Your Hydrogen Build Just Blew Past Budget. Again.

Hydrogen makes sense when you're committed to Shopify's ecosystem and fine with Oxygen hosting. But if you need deployment flexibility, multi-vendor product sourcing, or your team already knows Next.js, alternatives like Next.js Commerce or a custom Remix setup with Storefront API are often the better call. Hydrogen earns its place when Shopify is your only commerce backend -- not before.

Next.js Commerce supports multiple backends -- Shopify, Saleor, Swell, BigCommerce -- through swappable provider adapters. It deploys anywhere Next.js runs, not just Oxygen. Hydrogen gives you tighter Shopify integration with built-in cart and checkout primitives. Pick Next.js Commerce when you want vendor flexibility or already deploy on Vercel. Pick Hydrogen when Shopify is your only backend and you want the fastest path to production.

Medusa is an open-source Node.js commerce engine you self-host. Unlike Hydrogen -- which is a frontend framework -- Medusa is a full backend: product management, orders, payments, fulfillment, all built in. Use it when you want zero platform fees, full control over your commerce logic, and the ability to run everything on your own infrastructure. It pairs cleanly with Next.js or any other frontend you prefer.

Yes. Shopify's Storefront API is framework-agnostic -- you can query it from Next.js, Remix, Astro, SvelteKit, or anything that makes GraphQL requests. Hydrogen is just Shopify's opinionated Remix wrapper. It's not required. Plenty of production stores run Next.js with Shopify Storefront API and deploy on Vercel specifically for better caching and edge performance.

Swell has the strongest native subscription support -- recurring billing, subscription management, and flexible pricing models are all built in. Medusa handles subscriptions through plugins. With Shopify, you're adding a third-party app like Recharge, which brings API latency and ongoing costs with it. If subscriptions are central to your business model rather than an afterthought, Swell or Medusa will save you real integration pain down the road.

A production headless storefront typically takes 8-12 weeks, depending on catalog complexity, integrations, and custom checkout requirements. Simpler builds -- under 500 SKUs, standard checkout -- land closer to 8 weeks. Multi-currency, subscription logic, or custom fulfillment workflows push that to 12-16 weeks. We run a proof of concept in weeks 2-3 so you're seeing real progress before committing to the full build.