Liquid (Shopify)

Liquid is Shopify's open-source template language, used to render dynamic content in Shopify themes. It's what connects your theme templates to your store data - products, collections, customer information, cart contents - and outputs HTML that the browser renders.

Liquid uses a tag-based syntax with objects ({{ product.title }}), tags ({% for product in collection.products %}), and filters ({{ product.price | money }}) to inject dynamic data into HTML templates. If you've worked with Jinja2, Twig, or Handlebars, the concept is similar.

For Shopify Plus merchants running theme-based storefronts, Liquid is the templating layer your developers work with. For headless builds, Liquid is largely irrelevant - the frontend is React, and data comes from the Storefront API rather than Liquid templates. The notable exception is checkout - even on headless builds, Shopify's checkout renders via its own infrastructure.

Think: the language your theme speaks to turn store data into a webpage.

Frequently asked questions

What is Liquid in Shopify?

Liquid is Shopify's open-source template language used to render dynamic content in Shopify themes. It connects theme templates to store data - products, collections, customer information, cart contents - and outputs HTML. It uses objects ({{ product.title }}), tags ({% for %}), and filters ({{ price | money }}).

Do headless Shopify stores use Liquid?

No. Headless Shopify builds use React for the frontend and fetch data from the Storefront API via GraphQL. Liquid is only relevant for theme-based storefronts. The exception is checkout, which Shopify renders via its own infrastructure regardless of your frontend approach.

Is Liquid similar to other templating languages?

Yes. Liquid is similar to Jinja2 (Python), Twig (PHP), and Handlebars (JavaScript). If you've worked with any server-side templating language, the concepts transfer. The syntax uses double curly braces for output and curly-brace-percent for logic.

Related terms: Online Store 2.0, Shopify Theme Customiser, Shopify Hydrogen. For hands-on help, see Flux's Shopify Plus developers.