Storefront API development services
Shopify’s Storefront API is what makes headless commerce possible — products, collections, carts and checkout available to any frontend, while Shopify keeps running the parts you do not want to own.
Where we use Storefront API
Storefront API is part of the stack on this service. Each page covers how we work, what you get and what it costs to start.
Storefront API in practice
The Storefront API is what makes headless Shopify possible: products, collections, carts and checkout available over GraphQL to any frontend you like, while Shopify continues to run the parts you genuinely should not want to own — payments, PCI scope, fraud, tax and sale-day scaling.
The important architectural point is that checkout stays theirs. You get complete freedom over the storefront and inherit none of the compliance burden. That boundary is what makes headless commerce a reasonable trade rather than a rebuild of everything, and it is why we recommend keeping Shopify checkout in nearly every case.
What we build with Storefront API
Custom frontends on Hydrogen, Next.js or a native app, with Shopify still handling checkout, payments and orders.
Buying flows embedded in an app or portal that was never a store to begin with.
Localised catalogues, currencies and markets driven from one Shopify backend.
Is Storefront API right for you?
Ask usA good fit when
- Custom storefronts on Hydrogen, Next.js or native apps
- Commerce embedded inside a product that is not a store
- Multi-market catalogues, currencies and localisation from one backend
- Experiences a Liquid theme genuinely cannot deliver
Probably not when
- A standard store — a Liquid theme is cheaper and faster to change
- Teams without the capacity to maintain a frontend application
- Projects where checkout customisation is the real requirement
What we run alongside Storefront API
The rest of the setup, and why each piece is there. We keep this list short on purpose — every dependency is something someone has to maintain.
- Hydrogen and Oxygen
- Shopify’s own React framework and edge hosting, if you want the supported path.
- Customer Account API
- Login, order history and account management on a headless storefront.
- Metaobjects
- Structured custom content, so editors are not locked out of a headless build.
- Cart API
- Server-side cart with lines, discounts and attributes, rather than a client-side reimplementation.
Why Storefront API
Let’s talkCheckout stays Shopify’s problem
The highest-risk, most compliance-heavy part of commerce remains theirs to run, secure and optimise.
Complete frontend freedom
No theme constraints — the storefront can be any framework, any interaction model, any device.
One backend, many surfaces
Web, app and kiosk can all read the same catalogue and cart without a synchronisation layer.
What we get called in to fix
Get a second opinionRate limit exhaustion
Cost-based throttling hit by unbatched queries. Requires caching and query discipline, not a bigger plan.
Editors locked out
Headless builds where every content change needs a deployment, because nothing was mapped to metaobjects.
Slow storefronts
Product pages waiting on several sequential API calls that should have been one query or cached.
Cart state reimplemented client-side
Discounts and pricing recalculated in the browser and disagreeing with checkout.
Storefront API or the alternative
The comparisons we are actually asked to make, answered the way we would answer them on a call.
Theme for most stores. Storefront API when the experience genuinely needs to be an application.
Hydrogen for the supported path and Oxygen hosting. Next.js when the storefront is part of a larger site you already run.
Shopify checkout, nearly always. Custom checkout is restricted, expensive and rarely converts better.
Storefront API works well with:
GraphQL
JavaScript
Node.js
React
Shopify
TypeScriptGot an idea? Let’s make it real.
Tell us the short version
This could be the first step towards a new and successful collaboration. A one-line idea and a finished spec are both fine — tell us the problem, the deadline you’re working to and what’s in your way.
Keep looking
Frequently asked questions
No. Products, orders and inventory are managed exactly as before; only the storefront changes.
Usually yes, and more expensive to maintain. It is worth it when the storefront needs behaviour a theme genuinely cannot deliver.
Yes, and we normally recommend it. Custom checkout is restricted and rarely worth what it costs.
Yes, entirely. Products, inventory and orders are managed exactly as before — only the storefront changes.
A frontend application to keep running: dependencies, deployments and hosting. That ongoing cost is the main reason not to do it without a clear reason.