Shopify Hydrogen vs. Next.js: Headless Showdown for Your Store

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 Path

Use Hydrogen when you want a Shopify-tuned stack, need to move quickly, and are comfortable staying within the Shopify ecosystem.

Use Next.js when you need fine-grained control over hosting, rendering strategies, or non-Shopify integrations—and you have the developer capacity to build core commerce features yourself.

Both frameworks lead to performant storefronts; the best choice depends on timeline, budget, and the level of customisation your brand requires.