What's a Shopify cart permalink?

A URL of the form yourstore.com/cart/[variant-id]:[quantity] that pre-loads variants into a Shopify cart, with an optional ?discount=CODE parameter. It's a built-in Shopify feature, free with every store.

Are permalinks deprecated?

No. Shopify cart permalinks remain a stable, supported URL pattern in 2026. The Buy Button Channel is a separate thing that's winding down — permalinks themselves are fine.

Yes. Checkout Links doesn't override your existing permalinks — they keep working. Most merchants migrate gradually, with new campaigns on Checkout Links and old permalinks running until they age out.

Why pay $25/mo when permalinks are free?

Because the URL string is the configuration. Change a product, the URL changes. Need analytics, you don't have any. Need to expire it, you can't. Need to hide the discount code from the customer, the ?discount= field is right there in plain text. Checkout Links is the layer that solves all of those without you hand-managing URL strings.

Checkout Links vs Shopify Cart Permalinks: Which One in 2026?

Both produce a URL that pre-loads a Shopify cart. From outside the URL looks similar:

Permalink: yourstore.com/cart/12345:1,67890:2?discount=SUMMER
Checkout Link: yourstore.com/a/link/abc123

What's different is what's behind the URL.

For the longer "why move off permalinks" framing, see our Shopify cart permalinks alternative page. This compare page is the at-a-glance.

The headline

Cart permalinks are free, brittle, string-encoded, and have no concept of editability, analytics, expiry, or customer pre-fill.
Checkout Links is $25/mo, separates the URL from the configuration, and adds all the things permalinks don't have.

Side-by-side

Feature	Cart permalinks	Checkout Links
Pricing	Free	$25/month, 7-day free trial
URL format	`/cart/[variant-id]:[qty]?discount=CODE`	`yourstore.com/a/link/[short-code]`
Multiple products	Yes — comma-separated	Yes
Discount applied	Yes — via `?discount=CODE` (code is visible in URL)	Yes — baked in via Shopify Functions (no code field shown)
Edit cart without breaking the URL	No — URL changes if variant or discount changes	Yes — edit behind the same short code
Customer pre-fill (name, email, shipping)	No	Yes
Cart attributes / notes	No	Yes
Expiry	No	Yes
Usage limits	No	Yes
Passcode gate	No	Yes
Click + checkout analytics	No native	Yes — per link
Branded QR code	DIY (encode externally)	Built-in, downloadable
Shopify Flow integration	No	Yes
Klaviyo OAuth integration	N/A	Yes
Built for Shopify	First-party	Built for Shopify certified

Where each one wins

Permalinks win

One-off, short-lived URLs. A single static link in a single newsletter that doesn't need analytics.
No-app governance policy. Some Plus stores limit third-party apps; permalinks are first-party, no install required.
Technical merchants who hand-build URLs. If you're comfortable with the variant-ID syntax and don't need analytics, the free option is fine.

Checkout Links wins

Anything you'll change later. Discount tweak, product swap, expiry update — Checkout Links lets you edit behind the URL. Permalinks force a new URL every time.
Discounts the customer can't see. Permalinks expose the code in the URL string. Checkout Links applies the discount via Functions; no code field appears.
Per-link analytics. Permalinks land in standard Shopify analytics with no per-link breakdown. Checkout Links logs clicks and checkouts per link.
Expiry, usage limits, passcodes. Time-bounded VIP drops, capped giveaways, gated paid-community links — all link-level settings.
Customer pre-fill via merge tags. Pass Klaviyo or Postscript merge tags as URL parameters and the recipient lands on a checkout with their name, email, and shipping pre-filled.
Branded QR codes. Every link has a downloadable QR; permalinks need an external generator.

Which one for which job

Job to be done	Pick
Static "buy this one product" link in a newsletter	Either
One-off campaign link, no analytics, no follow-up	Permalink
Per-creator influencer URL with discount + usage limit	Checkout Links
Klaviyo abandoned cart recovery link (per-recipient pre-fill)	Checkout Links
QR code on packaging that re-orders the product	Checkout Links
Time-bounded VIP launch drop	Checkout Links
Wholesale repeat-order link	Checkout Links
A discount that absolutely cannot leak to coupon sites	Checkout Links
Plus store with strict no-app governance	Permalink (no install required)

Honest take

Permalinks are a remarkable Shopify-native feature — most platforms don't ship anything like them out of the box. For small stores running occasional one-off campaigns, they're a complete solution.

Where the analysis tips toward Checkout Links is when the campaigns get repeatable. Once you're running a Klaviyo abandoned cart flow, multi-creative paid social, per-creator influencer programs, or any campaign cadence that requires editability without breaking links, the permalink URL becomes the bottleneck. The $25/month buys back the time you'd otherwise spend hand-managing URL strings and reconciling attribution.

Try Checkout Links

Start a 7-day free trial — your existing permalink URLs keep working alongside.