Shopify Customer Accounts in 2026: Legacy vs New, Passwordless Login and How to Upgrade

Shopify now has one supported version of customer accounts, and it is simply called "customer accounts." The older version, which used passwords and theme templates, is now called "legacy customer accounts." Shopify deprecated it on 26 February 2026. Legacy accounts are no longer available to new stores, or to existing stores that weren't already using them, and Shopify has stopped shipping feature updates and technical support for them.

If your store still runs legacy accounts, nothing switched off on that date. But you are now on a version with no roadmap. Shopify said a final sunset date would be announced later in 2026, and as of October 2026 no date had been published. That gives you time to plan. It doesn't mean you can ignore it.

This guide explains how the current customer accounts work (passwordless sign-in, social sign-in, B2B logins), how you customize them now that theme templates are out of the picture, what breaks when you upgrade, and a step-by-step migration plan. It's part of our Shopify hub, which covers the platform as of October 2026.

What changed: the naming and the deprecation timeline

The naming changed before the product did. On 9 December 2024 Shopify renamed "new customer accounts" to "customer accounts" and "classic customer accounts" to "legacy customer accounts." Older articles and app documentation still use "new" and "classic," so expect to see both sets of terms for a while.

The deprecation followed on 26 February 2026. Shopify's changelog announcement says legacy accounts are no longer available to new stores and existing stores not using them, that Shopify will stop providing feature updates and technical support, and that a final sunset date will be announced later in 2026.

There are two more details worth knowing:

• Theme changes can upgrade you automatically. According to Shopify's developer changelog, a store on legacy accounts that switches to a theme without the legacy files is automatically upgraded to the current version of customer accounts. If you are testing a new theme on a legacy store, check this before you publish.
• The legacy building blocks are going away. A Shopify staff post on the developer forum (26 February 2026) said the legacy templates "will eventually be locked from editing, then removed" and that "the Storefront API customer mutations will be deprecated." Headless stores that handle login through those mutations should plan a move to the Customer Account API.

How current customer accounts work

The biggest change for shoppers is that there is no password. According to Shopify's sign-in options page, customers sign in with passwordless authentication: they enter their email address and receive a one-time 6-digit verification code.

A few practical consequences follow from that design:

• No separate registration step. If someone signs in with an email address your store doesn't recognize, a new customer profile is created automatically. Existing customers simply use the email address already on their profile.
• No password resets. The most common account support ticket (forgotten passwords) disappears, but the verification email now has to arrive quickly and reliably. That makes your sender email setup more important than it used to be.
• Self-service profile edits. Customers can update their name, email address and shipping addresses from their account.
• Order history and tracking live inside the account pages Shopify hosts, rather than in templates in your theme.

Sign-in options

One caveat on identity providers: if a customer signs in through an external identity provider, they can't change their email address from their account. The email lives in your identity system, so changes happen there.

B2B logins now depend on customer accounts

B2B is the strongest business reason to upgrade. Shopify's B2B sign-in documentation is blunt: "You can't use legacy customer accounts for B2B customers and orders."

That matters more in 2026 than it did before, because since 2 April 2026 native B2B is no longer Plus-only. Stores on Basic, Grow and Advanced can sell wholesale with up to 3 active B2B catalogs, company profiles, payment terms and volume pricing. Plus keeps unlimited catalogs and deeper features. If you want to use any of that, you need current customer accounts.

How B2B sign-in works:

• You set up the buyer as a contact on a company location in your admin.
• The buyer signs in with the email address associated with that company location and a one-time code. No password is needed.
• Once signed in, B2B customers can view order history and company location information, access saved payment methods and make payments, track orders, reorder by duplicating a past order, and submit and track return requests.

If you are planning a wholesale channel, our guide to building a Shopify app for B2B covers when native features are enough and when custom work makes sense. Login friction is also one of the most common reasons B2B buyers give up, which we cover in why B2B websites lose conversions at the login stage.

How you customize customer accounts now

With legacy accounts, you edited Liquid templates in your theme (customers/login, customers/account and so on). Current customer accounts are hosted pages, so customization works differently. According to Shopify's customization guide, you have four main tools.

1. The checkout and accounts editor

Branding (logo, colors, typography) is set in the checkout and accounts editor, the same place you style checkout. That keeps the account pages visually consistent with checkout without theme code.

2. Apps and customer account UI extensions

Extra functionality comes from apps. Under the hood, apps use customer account UI extensions, which can add content to order status pages and profile sections, add order action buttons, or create full custom pages with their own routes in the account. Typical uses are loyalty balances, subscription management, returns and reorder tools. Merchants can place up to three extensions in the same block location using the editor.

For developers, the constraints are tight: compiled extension bundles are capped at 64 KB, or 128 KB for full-page customer account extensions, and from API version 2025-10 extensions are built with Preact and Polaris web components.

3. A branded subdomain

You can serve the account pages from a subdomain such as account.your-store.com, so customers see your domain instead of a Shopify URL.

4. The account component

If you'd rather not send shoppers to a separate page, Shopify offers an account component that shows sign-in as a modal on your online store.

The shift is that anything you previously hard-coded in account templates now needs an app, an extension or a design decision in the editor. Our article on customizing a Shopify theme without breaking it covers the theme side of that clean-up.

What breaks when you upgrade

Shopify's legacy customer accounts page lists the main things that don't carry over. Review each one against your store before you switch:

Also look at any app that touched account templates (wishlists, loyalty widgets, account-based pricing). Ask the developer whether it supports customer account UI extensions. If it doesn't, find a replacement before you upgrade, not after.

A step-by-step upgrade plan

Shopify's upgrade guide lays out nine steps, and the work happens in Settings > Customer accounts. Here is the order we recommend, with Shopify's steps folded in:

1. Inventory legacy customizations. Review theme templates and .liquid code for anything account-related you want to keep.
2. Duplicate your configuration. Work on a copy so you can build without affecting the live store.
3. Replace template code with apps. Find apps for customer accounts that recreate the functionality you need.
4. Update brand settings. Check that your logo and colors render correctly in the account pages.
5. Connect a subdomain (optional). Set up something like account.your-store.com.
6. Verify your sender email. Verification codes are sent from it, so confirm you control the address and that it is authenticated on your domain.
7. Publish the configuration. Your store keeps using legacy accounts until the final step.
8. Preview and test. Sign in as a test customer, view orders, edit addresses, test any app extensions, and if you sell B2B, sign in as a company contact.
9. Upgrade. Click Upgrade to move customers to the new system.

After the switch, rebuild segments and automations, and check your header and footer links point to the new account pages. If something goes badly wrong, Shopify lets you revert within 30 days. Use that window as a safety net, not as a plan: schedule the upgrade for a quiet trading period and keep an eye on support tickets for the first week.

Headless and custom storefronts

If you run a headless storefront, customer login is your responsibility rather than your theme's. The direction is clear: current customer accounts and the Customer Account API are the supported path, and Shopify staff have said the Storefront API customer mutations used by many older headless builds will be deprecated. If your storefront creates or logs in customers with those mutations, add the migration to your roadmap now. Our headless Shopify app development article covers how these pieces fit together.

Conclusion

Legacy customer accounts still work, but they are deprecated, unsupported and incompatible with B2B. The current version removes passwords, moves customization to apps and extensions, and is where Shopify is putting its effort. Audit your templates, apps, segments and automations, test on a duplicated configuration, then upgrade during a quiet week with the 30-day revert window as your backstop. If you'd like help replacing legacy account code with extensions, our Shopify app development team at eSEOspace does this kind of migration regularly.

Frequently asked questions