What Shopify lets you change without Plus
On every Shopify plan you get the checkout editor: logo, colours, fonts and a few layout choices. You can also add apps to the thank-you and order status pages, and use public Shopify Functions apps to hide or rename payment and delivery options or add discount rules (shopify.dev, checked October 2026). For most stores, that's where it ends.
Apps on the information, shipping and payment steps, and the Checkout Branding API, are for Shopify Plus only. Plus starts at $2,300 a month on a three-year term or $2,500 a month on a one-year term (Shopify's pricing page, checked October 2026). For a store doing a few hundred orders a week, that's a lot to pay just to change one page.
Payment options are limited too. Inside Shopify's checkout you pick from Shopify Payments and the providers Shopify supports in your country. Use another provider there and Shopify adds its own transaction fee on top: 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced and 0.2% on Plus (checked October 2026).
What a Shopify custom checkout actually is
A Shopify custom checkout is a separate checkout page that takes over the moment a buyer clicks the checkout button. Your products, collections, cart and theme stay in Shopify. Only the last step, where the buyer enters contact details, delivery and payment, runs somewhere else.
In practice: a small script in your theme catches the checkout buttons in your cart and cart drawer. The buyer lands on your checkout page, fills in everything on one screen and pays. As soon as the payment is confirmed, the order appears in your Shopify admin.
Because the page sits outside Shopify's checkout, Shopify's plan limits on what you can change don't apply to it. That's the whole point. It also means the tool you choose now runs the page that takes your money, so choose it with care.
Bring your own payment provider
This is the main reason stores go looking. Maybe Shopify Payments isn't available for your business or country. Maybe you already have a Stripe or Mollie account with good rates and a clean history. Or you want local methods like iDEAL and Bancontact from a provider you already trust.
With Settl you connect your own accounts: Whop, Stripe, Mollie, PayPal, Revolut, Airwallex, Viva.com, Checkout.com, SumUp, Tikkie or Oceanpayment. Connect several at once and each shows as its own option. Buyers see the methods that fit their country: iDEAL in the Netherlands, Bancontact in Belgium, Klarna in Germany, cards and wallets everywhere. Bank transfer, pick-up and pay on delivery work without any provider at all.
The money goes from the buyer straight into your provider account, and from there to your bank. Settl never holds it. You pay your provider's normal rates and a flat monthly price to Settl, with nothing per order.
Your own domain, your own look
A checkout on a stranger's web address costs trust at the worst possible moment. A proper custom checkout runs on a subdomain of your store, like checkout.yourstore.com, with SSL.
With Settl you add one DNS record where your domain is managed. The dashboard detects your domain provider, shows exactly where to click and switches SSL on for you. Domains bought through Shopify work too.
Then the design: logo, colours, fonts and language, plus blocks you place yourself, such as an announcement bar, trust points, your Trustpilot score, customer reviews or a short note like “Ordered before 22:00? Shipped today.” Every change shows in a live preview before a buyer sees it.
Every order goes back into Shopify
Your back office shouldn't notice the switch. Every paid checkout becomes a normal Shopify order with the customer, address, items and shipping, seconds after payment. Stock goes down, your fulfilment apps pick it up and Shopify's order emails go out as usual.
Two details matter more than they seem. Prices: Settl prices every cart again from Shopify on the server before the buyer pays, so nobody can change a price in their browser. Missed orders: an hourly check catches any paid checkout that didn't reach Shopify the first time. Discount codes you create in Shopify can be entered on the checkout and are booked on the Shopify order.
Upsells and tracking on the payment page
Without Plus you can't add offers inside Shopify's payment step. On your own checkout you can. Settl includes an order bump (one tick box before paying: “Yes, add this to my order”) and an offer after purchase, where the buyer adds one more product without typing their details again and it ships with the same order. Reminder emails go to buyers who didn't finish, in their language, with their items and your logo.
Tracking needs a plan before you switch. Your browser pixels for Meta, TikTok and Google run on Shopify's checkout, so once buyers pay on your own checkout, those pixels no longer see the purchase. On Pro (€49,99 a month, first month €9,99), every paid order is sent server-side to Meta, TikTok, Google (GA4 and Google Ads), Snapchat, Pinterest, X, Microsoft Ads and Reddit, linked to the ad the buyer clicked. Cookie consent and browser privacy settings still limit what any tool can match, but your ads keep getting purchase data.
When Shopify's own checkout is the better choice
A custom checkout isn't right for every store. Shopify's checkout converts well, buyers know it, and Shop Pay lets returning shoppers pay in a tap. If Shopify Payments works for your business, your costs are fine and you don't need offers on the payment page, there may be little to gain from switching.
If you only want more offers, upsell apps that work after the purchase run on every Shopify plan at low entry prices. And if your real problem is ads that miss sales, you can keep Shopify's checkout and add server-side tracking only. That's Settl's 99,9% Tracking plan, at €39,99 a month.
A custom checkout pays off when you need a payment provider Shopify doesn't give you, want local methods from your own account, want to avoid Shopify's third-party transaction fee, or want full control over the page where buyers pay.
What to check when choosing a custom checkout tool
Most tools in this category look alike on their homepage. These questions tell them apart:
- Fee per order. Many external checkouts charge a percentage of every sale on top of the monthly price, often 0.5% to 1% or more (checked October 2026). At €50.000 a month in sales, 1% is €500 a month.
- Which providers you can connect. A tool that works with one provider only stops working for you if that provider closes your account.
- Where the money lands. It should go into your own provider account, never the tool's.
- Own domain and SSL included, not sold as an extra.
- How orders reach Shopify, and what happens when one fails.
- Server-side price checks, so a cart can't be edited before payment.
- Purchase tracking for sales made on the new checkout.
- Exit. Can you cancel monthly, and does your store fall back to Shopify's checkout when you do?