Executive Summary

PrestaShop’s built-in Checkout module has caused more production issues than any other official module since its introduction. From broken payment flows to missing methods, bloated updates, and zero accountability on Addons, it continues to frustrate merchants and developers alike. In 2025, with PrestaShop 9, the story hasn’t changed — only the CSS got worse.

At PrestaHeroes, we’ve repeatedly repaired client shops that stopped processing orders — often without showing any visible customer-facing error. We strongly recommend that you run your hosting error logs through AI (e.g., ChatGPT) to quickly identify underlying exceptions and payment errors your customers see but you never do. It’s the fastest way to expose silent checkout failures before they cost you sales.

If you rely on sales to stay alive, disable PrestaShop Checkout and use standalone, proven payment modules instead.

1. A Long History of Checkout Failures

  • Worked for a year, then all payments failed after 3-D Secure redirects.
  • Payment methods failed to load (infinite spinner, no PayPal/cards).
  • PayPal error: “Expected an order id to be passed” (e.g., ISO code mismatch).
  • Module update → no payment options at all on live stores.
  • Generic “Something went wrong” errors across PS 8.x and even PS 9 builds.

Pattern: merchant panic, no clear fix, and the same advice: remove PrestaShop Checkout, use Stripe/PayPal official modules.

2. Complexity and Bloat by Design

PrestaShop tried to reverse-engineer Shopify’s checkout — badly. The key difference: with PrestaShop Checkout, your payments don’t go directly through your merchant account; they’re routed through PrestaShop’s intermediary account (via their PayPal/PS Finance partner). That inserts a middleman between you and your funds, reducing control over settlement, chargebacks, and visibility.

Shopify built this model into its platform from day one. PrestaShop bolted it on years later — a fragile hybrid that breaks whenever upstream dependencies change. Each release adds more JS SDKs and third-party calls, slowing checkout and multiplying failure points.

3. Theme Conflicts and Upgrade Chaos

  • Upgrading 1.7 → 8.x? Payment section disappears.
  • Non-classic themes? Misaligned buttons, vanishing methods.
  • Module update? Checkout fails to load entirely.

Because the module overrides multiple core templates and JS controllers, any small change elsewhere can cause complete failure.

4. No Real Support via PrestaShop Addons

There is no proper support channel. The Addons “Contact developer” button leads nowhere — no ticket portal, no SLA, no accountability. Since PrestaShop SA owns the module, this is the platform deflecting its own responsibility.

5. PrestaShop 9: Same Core, Worse Visual QA

  • Payment-method alignment is visibly broken.
  • Buttons overflow or stack awkwardly on mobile.
  • PayPal UI sometimes hides other options.
  • Layouts break under dark mode or RTL.

These are obvious CSS/QA oversights that should never ship. If the platform can’t align a PayPal logo properly, why trust the rest of the payment logic?

6. The Real Cost of “Official” Checkout

  • Every core update becomes a gamble.
  • Every new module risks breaking checkout.
  • When it fails, support isn’t responsive.

We routinely fix this by removing PrestaShop Checkout entirely and reverting to native checkout or our own PH Checkout Pro, paired with official, single-purpose payment modules (PayPal, Stripe). Conversion stabilizes and upgrades are predictable again.

7. A Safer, Cleaner Alternative

  • Use the native PrestaShop checkout (without PS Checkout installed).
  • Install official single-purpose payment modules (PayPal, Stripe, etc.).
  • Keep overrides minimal; test upgrades in staging.
  • For an optimized flow, use PH Checkout Pro (theme-agnostic, no bloat).

8. Conclusion

PrestaShop’s internal checkout experiment aimed to unify payments — it unified frustration instead. Across releases and even PS 9, the pattern persists: half-tested UI, broken integrations, and no real support. For most merchants, PrestaShop Checkout is a liability: disable it, replace it, and run your hosting error logs through AI so you learn what customers experience before they abandon the cart.

Author: Fred V. McLees
Founder, PrestaHeroes.com – Building fast, reliable ecommerce without the fluff.