Two tools that look similar from the outside, built for very different jobs. This page is the side-by-side.
For the longer “why one over the other” framing, see our Shopify Buy Button alternative page. This compare page is the at-a-glance.
The headline
- Buy Button is free, static, and JS-embedded. Great for one product on one external site.
- Checkout Links is $25/mo, dynamic, and URL-based. Built for campaigns, per-recipient personalisation, and analytics.
If your need is “one product, one external site, no analytics needed,” stop reading and use the Buy Button — it’s free and fits. If any of those nouns change to plural, keep reading.
Side-by-side
| Feature | Shopify Buy Button | Checkout Links |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free (on supported plans) | $25/month, 7-day free trial |
| Distribution format | Embeddable JavaScript widget | Plain URL (works anywhere) |
| Multiple products per cart | Yes | Yes |
| Customer destination | Adds to cart, customer continues from cart | Pre-loaded checkout (or optional pre-checkout page) |
| Per-recipient personalisation | No — static config per button | Yes — every link can carry its own cart, discount, customer |
| Auto-applied discount | No — customer types code at checkout | Yes — discount baked into URL via Shopify Functions |
| Customer pre-fill (name, email, shipping) | No | Yes |
| Cart attributes / notes | No | Yes |
| Expiry, usage limits, passcode | No | Yes |
| Click + checkout analytics | Limited (Shopify default) | Yes — per link, source, UTM |
| QR codes | No native | Branded, automatic |
| Shopify Flow integration | No | Yes — generate links inside Flow |
| Klaviyo OAuth integration | No | Yes |
| Web pixel attribution | Standard | Native (Checkout Links web pixel) |
| Built for Shopify | First-party | Built for Shopify certified |
| Time to first working link | Minutes (configure + embed) | Minutes (configure + copy URL) |
Where each one wins
Buy Button wins
- Single product, single external site, no analytics needed. A blog or portfolio site with one “buy this print” CTA. Buy Button is free and exactly right.
- You’re on Shopify Basic and not running marketing campaigns. No abandoned cart sequence, no paid social, no influencer program. The $25/mo isn’t worth it yet.
- You need the customer to land on a cart-review page before checkout. Buy Button hands off to Shopify’s cart by default. Checkout Links sends them straight to checkout. Different philosophies.
Checkout Links wins
- Per-recipient or per-campaign personalisation. Every link can carry its own product mix, discount, customer pre-fill, expiry, and usage limit.
- Auto-applied discounts. Customer never sees the discount-code field. No code typing, no leak risk to coupon sites.
- Per-link analytics. Click + checkout attribution per link, source, and UTM. Critical for any campaign running multiple creatives.
- QR codes that go to checkout. Branded QR for every link, downloadable instantly. Buy Button has no native QR.
- Klaviyo / Flow integration. Drop links into abandoned cart flows, win-back flows, post-purchase chains. Buy Button can’t do any of this.
Which one for which job
| Job to be done | Pick |
|---|---|
| “Buy this one product” on my external blog | Buy Button |
| Per-creator influencer URLs with discount + usage limits | Checkout Links |
| One-tap recovery link in my Klaviyo abandoned cart flow | Checkout Links |
| Static add-to-cart widget on a static brand site | Buy Button |
| Per-creative ad URLs for paid social | Checkout Links |
| QR code on packaging that re-orders the product | Checkout Links |
| In-store cross-channel “scan to add to POS” | Checkout Links |
| Wholesale customer reorder links | Checkout Links |
| VIP-only launch drop with passcode and expiry | Checkout Links |
The honest take
The Buy Button is a fine product for what it does. It’s free, it’s first-party, it’s been around for a decade, and Shopify maintains it. If your need is the narrow use case it solves, use it.
Where the analysis tips toward Checkout Links is when the campaign cadence, the per-recipient personalisation, or the analytics requirement makes the Buy Button start to feel like manual work — generating dozens of static buttons, hoping customers paste the right discount code, reconciling per-channel revenue in spreadsheets.
The $25/month is real money. So is the time spent doing campaign work manually. Most merchants who try both end up using Checkout Links for everything new and leaving the existing Buy Buttons in place until they age out.
Try Checkout Links
Start a 7-day free trial — keep your existing Buy Buttons running in parallel during the trial.
Related: Shopify Buy Button alternative, Checkout Links vs cart permalinks, How to create a payment link on Shopify.