# Shopify Fraud Filter Is Retired: What to Use in 2026 > Shopify shut down its free Fraud Filter app and pointed users to Flow. Here is what Flow can and cannot do, and the best replacement for your store in 2026. > > Source: https://rankshield.co/resources/shopify-fraud-filter-replacement/ · RankShield (the verifiable, quantum-safe AI security platform) Resources / Ecommerce Fraud # Shopify Retired Its Free Fraud Filter. Here’s What to Use Instead in 2026 Shopify shut down its free Fraud Filter app and told merchants to rebuild rules in Flow. Here is what Flow can and cannot do, and the honest replacement path. August 26, 2026 · 12 min read · shopify fraud filter replacement Jamie Kloncz Founder & CEO, RankShield Share Shopify retired its free Fraud Filter app on January 31, 2025, and pointed merchants to rebuild their rules in Shopify Flow, which is the source of a lot of confusion because Flow is a general automation tool, not a fraud prevention system. If you relied on Fraud Filter to block risky orders with custom allow-and-block rules, you likely found that the migration to Flow was rough: not all rules transfer automatically, ones unused in the past year or using unsupported fields have to be recreated by hand, and merchants have reported only a small fraction of their rules surviving the move, with some losing their rule data entirely ([Shopify Community](https://community.shopify.com/t/flow-lost-all-of-my-fraud-filter-data-who-is-going-to-sort-it-out-now/384595) 2 ). I build fraud tooling at RankShield, and the honest answer to "what do I use now that Fraud Filter is gone" is not "just move everything to Flow," because Flow was never built to be a fraud filter. What this guide does is explain what actually happened, what Flow can and cannot do for fraud, what Shopify still gives you for free, and the honest replacement path so you are not trying to hand-maintain a thousand brittle rules. One honest note first: this is not about abandoning Shopify’s free tools, which are genuinely useful and worth using; it is about not mistaking a workflow-automation tool for real fraud prevention. Key takeaways - Shopify sunset its free Fraud Filter app on January 31, 2025, and directed merchants to rebuild their rules in Shopify Flow. - Flow is general workflow automation, not a fraud tool: it can tag, cancel, and notify based on conditions you write, but it does not screen orders against fraud signals. - The migration was lossy: rules unused in the last year or with unsupported fields must be recreated by hand, and many merchants report only a small fraction of their rules survived. - Shopify still gives you free built-in Fraud Control (risk analysis and basic auto-actions), which you should use; it is just not a complete fraud strategy on its own. - The clean replacement is not rebuilding brittle rules in Flow; it is a dedicated app that brings fraud intelligence, layered on Shopify’s free tools. ## What happened to Shopify’s Fraud Filter? Shopify retired its free Fraud Filter app on January 31, 2025. Fraud Filter was a simple, rules-based tool that let merchants create custom allow-and-block rules, flagging or cancelling orders that matched conditions like a particular email, address, or other attribute. It was free, it was widely used, and for many stores it was the main way they codified "orders like this are trouble." When Shopify sunset it, that capability did not move into a new dedicated tool; it was redirected into Shopify Flow. The migration path Shopify offered was to recreate Fraud Filter rules as Flow workflows, and that is where the trouble started for a lot of merchants. The transfer was not clean: rules that had not been used in the past twelve months, or that relied on fields Flow does not support, could not be migrated automatically and had to be rebuilt by hand, and merchants have reported that only a small share of their accumulated rules actually came across, with some finding their rule data effectively lost ([Shopify Community](https://community.shopify.com/t/flow-lost-all-of-my-fraud-filter-data-who-is-going-to-sort-it-out-now/384595) 2 ). So if you are searching for a Fraud Filter replacement, you are not confused; the tool you relied on is genuinely gone, and the official successor is not a like-for-like fraud tool. That leaves a real question that this guide answers: given that Fraud Filter is retired and Flow is not a fraud filter, what should actually protect your store from fraudulent orders in 2026? ## Can you just rebuild your rules in Shopify Flow? You can rebuild some rules in Flow, but you should understand what you are getting, because Flow is a workflow-automation tool, not a fraud prevention system. Flow lets you define conditions and actions: when an order meets a condition you specify, it can tag the order, cancel it, hold it, or send a notification. That is genuinely useful for simple, explicit rules you already know you want, like flagging orders over a certain value or to a certain destination, and if you had a handful of straightforward Fraud Filter rules, recreating them in Flow is reasonable. What Flow does not do is bring any fraud intelligence of its own. It acts only on the conditions you write and the data Shopify already has on the order; it does not screen against device or network signals, it does not detect card-testing patterns or velocity across orders, and it does not score risk beyond what Shopify’s built-in analysis already provides. In other words, Flow executes your rules, but it does not know anything about fraud that you do not tell it, which is a fundamentally different thing from a fraud filter that continuously