Disable ShopPay default checkout (without disabling ShopPay payment option)?

Payments + Shipping & Fulfilment
,

Topic summary

Merchants are seeking ways to prevent Shop Pay from automatically becoming the default checkout experience when customers are logged in, while still offering it as an express payment option.

Core Issue:

  • Shop Pay automatically activates as the default checkout for logged-in users
  • Merchants want the standard guest checkout to appear first for all customers
  • Shop Pay should remain available only as an optional express checkout button

Reported Problems:

  • Users believe the automatic Shop Pay checkout is causing cart abandonment
  • Older customers find the interface confusing
  • The “checkout as guest” option is not prominently displayed (small link at bottom)
  • Auto-filled payment methods limit customer choice (e.g., switching to PayPal)
  • Some merchants experiencing reCAPTCHA errors with guest checkout

Solution Found:
Adding ?skip_shop_pay=true to the checkout URL bypasses the default Shop Pay experience. This workaround has reportedly helped merchants recover lost sales.

Status: The discussion reflects frustration with Shopify’s removal of the option to disable customer accounts by default, with merchants viewing this as limiting customer control and flexibility.

Summarized with AI on October 30. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

We would like to make the normal Shopify “guest” checkout the default checkout for all of our customers.

It appears that if a customer is logged into their ShopPay account, they will automatically see the ShopPay checkout, not the normal Shopify checkout.

Is there a way to bypass this, and show all customers the normal “guest” checkout instead?

We want to still give customers the option to use ShopPay via the Express Checkout Options, but we don’t want it to be enabled by default.

Thank you!

2

So, there is no way to avoid ShopPay’s Default Checkout? It’s impossible?

3

I am wanting to know same thing, I think it is making people leave checkout. How can you make it just be CC first instead.

4

Hi did you find a fix to this? I test the checkout often and find it so annoying that it just knows who I am and just by my email prefills everything including my payment method. What if I want to use paypal? UGH the checkout as guest isn’t self explanatory and a tiny link at the bottom. It used to be that customer accounts were disabled by default, meaning that customer would use the guest checkout experience. but that option is no longer there. Shopify is trying to monopolize everything and customers that like some control get really annoyed and just leave checkout.

5

The guest checkout is not working for us. It is throwing a recaptcha error. Not sure if you found a solution to remove the default checkout page and enable guest checkout.

6

Couldn’t agree more this is beyond annoying older people cannot work it out. Back off Shopify

1 Like
7

in case anyone is still struggling to figure this out, you can add ?skip_shop_pay=true to the checkout url. I can’t take credit for the solution, I found it here

2 Likes
8

I know it’s been a while, but I still want to say thank you so much to you and original solution provider. I have been losing sales because of this