The best Shopify age verification apps in 2026 are AVP, Blockify, NA Age Verification, Hulk, Smart Age Verification Popup, Yoti, and Lifter Age Check. If you sell alcohol, tobacco, vape products, CBD, or anything age-restricted on Shopify, you need one of them installed. Regulators are actively enforcing age-gating requirements, and a simple "Are you 21? Yes/No" checkbox no longer cuts it in most jurisdictions.
The FDA requires retailers to verify the age of anyone who appears under 30 before selling tobacco or vape products. Alcohol sellers face state-by-state rules that vary from 18 to 21. And if you're found selling age-restricted products without proper verification, the fines hit harder than the lost revenue.
This guide covers seven Shopify age verification apps, from free popup solutions to AI-powered ID verification. Each one was verified on the Shopify App Store with current ratings, real merchant reviews, and actual pricing.
How to Choose a Shopify Age Verification App
Before picking an app, figure out what level of verification your product category actually requires:
- Popup-based (Yes/No or DOB entry) — The simplest approach. A visitor confirms their age or enters a birth date before accessing your store. Works for most alcohol and adult content stores where self-declaration is legally sufficient.
- Checkout-level verification — Age check happens at checkout rather than on entry. Less intrusive for browsing, but catches underage buyers before they complete a purchase.
- Document-based ID verification — Scans government-issued IDs or uses facial age estimation. Required for vape and tobacco in many US states, and increasingly expected for cannabis/CBD.
Most stores selling beer or wine can get by with a popup. If you sell vape or tobacco products, you likely need document-level verification to stay compliant with FDA guidelines.
AVP — Age Verification Popup
AVP has a 5.0-star rating from over 250 reviews, which makes it the highest-rated age verification app on the Shopify App Store right now. It's free to install with paid plans starting at $3.99/month.
The app lets you add a birth date entry popup that blocks access until a visitor confirms their age. You can restrict access site-wide, on specific pages, or on individual products. The popup is fully customizable to match your store's branding, so it doesn't look like a generic compliance wall.
Best for: Stores that want a polished, highly-rated popup solution with page-level targeting. The free tier covers basic needs, and the paid plan adds customization.
Blockify Age Verification 18+
Blockify sits at 4.9 stars from 277 reviews. It's free to install with premium tiers available for advanced features. The app supports both simple Yes/No confirmation and date-of-birth entry, plus a Terms and Conditions checkbox option.
What merchants consistently praise in reviews is the setup speed — most report being live within minutes. The app also lets you target specific pages, which is useful if only part of your catalog is age-restricted. You don't want customers seeing an age gate when they're buying candles just because you also sell wine.
Best for: Stores with mixed catalogs that need page-specific age gates without slowing down the rest of the site.
NA Age Verification
NA Age Verification has a 4.9-star rating from 171 reviews and offers a free plan. What sets it apart is checkout-level age verification — instead of gating your entire store with a popup, the age check happens during checkout. This means customers can browse freely, but they must verify their age before completing a purchase.
The app also integrates with tools like Klaviyo, so you can segment customers based on age verification status. Merchants highlight the auto-install feature, meaning zero code changes to get started.
Best for: Stores that don't want to gate their homepage but need to verify age at the point of purchase. The Klaviyo integration is a bonus if you're already using it for email marketing.
Hulk Age Verification
Hulk Age Verification has been around for years, which matters for reliability. It carries a 4.6-star rating with a free plan available and paid plans starting at $20/month. The standout feature is geo-location-based validation — you can show different age requirements to visitors based on their country or region.
This is particularly useful if you sell internationally. The legal drinking age is 18 in the UK and most of Europe, but 21 in the US. With geo-location targeting, you can set the correct threshold for each market automatically instead of defaulting to the strictest requirement globally.
Best for: International stores that need different age thresholds by country. The geo-location feature solves a real problem that most competitors ignore.
Smart Age Verification Popup
Smart Age Verification Popup is a newer app with a 4.9-star rating from 28 reviews. Plans start at $2.99/month with a 3-day free trial. It supports both text-based age confirmation and birthday entry popups, with country-specific age gates.
The app is specifically optimized for Core Web Vitals, which is worth noting. Some age verification popups load heavy scripts that tank your mobile page speed scores. If you've spent time optimizing your store's performance, the last thing you want is an age gate popup undoing that work. Smart Age Verification claims to avoid this by keeping its scripts lightweight.
Best for: Stores where page speed is a priority and you need country-specific age rules. Good option for performance-conscious merchants, though the smaller review count means less real-world validation.
Yoti Age Verification
Yoti is a different category of app entirely. Instead of self-declaration popups, Yoti uses AI-powered facial age estimation and document ID verification. Visitors can verify their age by scanning a government ID or by using Yoti's facial estimation technology, which analyzes a selfie to determine approximate age without storing any personal data.
This is the level of verification that vape, tobacco, and cannabis merchants increasingly need. The FDA and state regulators are moving toward requiring third-party identity verification systems, not just self-declared birth dates. Yoti offers 10 different verification methods, so you can match the level of scrutiny to your compliance requirements.
Best for: Vape, tobacco, and cannabis stores that need document-level or biometric verification to meet federal and state compliance requirements. Overkill for a craft beer shop; essential for a vape retailer.
Lifter Age Check
Lifter Age Check takes a design-first approach. The app adds a full-screen age verification page that visitors see before accessing your store, and it's built to look like a natural part of your brand rather than a compliance afterthought.
If first impressions matter to your brand — and they should — this is worth considering. Most age gates look like they were designed by a lawyer. Lifter's verification screen can be styled with your brand colors, logo, and imagery so visitors don't feel like they've hit a roadblock.
Best for: Premium brands selling age-restricted products (craft spirits, luxury wine, high-end CBD) where the age gate is part of the brand experience, not a barrier to it.
Which Age Verification App Is Best for Your Store?
The right choice depends on two things: what you sell and where you sell it. Here's a quick-reference guide:
- Alcohol or adult content (domestic) — AVP or Blockify. Both have high review counts and free tiers.
- Mixed catalog (some age-restricted, some not) — Blockify or NA Age Verification. Page-specific gating keeps the rest of your store friction-free.
- International sales with varying age laws — Hulk Age Verification. Geo-location targeting sets the right threshold per country automatically.
- Vape, tobacco, or cannabis (US) — Yoti. The only app here with document-level ID verification that satisfies FDA requirements.
- Premium brands where design matters — Lifter Age Check. Full-screen branded verification that looks intentional, not bolted on.
If your store also deals with spam signups or bot traffic alongside age-restricted products, a bot protection setup is worth pairing with your age gate. And for a broader look at keeping your store locked down, check the Shopify store security checklist.
Start with the verification level your product legally requires. Then pick the app that handles it without wrecking your store's performance or your customer's first impression.