Service · Engineer
Headless & Hydrogen
Headless buys control and costs you Shopify's defaults. We will tell you when a well-built Liquid theme is the better engineering decision — and build the headless storefront properly when it genuinely is not.
- Hydrogen
- Remix
- Storefront API
- Oxygen
- Group
- Engineer
- Starts with
- Technical audit
- Delivery
- Git + staging theme
- Handover
- Written documentation
01Overview
Headless Shopify development is the right call far less often than it is proposed. It earns its cost when you need experiences the Liquid rendering model genuinely cannot express, when several front ends share one commerce backend, or when content lives in a system that has to stay authoritative. Outside those cases, a disciplined theme with a real render budget usually beats a headless build on both speed and total cost of ownership.
When headless is the right answer, we build it on Hydrogen and Remix against the Storefront API, with query design and caching treated as first-class architecture rather than an afterthought. Streaming SSR, per-route cache rules and a metaobject-driven content model keep editors in control instead of routing every copy change through an engineer.
We also make the thing operable. Preview environments per branch, a deploy pipeline with rollback, and real-user monitoring on the routes that matter, so the storefront can be maintained by your team long after the engagement ends.
02The problem
Headless is often sold as a performance upgrade and delivered as an operational tax: slower content changes, more infrastructure to own, a smaller pool of people who can maintain it, and a merchandising team that now files tickets for work they used to do themselves.
03You will recognise this if
- You need experiences Liquid genuinely cannot express
- Multiple front ends share one commerce backend
- A previous headless build stalled or was abandoned
- Content lives in a CMS that has to remain authoritative
- Your team cannot currently deploy the storefront without help
04How we work on it
- 01
Honest trade analysis
A written comparison of headless against a tuned Liquid theme for your specific catalogue, content model and team size. If the theme wins, we say so and quote that instead.
- 02
Storefront API modelling
Query design, fragment reuse and caching strategy defined before components are written. Metaobject-driven content keeps merchandisers editing without a deploy.
- 03
Edge rendering
Streaming SSR with cache rules tuned per route and validated against field data. Slow third-party calls are moved off the critical render path.
- 04
Commerce parity
Cart, checkout hand-off, discounts, markets and customer accounts verified against the behaviour merchants already rely on, not reimplemented by guesswork.
- 05
Operability
Preview environments, deploy pipeline, error tracking and observability set up so your team can ship safely. Rollback is a documented button, not an incident.
- 06
Documented handover
Architecture decisions, caching rules and known trade-offs written down. The next engineer inherits reasoning, not archaeology.
04What you get
Deliverables, not decks.
- Headless viability assessment with a written recommendation
- Hydrogen / Remix storefront
- Storefront API query layer and caching strategy
- Metaobject content model for editors
- Preview environments and deploy pipeline
- Real-user performance monitoring
- Error tracking and alerting
- Architecture decision record and handover documentation
1// field-data first — never lab scores alone2const budget = { lcp: 1800, tbt: 120, cls: 0.05 };3 4onCLS(send); onINP(send); onLCP(send);5// regressions fail the deploy, not the quarterDelivery pipeline
- Audit
- Scope
- Build
- QA
- Measure
05What changes
- A decision you can defend
- A written trade analysis showing whether headless actually pays for itself against a tuned theme for your catalogue and team.
- Editor independence
- Content and merchandising changes stay in the hands of the people who own them, through a modelled content layer rather than developer tickets.
- Predictable operations
- Preview, deploy, monitor and roll back are all routine, so the storefront stops being fragile infrastructure.
06How an engagement runs
- 01
Audit
We review your catalogue, content model, front-end requirements and team capability, then produce the viability assessment. Roughly one to two weeks.
- 02
Scope
If headless is justified, we agree route-by-route architecture, caching rules and a performance budget before any component is built.
- 03
Delivery
Built in reviewable slices against preview environments, with parity checks on cart and checkout before launch, and measurement afterwards.
07Stack
- Hydrogen
- Remix
- Storefront API
- Oxygen
- TypeScript
- React
09Questions
More in Engineer
Headless & Hydrogen
Send us the store and the symptom.
A senior engineer reads it, tells you what is actually going on, and scopes only what the evidence supports.