← Alternatives

Shopify Buy Button alternative: Checkout Links

The Buy Button is free and static. Checkout Links is dynamic, per-recipient, and built for campaigns — discounts, customer pre-fill, analytics, and QR codes baked into every link.

The Shopify Buy Button Channel does one thing well: it gives you a JavaScript snippet you can paste on any external site to let visitors add a product to a Shopify cart. It’s free, it’s first-party, and for plenty of stores it’s exactly enough.

It stops being enough the moment you need any of the following:

  • A different cart, discount, or customer pre-fill per recipient (per email, per influencer, per ad creative)
  • A link with an expiry, usage limit, or passcode
  • Click and checkout analytics by source, campaign, or UTM
  • A QR code that goes straight to checkout, not to a product page
  • The customer to never see a “type your discount code” field at checkout

That’s where Checkout Links comes in. This page is the honest comparison.

How it works on Shopify

  1. Install Checkout Links from the Shopify App Store. 7-day free trial, no credit card.
  2. Create a link — pick products, optionally set a discount, optionally pre-fill customer or notes, optionally set expiry or limits.
  3. Drop the link anywhere — email, SMS, ad, QR code, Discord, in-store sign. Same link works in all channels.
  4. Track results — every click, every checkout, every dollar attributed back to the specific link.

It’s built for Shopify, runs on Shopify checkout, uses Shopify Functions for the discount layer, and integrates natively with Shopify Flow.

At a glance

PricingShopify Buy Button: Free (on supported plans)Checkout Links: $25/month, 7-day free trial
OutputShopify Buy Button: Embeddable JS widgetCheckout Links: Plain URL (works anywhere)
Dynamic per recipientShopify Buy Button: No — static config per buttonCheckout Links: Yes — every link can carry its own cart, discount, customer
Auto-applied discountShopify Buy Button: No — customer types code at checkoutCheckout Links: Yes — discount baked into URL via Shopify Functions
Customer pre-fillShopify Buy Button: NoCheckout Links: Yes — name, email, shipping when available
Expiry, usage limits, passcodeShopify Buy Button: NoCheckout Links: Yes
Click + checkout analyticsShopify Buy Button: Limited (Shopify default)Checkout Links: Yes — per link, per source
QR codesShopify Buy Button: No nativeCheckout Links: Yes — every link has a downloadable QR
Built for Shopify badgeShopify Buy Button: First-partyCheckout Links: Built for Shopify certified
Shopify Flow integrationShopify Buy Button: NoCheckout Links: Yes — generate links inside automations

Where Checkout Links pulls ahead

The cases that make the switch worth it.

Discounts that don't require typing

The Buy Button hands the customer a cart with the product added. The discount is still a separate code the customer has to remember and type. Cart abandonment between "product added" and "discount entered" is a real number — somewhere between 5% and 12% of attempts in our customers' data. A Checkout Link applies the discount via [Shopify Functions](/help/link-editor/promotions) when the link is opened. The customer never sees the discount code field. Same checkout page, one less reason to leave.

Per-recipient personalisation

Buy Button is one widget = one configuration. If you want a different product, discount, or pre-fill per recipient — different links per influencer, per Klaviyo segment, per ad creative, per SMS blast — you'd manually create one Buy Button per case and host them all. A Checkout Link is just a URL. You can generate thousands programmatically (or [via Shopify Flow](/help/shopify-flow/use-dynamic-link-flow-action)), each with its own behaviour, in seconds.

Analytics you can actually use

Buy Button installs land in standard Shopify analytics — you see orders but not the path. Checkout Links tracks every click, every cart that opened, and every checkout that completed, attributed to the specific link, source, and UTM combination. The same dashboard that shows "this email recovered $14,200" shows "this Buy Button replacement recovered $14,200" because the dashboard understands the link.

Expiry, usage limits, passcodes

Want a VIP drop link that only works for 24 hours? A coupon that can only be redeemed 100 times? A passcoded link for a paid community? The Buy Button has none of this. Checkout Links has all of it.

QR codes that go to checkout

The Buy Button has no native QR output. Even if you generate one externally, it points at the product page or cart, not at a paid-and-pre-filled checkout. Checkout Links generates a branded QR for every link automatically — same checkout-first behaviour as the URL.

When the Shopify Buy Button is still the right call

No tool wins everywhere. These are the cases where Shopify Buy Button is the better answer.

Single-product widget on a static external site

A small blog or a portfolio site where you want one "Buy this print for $30" button. The Buy Button does this in three clicks and costs nothing.

You're on Shopify Basic and the $25/mo isn't worth it yet

If you don't run paid campaigns, don't run email or SMS marketing, and don't care about per-link analytics, the Buy Button is free and fine.

You need the customer to land on a custom cart page you built

The Buy Button lets the host site retain visual control before redirecting. Checkout Links sends them straight to checkout (or to an optional pre-checkout page) — different design philosophy.

FAQ

Anything else?

More detail lives in the Help Center, or email us and a human answers.

No. The Buy Button Channel is still available in 2026 and remains free for any Shopify plan that includes it. It's a perfectly fine tool when you just need a static add-to-cart widget on a non-Shopify site. The reason merchants look for alternatives is that the Buy Button stops being enough as soon as you need per-recipient links, automatic discounts, expiry, usage limits, or analytics.

Not natively. The Buy Button hands the customer to your store's cart with the product added, but the customer still has to type the discount code at checkout. Checkout Links bakes the discount into the URL itself via Shopify Functions, so the discount is applied automatically and the field is never seen by the customer.

It can. A Checkout Link is a normal URL, so you can put it behind any button, link, or image on any site, in any email, in any DM. Unlike the Buy Button you're not loading any JavaScript on the host page — the link goes straight to your Shopify checkout.

No. Checkout Links is Shopify and Shopify Plus only. If you sell on WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Wix, or Squarespace, the Shopify Buy Button doesn't help you either — both tools assume a Shopify backend.

Shopify's Buy Button is free on plans that include it. Checkout Links is $25/month with a 7-day free trial. The economics start to make sense the moment a single recovered checkout, applied discount, or campaign analytics report pays for the month.

Yes. Every Checkout Link automatically gets a branded QR code you can download — for print, packaging, in-store displays, or events. The Buy Button doesn't have a built-in QR mode.

Checkout Links is not only beautifully designed, but it's also incredibly easy to use and drives high merchant impact.
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