Navigating Shopify Front-Ends: Hydrogen vs Next.js
Paul Grieselhuber
Founder, director
Hydrogen vs Next.js: Choosing a Headless Front-End for Shopify
Shopify now powers more than 2.49 million stores, and quarterly revenue has climbed past $2.16 billion. Many merchants are switching from Liquid themes to headless builds, where the storefront is detached from Shopify's back-end. Two popular React options are Shopify's own Hydrogen and the framework-agnostic Next.js. Both connect to the Storefront API, but they differ in trade-offs, hosting, and developer workflow.
Hydrogen in Brief
Hydrogen is Shopify's React starter kit. It includes server-side rendering, pre-built components for products, carts, and checkout, and first-party hosting on Shopify Oxygen. The result is a fast launch for teams that want familiar tooling and minimal configuration.
Next.js in Brief
Next.js is a general-purpose React framework. It supports server-side rendering, static generation, and incremental updates. Merchants can host on Vercel, AWS, or any platform of choice and still query Shopify's Storefront API. Flexibility is higher, but so is initial setup time.
Hydrogen: Key Points
- Strengths: Pre-built Shopify components shorten development; automatic updates come from Shopify; server-side rendering is tuned for commerce speed.
- Limitations: Oxygen is the only managed host; third-party integrations may require extra work; rendering mode is fixed to SSR.
Next.js: Key Points
- Strengths: Multiple rendering modes (SSR, SSG, ISR, CSR); host anywhere; a large plugin ecosystem extends beyond Shopify use cases.
- Limitations: Checkout and cart features must be built or integrated manually; connecting to the Storefront API takes more configuration; time-to-launch is longer than Hydrogen.
Choosing the right headless front-end framework for your Shopify store involves evaluating each framework's strengths and limitations in the context of your specific business needs. While Hydrogen offers a quick start with Shopify-tailored components, Next.js provides greater flexibility in hosting and rendering options. Consider both timelines and the level of customization required to determine which will effectively support your brand's vision.
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