Why I Hate Working with Shopify Theme Store Themes

Introduction

Shopify Theme Store themes are pre-built templates you can grab for around $300 to get a store up and running fast. Sounds great, right? A clean-looking, professional theme that saves time?

Well… not really.

These themes are not built for scalability or maintainability. They’re designed to be as flexible as possible to fit different types of businesses. And that’s exactly where the problems begin.

Overly flexible code often means deeply nested logic, packed conditionals, and a structure that’s just hard to follow. Even Shopify’s Dawn theme, which is relatively simple, takes time to understand because of how things are built.

And it’s not just me—every developer I’ve worked with has struggled with this at some point. If you’ve ever tried to tweak a bought theme beyond basic edits, you’ve probably felt the pain too.

The Problem with Pre-Built Shopify Themes

If you’ve ever worked with a Shopify theme straight from the Theme Store, you already know the struggle. They look great in the demo, but the moment you start customizing, things get messy.

Bloated Code 🚨

These themes try to be everything for everyone, which means they come loaded with unnecessary features, excessive CSS/JS, and third-party scripts. The result? Slower load times and unnecessary complexity. You end up spending more time removing things than actually building what you need.

Generic Design 🎨

They look polished at first glance, but the structure is rigid. Customizing beyond basic edits is frustrating because the code isn’t built for flexibility, just to look good in a preview.

Feature Overload 🔧

To appeal to as many merchants as possible, these themes cram in every possible feature. The more they add, the harder they become to maintain and debug. You change one thing, and five others break.

Customization Hell 🔥

What seems like "easy customization" quickly turns into frustration, trial-and-error, and hours of debugging.

Hardcoded Structures 🏗️

Many themes hardcode layouts and logic directly into Liquid files, making even simple adjustments a nightmare. You move one thing and suddenly break something else.

Overuse of Sections 📦

Shopify markets sections as a flexible way to customize stores, but many themes overuse them, making the JSON config needlessly complex and restricting real customization.

Confusing Class Naming 🎭

Pre-built themes often come with inconsistent, overly specific, or completely random class names. Instead of a logical naming system like BEM or utility classes, you get a mix of redundant styles and inline CSS that makes styling much harder.

Performance Issues 🚀

They look smooth in the demo, but once real content is added, the performance tanks.

Too Many Scripts & Dependencies 📜

Most pre-built themes come loaded with third-party integrations and bloated JavaScript files—half of which you don’t even need. The result? Too many HTTP requests and render-blocking scripts slowing everything down.

Unoptimized Assets 🎨

Fonts? Excessive, often loaded from multiple sources.
CSS? A mix of unused styles and redundant rules.
JavaScript? Too many global variables and no modularity.

Slow Loading Times ⏳

Shopify’s own Lighthouse scores drop fast when a theme is packed with bloated styles and scripts. Instead of optimizing for speed, these themes fail Core Web Vitals right out of the box, meaning you’ll spend hours debugging performance issues before you even get to real customizations.

Bad Developer Experience 🤯

If you’re a developer, working with a pre-built Shopify theme can feel like fighting against the theme, not working with it.

Unnecessary Complexity 🎭

Removing one feature? Cool, you just broke five others. Many themes have deeply connected logic, meaning tweaking one section causes unexpected issues elsewhere.

Lack of Consistency 🔄

Every Shopify theme developer has their own way of doing things, so jumping from one theme to another feels like learning a new framework every time. Different file structures, naming conventions, and zero standardization.

Business & Client Problems 💸

The pain of working with pre-built themes isn’t just for developers—clients feel it too.

Clients Expect Unlimited Flexibility 🤹‍♂️

Shopify promotes these themes as “customizable”, so clients assume anything can be tweaked easily. But when they request major layout changes, they’re hit with high dev costs because the code wasn’t built for deep customization.

Upgrades Are a Pain 🔧

Shopify Theme Store themes get updates, but once a merchant customizes them, those updates become a nightmare. Merging updates with custom changes isn't straightforward, often making it easier to rebuild than update.

More Expensive Long-Term 💰

Themes seem cheap upfront, but once you factor in customization, maintenance, and debugging costs, they end up costing more than just building a proper custom theme from the start.

The Alternative: Custom Themes 🚀

So what’s the better approach? Custom themes.

Faster, Cleaner, and Scalable 🏗️

A custom theme is built for the actual needs of the business, without unnecessary bloat. It’s easier to scale, maintain, and update without worrying about breaking unrelated features.

A Component-Based Approach 🧩

Using Atomic Design + Storybook, developers can build reusable components, making the theme modular and easier to maintain. No more fighting against the theme structure—just clean, organized code.

Performance-First Development ⚡

Instead of dealing with third-party scripts, unused styles, and bloated assets, a custom theme focuses on speed, SEO, and smooth UX from the start.

Conclusion

Pre-built Shopify themes might seem like an easy shortcut, but in reality, they create more problems than they solve.

✅ Custom themes > Bought themes every single time.
✅ More control, better performance, and easier scalability.
✅ Fewer headaches for both developers and merchants.

When is a Theme Store Theme Actually Okay? 🤔

Almost never. The only time it might make sense is for small stores with zero customization needs. But the moment a store wants to scale, optimize, or make major changes, a custom theme is the better investment.

If you’re serious about building a Shopify store that lasts, skip the theme store. Build it right from the start. 🚀