Are draft orders deprecated?

No. Draft orders remain a stable Shopify feature in 2026. The reason merchants look for alternatives is workflow friction — every repeat order is a new draft, the customer-facing UI feels like an invoice form, and there's no analytics layer.

Can Checkout Links replace draft orders for all use cases?

For most — repeat orders, sales-rep deals, sample sends, account-specific promotions. Draft orders still win for one-off bespoke invoicing (line items negotiated per order, partial payments, paper-trail compliance). Most teams keep draft orders for the bespoke 20% and switch the high-volume 80% to Checkout Links.

Can I set custom prices like in a draft order?

Yes. Cart-line discounts via Shopify Functions (bundled by Checkout Links — no developer needed). The customer sees the discounted price at checkout with no code field showing.

Does this work for B2B accounts?

Yes — natively. Checkout Links is B2B-aware: when a link targets a B2B customer, it routes through B2B checkout with the right catalogue pricing and net-terms payment option. See [Checkout Links for wholesale](https://checkoutlinks.com/for/wholesale) and the [B2B & wholesale playbook](https://checkoutlinks.com/playbooks/shopify-b2b-wholesale).

Draft orders are free, built into Shopify. Checkout Links is $25/month with a 7-day free trial. The economics start to make sense the moment your wholesale workflow involves more than a handful of repeat orders per month, or you want per-link attribution.

Shopify Draft Orders Alternative — Checkout Links (2026)

Shopify draft orders are the legacy workflow for “send a customer a custom pre-built cart they can pay for.” It works. The reason it’s worth replacing for most use cases is everything around the cart: reusability, customer experience, analytics.

This page is the side-by-side. For the deeper take on the workflow itself, see Checkout Links for draft orders.

The B2B-on-Shopify-without-Plus angle

Until 2026, draft orders were the de facto wholesale workflow on Shopify because the alternative (running real B2B) required Plus at $2,300+/month. With B2B-for-all extending the core B2B features to Basic / Grow / Advanced, that calculus changed.

For Basic / Grow / Advanced merchants doing wholesale today, the playbook is:

Enable B2B in your Shopify settings.
Move your wholesale customers to B2B customer accounts (with company profiles, custom catalogues, payment terms).
Replace draft-order-per-deal with Checkout-Link-per-account.

The link layer is the piece Shopify doesn’t ship natively — and the piece that makes the rest of the workflow usable. See the B2B & wholesale playbook for the full operating manual.

Sales-rep workflow

For B2B teams with named sales reps:

	Draft-order workflow	Checkout Links workflow
Rep builds the deal	Creates draft in admin	Creates Checkout Link in app
Sends to customer	Email with draft-order link	Email with Checkout Link
Customer pays	Draft-order checkout UI	Standard Shopify checkout
Attribution to rep	Manual reconciliation	Automatic via UTM / per-link
Customer reorders	Rep builds a new draft	Customer taps the same link
Performance reporting	Manual spreadsheet	Per-rep analytics in CL dashboard

The reusability + automatic attribution is what tips most B2B-with-named-reps teams onto Checkout Links.

At a glance

FeatureShopify draft ordersCheckout Links

PricingShopify draft orders: Free (built into Shopify)Checkout Links: $25/month, 7-day free trial

ReusableShopify draft orders: No — one-off per orderCheckout Links: Yes — same URL, edit behind it

Custom pricingShopify draft orders: Yes (set in admin)Checkout Links: Yes (via bundled Shopify Functions)

Customer-facing UIShopify draft orders: Draft-order invoice pageCheckout Links: Standard Shopify checkout (branded)

Discount handlingShopify draft orders: Set in admin, customer sees totalCheckout Links: Baked into URL via Functions — no code field shown

Customer pre-fill (name, email, shipping)Shopify draft orders: Yes (when set on the draft)Checkout Links: Yes (via merge tags or B2B customer targeting)

Per-link / per-draft analyticsShopify draft orders: NoneCheckout Links: Per-link clicks, checkouts, revenue

B2B-awareShopify draft orders: Yes (manual targeting)Checkout Links: Yes (automatic, when link targets a B2B account)

Net termsShopify draft orders: Yes (B2B drafts on Plus)Checkout Links: Yes (B2B accounts)

Expiry, usage limits, passcodeShopify draft orders: No nativeCheckout Links: Yes

Sales-rep workflowShopify draft orders: Build draft per dealCheckout Links: Build link once, reuse

Best forShopify draft orders: One-off bespoke invoicingCheckout Links: Repeat orders, campaigns, sales-rep flows, wholesale

Where Checkout Links pulls ahead

The cases that make the switch worth it.

Reusability

The single biggest workflow improvement. A draft order is a one-off — every repeat order from the same customer is a new draft, built from scratch (or duplicated from the previous one). A Checkout Link is reusable forever — same URL, you edit the configuration behind it as needed. For wholesale standing orders, repeat B2B refills, recurring sample sends, this collapses what used to be 5-10 minutes of admin work into "send the link."

Branded customer experience

Draft orders surface the customer in Shopify's draft-order checkout UI, which is functional but not designed for marketing. It looks like an invoice form. Checkout Links sends the customer to standard Shopify checkout — the same branded, themed, mobile-optimised experience they'd see buying directly from the store. For B2B customers this matters because most of them buy in their B2C lives too — they expect the same checkout UX from your wholesale flow.

No code field

Draft orders apply the custom price in admin, so the customer sees the discounted total at checkout. Checkout Links does the same via Shopify Functions, and additionally hides the discount-code input field entirely. Means the customer can't paste another code and try to stack, and the discount can't be circulated as a code on coupon sites.

Per-link analytics

Draft orders flow into standard Shopify analytics with no per-draft breakdown. Checkout Links logs clicks, checkouts, and revenue per-link, per-source, per-UTM. Useful for any team measuring per-rep / per-channel / per-campaign performance.

Expiry and usage limits

Draft orders don't expire; you have to manually invalidate them. Checkout Links has expiry, usage limits, and passcode-gating as link-level settings. A wholesale promotional link that closes 30 days after distribution is one toggle, not a calendar reminder.

When draft orders are still the right call

No tool wins everywhere. These are the cases where Shopify draft orders is the better answer.

True bespoke invoicing

Negotiated line items per order, partial payments, manual processing flows. Draft orders are still the cleanest tool for this.

Paper-trail compliance

Some B2B / government / institutional accounts require a formal invoice document. Draft orders generate that natively; Checkout Links doesn't.

Pay outside Shopify

When the customer is paying via bank transfer, wire, or any non-Shopify payment method, draft orders are designed for it. Checkout Links assumes the customer pays through Shopify checkout.

Shopify draft orders alternative: Checkout Links