Common Questions

Not necessarily. If your store does under $50k/month, your Lighthouse score is above 70, and you're not hitting customisation limits — Liquid is probably fine. Hydrogen makes financial sense when performance problems are measurably costing you revenue, or when you need UX that Liquid can't deliver.

Some. Hydrogen storefronts use the Storefront API, not the theme engine, so apps that inject code into Liquid templates won't work. But most app functionality (cross-sell, size guides, filtering, reviews) can be built natively — faster, cheaper, and without the performance penalty. The apps you'll miss least are the ones slowing your store down most.

Shopify's checkout is always hosted by Shopify, even on headless stores. Your customers get the same secure, optimised checkout experience. With Shopify Plus, you can customise checkout UI using Checkout Extensions — these work identically on Hydrogen and Liquid stores.

A typical migration from Liquid to Hydrogen takes 6-12 weeks depending on catalogue size, custom functionality, and integration complexity. We run both storefronts in parallel during the transition — no downtime, no risk to existing revenue.

Hydrogen is built on React Router (formerly Remix) and has been in production since 2023. Shopify hosts it on Oxygen, their edge hosting platform, included free with every Shopify plan. It's not experimental — it's the direction Shopify is investing in for high-performance storefronts.

Because apps accumulate. Every new feature typically adds another script, API call, or third-party dependency. Over time stores become slower, harder to maintain, and more fragile. Our job is to reverse that trend.

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) measures how long it takes for the main content of your page — usually the hero image or product image — to become visible. Google uses it as a Core Web Vital for search ranking. Users experience it as "how fast does the page feel." Under 2.5 seconds is good. Above 4 seconds is losing you customers.

Probably yes. You're likely testing on a fast device with a warm cache on a good connection. Your customers are on budget Android phones on mobile data with no cache. Run our audit to see what they experience.

Often, yes. Image optimisation, script deferral, app removal, and render-blocking resource elimination can significantly improve a Liquid store's performance. A Hydrogen rebuild is for stores that need to go further than Liquid's architecture allows.

We operate on a retained engagement model. After an initial audit and implementation phase, you get ongoing optimisation, monitoring, and feature development on a monthly retainer. This isn't a project that ends — it's a system that runs. Specific pricing depends on store complexity and scope.

It means the technical systems that directly affect how much money your store makes: page load speed (affects conversion), merchandising logic (affects AOV), analytics instrumentation (affects decision-making), and monitoring (catches problems before they cost you). We build and operate these systems continuously, not as one-off projects.

Yes. Specialisation is the point. We know the Shopify ecosystem deeply — the platform, the APIs, the infrastructure, the failure modes. Generalist agencies spread thin across five platforms. We go deep on one.

Typically $20k+/month in revenue. Below that, the ROI on a retained engagement is hard to justify — you're better off optimising your existing Liquid theme. Above that threshold, the revenue impact of performance improvements pays for the engagement several times over.

Melbourne, Australia. We work with brands in AU, NZ, and internationally. Shopify is a global platform — timezone differences haven't been a problem.

Performance (LCP, CLS, TBT, TTFB), analytics integrity (is your tracking actually working?), revenue mechanics (cross-sell, AOV optimisation, checkout flow), and infrastructure risk (app bloat, third-party dependencies, single points of failure).

The automated score is free, no strings attached. If the results show significant opportunity, we'll offer a detailed analysis with specific recommendations and projected revenue impact. That's where the conversation starts.

It runs real Lighthouse and PageSpeed Insights tests against your live storefront. The performance data is accurate. The revenue opportunity estimate is directional — it uses industry benchmarks for conversion rate impact by LCP range. Your actual results will vary, but the direction is reliable.