evaluates orders against fraud signals. That gap matters most for the merchants who used Fraud Filter most heavily. If you had accumulated hundreds or thousands of rules over years, rebuilding them in Flow is not just tedious, it is fragile: a long list of hand-written conditions is hard to maintain, easy to break, and always one step behind new fraud patterns. Flow is a fine place for a few deliberate rules; it is a poor place to run your entire fraud strategy, and treating it as a Fraud Filter replacement sets you up to maintain a brittle rule list forever. DOWNLOADABLE INFOGRAPHIC ### Fraud Filter is gone: the three paths now Flow runs rules you write; Shopify Fraud Control is free risk analysis; a dedicated app brings the intelligence. Free to share with attribution. ## Why isn’t Shopify Flow a real fraud filter? Because a fraud filter evaluates orders against fraud signals it maintains, while Flow only executes conditions you write against data Shopify already has. That is the core difference. A real fraud tool continuously scores orders using things you do not have to define yourself, device and browser fingerprints, network reputation, velocity across orders and cards, card-testing patterns, and known-fraud signals, and it updates as fraud tactics change. Flow has none of that; it is a blank automation canvas that does exactly what your rules say and nothing more. This means the intelligence has to come from you, and it cannot keep up. You can write a Flow rule to cancel orders from a specific address or over a certain amount, but you cannot write a rule that recognizes a card-testing attack in progress, or that a dozen "different" orders share one device, or that an order matches a fraud pattern you have never personally seen. Those require signals Flow does not collect and scoring Flow does not do. A rule-only approach is always reactive: you can only block the fraud you have already learned to describe. None of this is a knock on Flow, which is excellent at what it is designed for, automating store operations. It is a caution against using it as your fraud defense. Treating Flow as a Fraud Filter replacement gives you a false sense of coverage: the rules run, so it feels protected, but the protection is only as good as your hand-written list, and fraud does not limit itself to patterns you have already codified. That is exactly the trap a store falls into when it tries to rebuild years of Fraud Filter rules in Flow and calls it done. WHAT EACH DOES ### Fraud Filter, Flow, Fraud Control, and a dedicated app | Tool | Status | What it does for fraud | | --- | --- | --- | | Fraud Filter | Retired Jan 31, 2025 | Was custom allow/block rules; now gone | | Shopify Flow | Available (automation) | Runs rules you write; no fraud signals | | Shopify Fraud Control | Built-in, free | Risk analysis + basic auto-cancel; a baseline | | Dedicated fraud app | Paid | Screens all orders with fraud intelligence | Keep Shopify’s free tools on. For real prevention, the successor to Fraud Filter is an app that brings the signals, not a rule list. ## So what should you use instead of Fraud Filter in 2026? Use Shopify’s free built-in protection as your baseline, keep Flow for a few deliberate rules if you want them, and add a dedicated app for the actual fraud intelligence Fraud Filter’s successor should provide. Start with what Shopify gives you for free: its [built-in Fraud Control](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/payments/fraud-prevention/fraud-control-app) 1 analyzes orders for risk and can automatically cancel high-risk ones, which is a genuinely useful baseline every store should have enabled. That covers the obvious cases at no cost, and it is the first thing to turn on. Then be honest about the gap. Shopify’s built-in analysis plus a handful of Flow rules is a baseline, not a strategy, because neither brings the deeper signals, device and network intelligence, velocity, card-testing detection, that a real fraud filter provided and that fraud rings rely on you not having. With reported online-crime losses reaching $20.877 billion in 2025 ([FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center](https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/2025_ic3report.pdf) 3 ), the fraud that slips past a rule list is not a rounding error. As we covered in [whether Shopify Protect is enough](https://rankshield.co/resources/is-shopify-protect-enough/), the built-in tools each cover a slice, and the residual exposure is exactly what a dedicated tool is for. That is the real Fraud Filter successor: an app that screens every order against fraud intelligence you do not have to hand-write, catching card testing, bot orders, and high-risk patterns before you ship, instead of a growing list of brittle rules you maintain forever. Because Shopify’s baseline is free and Flow handles simple automation, the app you add is doing the intelligence layer, which a flat-price tool provides without a percentage of your revenue. That is what [RankShield’s fraud protection for Shopify](https://rankshield.co/shopify-fraud-protection-app/) is built to do at 39 or 99 dollars a month: proactive screening for card testing, bots, and fraudulent orders, layered on Shopify’s free tools rather than replacing them. REPLACEMENT CHECK ### What should replace your Shopify Fraud Filter? - How many fraud rules did you have in Fraud Filter? - Have you turned on Shopify’s built-in Fraud Control? - Are you trying to rebuild your old rules in Flow? - Do card testing, bots, or fraudulent orders hit your store? - Do you want to maintain a fraud rule list yourself indefinitely? ## What is the right Fraud