Alternative payment onsite checkout

Extensions
1

Hello,

We are developing a custom payment application and would like to confirm the current technical limitations regarding onsite vs. offsite extensions for 2025.

Our Goal:
We want to provide an onsite experience where customers enter their specific details (e.g., a custom number/ID) directly within our payment method fields on the checkout page. After clicking “Pay Now,” we want to redirect them to a custom “waiting” or “processing” page rather than an external payment gateway immediately.

Our Current Understanding:

  1. Onsite Extensions: We understand that “Alternative Payment Extensions” (which allow rendering onsite fields) are currently in an invite-only closed beta.

  2. Plan Restrictions: We have read in the documentation that building and deploying custom payment extensions is limited specifically to Shopify Plus merchants.

  3. Public Apps: If we build this as a Public App on the Shopify App Store, does the Plus restriction still apply to the onsite extension components (Checkout UI Extensions)?

Could you please clarify the following:

  • If we receive an invite to the beta, can our onsite extension be used by merchants on Basic, Shopify, or Advanced plans?

  • Is there any way for a non-Plus store to use onsite fields in the checkout payment step, or are they strictly required to use the offsite redirection flow?

  • Does Shopify allow “Alternative Payment Extensions” to perform a redirect after the “Pay Now” button is clicked on a non-Plus store, or is that logic also restricted to Plus?

Thank you for your guidance.

2

Hi @mutasem_alkilani

Thanks for your questions - I’ll answer them below:

If we build this as a Public App on the Shopify App Store, does the Plus restriction still apply to the onsite extension components (Checkout UI Extensions)?

Yes - stores on non-Plus plans won’t be able to access your checkout extension.

If we receive an invite to the beta, can our onsite extension be used by merchants on Basic, Shopify, or Advanced plans?

No - it would be for Plus stores only.

Is there any way for a non-Plus store to use onsite fields in the checkout payment step, or are they strictly required to use the offsite redirection flow?

Building an offsite redirection is only possible for a Plus store and where a partner is a Payments Partner.

Does Shopify allow “Alternative Payment Extensions” to perform a redirect after the “Pay Now” button is clicked on a non-Plus store, or is that logic also restricted to Plus?

No non-Plus store is permitted to bypass the regular Shopify checkout.