If you run a Shopify Plus store, you've probably heard some version of "checkout is finally block-based, you might not need your checkout app anymore." It's a reasonable thing to wonder, because Shopify does ship a free, first-party app called Checkout Blocks, built directly on Checkout UI extensions, and Shopify itself now maintains it as part of the platform rather than treating it as a community tool.

The confusing part is figuring out exactly where that native tool's coverage stops. Checkout Blocks is not new — it launched in 2022 — but its scope on the actual checkout page (as opposed to the Thank you and Order status pages) is gated to Plus, and it has grown enough features that the "do I still need an app" question is worth re-checking in 2026 rather than assuming last year's answer still holds.

This article maps what Checkout Blocks and Shopify's checkout and accounts editor cover natively for Plus merchants today, what they still can't do, and where three real, currently listed checkout apps continue to earn their subscription. It does not cover what non-Plus stores can do — that's a different, page-by-page question already answered in a companion article on this site.

The short version

• Shopify's own Checkout Blocks app is free and built by Shopify. On the Basic plan and up, it can add dynamic and static content blocks to the Thank you and Order status pages only. Every other capability — custom fields, order-value limits, address-format rules, custom order/shipping discounts, and placing any block on the checkout page itself — requires Shopify Plus.
• The checkout page is still the gated surface, not the app. Per Shopify's developer docs, checkout UI extensions for the information, shipping, and payment steps are "available only to stores on a Shopify Plus plan." Thank you and Order status pages are open to any extension on any plan.
• Native blocks handle content, fields, rules, and simple discounts — not post-purchase upsell flows. Checkout Blocks can display banners, collect custom fields, block addresses, and edit line items. It does not run a true one-click post-purchase offer (a separate purchase captured against the original payment method after the order completes), personalize offers with AI, or A/B test checkout content.
• Apps still matter for three things: one-click post-purchase upsell/downsell funnels, AI-assisted offer targeting or checkout auditing, and packaged, no-code UI for teams who don't want to hand-build every block and display rule themselves.
• Merchants can stack up to three extensions in the same block location through the checkout and accounts editor, so "native blocks" and "a checkout app" aren't mutually exclusive — most Plus stores end up running both.

What Checkout Blocks actually is

Checkout Blocks is not a hypothetical or upcoming feature — it's a live, free app in the Shopify App Store, developed and supported by Shopify itself, currently rated 4.2 out of 5 across 212 reviews. It was originally launched in 2022, but recent reviews (including several from August 2026) note that Shopify has taken over active maintenance of it, adding new block types and shipping changes more frequently than in its earlier years.

Functionally, it's a no-code layer on top of Checkout UI extensions: every block you add in the app is a small extension that you place using Shopify's checkout and accounts editor, the same drag-and-drop tool used for theme-level checkout branding. According to Shopify's own documentation, the plan split is exact:

• Basic plan and up: dynamic content and static content blocks, placeable only on the Thank you and Order status pages.
• Shopify Plus only: everything else — custom fields (checkboxes, text inputs, gift notes), an address-format blocker, line-item editing and messaging, shipping and payment method icons, custom order and shipping discounts with conditional rules, hiding/renaming/reordering payment and delivery methods, and placing any block on the checkout page itself (not just post-purchase pages).

Each block type supports up to 30 active instances, and merchants can define up to 10 "block ID" placeholders per page so that different content shows in the same location depending on display rules (cart total, customer tags, logged-in status, product type, and similar conditions). A block on the checkout page can be built by Shopify's own Shopify Functions for the discount and validation logic behind it — the App Store listing specifically calls out "checkout customizations powered by Shopify Functions" as a feature.

What's genuinely native now for Plus merchants

If you're a Plus merchant evaluating whether to keep paying for a checkout app, here's what you can build with Checkout Blocks and the checkout editor alone, at no additional cost beyond your Plus subscription:

• Informational and promotional banners on any checkout step, with conditional display rules (for example, showing a free-shipping-threshold message only when the cart is under $100).
• Custom checkout fields, such as a required terms checkbox, an optional gift message, or a delivery instructions field.
• Order value limits and address validation, blocking checkout when a cart total or shipping address doesn't meet rules you define.
• Custom order and shipping discounts with more granular logic than Shopify's default discount builder — for example, tiered free shipping based on cart total.
• Reordering, renaming, or hiding payment and delivery methods, useful for pushing a preferred payment method or hiding cash-on-delivery for certain regions.
• Line-item level messaging, like "Final sale" tags or variant/quantity editing directly inside the order summary.

This is a meaningfully larger native surface than "just add your logo and colors." A Plus merchant whose checkout app was mainly being used for banners, custom fields, or basic discount rules genuinely has a case for testing whether Checkout Blocks alone now covers that use case.