Filter replacement for your store? Not Flow alone, and not a rebuilt rule list. Shopify retired its free Fraud Filter app on January 31, 2025, and pointed merchants to Shopify Flow, but Flow is workflow automation, not a fraud tool: it runs the rules you write and brings no fraud intelligence of its own, and the migration was lossy enough that many merchants recovered only a fraction of their rules. Rebuilding years of conditions in Flow gives you a brittle, reactive list that only blocks the fraud you have already learned to describe, which is exactly what fraud rings count on. Shopify’s built-in Fraud Control is a genuinely useful free baseline and you should keep it on, but a baseline plus hand-written rules is not a fraud strategy. The honest replacement is to layer: keep Shopify’s free Fraud Control enabled, use Flow only for a few deliberate rules if you want them, and add a dedicated app for the fraud intelligence that Fraud Filter’s real successor should provide, device and network signals, velocity, and card-testing detection that screen every order before you ship it. Because Shopify’s baseline is free, the app you add is doing the intelligence layer rather than duplicating Shopify, so it can be a flat, modest cost instead of a percentage of your revenue. To replace Fraud Filter with real prevention rather than a rule list you maintain forever, see [how RankShield screens your orders on top of Shopify’s free tools](https://rankshield.co/shopify-fraud-protection-app/). FREQUENTLY ASKED ## Questions, answered. Jamie Kloncz CEO, RankShield · online When did Shopify retire the Fraud Filter app? Shopify sunset its free Fraud Filter app on January 31, 2025. Fraud Filter was a simple, rules-based tool that let merchants create custom allow-and-block rules to flag or cancel orders matching conditions such as a specific email, address, or other attribute. It was free and widely used, and for many stores it was the primary way they codified which orders to treat as risky. When Shopify retired it, the capability was not moved into a new dedicated fraud tool; instead, Shopify directed merchants to recreate their rules in Shopify Flow, its general workflow-automation product. That migration was not seamless: rules that had not been used in the previous twelve months, or that relied on fields Flow does not support, could not be migrated automatically and had to be rebuilt manually, and many merchants reported that only a small fraction of their accumulated rules survived the move, with some finding their rule data effectively lost. So if you are looking for a Fraud Filter replacement in 2026, the tool you relied on is genuinely gone, and the official path points at an automation tool rather than a like-for-like fraud filter. Is Shopify Flow a good replacement for Fraud Filter? Not as a fraud strategy, though it can handle a few simple rules. Flow is a workflow-automation tool: you define conditions, and when an order meets them, Flow can tag it, cancel it, hold it, or send a notification. For a handful of explicit rules you already know you want, like flagging orders over a certain value or to a particular destination, recreating them in Flow is reasonable. What Flow does not do is bring any fraud intelligence of its own. It acts only on the conditions you write and the data Shopify already has on the order; it does not screen against device or network signals, detect card-testing patterns or velocity across orders, or score risk beyond Shopify’s built-in analysis. So the intelligence has to come from you, and a hand-written rule list is always reactive, you can only block the fraud you have already learned to describe, and it is fragile and hard to maintain at scale. Flow is excellent at automating store operations; it is a poor choice as your fraud defense. Treating it as a Fraud Filter replacement gives a false sense of coverage, because the rules run so it feels protected, while real fraud arrives in patterns your rules do not cover. What does Shopify give me for free now that Fraud Filter is gone? Shopify still provides built-in Fraud Control, which is genuinely useful and worth enabling. It automatically analyzes orders for risk and can be set to cancel high-risk orders, giving you a free baseline of protection against the more obvious fraudulent orders without any add-on. Every store should have this turned on, because it covers common cases at no cost and requires little setup. What it is not is a complete fraud strategy. The built-in risk analysis is a baseline, not the deeper, continuously updated fraud intelligence that a dedicated tool provides: it does not bring the device and network signals, velocity analysis, or card-testing detection that fraud rings rely on you not having. So the right way to think about Shopify’s free tools after Fraud Filter is as a foundation to build on rather than a finished solution. Turn on Fraud Control, use Shopify Flow for a few deliberate automation rules if you want them, and recognize that the gap between that baseline and real prevention is exactly what a dedicated app is meant to fill. Why can’t I just recreate my old fraud rules in Flow? You can recreate some of them, but for anything beyond a few simple rules it is the wrong approach, for two reasons. First, the migration itself is lossy: rules unused in the last twelve months or relying on unsupported fields do not transfer automatically, and merchants have reported recovering only a small fraction of large rule sets, sometimes losing the data entirely. Rebuilding hundreds or thousands of rules by hand is a significant, error-prone project. Second, and more important, even a