PayPal Legacy Button Finder (WPS Buy Now / Add to Cart)

PayPal is deprecating Website Payments Standard (WPS), the classic HTML "Buy Now" and "Add to Cart" buttons pasted into millions of websites. PayPal's developer page (updated 4 June 2026) says WPS is deprecated from January 2026, affects Buy Now and Add to Cart, leaves Donate and Subscribe buttons unaffected, and that "PayPal may retire WPS anytime after January 1, 2027". WooCommerce, Gravity Forms, MemberPress and other platforms already treat January 2027 as the end.

The hard part is finding every old button: they hide on product, ticket, event, course, membership and download pages. This Actor crawls your websites and lists each legacy PayPal button with its page, item, price and what to do.

What it finds

Button (WPS cmd)	Status	Why
Buy Now (_xclick)	at-risk	Deprecated; must be replaced
Add to Cart / View Cart / cart upload (_cart)	at-risk	Deprecated; must be replaced
Hosted button (_s-xclick)	at-risk / likely-safe / check	The real type is stored in your PayPal account; the button image is used as a hint (Buy Now, Pay Now, Cart → at-risk; Donate, Subscribe → likely-safe; anything else → check)
Donate (_donations)	safe	PayPal: not affected
Subscribe (_xclick-subscriptions)	safe	PayPal: not affected

It reads both forms posting to paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr and link buttons (webscr?cmd=...), notes sandbox buttons, and reports whether the site already uses current PayPal integrations (JS SDK, Payment Links, PayPal.Me).

Input

{ "startUrls": ["https://my-club.org", "https://my-ebook-shop.com"], "maxPagesPerSite": 100, "maxDepth": 3 }

Agencies: put your client sites in a CSV or Google Sheet and pass its link as siteListUrl.

Each site is crawled on its own host, robots.txt is respected, pages listed in the site's sitemap are queued too, and shop/ticket/donate/course/pricing pages are crawled first.

Output

One item per distinct button (the same button repeated in a footer or sidebar is one item with all its pages):

{
  "type": "button",
  "site": "https://www.irfanview.com",
  "pages": ["https://www.irfanview.com/main_support_engl.htm"],
  "pageCount": 1,
  "kind": "form",
  "cmd": "_s-xclick",
  "type": "Hosted button (looks like Buy Now)",
  "status": "at-risk",
  "itemName": null,
  "amount": null,
  "currency": "EUR",
  "hostedButtonId": "XXXXXXXXXXXXX",
  "fix": "Hosted button: open PayPal > Pay & Get Paid > PayPal Buttons > Saved buttons to see its type..."
}

plus one site-summary item per site: buttons to replace, to check, safe, the pages with at-risk buttons, current PayPal integrations found, and a one-line verdict. The PayPal account email inside old buttons is never copied to the output.

Who it's for

• Site owners: find every old button before PayPal switches them off.
• Web designers and agencies: audit all client sites in one run and quote the replacement work.
• Platforms and hosts: see how many of your customers' sites still use WPS buttons.

Pricing

Pay per page crawled. Pages that fail to load are free, and the run stops at your spending limit.

Good to know

• PayPal's date is "any time after 1 January 2027", not a fixed switch-off day; PayPal says it will tell affected merchants directly at key milestones.
• Replacement: PayPal's current Payment Links and Buttons (Button Builder) or PayPal Checkout; on WooCommerce, Gravity Forms, MemberPress etc. install the platform's current PayPal add-on.
• Buttons added by JavaScript after page load (rare for WPS) are not seen.

FAQ

Is PayPal discontinuing the Buy Now button? PayPal is deprecating Website Payments Standard (WPS), which includes the classic HTML Buy Now and Add to Cart buttons. Its developer page (updated 4 June 2026) says WPS is deprecated from January 2026 and that PayPal may retire it any time after 1 January 2027. Donate and Subscribe buttons remain unaffected.

How do I know if my site uses PayPal Website Payments Standard? WPS buttons are HTML forms that post to paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr (or links to that address). This Actor crawls your site and lists every one with its page, item and price.

What is a hosted PayPal button (_s-xclick)? A button saved in your PayPal account; the page only holds its ID. Its real type (Buy Now, Add to Cart, Donate, Subscribe) is stored at PayPal, so the Actor guesses it from the button image and tells you which to check under PayPal > Pay & Get Paid > PayPal Buttons > Saved buttons.

What should I replace old PayPal buttons with? PayPal's current Payment Links and Buttons (Button Builder) or PayPal Checkout. On WooCommerce, Gravity Forms, MemberPress and similar platforms, install the platform's current PayPal add-on instead of pasting new code.

Do Donate buttons need changing? No: PayPal says Donations and Subscribe buttons remain unaffected. They are listed as safe (or likely-safe for hosted buttons whose image says Donate/Subscribe).

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• Azure Classic CDN & Front Door Retirement Checker: hostnames and page assets still on Front Door (classic) or azureedge.net.
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• Website 2027 Breakage Audit: every 2026-2027 deadline (certificates, Shopify, PayPal, Azure, Drupal, PHP) in one report per site.

PayPal is a trademark of PayPal, Inc. This Actor is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by PayPal.