Performance / Core Web Vitals on each at scale?

Q: Performance / Core Web Vitals on each at scale?

Both can hit Lighthouse 90+ at $50M scale. Different paths.Shopify Plus performance characteristics:Out of box (Dawn or Plus theme, vanilla): LCP ~1.8s, CLS ~0.03, INP ~150ms, Lighthouse ~85 mobileWith 8–12 Plus apps installed (typical $50M brand): LCP drifts to 2.5–3.5s, CLS 0.08–0.15, Lighthouse 60–75 mobile — third-party scripts compoundHydrogen (Shopify’s React-based headless): LCP ~1.3s if engineered well, but adds an entire ops team to maintainBuilt-in CDN, image lazy-loading, automatic Brotli compression — all defaults are goodAdobe Commerce performance characteristics:Out of box (Luma theme): LCP ~3.8s, CLS ~0.12, INP ~280ms, Lighthouse ~45 mobile — badAC + Hyvä theme (Tailwind + Alpine.js, ~95% less JS than Luma): LCP ~1.2s, CLS ~0.02, INP ~80ms, Lighthouse 95+ mobile — beats Plus defaultsAC + PWA Studio (headless): comparable to Hydrogen, similar ops overheadPerformance depends on dev discipline: a $50M AC store with poorly-tuned cache hits Lighthouse 60. A well-tuned one hits 95.Verdict for $50M+ brands: AC + Hyvä is the long-term performance winner because customization happens in your codebase, not in installable scripts. Plus is faster to start but degrades as the app stack accumulates. If Core Web Vitals is a top-3 SEO ranking factor for your category (apparel, beauty, electronics), AC + Hyvä is the safer 5-year bet.

Question

Accepted Answer

Both can hit Lighthouse 90+ at $50M scale. Different paths.

Shopify Plus performance characteristics:

Out of box (Dawn or Plus theme, vanilla): LCP ~1.8s, CLS ~0.03, INP ~150ms, Lighthouse ~85 mobile
With 8–12 Plus apps installed (typical $50M brand): LCP drifts to 2.5–3.5s, CLS 0.08–0.15, Lighthouse 60–75 mobile — third-party scripts compound
Hydrogen (Shopify’s React-based headless): LCP ~1.3s if engineered well, but adds an entire ops team to maintain
Built-in CDN, image lazy-loading, automatic Brotli compression — all defaults are good

Adobe Commerce performance characteristics:

Out of box (Luma theme): LCP ~3.8s, CLS ~0.12, INP ~280ms, Lighthouse ~45 mobile — bad
AC + Hyvä theme (Tailwind + Alpine.js, ~95% less JS than Luma): LCP ~1.2s, CLS ~0.02, INP ~80ms, Lighthouse 95+ mobile — beats Plus defaults
AC + PWA Studio (headless): comparable to Hydrogen, similar ops overhead
Performance depends on dev discipline: a $50M AC store with poorly-tuned cache hits Lighthouse 60. A well-tuned one hits 95.

Verdict for $50M+ brands: AC + Hyvä is the long-term performance winner because customization happens in your codebase, not in installable scripts. Plus is faster to start but degrades as the app stack accumulates. If Core Web Vitals is a top-3 SEO ranking factor for your category (apparel, beauty, electronics), AC + Hyvä is the safer 5-year bet.