Where native blocks stop

Checkout Blocks is built on static and block extension targets, which render content and collect input — they are not designed as a post-purchase offer engine. A few things stay outside Checkout Blocks' scope even on Plus:

• True one-click post-purchase upsell. A dedicated purchase flow, shown after the order is placed, that charges a second item to the same payment method without the customer re-entering payment details, is a distinct checkout capability that specialized apps build on top of the post-purchase and Thank you page extension targets — Checkout Blocks doesn't ship this offer-and-accept flow itself.
• AI-assisted offer targeting or checkout auditing. Deciding which upsell to show which customer based on behavior, or running an automated audit of checkout friction points, is a product feature some apps build, not something in Checkout Blocks' own feature set.
• A/B testing of checkout content with built-in analytics, beyond the basic view counts Checkout Blocks tracks per block.
• Deep integrations with marketing and retention tools (Klaviyo, ReCharge, subscription platforms, review apps) that sync checkout events elsewhere.
• A polished, non-technical building experience. Checkout Blocks is functional but its interface assumes some comfort with display-rule logic; teams that want a more guided, drag-and-drop-first workflow often still prefer a dedicated app.

Three real apps that still fill these gaps

For reference, Checkout Blocks itself is free and covers the native surface described above. Here's how it compares to three apps built specifically to cover what it doesn't:

App	Best for	Starting price (USD)	Plus required?
Shopify Checkout Blocks (native)	Content blocks, custom fields, discount rules	Free	Only for checkout-page placement; Thank you/Order status work on Basic+
Checkout Plus	Checkout upsells, gift messages, trust badges, rules in one app	$29/mo (checkout-page tier is $49/mo)	Yes, for the checkout-page tier
Qikify Checkout Customizer	AI checkout audit, custom fields, branded blocks, B2B checkout	Free (Plus/Sandbox/Dev only); $99/mo unlocks custom fields and upsells	Yes, entire app is Plus/Sandbox/Dev-only
AOV.ai Post Purchase Upsell	One-click post-purchase, Thank you, and Order status upsells	Free (first $200 in upsell revenue), then $4.99/mo+	No explicit Plus requirement stated on the listing

Checkout Plus

Checkout Plus, built by Plus Apps, is rated 5.0 across 95 reviews and is a Built for Shopify app. It packages checkout upsells, gift messages, trust badges, surveys, and payment/shipping rules into three tiers: a $29/month Basic tier covering Thank you, Order status, and post-purchase page customization (available on any plan); a $49/month Plus tier that unlocks checkout-page customization itself; and an $89/month Advanced tier adding checkout upsells, auto-added gifts, and checkout branding. All tiers include a 7-day free trial. It's a reasonable pick for a Plus merchant who wants one vendor covering both the checkout page and post-purchase upsell, rather than combining a native tool with a separate upsell app.

Qikify Checkout Customizer

Qikify Checkout Customizer is rated 4.8 across 64 reviews and, unusually, its free plan is explicitly scoped to "Plus, Sandbox & Dev stores" only — it doesn't attempt to serve non-Plus merchants at all. The free tier covers reordering, hiding, and renaming payment/delivery methods, full checkout styling, and validation rules. Its $99/month Premium tier (or $950.40/year) adds custom fields, product offers and add-ons, extra widgets, and priority support for custom feature requests. Its standout feature versus Checkout Blocks is a built-in AI checkout audit that scores checkout performance and suggests fixes — a diagnostic layer Shopify's own app doesn't provide.

AOV.ai Post Purchase Upsell

AOV.ai Post Purchase Upsell is rated 4.9 across 158 reviews. Unlike the other two apps here, its listing doesn't call out a Plus requirement — it focuses specifically on the post-purchase, Thank you, and Order status upsell flow (one-click offers without re-entering payment, targeted by product, cart value, customer segment, or shipping country), which is exactly the surface Checkout Blocks doesn't touch. Pricing starts free for a store's first $200 in upsell revenue, then moves to $4.99/month for up to 100 monthly orders, scaling from there. This is the category — true one-click post-purchase offers — where native blocks currently have the clearest gap, regardless of plan.

Deciding what to keep

If your checkout app is mainly doing content, fields, or basic discount rules on the checkout page, it's worth testing whether Checkout Blocks alone now covers that use case before renewing. It's free, it's maintained by Shopify, and it uses the same extension model everything else does, so there's minimal switching risk in trying it in a duplicate checkout configuration first.

If your app's core value is one-click post-purchase upsell, AI-targeted offers, or a checkout audit/diagnostic feature, that's still outside what Checkout Blocks does. Keep it, and treat Checkout Blocks as something you might layer underneath it for banners or fields you're not already paying the app for.

If you're not on Shopify Plus, none of the checkout-page-specific capabilities above are available to you regardless of which app you use — that's a platform gate, not an app limitation, and no checkout app can work around it on the checkout page itself.

What not to do

Don't uninstall a working checkout app the same week you discover Checkout Blocks exists. Test the native blocks in a draft checkout configuration first, confirm the display rules actually reproduce your current behavior (block IDs and priority sorting take some getting used to), and only then decide whether to consolidate. Also don't assume "Plus" alone gets you post-purchase upsell — that's a separate extension surface that Checkout Blocks doesn't cover on any plan, so if that's your main use case, an app stays necessary independent of your Shopify plan.

Sources

• Shopify: Checkout UI extensions overview
• Shopify: Targets for checkout UI extensions
• Shopify Help Center: Checkout Blocks app
• Shopify Help Center: Overview of blocks in Checkout Blocks
• Shopify Help Center: Using the checkout and accounts editor
• Shopify App Store: Checkout Blocks
• Shopify App Store: Checkout Plus
• Shopify App Store: Qikify Checkout Customizer
• Shopify App Store: AOV.ai Post Purchase Upsell