted verbatim and anonymised — store names left out on purpose. Read translation app reviews on the Shopify App Store ↗
When not to switch at all
If your current app works and your bill is predictable, the migration is not worth the risk. Every move has a window where something is half-published, and no feature on a comparison page pays for a bad week.
If two languages is your whole plan, Shopify’s free Translate & Adapt already covers it — you do not need us or anyone else. And if the only problem is one app’s support, try reaching them once more before you rebuild your translations somewhere new.
The cases where switching genuinely pays: you have hit a hard language cap, your bill moves without you changing anything, or your rankings are being affected by how the app handles URLs and tags.
FAQ
Migrating translation apps: the questions merchants ask
Will I lose my translations if I switch translation apps?
It depends entirely on where the old app put them. Translations published into Shopify’s own translation layer belong to your store and survive the uninstall — a new app can read them straight away. Translations held on an app’s servers or rendered by a storefront script are not in Shopify at all, so uninstalling takes them with it and the next app starts from nothing.
How can I check where my translations are stored?
Open a translated product in Shopify admin and look at its translations for one of your languages. If your translated text is there, the app published natively and you can move it. If the field is empty but your live storefront shows the translation, the app is serving it from outside Shopify. A second check: view the page source of a translated page — native translations arrive already translated in the HTML rather than appearing a second or two after load.
Should I uninstall the old app first?
No. Install the new app and run a full sync while the old one is still in place, then compare coverage per language before you remove anything. Overlapping for a day or two costs nothing and is the difference between an import and a re-translation. The one thing to do first is publish: unpublished translations do not transfer.
What does Lingomatic charge to import existing translations?
Nothing. An import is a copy, not a translation: no model runs, so no credits are spent — your balance is the same number before and after the first sync. Imported translations arrive marked as published, exactly as you left them, and they do not count against your plan’s product limit either.
Will an imported translation get overwritten later?
Only in two cases, and both are yours to trigger. If you rewrite the source text, the translation of that field is now wrong and gets redone at the normal rate — that field only. If you choose Re-translate on a field, it is replaced and charged for, with the imported version kept in history so you can revert. Nothing else touches an import.
What should I clean up after uninstalling the old app?
Check four places: theme code for leftover snippets or switcher markup, your DNS records if the app used subdomains, your redirects for chains pointing at the old URL scheme, and your card statement — an app billed outside Shopify keeps charging until you cancel it with the vendor, not with Shopify.
Keep reading
Shopify translation apps compared
Eight apps, what each one meters you on, and who owns your hreflang. Our own row included.
Read it →Weglot alternative
DNS records, word counts that climb, and billing that outlives the install.
Read it →Transcy alternative
Hreflang conflicts, canonical tags and AI tokens: what changes when Shopify Markets owns the SEO.
Read it →Start free
Find out what transfers before you cancel anything
Install Lingomatic on the free plan, run a sync alongside your current app, and read the coverage. If everything came across, the migration already happened. If it did not, at least you know before you uninstall.