Headless Commerce · Hydrogen & Oxygen

Headless Shopify for brands that have outgrown Liquid

Hydrogen and Oxygen, or Next.js on infrastructure you own, both running on Shopify’s Storefront API. Built by Shopify Partner engineers who will tell you when a theme is still the right answer.

What can we help you with? See our work
Projects Delivered
250+
Client satisfaction
98%
team members
50+

48 hours turnaround

What can we help you with?

Send your store URL and we reply with a recorded walkthrough: five prioritised fixes, ranked by revenue impact. No pitch, no obligation.

  • A recorded walkthrough, sent to your inbox
  • Priorities ranked by impact
  • No pitch, no obligation
What can we help you with?

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What can we help you with?

Trusted by 250+ brands across the US, UK, UAE & Europe

01 / CAPABILITIES

Eight headless capabilities, and the judgement to use them sparingly.

Hydrogen on Oxygen, or Next.js on your own infrastructure. Both sit on Shopify’s Storefront API, and both are a trade rather than an upgrade.

01

Hydrogen storefronts

Shopify’s React framework with Server Components and edge-first rendering, deployed to Oxygen with no hosting contract to manage.

02

Next.js on the Storefront API

The same rendering model on infrastructure you own: App Router, Server Components, ISR and on-demand revalidation.

03

Oxygen hosting

Shopify’s global edge runtime for Hydrogen, with a preview deployment per branch so review happens on real URLs.

04

Storefront API modelling

Catalogue, cart, customer accounts and checkout handoff modelled once, then shared across every front end you run.

05

Headless CMS integration

Sanity, Contentful or Payload for editorial content, with preview so your team sees a page in context before it is live.

06

Checkout handoff

Shopify-hosted checkout, Shop Pay and the wallets kept intact. Headless changes the storefront, not the payment flow.

07

Migration from Liquid

Template-by-template migration behind a redirect map, so the organic surface you spent years paying for survives the move.

08

Headless retainers

Two systems means two release cycles. Dependency, runtime and performance work continue as part of the engagement.

02 / PROCESS

How a headless engagement runs.

Headless is a trade, not an upgrade. The first stage exists to make sure you are making that trade knowingly.

  1. Stage 1

    Is headless the answer?

    We audit what Liquid is actually costing you. About half the brands who ask for headless leave with a plan to fix the theme instead.

  2. Stage 2

    Architecture and data model

    Front end, CMS, hosting and the Storefront API surface get decided and written down before the first component is built.

  3. Stage 3

    Build and migrate

    Templates ported behind a redirect map, on staging running a real copy of your catalogue rather than sample products.

  4. Stage 4

    Cutover and run

    Launch against a written rollback plan, then the release, dependency and performance cadence a headless stack needs to stay healthy.

03 / OUR WORK

Recent work from our portfolio.

Live stores, apps and platforms we have built and run. Case studies open on this site; other projects open the live build in a new tab.

View all work

2×

Conversion uplift

typical after a CRO-led rebuild

60%

Faster load times

median improvement at launch

40%

Lower cost

against an in-house team of the same size

99.9%

Uptime

on Shopify infrastructure

04 / PRICING

Transparent pricing. Pick the model that fits your stage.

Fixed-scope projects, ongoing retainers, or full-time dedicated teams. Whatever the engagement, you'll see the price before you sign: no hourly creep, no surprise change orders.

Project

Fixed-scope build

$5K – $250K

Fixed timeline · Milestone-billed

Best for: Store launches, redesigns, migrations, mobile apps, MVPs

  • Fixed SOW & written deliverables
  • 14–60 day hypercare included
  • Clean code & documentation handover
  • Easy off-ramp, no lock-in

Retainer

Monthly partnership

$1.2K – $12K / mo

15–150 hrs/month · Month-to-month

Best for: Established stores running CRO, A/B tests, & ongoing improvements

  • Dedicated PM + senior engineer
  • Sprint cadence with weekly demos
  • 2–8 A/B tests per month
  • Unused hours roll 50% forward

Dedicated team

Full-time pod

$8K – $40K / mo

1–8 engineers · Embedded in your roadmap

Best for: In-house augmentation, Shopify Plus brands, multi-region scaling

  • Senior engineers full-time on your team
  • Direct Slack & daily standups
  • Reports to your CTO/Eng Lead
  • Signed SLA & SOC2-aligned process

05 / WHY BRANDS STAY

Six reasons brands stay with us for the long run.

Most of our Shopify work is repeat business or referral. These are the reasons clients give when we ask why.

Shopify Partner since 2018

Certified, with direct partner support channels when a build needs them.

250+ stores shipped since 2019

Seven years of Shopify-specific pattern recognition, not general web work.

A dedicated PM on every build

One accountable owner, weekly written updates, no account-manager telephone game.

Conversion-first, not pixel-first

Design decisions are argued from revenue impact, and measured after launch.

Transparent, fixed-scope pricing

Written scope and a fixed number before work starts. No surprise line items.

You own the code, always

Clean handover, documented, on your repos. Leaving is never held over you.

06 / TECH STACK

What we build headless Shopify with.

Shopify’s own headless stack where it fits, and a framework you host yourself when the build genuinely needs one.

Storefront

  • Hydrogen
  • React
  • Next.js
  • Remix
  • TypeScript
  • Server Components

Shopify APIs

  • Storefront API
  • Customer Account API
  • Cart API
  • GraphQL
  • Admin API
  • Webhooks

Content

  • Sanity
  • Contentful
  • Payload
  • Metaobjects
  • Preview
  • deployments

Cloud & ops

  • Oxygen
  • Vercel
  • Cloudflare
  • Edge caching
  • Core Web Vitals

07 / FAQ

Questions we hear before every Shopify engagement.

Honest answers, including the ones most agencies dodge.

What can we help you with?
Should I go headless?

Usually not yet. Headless solves rendering and composition problems, not app bloat or an unoptimised theme. We audit what Liquid is actually costing you first, and about half the brands who ask leave with a plan to fix the theme.

What is the difference between Hydrogen and Next.js here?

Hydrogen is Shopify’s React framework, deployed to Oxygen with the hosting included. Next.js is the same rendering model on infrastructure you own and pay for. The choice is mostly about who runs the operations.

Do I lose the Shopify checkout?

No, and you should not want to. Checkout stays Shopify-hosted with Shop Pay and the wallets intact. Headless changes the storefront in front of checkout, not the payment flow behind it.

What happens to my SEO?

Every template is migrated behind a redirect map covering your existing organic surface, and structured data is rebuilt per template. Nothing goes live until URL parity has been checked.

Can my team still edit the site?

Not in the theme editor, and that is the real cost of headless. Editorial content moves to a headless CMS with preview, and merchandising controls have to be designed and built rather than inherited.

What does a headless build cost?

It depends on template count, CMS scope and whether you host it yourself. We scope it in writing with a fixed number before work starts — the engagement models above show the shapes we work in.