Shopify Plus + Hydrogen since 2019

Headless Shopify that actually converts — not just looks expensive.

Shopify development for brands doing $5M-$200M a year that have outgrown themes. Shopify Plus, Hydrogen/Remix storefronts, custom checkout extensions, and the integration work that the theme shops will not touch. We do not install AppExchange. We do not redesign your brand.

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74
production Shopify storefronts shipped since 2019
01 Hydrogen / Remix specialty
02 Senior engineers only
03 No partner-channel sales
1/Why teams call us

Three patterns that send Shopify projects sideways.

Shopify development engagements typically start with one of these. The first call is about which one is yours — and whether the answer is engineering or admin.

Symptom 1.

Custom theme grew into a maintenance burden no agency wants to touch

The original theme was a forked Dawn variant with $40k of custom Liquid and JavaScript layered on top. The agency that built it folded or pivoted. The current team finds Liquid uncomfortable to work in. App conflicts surface on every Shopify release. The store does $30M/year and any downtime is a real problem.

Symptom 2.

Going headless was supposed to help, but the storefront is now slower than the theme was

Hydrogen on Oxygen sounded great. Migration took 6 months. The new storefront has LCP scores worse than the old theme on mid-range Android devices. The team is uncertain whether to roll back, optimize, or migrate to Remix. Meanwhile the checkout still lives in classic Shopify and the customer journey is jarring.

Symptom 3.

Checkout Extensibility migration was deferred and now Shopify Plus is forcing it

Checkout.liquid is dead. The migration to Checkout Extensibility (Functions, UI Extensions) is now mandatory and the team has not done it. The custom checkout features built up over five years need to be rebuilt in the new model. The team estimate is "at least a quarter" and they are not sure that is right.

2/What we build

Seven engineering practices priced by deliverable.

Shopify development priced by deliverable. Senior engineers only — minimum 5 years on the Shopify platform on every engagement.

1. $140,000 – $480,000

Hydrogen / Remix storefronts

Headless Shopify storefronts built on Hydrogen (Oxygen) or Remix (Vercel). Production performance budgets, real LCP targets, and edge caching strategy from day one. We optimize for what shoppers experience on mid-range Android in 4G — not what designers see on M3 Macs over fiber.

2. $45,000 – $180,000

Checkout Extensibility migration

Migrating from checkout.liquid to Checkout Extensibility (UI Extensions, Functions, Post-Purchase). We have done this on 23 stores since the deprecation announcement. Fixed-scope engagements with a written migration plan before the first PR.

3. $90,000 – $360,000

Custom Shopify apps + Functions

Embedded apps for internal use, public apps for AppExchange, Shopify Functions (Cart, Discount, Delivery, Payment). Built with Remix + Polaris, deployed on Shopify-managed infrastructure or self-hosted. Security review and BFCM-load testing included.

4. $55,000 – $210,000

Shopify Plus admin + workflow engineering

Shopify Plus Scripts (the legacy ones being deprecated) → Functions migrations, Flow automations that survive scale, B2B + wholesale features, customer segment engineering. We do this as engineering work, not as admin work — code in git, CI gates, proper testing.

5. $32,000 – $120,000

Performance engineering for Shopify

LCP, TTFB, and Core Web Vitals work on production Shopify storefronts. We deliver written diagnostics with profiling traces before any code changes. Typical engagement reduces LCP 30-50% within 6 weeks. We charge a flat fee; not by percentage of conversion lift.

6. $70,000 – $260,000

Integration engineering

Shopify-to-everywhere integrations: ERP (NetSuite, Acumatica), CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot), 3PL (ShipBob, ShipHero), accounting, and tax (Avalara, TaxJar). Async patterns, retry, deduplication. Production observability from day one.

7. $22,000 / month

Senior Shopify engineer embedded

Principal-level Shopify engineer placed inside your team for 6-12 months. Same standup, same Slack, same on-call. Named individual on contract. We have done this with $50M+ DTC brands and Plus merchants with custom checkout requirements.

3/How we run engagements

Four phases from audit to handoff.

Same shape every time. Scope adjusts, the method does not. Shopify engineering without method becomes another agency relationship that ends poorly.

01.
01
01

Store audit

Two-week paid assessment. Theme inventory, app conflict scan, performance baseline (real LCP/CLS/INP from RUM), checkout customization inventory, integration map. Written report. Flat $13,500 fee whether we proceed.

02.
02
02

Architecture

Architecture decision records for non-trivial choices — storefront topology (Hydrogen vs Remix vs theme), checkout extensibility approach, integration patterns. Performance budgets agreed before any code.

03.
03
03

Engineering

Code in your repo from day one. Weekly demos against staging stores. Production deploys behind Shopify Markets / theme previews. PR review by your team mandatory.

04.
04
04

Handoff

Three-week parallel period. Your team operates, we shadow. Runbooks tested. Performance budgets locked. 30-day and 90-day check-ins, then the store is yours.

04What we actually move on Shopify

Five performance benchmarks from real engagements.

Outcome data from the last twelve completed Shopify development engagements — not a timeline restatement. Numbers are median deltas, not best-cases.

LCP
3.8s → 1.6s on mid-range Android (4G)
Largest Contentful Paint reduction across stores we have rebuilt on Hydrogen / Remix. Measured on Moto G Power class devices, 4G throttling, 95th-percentile. Median reduction 57%, range 38-71%.
CHECKOUT EXTENSIBILITY
23 store migrations from checkout.liquid
Stores migrated to Checkout UI Extensions + Functions since the deprecation announcement. Median engagement length: 7 weeks. Zero downtime cutovers across all 23. Two stores chose to revert one extension after A/B — we removed it at cost.
APP CONFLICTS
Median 4 app removals per engagement
Stores we audit typically have 27-42 Shopify apps installed. Audit identifies redundant, conflicting, or no-longer-used apps. Removing them reduces JS payload 18-30% and eliminates the most common source of intermittent breakage.
CONVERSION RATE
+8.4% median in 60 days post-handoff
Conversion rate measured 60 days after store handoff vs. the 60 days before engagement kickoff. Median lift +8.4%, range -1.2% to +24%. The negative cases were stores where pricing strategy was the issue, not the storefront — we will tell you that in the audit.
BFCM
Zero downtime across 11 BFCM weekends
Stores under our active engineering during Black Friday / Cyber Monday since 2021. Zero downtime across 11 BFCM weekends including the largest, which handled 14× normal traffic. We load-test starting in September each year.
05/What clients say

What our clients say.

"We had two failed prior engagements. The difference here was that they walked away from parts of the scope they could not own."

Lars Park, Lead Engineer, at a public-sector contractor

"Mid-engagement scope change — they re-cut the backlog instead of running a change order. That kept the budget."

Farida Hoffmann, Principal Engineer, at a Series B fintech

"Friday demos, Monday changelogs, documented decisions. Felt like working with an internal team, not an outside agency."

Hana Rivera, Founder, at a B2B marketplace

Tell us about your store situation.

Send the rough outline — current theme or storefront, GMV range, what is breaking, what the next quarter looks like. A senior Shopify engineer responds within one business day with questions or a direct next step.