Options for building headless :

There are many options to build custom storefronts that integrate with Shopify using the Storefront API.

The Hydrogen stack is Shopify's opinionated fullstack approach. There are alternative tools and options for any stack that you might choose.

The Headless channel :

Make headless and self-hosted Hydrogen experiences possible in the Headless channel without needing to create a custom app.

The Headless channel provides a single place to create and manage access tokens for the Storefront API. You can use the channel to create multiple custom storefronts. Storefronts that you create through the channel automatically include public and private access tokens with shop permission for the Storefront API. In the channel you can rotate your private access token and manage storefront permissions.

Additionally, the channel gives you all of Shopify's channel features, such as product publishing and order attribution, and analytics and reporting sales by channel. Order attribution is at the channel level, not the storefront level.