Should You Go Headless on Shopify?
Headless Shopify means Shopify keeps running products, orders and checkout, while your own front end handles what shoppers see. We built PolarPro's store this way, on Gatsby and GraphQL, and maintained it for years.
It's a good setup for the right store. For many stores, it's an expensive mistake.
When a theme is the right answer
Stay on a theme if your catalogue is simple, your team relies on the theme editor and apps, and you have no developer on call. A theme gets you a working store, with Shopify handling the hosting and upkeep.
When headless earns its cost
- Products need a custom configurator, as PolarPro's camera gear did
- The catalogue needs search and filters a theme can't provide
- Content and commerce need to live on one custom site
- The brand experience can't be built within a theme
What you take on
You now own a front end. That means hosting, deployments and monitoring. It also means rebuilding things a theme gave you for free, and many Shopify apps that inject into themes won't work without integration.
PolarPro connected Klaviyo, Yotpo, SendGrid, and affiliate and loyalty tools by hand. Plan for this work in your budget. Headless is an ongoing commitment, not a one-off build.
What the Storefront API looks like
Everything goes through one GraphQL endpoint, and it only accepts POST requests. Shopify says requests from real buyers aren't subject to a fixed request-per-minute limit, though automated traffic and checkout creation are limited.
const res = await fetch(
`https://${store}.myshopify.com/api/2026-10/graphql.json`,
{
method: "POST",
headers: {
"Content-Type": "application/json",
"X-Shopify-Storefront-Access-Token": token,
},
body: JSON.stringify({
query: `query ProductQuery($handle: String) {
product(handle: $handle) { id title handle }
}`,
variables: { handle: "sample-product" },
}),
},
);The version is in the URL, so plan for Shopify's regular API updates. Keep it in one place in your code.
Watch the marketing scripts
A headless front end can be very fast, then lose that speed to scripts. Pixels, review widgets and consent tools all run on the shopper's device. Add them one at a time and measure after each.
A simple way to decide
List what you can't do on a theme today. If each item can be fixed with a theme customisation or an app, stay on the theme. If the list is what makes your store different, headless is worth a proper look.