Script tags were the old way for apps to add JavaScript to a Shopify storefront: review widgets, wishlists, product options, tracking and analytics. Shopify has been moving apps to theme app extensions and web pixels for some time, and the deadlines are now fixed. Pinning an older API version does not buy any more time, because the block applies on every version.
- 26 August 2026: order status page script tags stopped running for non-Plus stores
- 1 October 2026: apps can no longer create or update storefront script tags
- 1 March 2027: existing storefront script tags stop loading
Why this one is easy to miss
When a script tag stops loading, nothing breaks loudly. A review widget disappears, a tracking pixel stops reporting, or a conversion tag goes quiet, and the first anyone hears of it is a dip in a report weeks later. The replacements also need someone to act. An app embed is off until it is switched on in the theme editor, theme by theme, and until March a store running both the old script tag and the new embed can load the same script twice.
Nothing errors on 1 March. Things just quietly stop, and you find out from the numbers.
What to check now
- List every installed app that adds anything to the storefront, and ask each vendor whether it has moved to an app embed or web pixel
- Check which app embeds are switched on in the theme editor for your live theme, and for any theme you plan to publish
- Look for scripts loading twice once a vendor has migrated, and switch off the old route
- Move scripts from custom apps built in your own admin into the theme, as those apps cannot use app extensions
- Confirm analytics and marketing tags are firing through web pixels before March, not after
It is a good moment for a wider tidy too. Most stores carry apps nobody remembers installing, and each one adds weight to every page. If an app is not worth migrating, it is probably not worth keeping.
