Hello 2026: New Checkout Engine, Web Components, and the Future of Baluu

Executive Summary (TL;DR)

If you are in a rush, here is what is changing:

New Checkout Engine: We have deployed a new checkout system to all accounts. It is fully backward compatible, so no action is required on your part.
Better Mobile Experience: We added a "Review Order" step to make Gift Card and Discount inputs easier to find on mobile devices.
Inline Receipts: Customers can now see their booking confirmation without leaving your website URL (unless 3D Secure banking requires a redirect).
Web Components: We are launching a new, superior way to integrate Baluu into your website that solves the limitations of iFrames (better ad tracking, better mobile responsiveness).

Happy New Year!

First and foremost, I want to wish you, your families, and your businesses a fantastic 2026 filled with peace, health, and prosperity.

I am pleased to announce that this week we deployed our new checkout engine across all accounts. We have worked hard to ensure full backward compatibility—meaning your existing links and widgets will continue working exactly as they did before. However, as with any major code update across a platform with so many custom settings, if you notice anything unusual, please let us know immediately.

Here is a deep dive into what has changed and why.

Improvements to the Customer Checkout Flow

We have made two significant changes to the user experience to help conversion and future-proof the platform.

The "Review Order" Step

We changed the final step of the checkout to feature a summary of the order.

The Problem: Previously, input fields for Gift Cards and Discount Codes were often pushed to the bottom of the screen on mobile devices, forcing customers to scroll down significantly to find them.
The Solution: The new summary step makes these inputs clearly visible before payment.

Preparing for "User Credits"

This new layout is also designed to support our upcoming "Credits" system. In the near future, instead of refunding cancellations with cash, you will be able to easily refund customers with credits. The new checkout will allow logged-in users to seamlessly apply those credits to their next booking with your business.

Inline Receipts (Keeping customers on your site)

Previously, when a booking was confirmed, we often had to redirect the user away from your website to a Baluu or Stripe status page. This broke the immersion of your brand.

With the new checkout, we have introduced Inline Receipts.

How it works: When a user books via our new Web Components (see below), they stay on your URL and see the "Booking Confirmed" message directly on your page.
Important Note: While our goal is to keep the user on your site 100% of the time, please be aware that if a customer's bank requires 3D Secure verification, we must temporarily redirect the user to their bank to validate the card. This is a security requirement we cannot bypass.

The Big Launch: Web Components have arrived

A bit of history & The Technical Challenge

When we built the original "Widget" that became Baluu in 2020, it was a quick way to offer extra features to help businesses fight the loss of revenue during COVID. It was a simple idea, and we never imagined it would grow into our main product.

That original technology relied heavily on iFrames and shared the same underlying code as our standalone Website Builder. Over time, this became a bottleneck.

Why we changed it:

Development Speed: Sharing code between the Website Builder and the Widgets made it hard to develop new features. We had to constantly accommodate two very different environments: serving a full standalone website versus embedding a specific part of a page.
The "Isolation" Issue: While iFrames work, they are isolated from your website. This makes true mobile responsiveness difficult and makes modern ad tracking (Google Ads/Facebook Pixel) very complex to set up.

Enter Web Components

Since taking charge of Baluu last year, my essential requirement has been to solve this. Most of you have your own strong brands and websites; you need a booking system that feels like a native part of your site, not an external plugin.

We have rebuilt our integration tech from scratch using Web Components.

Native Integration: These components act like native HTML elements inside your website.
Better Design: They respect your site's CSS and mobile responsiveness naturally.
Better Tracking: Ad tracking works seamlessly because the checkout is actually happening on your page, not inside a separate window.

It took me almost a year to understand the best way to build this foundation, but I am confident this is the future of Baluu.

What is available now?

We have released the Book Now and Timetable components. These cover the majority of use cases.

Next Steps

Your old embed codes and sharing links still work perfectly and will continue to exist. You do not need to change anything today. However, if you want to upgrade to the new Web Components for a better integrated experience, we will be helping clients make the switch over the coming weeks.

Here is to a year of growth and better technology!

Best,

Vitor