Automation Migration Mistakes: Switching Platforms Without Downtime

You have outgrown your current automation platform. Maybe Zapier's task limits are eating your budget. Maybe you need the multi-step complexity that only Make.com provides. Maybe you are moving from a DIY setup to a professionally engineered system. Whatever the reason, the migration itself is where most teams stumble. They turn off the old system, turn on the new one, and discover gaps in logic, missing data, and broken webhook endpoints—all while live orders are flowing in.

Here are the seven most common migration mistakes and the exact framework for switching automation platforms with zero downtime.

Mistake 1: Big Bang Cutover

The most dangerous migration approach is the "flip the switch" method: shut down the old platform entirely and start the new one simultaneously. This creates a single point of failure with no rollback path. If the new system has a bug, you have no fallback. If the new webhooks are not receiving data correctly, orders are lost in the gap.

The alternative is a parallel-run migration. Both platforms operate simultaneously for a defined overlap period. The old system continues to process all traffic. The new system receives the same triggers and processes them into a staging environment. You compare outputs for accuracy. Only when the new system produces identical results for 48-72 hours do you cut over production traffic.

Figure 1 — Five-phase migration framework ensuring zero downtime and zero data loss

Mistake 2: Not Documenting Existing Workflows

Many teams start building on the new platform without fully documenting what the old platform does. They rebuild from memory, missing edge cases, conditional branches, and error handlers that were added over months of production use. The result is a new automation that handles the happy path but fails on the 15% of transactions that follow non-standard routes.

Before touching the new platform, create a complete inventory of every workflow on the old platform. For each workflow, document: the trigger event, every conditional branch, every data transformation, every API call and its parameters, every error handler, and every notification. This documentation becomes your migration specification. Nothing gets built on the new platform until it is accounted for in this inventory.

Mistake 3: Ignoring Webhook Endpoint Changes

When you switch platforms, your webhook URLs change. Every system that sends data to your automation—Shopify, WooCommerce, your email parser, third-party services—has the old webhook URL configured. If you forget to update even one of these, that data source silently stops feeding into your automation.

Create a webhook inventory before migration: list every incoming webhook, the source system, the URL, and when it was last triggered. During cutover, update each one systematically and verify receipt with a test payload. A missed webhook is the most common cause of "missing data" after migration and often takes days to diagnose because the source system shows successful delivery to the old (now dead) endpoint.

Mistake 4: Losing Historical Execution Data

Your old platform contains months or years of execution logs, error histories, and performance data. This data is invaluable for troubleshooting and compliance. Most teams cancel their old platform subscription immediately after migration, losing all of this history.

Before decommissioning, export all available execution logs and data stores. Keep the old platform subscription active (even at a reduced tier) for at least 30 days after full cutover. This gives you a rollback option if critical issues emerge and preserves access to historical data for compliance needs. For accounting automation, this retention period may need to extend to meet financial record-keeping requirements.

Mistake 5: Not Testing at Production Volume

A workflow that handles 10 test orders on the new platform may fail at 500 real orders per hour. Different platforms have different execution models, rate limits, and queueing behaviors. Make.com processes scenarios differently than Zapier processes zaps. Execution time limits, concurrent execution caps, and API call allowances all vary. If you do not load test on the new platform before cutover, you are gambling with your production traffic.

Run a load test at 1.5x your peak volume before moving any production traffic. Watch for timeout errors, throttling, and queue backlogs. Adjust your workflow architecture for the new platform's constraints before going live.

Mistake 6: Cutting Over Everything at Once

Even with parallel runs and load testing, cutting over 100% of traffic simultaneously is unnecessarily risky. Instead, use a graduated cutover. Move the lowest-risk, lowest-volume workflow first. Monitor for 48 hours. Move the next workflow. Continue until all workflows are migrated. This staged approach limits the blast radius of any issue to a single workflow rather than your entire operation.

Figure 2 — Big bang cutover vs. graduated migration: the risk profile is dramatically different

Mistake 7: No Post-Migration Monitoring

The first two weeks after migration are the highest-risk period. Edge cases that testing did not cover, volume patterns that the load test did not simulate, and API behaviors that differ between platforms will surface during this window. Set up enhanced monitoring: check record counts hourly instead of daily, watch execution times for degradation, and have the team on standby for rapid response.

Keep a migration issues log. Document every problem, its root cause, and its resolution. This log becomes a playbook for future migrations and helps identify patterns that indicate systematic issues rather than one-off bugs.

"A successful migration is not one that finishes on time. It is one where no customer notices it happened."

If you are planning a platform switch for your order-to-cash workflow, budget at least four to six weeks for the full migration lifecycle. The upfront investment in parallel runs, graduated cutover, and enhanced monitoring pays for itself by preventing the multi-day outages that plague rushed migrations.