Why we build in Hydrogen.

Hydrogen is our default for premium consumer commerce. Here’s why — and the two scenarios in which we reach for something else.

The six reasons

1. Native Shopify integration. Cart, checkout, and payments without translation layers.
2. Edge-first rendering. Built for Oxygen (or Vercel), optimised for Core Web Vitals out of the box.
3. Editorial flexibility. Headless means product pages can be genuinely editorial, not themed-variants.
4. Component-driven. Reusable primitives keep the storefront consistent across 200+ SKUs.
5. Senior-friendly tooling. React + TypeScript. No agency-specific framework lock-in.
6. First-party analytics. Shopify’s customer events API gives cleaner data than bolt-on tracking.

When we don’t use Hydrogen

Two scenarios:

• Sub-$2M GMV brands where the complexity overhead outweighs the ceiling. A well-tuned Dawn theme ships faster and performs nearly as well.
• Heavy B2B workflows (quoting, approvals, credit terms) that fight against Shopify’s consumer-first checkout. Custom platforms or BigCommerce’s B2B edition fit better.