Hydrogen + headless Shopify
Headless Shopify, built right — and only when it actually pays off.
Most stores don't need Hydrogen. The ones that do, need it done by someone who's shipped it before. We'll tell you honestly which side of that line you're on.
95+
Lighthouse target
Fixed
Price quote
0%
Agency layers
When headless wins
Hydrogen makes sense when at least 2 of these are true.
If only one applies, you're probably better served by a well-built Liquid theme. We'll tell you so.
Sub-second page loads matter to your bottom line
If you're doing $5M+/year and Lighthouse 95+ is a strategic priority — luxury, fashion-forward DTC, or international brands — Hydrogen's edge-rendered React storefront genuinely outperforms Liquid on perceived speed. Below that revenue threshold, the engineering tax usually doesn't pay back.
Multi-locale, multi-currency, complex routing
Hydrogen handles international stores with separate domains, locale-specific content, and complex URL structures more cleanly than Liquid + Shopify Markets. If your store ships to 20+ countries with localized content, headless is worth the complexity.
Heavy custom backend integrations
ERP integrations, real-time inventory across multiple warehouses, custom pricing engines, B2B customer-specific catalogs — Hydrogen + Oxygen lets you put server logic exactly where you need it, instead of working around Liquid's request lifecycle.
Storefront is a React app, not a website
Configurators, build-your-own-X tools, AR previews, complex filtering with faceted search — anything where the storefront UI is genuinely an application warrants Hydrogen's React-component architecture.
When NOT to go headless
The honest list of reasons to stay on Liquid.
We turn down headless projects when these apply. Saying no costs us a sale; saying yes when we shouldn't costs you a lot more.
- Under $1M/year revenue. The engineering tax of headless eats the conversion lift.
- Standard catalog + standard product page + standard checkout. Liquid is faster to build, maintain, and hand off.
- Your team includes a non-technical merchandiser who needs to edit storefront content. Liquid + Shopify's theme editor is dramatically more accessible than React component edits.
- You're early in product-market fit. Don't optimize the storefront before you know who buys.
- Your team doesn't already have a React/Node developer in-house. Hydrogen stores need ongoing engineering attention.
Hydrogen work we do
Four types of Hydrogen engagement.
Hydrogen storefront builds
Greenfield Hydrogen storefronts deployed to Oxygen or Vercel. Tailwind + your design system, Shopify Storefront API + custom backend integrations as needed.
Liquid-to-Hydrogen migrations
Convert an existing Liquid theme to a headless Hydrogen storefront without losing customers, SEO, or checkout continuity. We migrate URL by URL with 301s preserved.
Custom backend integrations
ERP (NetSuite, SAP, Brightpearl), warehouse, ESP, custom pricing engines, B2B logic. Hydrogen's server runtime means we put computation where it belongs.
Hydrogen performance audits
Existing Hydrogen storefront slow? We audit the rendering strategy, RSC vs. client component boundaries, caching layers, and image pipeline. Most stores have a 20-40 Lighthouse gain hiding in suboptimal cache headers.
Stack
What we build with
Considering headless? Let's talk first.
I'll tell you honestly whether Hydrogen makes sense for your store. If it does, you get a fixed quote. If it doesn't, I'll recommend a Liquid path that's cheaper and faster.