Headless Shopify
A custom storefront, with Shopify underneath.
Your own storefront built in Next.js, with Shopify still running products, inventory, checkout and orders behind it.
A theme is a set of decisions somebody else made. For most stores that is fine. For some, the theme becomes the limit: a product configurator it cannot do, content it cannot lay out, speed it cannot reach, or a second market it cannot serve cleanly.
From $8,000, quoted against a fixed scope after a scoping call.
You own the code and the repository, and Shopify’s checkout stays Shopify’s — the part that takes payment is not rebuilt.
Next.js and TypeScript · Shopify checkout kept · You own the code
What gets built
A storefront that is not a theme
Pages, product views and navigation built for your catalogue in Next.js — the same stack this site runs on.
Shopify where Shopify is good
Products, inventory, discounts, orders and checkout stay in Shopify and are read through its Storefront API, so your team keeps the admin it already knows.
Content where it is needed
Editable content through a CMS for the pages that change often, so a new campaign page does not need a developer.
Measured from launch
Analytics and ad-platform tracking built in, including the events a theme would have handled for you and a custom storefront has to handle itself.
Pricing
Quoted after a scoping call. Most stores do not need this, and a regular Shopify theme is usually the better choice — the page says when.
Headless build
- Price
- From $8,000
- Basis
- Quoted after a scoping call
Questions
Do I need headless?
Most stores do not. A regular Shopify theme launches faster, costs less to run, is easier for your team to change, and works with the whole app store. If a theme can do what you need, even with some compromise, use a theme — that is what Shopify setup is for.
Headless earns its cost when the theme is the actual constraint: a custom buying experience, content the theme cannot structure, or several markets and brands run from one back office.
Do Shopify apps still work?
Apps that work in the back office — inventory, fulfilment, email — mostly keep working. Apps that inject things into a theme’s storefront, like review widgets or upsell pop-ups, do not carry over and need an API-based alternative or a custom build. The scoping lists that app by app.
What does it cost to run?
Hosting for the storefront, billed by the host and separate from Shopify’s own plan. It is estimated in the quote.
Why is there a minimum?
Because a headless build is a custom application: the storefront, the data layer, the content system and the tracking are built rather than configured. $8,000 is where that starts, and the quote is against a fixed scope, so it does not creep.
What can your theme not do?
Tell me the one thing your store needs that its theme will not allow. Most of the time there is a simpler answer than headless, and I will tell you if there is.