PaymentHero Review: Smart payment rules for your Shopify checkout

The “Checkout-Abandonment” – Why Too Many Options Cost You Money

You’ve worked hard for your traffic. The customer adds a product to their cart, proceeds to checkout—and drops off. A common reason: confusion. Your checkout is a cluttered list of 10 different payment options (PayPal, Klarna, Sofort, 5 credit cards…). The customer is overwhelmed by the “paradox of choice” and leaves. Or even worse: You offer “Buy Now, Pay Later,” but the option is also displayed for a high-risk, first-time international order.

Your standard Shopify checkout is rigid. That’s the missed opportunity. You can’t control who sees what. This leads to cart abandonment and, in the worst cases, potential fraud.

What if you could intelligently control your checkout? What if you could show “Pay on Invoice” only to verified, domestic B2B customers, prioritize PayPal for new customers, and only display “Cash on Delivery” for local shipping addresses?

This is the core function of PaymentHero. An app that cleans up and optimizes your checkout using smart, conditional rules. But is this app future-proof enough for the new Shopify checkout rules? We’ve tested it for you.

Your Intelligent Checkout Filter (The Core Functions)

At its core, PaymentHero is a tool for the presentation layer of your checkout. It gives you control over three simple but extremely powerful basic functions:

• Hide Payment Methods: Hide irrelevant or unwanted methods (e.g., hide “Klarna” for customers in Switzerland).
• Sort Payment Methods: Move the most important option to the top (e.g., always show PayPal or “Pay on Invoice” first).
• Rename Payment Methods: Make technical names understandable (e.g., turn “Credit Card (Stripe)” into just “Credit Card / Apple Pay”).

The Strategic Lever: Conditional Rules (Payment Rules)

The app’s true value lies in its ability to tie these functions to conditional rules. You get granular control over who sees what. For example:

• Geographic: Show “Pay on Invoice” only to customers with a German billing address.
• Customer Segment: Show “Invoice” only for customers tagged with “VIP” or “B2B,” but hide it for all new customers.
• Cart Value: Display “Installment Payments” only for cart values over €100.

This transforms your checkout from a static page into a dynamic tool that actively supports your Conversion Rate Optimization.

Warning: The Critical Risk of Shopify Checkout Extensibility

Let’s get to the most important point of this review—and a critical warning. Shopify is fundamentally changing its entire checkout process. The old technology (called checkout.liquid), which many apps used for customization, will be permanently shut down in August 2025.

Apps that are not converted to the new, secure “Checkout Extensibility” API by then will simply stop working. Your checkout will break.

The problem: At the time of our research, PaymentHero’s public documentation provided no clear confirmation of its full compatibility with this new architecture. Therefore, implementing the app carries a significant technical risk. You might invest time and money setting up an app that becomes useless and needs to be replaced in a few months.

Our strong recommendation: Before you sign up for a paid subscription (especially an annual one), get written confirmation from the Hero Software support team that the app is fully compatible with the “Checkout UI Extensions” and “Payment Customization APIs.”

Who is PaymentHero (Potentially) a No-Brainer for?

This app is a specialist. It solves a very specific problem that not every store owner has.

This is YOUR tool if…

• … you run an international store and need to manage country-specific payment methods (e.g., Klarna in DE/AT, iDEAL in NL).
• … you have different customer groups (e.g., B2B vs. B2C) and want to offer them different payment options (e.g., “Pay on Invoice” for B2B only).
• … you simply want to clean up your checkout and increase conversions by prioritizing methods (e.g., PayPal at the top) to reduce friction.

You should probably skip it if…

• … you only offer one or two payment methods (e.g., just PayPal and Credit Card) and have no need for filtering or sorting.
• … you are not willing to take the technical risk regarding “Checkout Extensibility” (see section 4) or actively clarify it with support.
• … you are looking for an app that provides Fraud Prevention. PaymentHero is a pure UX tool for optimizing display, not a security tool!

The Pricing Model: Fair Tiers for Every Need?

PaymentHero uses a transparent, tiered subscription model. All plans include the 14-day free trial.

The pricing model is refreshingly simple and not transaction-based. You pay a fixed monthly price, regardless of how many orders you have. This is a huge advantage for high-volume stores compared to apps that charge per-transaction or a percentage of revenue.

For most serious merchants, the Premium Plan is the “sweet spot” as it contains the crucial conditional rules and better support (Slack). The Ultra Plan is only worth it if you specifically want to work with scarcity timers in the checkout.

Important Warning (Again): Even if the prices are fair—do not sign up for an annual subscription until you have written confirmation of “Checkout Extensibility” compatibility. Stay on the monthly plan to remain flexible.

What we like (The Strengths) & Where it falls short (The Weaknesses)

The app is a double-edged sword. Functionally great, but strategically questionable.

What we like (The Strengths)

• ✅ Powerful Rule Engine: The ability to filter payment methods based on country, customer group (via tags), cart value, or product is extremely powerful and solves a real problem for international or B2B merchants.
• ✅ Fair, Fixed Pricing: The app does not charge per transaction or a percentage of revenue. Whether you have 100 or 10,000 orders, the monthly price (e.g., $19.99 for Premium) stays the same. That’s a huge advantage for scaling and cost control.
• ✅ Simple User Interface: Creating the rules is logical, straightforward, and quick to learn.
• ✅ Good Support Channel: The Slack support in the Premium plan is a plus for a tool that intervenes so deeply in the critical checkout process.

Where it falls short (The Weaknesses)

• ❌ The Huge Future-Proofing Risk: The biggest drawback is the unclear compatibility with Shopify’s new Checkout Extensibility. If the app isn’t 100% prepared for it, it will stop working in August 2025 (or sooner for Plus stores). This is a massive technical risk for your infrastructure.
• ❌ No Fraud Prevention: This is a critical misunderstanding to avoid. The app is a pure UX (User Experience) tool. It only changes what the customer sees. It does not perform any credit checks or fraud analysis.

Conclusion: Powerful Tool with Risky Timing?

Functionally, PaymentHero is an excellent, focused tool. It solves a real problem that many international or B2B Shopify merchants have: the rigid, uncontrollable display of payment methods in the checkout. The rule engine is powerful, and the fixed price is very fair.

However, this clear benefit is overshadowed by a massive strategic risk. The unclear future-proofing regarding Shopify’s mandatory checkout update (deadline August 2025) makes the app a gamble. No one should be betting on a technology now that could be worthless in a few months.

Our Plain-Text Recommendation:

Due to the unclear future viability, we can currently only recommend this app with great caution. The benefit is high, but the risk of a forced switch in 2025 is real.

Here’s how you should proceed:

1. Use the 14-day free trial to test the features.
2. Contact Hero Software support proactively and ask for written confirmation of full compatibility with “Checkout Extensibility”.
3. Absolutely stay on the monthly subscription and do not sign up for an annual plan, so you can remain flexible if the app is not updated in time.

FAQ: Quick and Simple Answers