In this article:
In the Edition Summer 2025, Shopify announced a new flagship theme called Horizon. This theme is Shopify's new design foundation built entirely on flexible blocks and will soon replace the current Dawn theme.
Editing the Horizon theme is easy thanks to its built-in AI:
- 10 different themes all in one system: Ritual, Atelier, Fabric, Tinker, Horizon, Savor, Heritage, Dwell, Pitch, and Vessel. Each theme is tailored to specific industries like fashion, home, skincare, and food, meaning you’ll start with a ready-to-convert design.
- Custom block generation with AI.
Since the Horizon theme is just launching, it’s normal to have questions like:
- Should you stick with the Dawn theme, or switch to Horizon now?
- What key features should you pay attention to in Horizon?
Check out the article to get all the answers.
Shopify Dawn theme - When will it be sunset?
One thing is clear: Horizon has taken its place as the new Dawn theme. Max Stoiber, the Director of Engineering for Liquid Storefronts at Shopify, talked about the future of the Dawn theme in a recent chat on the Shopify Slack channel.
Discussion in the Shopify Slack channel (#themedev)
Although Dawn won't be getting new features anymore, Shopify will still provide support for important bug fixes.
Should I stick with Dawn or switch to Horizon now?
Horizon is a versatile theme, but we suggest waiting a bit until it’s more stable and any bugs are fixed.
Dawn won't get new features anymore, but it will still receive support for critical bug fixes, so it’s safe to keep using it, especially if you’ve made a lot of customizations.
However, if you're starting a new store on Shopify, it’s better to go with the Horizon theme. This way, you can benefit from the latest design features and avoid theme upgrade issues as mentioned by Maestroo’s co-founder.
You can't automatically move your content from Dawn to Horizon because their section and block structures and architecture are different.
What is new in the Horizon theme?
Horizon themes - 10 options in one foundation.
Multi-level nested theme blocks
The reusable theme blocks and the ability to nest blocks up to 8 levels deep were first introduced in the Shopify Winter Edition 2024 (Shopify Dev Preview).
Now, Horizon is the first theme to include “Theme Blocks". Unlike Dawn, which builds pages by stacking sections one after another, Horizon allows us to use these theme blocks, providing up to 8 levels of nested blocks. This gives us greater control over our content and design in a flexible, modular way.
Horizon truly enhances our design options. Each sub-block can be reused and stacked, giving us greater freedom in how we layout our pages.
| Theme architecture | Section-based | Modular, block-based architecture | Section-based and block-based architecture (*) |
| Nested Theme Blocks | No | Yes (8 levels deep) | No |
| AI Theme Block Generator | No | Yes | Yes (**) |
| Global Blocks | No | Yes (You can place any block wherever you want in your theme) | Yes (for sections that support theme app extension blocks) |
| Built custom sections from theme blocks + app blocks | No | Yes | Yes |
(*) The Easy Content Builder lets you move all your templates and app blocks created by the Easy Content Builder app from your current theme (like Dawn) to a new one (including Horizon theme). This way, you can switch themes without losing your customizations.
(**) Easy Content Builder lets you add AI-generated theme blocks to the Shopify Dawn theme (and all Online Store 2.0 themes) as well, not just the 10 new themes in the Horizon collection.
AI theme block generation
You can now create custom theme blocks using AI directly in your Shopify theme editor - it's a game changer.
Source: Shopify changelog.
Shopify Magic works with Online Store 2.0 themes, however, the Horizon theme is designed with AI capabilities right at its core.
Want to add an interactive image hotspot or a hero banner that showcases your products?
Simply add a Custom Section to hold your custom theme blocks, click "Add Block" > "Generate", and describe the block you want. Shopify Magic will create it for you in seconds. It also generates the files so if you're comfortable with coding, you can tweak them as needed.
By stacking these custom AI-generated theme blocks, you can design a unique website that truly reflects your brand.
Will the Dawn theme get Horizon’s theme blocks?
The Shopify team has confirmed that they will only provide bug fixes for the Dawn theme moving forward, so it will not receive new features from the Horizon theme, including the theme blocks.
What if you want to use theme blocks in your Dawn theme?
There’s a solution for you: generate theme blocks using AI in the Easy Content Builder sections.
You can generate theme blocks using AI in the Easy Content Builder sections.
This allows you to combine both app blocks and theme blocks in either the Dawn or Horizon theme - using Easy Content Builder.. This opens up interesting layout and content configuration possibilities that feel more like a design system than a fixed structure.
Good to know: The Easy Content Builder lets you migrate all your templates and app blocks created by the Easy Content Builder app from your current theme (like Dawn) to a new one, including the Horizon theme. This way, you can switch themes without losing your customizations.
Just a reminder, the Horizon theme is brand new, so there could be some unexpected bugs. If you run into any issues with it, please share the details with us so we can help sort them out together.
Excited to see what you create with the new AI block generation feature!
Other SEO goodies in the Horizon theme
Horizon shifts the focus of web performance from just being a theme issue to a broader Shopify platform concern. It does this by incorporating new design patterns, best practices for performance, and a JavaScript architecture that takes advantage of modern browser capabilities. This means it only loads the scripts you need and skips any unused JS or CSS from sections, blocks, or snippets in your store.
Additionally, the Horizon theme automatically generates responsive images and supports lazy loading in all sections. It also includes structured schema data for product markup, breadcrumbs, reviews, and blog articles. These features can significantly enhance your SEO while using solely native Shopify features.
Conclusion
Honestly, both Dawn and Horizon are great themes. If you're just starting with Shopify, we recommend going with the Horizon theme. Its modular, block-based design and built-in AI offer great flexibility for quickly customizing your store without needing to write a single line of code.
On the other hand, Dawn is still a reliable option, with hundreds of thousands of Shopify stores using it. Plus, Shopify continues to provide bug fixes for it. Just keep in mind a couple of downsides:
- Since Dawn and Horizon have different architectures, you won’t get new features in Horizon if you stick with Dawn.
- Also, you can’t automatically transfer your content from Dawn to Horizon. Switching to Horizon will require a full redesign since you’ll need to manually transfer any custom code.
Regardless of your choice, you can use Easy Content Builder to access AI-generated theme blocks and take advantage of our theme migration feature.