perfectly rebuilt rule set in Flow is a fundamentally reactive and brittle defense. Flow runs the conditions you write against the data Shopify already has; it brings no fraud signals of its own, so it cannot recognize a card-testing attack in progress, spot that a dozen "different" orders share one device, or catch a fraud pattern you have never personally encountered. A long list of hand-written conditions is hard to maintain, easy to break, and always one step behind new fraud tactics. So recreating your Fraud Filter rules in Flow tends to give you a fragile system that feels protective but only blocks fraud you have already described, which is why a dedicated tool that brings the intelligence is the better replacement. What is the best replacement for Shopify Fraud Filter? The best replacement is a layered setup rather than any single tool: Shopify’s free built-in Fraud Control as your baseline, Shopify Flow for a few deliberate automation rules if you want them, and a dedicated fraud app for the intelligence layer that Fraud Filter’s real successor should provide. Start by enabling Shopify’s built-in Fraud Control, which analyzes orders for risk and can auto-cancel high-risk ones at no cost. Then add a dedicated app that screens every order against fraud signals you do not have to hand-write, device and network intelligence, velocity across orders and cards, and card-testing detection, catching fraudulent and automated orders before you ship rather than after a chargeback. That is the difference between a hand-maintained rule list and a system that actually keeps up with fraud. Because Shopify’s baseline is free and Flow handles simple automation, the app you add is doing the intelligence work rather than duplicating Shopify, so it can be a flat, modest monthly cost instead of a percentage of your revenue. The wrong move is to treat Flow alone as the replacement and spend weeks rebuilding brittle rules; the right move is to keep the free tools and add real screening on top. Does the Fraud Filter retirement mean my store is less protected now? It can, if you assumed Fraud Filter was doing more than it was and you have not replaced it thoughtfully. Fraud Filter itself was a basic rules engine, not advanced fraud prevention, so its loss is not catastrophic, but two things make the transition risky. First, if you relied on a large accumulated rule set, much of it likely did not survive the migration to Flow, so protections you thought were in place may silently be gone. Second, if you have moved everything to Flow and consider the job done, you now have a reactive rule list with no fraud intelligence behind it, which is weaker than it feels. The practical steps to make sure you are not less protected are: confirm Shopify’s built-in Fraud Control is enabled, review which of your old rules actually made it into Flow rather than assuming they all did, and add a dedicated app that brings the screening and signals a rule list cannot. Done that way, you end up better protected than you were with Fraud Filter, because you replace a basic rules engine with real order screening layered on Shopify’s free tools, rather than just losing the rules engine and hoping Flow covers it. ## References - [Shopify Help Center. Fraud Control and fraud prevention (Shopify’s built-in order risk analysis and automatic actions; Flow-based rules after the Fraud Filter app was retired).](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/payments/fraud-prevention/fraud-control-app) - [Shopify Community. Merchant reports that migrating Fraud Filter rules to Flow lost most or all rule data, and that Flow is not equivalent to Fraud Filter.](https://community.shopify.com/t/flow-lost-all-of-my-fraud-filter-data-who-is-going-to-sort-it-out-now/384595) - [FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). 2025 Internet Crime Report ($20.877B in reported losses, +26% YoY; macro fraud context).](https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/2025_ic3report.pdf) WRITTEN BY ## [Jamie Kloncz](https://rankshield.co/author/jamie-kloncz/) Founder & CEO, RankShield Jamie Kloncz is the founder and CEO of RankShield, the verifiable AI and quantum security platform. He started the company after two attacks landed in a single week: his phone was cloned, and his business was hit by a click-fraud campaign. One targeted him as a person, the other his livelihood, and no single tool defended both. That experience, together with surviving an AI voice-clone scam, shaped RankShield’s core belief: the threats of the AI age are personal first, and trust should be something you can check, not just extend. More from Jamie → ## Make every AI action provable. RankShield is the verifiable, quantum-safe AI security platform — protection you can check, not just trust. Explore the platform → Get started ## More from Resources Ecommerce Fraud Is Shopify Protect Enough? The Limits of Shopify’s Built-In Fraud Protection Shopify Protect is genuinely useful and free, but it only covers fraud chargebacks on eligible Shop Pay orders. Here is what it misses and whether your store needs more. Ecommerce Fraud How to stop card testing attacks on your Shopify store Card testing bots hammer your checkout with stolen card numbers, and every declined attempt still costs you fees and pushes you toward Visa’s penalty thresholds. Here is how to spot an attack, what it really costs, and how to shut it down. Ecommerce Fraud Shopify flagged the order: fulfill, verify, or cancel? Shopify marked an order high risk. Here is the decision rule, and the signals behind it, to fulfill, verify, or cancel without shipping fraud or rejecting good customers.