Stay on a supported Magento — upgraded with zero downtime
Safe Magento 2 minor and patch upgrades, security patching, and extension compatibility work — deployed with zero downtime via Orbit. Stay secure and supported without breaking your customisations.
What is a Magento upgrade?
A Magento upgrade moves a store between Magento 2 versions — a patch release (e.g. 2.4.6 → 2.4.6-p3) for security fixes, or a minor release (e.g. 2.4.5 → 2.4.8) for new features and a newer PHP. Unlike a migration, the store stays on Magento 2; the work is keeping every extension, theme customisation, and bespoke module compatible with the new version while applying the security patches Adobe ships.
Staying current matters: Adobe supports only a window of recent versions, and security patches are released against them. Fall too far behind and you're running an unsupported, increasingly vulnerable store — but upgrades have a reputation for breaking things, because a new Magento version can change APIs that extensions and custom code depend on. The job is doing it safely.
Why teams put off upgrading — and why that's expensive
Upgrades get deferred because they're risky: a minor version bump can break a payment extension, a theme override, or a piece of custom checkout logic, and a botched upgrade means downtime during business hours. So stores drift further and further behind, accumulating unpatched security holes and making the eventual upgrade bigger and riskier. The longer you wait, the worse the jump — and the more exposed the store is in the meantime.
How we upgrade without breaking the store
We run every upgrade as a controlled process on a staging environment that mirrors production. We resolve dependency and extension compatibility, fix custom code against the new APIs, apply the relevant security patches, and run full QA across checkout and integrations before anything touches production. The go-live itself runs through Orbit, our zero-downtime deployment tool, with automatic rollback if a health check fails — so even a same-day security patch ships without a maintenance window or a 2 a.m. deploy.
What an upgrade covers
Everything needed to land on a newer, supported Magento without breaking what you've built.
Compatibility audit
We check your current version, extensions, theme, and custom code against the target version and produce an upgrade plan.
Dependency resolution
Composer dependencies, third-party extensions, and PHP version all moved to versions compatible with the target Magento release.
Custom code fixes
Bespoke modules and theme overrides updated against changed Magento APIs so nothing breaks on the new version.
Security patching
Adobe's security and quality patches applied — including out-of-band hotfixes released between versions.
Staging QA
Full test of checkout, payments, and integrations on a production-mirror staging environment before go-live.
Zero-downtime deploy
Go-live through Orbit with automatic health-checked rollback — no maintenance window, no out-of-hours deploy.
How an upgrade runs
How it works
Audit
We assess your current version, extensions, theme, and custom code against the target release and produce an upgrade plan.
Resolve dependencies
Composer dependencies, third-party extensions, and PHP version moved to versions compatible with the target Magento release.
Patch the code
Bespoke modules and theme overrides fixed against changed Magento APIs; Adobe's security and quality patches applied.
Test on staging
Full QA across checkout, payments, and integrations on a staging environment that mirrors production.
Zero-downtime go-live
Deployed through Orbit with automatic rollback if a post-deploy health check fails — no maintenance window, no out-of-hours deploy.
Shipping Magento since the Magento 1 era — first as SoftCommerce, now as Byte8
We're a London-based commerce engineering studio that has been building and maintaining Magento stores across the Magento 1 and Magento 2 eras. The same team now ships the Pulsar, Orbit, Horizon, and Cargoman products — tools born from the real stores we run.
The Tile Depot → CTD Group
Built and maintained the Magento storefront for The Tile Depot's London branches for years — through to the business being acquired by CTD Group.
Barclays ePDQ
Appointed by Barclays to build the ePDQ payment gateway extension for Magento — bank-grade payment integration to their specification.
PlentyMarkets → PlentyONE
Appointed by PlentyMarkets (now PlentyONE) to build the official Magento 2 / Adobe Commerce ERP integration — still shipped today as the Byte8 PlentyONE Connector.
UK & EU merchants
Haka Kunz (Germany), Dampfi (Switzerland), Wills Vegan Shoes (London), and many more stores built and run across the UK and Europe.
Frequently asked questions
How often should I upgrade Magento?
Will upgrading break my extensions or customisations?
Does the store go down during an upgrade?
What's the difference between a Magento upgrade and a migration?
Can you apply just security patches without a full version upgrade?
How long does a Magento upgrade take?
How much does a Magento upgrade cost?
Get back on a supported Magento
We'll audit your store and plan a safe upgrade — extensions, custom code, security patches, and a zero-downtime go-live.