Shopify Hydrogen is a new way to build custom storefronts using a headless setup. It gives you more freedom to design and build your store exactly how you want, using modern tools like React.
This tutorial introduces Shopify Hydrogen and how it can be a good fit for your business.
Things to Think About Before Using Hydrogen
Ask yourself:
- Do I have the right technical support and strategy?
- What are the pros and cons of going headless?
- Why not just use Shopify’s Liquid themes?
- Can I delay using Hydrogen and add it later?
- Am I ready to learn and use new tools?
Taking time to answer these will help you make a smarter decision.
How Is Hydrogen Different from a Traditional Store?
Traditional Shopify stores (using Store 2.0) are simpler, cheaper to maintain, but have limits.
Hydrogen stores are more flexible and powerful but need more coding skills and cost more to build and manage.
Example: Development Tools Comparison
Store 2.0 (Traditional)
- HTML
- CSS
- JavaScript
- Liquid
Hydrogen (Headless)
- HTML
- CSS
- JavaScript + React
- APIs (like Shopify Storefront API)
If you’re building with Hydrogen or just exploring the idea, I hope this guide helped you understand it better. Are you using Hydrogen too? Let’s connect!