Loman Age Verification

A merchant selling alcohol, vapes, CBD or adult product does not choose whether to have an age gate. That makes it an unusual category: the buyer is under an obligation rather than acting on a preference, and the apps serving them are mostly free.

They are also, without exception, a popup. Every age gate in the category is a modal over the storefront that a determined shopper dismisses in two clicks and that does nothing whatsoever at checkout. For a compliance control, that is decoration — the merchant is buying the appearance of an age gate.

What it does differently

It blocks the order, not just the page. The gate is backed by a checkout validation function running on Shopify’s own servers, where a shopper cannot reach it. Dismiss the overlay, disable JavaScript, link straight to the cart — checkout still stops.
It asks the right number for the right place. Alcohol is 21 in the United States and 18 across most of Europe; cannabis and vape rules vary by state. A single global “21+” is simply wrong for a store that ships across a border, so the threshold is set per country and per state.
It checks against where the goods are going. The storefront can only see the market a visitor picked, which they can change. Checkout re-checks against the delivery address, which they cannot.
It leaves evidence on the order. Every completed order carries a readable record that the gate ran, held by the merchant, who is the one who may need to show it.
The free tier is a working gate. An age gate a merchant cannot switch on until they have paid is a compliance gap with our name on it. The paid tier removes a small “Powered by” line and changes nothing else.

What it does not claim

It proves that our check ran and was completed, using a value only this app could have issued. It does not prove that the answer was true, and it does not identify anybody — nothing here is identity verification, and no shopper record is kept.

That is the honest ceiling of a self-declared age gate, and stating it plainly matters more here than in most categories, because the difference between enforcing and compliant is a lawyer’s, not a marketer’s.

Why we built it

It is the third app on the shared codebase behind Coming Soon and Loman Maintenance Mode, and the first one chosen for the buyer rather than for the build.

The other two compete on design in thin categories. This one lands against free incumbents with hundreds of reviews, where being better-looking wins nothing. The only thing that distinguishes it is that the gate is real — so unlike its siblings, it does not launch until enforcement works. There is no version of this app worth shipping that is a fourth dismissible popup.