WooCommerce checkout links: native URLs vs preset links

A WooCommerce checkout link is a URL that fills the cart and opens checkout in one click. WooCommerce calls them shareable checkout URLs and has included them since version 10.0: /checkout-link/?products=123:2,456:1&coupon=SPRING10 adds two products and a coupon. The link can’t set your own price or stop working on a date you choose. For those, you need a plugin.

A direct checkout link for one product

Before WooCommerce 10, stores linked to checkout with the add-to-cart URL, and it still works. When Business Bloomer asked in July 2025, WooCommerce said it had no plans to remove it. Add ?add-to-cart= to your checkout URL and the shopper lands on checkout with the product in the cart.

https://yourstore.com/checkout/?add-to-cart=123&quantity=2

This URL takes one product. The exception is a grouped product, where each item in the group can have a quantity: ?add-to-cart=GROUP_ID&quantity[ITEM_ID]=2. It adds to whatever is already in the cart and has no coupon parameter. For a single product, it’s all you need, even on a store older than WooCommerce 10.

What WooCommerce checkout links can’t do

The built-in links handle a simple promotion well. They stop at anything the offer needs beyond products and a coupon:

• Neither link has a price field. To sell a kit at the price you advertised, you’d have to build a coupon that happens to land on that number.
• The checkout link empties the cart before it adds anything, so a shopper loses whatever they’d already picked.
• A link never closes. There’s no start or end date and no cap on orders, so last year’s sale link still fills a cart. Only the coupon’s expiry ends the discount.
• The checkout link always lands on checkout. You can’t send people to the cart first, or leave them on the blog post they were reading.
• There’s no screen for building links. You type each one, and a wrong ID shows the shopper an error instead of a full cart.

Tracking is partly covered. Give each link its own utm_campaign and order attribution saves it with the order, where you’ll see it on the order screen. Attribution reports across orders come from WooCommerce’s separate WooCommerce Analytics plugin.

Here are the two built-in links next to a CartPresets preset link:

Preset links: a checkout link at your price

When the offer has rules, let a plugin build the link. CartPresets makes preset links that hold your price: you set up the items and their prices once in the admin, and the link reads like a name, such as yourstore.com/preset/starter-kit. Each gap above has a setting:

• Each item gets a percentage off, an amount off or a price you type, and the cart keeps that price through to payment, in the classic and block cart.
• The customer’s own items stay by default. A link can clear the cart instead, for the whole store or one preset (the cart behaviour docs explain each switch).
• Shoppers land on the cart, on checkout, back on the page they came from, or at any address you give.
• A preset can open and close at set times, stop after a number of orders in total or per customer, and admit only signed-in customers or chosen roles. A closed link sends people where you choose, with a message saying why.
• Lines that aren’t in your catalogue, such as a setup fee or gift wrap, can join the cart with their own name and price.
• A Presets report in WooCommerce Analytics shows net sales and orders for each preset.

Following a link costs the server very little: CartPresets resolves one in under 0.1 ms, whether the store has a hundred presets or nearly sixty thousand.

Dates, limits, roles, automatic coupons, items that aren’t products and the Analytics report are part of CartPresets Pro, and the docs list what each version does. Our cart link tutorial walks through your first preset link, step by step.

WooCommerce cart URL plugins compared

Every plugin below puts several products in one link. They differ in what else the link carries. Each row comes from the vendor’s own page, checked on 6 October 2026. “Not listed” means the page doesn’t mention it, so ask the vendor before you rule it out.

Sometimes another plugin is the better fit:

• If customers should save their own carts and send them to someone, Share Cart URL does that. A CartPresets preset is always built by the store.
• For one-off quotes sent over WhatsApp or live chat, CartLink Generator adds a QR code and an expiry to each link, shows whether the customer ordered, and is free on WordPress.org.
• Business Bloomer’s plugin builds links from SKUs, and on WordPress 6.9 or later an AI agent connected to your site can make them for you.
• Plugify’s links can fill the cart from an entire product category.

Which checkout link should you use?

Use WooCommerce’s own checkout link when the offer is a few products and perhaps a coupon, and the shopper is ready to pay. It comes with WooCommerce, so there’s nothing to install. Keep the add-to-cart URL for a single product, or for a store that hasn’t moved to WooCommerce 10 yet.

Reach for a plugin when the offer has a price you’ve promised, a closing date or a limit, or when you want a sales report for each offer. If that’s your next campaign, see how CartPresets builds the link.