Looking for the #1 and only recommended alternative to Shogun’s headless frontend? Meet Pack!

If you’re looking for an alternative to Shogun Frontend, you’ve come to the right place. Shogun recently made the difficult decision to sunset its headless frontend product, and selected Pack as the sole recommended alternative to Shogun’s platform. Pack and Shogun teams are both committed to making a transition as seamless and efficient as possible. Whether you’re considering a switch from Shogun to Pack, or you’re exploring a headless frontend solution, this article is for you! We’ll walk you through:

• What stays the same when you switch from Shogun’s headless frontend to Pack?
• What are the differences between Pack and Shogun?
• How will migrations will work (high-level overview)?

What stays the same when you switch from Shogun Frontend to Pack?

1. Boost revenue by increasing site speed, conversion rates, and average order value.
   
   A lot of merchants turn to headless technology as a way to fix a site speed problem. The good news is that, similar to Shogun, Pack’s storefront is blazing-fast. Compared to a traditional monolithic site with a Shopify theme, Pack can speed up sites by as much as 2x-3x on initial load, with instant page transitions (<200ms).
   
   What makes Packs’ storefront so fast? Pack is built on state-of-the-art site technology. using a headless / composable approach, with React tools like Tailwind, NextJS and Hydrogen.
   
   What kind of a conversion rate / AOV lift could I expect? If you were already taking advantage of Shogun Frontend, you should see similar site speed / conversion / AOV lift benefits when you switch over from Pack. If you’re switching from a traditional monolithic site, merchants may see a conversion rate lift that’s between 5% and 26% - but it really depends on what types of changes you’re making to your site - ex. Are you also undertaking a site redesign? Talk with our team to see what lift you might be able to expect.
   
   
2. Make marketing bottlenecks disappear
   
   Shogun was designed to be visual so marketers could create content without relying on a developer. Pack’s visual CMS makes it super easy to create, manage and publish content without relying on a developer. It’s a win-win - marketers can move faster, and developers aren’t bogged down w/ mundane content requests, so they can focus on building new experiences and site optimization.
   
   
3. Speed up development
   
   In addition to having less demands on their time, Pack has focused on building out a powerful, user-friendly developer experience so that they can start building quickly and easily. Set up dev environments in three clicks and take advantage of pre-built components like hero images, product sliders, and an analytics / data layer, example code, pre-built integrations and React hooks.
   
   
4. Minimal learning curves and maintenance
   
   Both Pack and Shogun Frontend are designed to make it easy to manage your site all in one place (generally that means about 4x fewer solutions to manage than if you were to do a custom headless build).
   
   Instead of managing multiple solutions, Pack’s visual site manager makes it easy to access the built-in visual CMS, sync content and products from your Shopify store in 3 clicks and connect to your GitHb repo in seconds.
   
   
5. Future-proof your site
   
   Technology isn’t slowing down. That’s why Pack is built on cutting-edge frameworks like React that benefit from vibrant developer ecosystems. Instead of being a proprietary codebase that’s limited to the creativity and innovation of one provider, the React ecosystem has thousands of developers who are constantly contributing new code, and sharing new / better ways of working. With Pack, you can take advantage of all of that innovation without needing to worry about being on the cutting edge. It’s innovation that’s built-in.
   
   
6. More flexibility to give your customers the right experience at the right moment
   
   Deepen customer connections by telling your story and running your business in the way that’s best for your brand. Say goodbye to limited design options. Don’t pay the site speed price when you integrate new technology, and give yourself more freedom to experiment without the limitations of a traditional platform.

What’s different when you switch from Shogun Frontend to Pack?

1. Shorter time to launch (be up and running in a few weeks!)
   
   If you’re migrating from Shogun Frontend to Pack, Pack can reuse the React code that your Frontend store already uses to speed up the migration process. If you’re starting from scratch, Pack can launch your new site in as little as 2-3 months because of its merchandising starter kit.
   
   
2. More content options with your merchandising starter kit
   
   Pack comes with a richer starter kit that includes everything you had in Shogun Frontend
   • homepage, product detail page, product landing page, account pages, cart and search
   • plus a variety of additional options like product sliders, different hero banners, tabbed sections, testimonials, and more.
   Pack is constantly adding new options so that you can keep your website fresh without having to build from scratch every time.
   
   
3. Save time while you’re building content
   
   For non-technical content creators: Pack makes it super easy to edit and add pages without getting into the weeds of your CMS. See your changes as you type with a real-time live previewer. Editing pages, content or sections all happens in one place, instead of toggling back and forth between your CMS and the page you’re building. See the difference:
   
   
   
   For developers: Live previews as you code help you catch mistakes quickly so QA goes smoothly. Pack allows you to see your code changes live in a local version of Pack’s page builder, without having to commit changes to GitHub.
   
   
4. Manage risk with fewer dependencies
   
   Pack stores all of its assets in the Shopify CDN, which helps manage risk and simplify workflows.
   
   
5. Build in Tailwind
   
   Pack’s starter kit is built with Tailwind, which is the same framework that Shopify used when they were building out Hydrogen. Minimize the learning curve to you get your new store up and running.

How does the migration work?

What happens to my custom data in Shogun Frontend?

Ready to Pack? Reach out to us here.