On July 20, 2026, Optimizely released version 5.2.2607.394+sts, its latest short-term support release for Configured Commerce. This release adds ACH payments through Spreedly, Buy Now, Pay Later support for One Page Checkout, bulk password resets, customer contact information in Order History, and several storefront performance and diagnostic improvements. It also introduces breaking changes for teams with custom data-provider or user-profile repository implementations.
Here is my read on what matters, and where you should pay attention before you plan your next deployment.
New Payment Options
The two payment additions in this release are frequent customization requests and are now covered out of the box.
First, ACH (eCheck) support through Spreedly in the Payment Service. Shoppers can now pay with routing and bank account numbers at checkout. For B2B accounts that settle large invoices, eCheck is often the preferred method because it sidesteps card processing fees. If you already use Spreedly through the Optimizely Payment Service, this will be available as a gateway option. If you are still on the classic payment gateways, migrating to Optimizely's payment services provides a more robust set of features and easier implementation of future payment gateways.
Second, Buy Now, Pay Later on One Page Checkout. Installment payment options are now available in the modern checkout flow. If your organization has been asking about BNPL, this removes the need for a custom integration on that checkout path.
One thing I would flag from the bug fixes: there was an issue where BNPL payments sent the cart ID instead of the order number to Stripe and Spreedly. That is fixed now, but it is a good reminder to verify the identifier being passed downstream during your payment testing, especially if you carry any custom checkout code. The saved payments fixes are worth noting too. Empty billing address fields could previously be submitted with Spreedly enabled, and adding new cards on gateways like Orbital and Payflow Pro could throw a 500 error. If you support any of those gateways, this release includes important fixes.
What Changed for Configured Commerce Administrators?
A lot of what makes a Configured Commerce site pleasant to operate is invisible to end users and shows up in how much time the client's admin team spends clicking around. Two changes here address exactly that.
Customer contact details, including first name, last name, and phone number, now show directly on the Order History screen in the Admin Console. Anyone who has watched a CSR drill into individual order records just to grab a phone number knows why this matters.
The bulk password reset is the other one. There is now a "Reset Password" bulk action on the Website Users list, so admins can email password resets to multiple users at once. This can significantly reduce administrative work when migrating an existing customer base to a new website or requiring a large group of users to reset their credentials.
What Performance Improvements Are Included?
Less glamorous, but sometimes more important. Here's a summary of the behind-the-scenes performance fixes.
Request timeout middleware was added to the .NET 10 build to automatically cancel long-running requests when an external service stops responding. When requests to an unresponsive external service pile up, they can lead to performance issues and site crashes. These guardrails help prevent that.
HttpClient lifespan management in ElasticLINQ was improved to reduce port exhaustion under high load. Port exhaustion is one of those problems that never shows up in a demo and always shows up during a traffic spike, so this is a welcome fix if you run heavy search traffic.
Server-side rendering on Spire now aborts if the requesting client disconnects. On a busy site, rendering work for a visitor who has already left is wasted capacity, and under load that waste compounds.
On the diagnostics side, the release adds the authenticated user to Storefront application log entries and introduces an "Application Insights Enable Sql Command Text" setting for query-level diagnostics. When you are chasing an intermittent API error in production, knowing which user triggered it can save hours. Be deliberate about enabling SQL command text in Application Insights, since it has cost and data sensitivity implications.
The front-end build system for Spire and the Admin Console moved from npm to pnpm, so expect faster, more consistent installs in your CI pipeline.
How I Would Approach This Upgrade
If you run Spreedly, Orbital, or Payflow Pro, treat this release as a priority. For everyone else, the performance enhancements and BNPL feature make a strong case for upgrading. As always with STS, you should weigh the shorter support window against your maintenance appetite and plan a regression pass over your custom checkout and integration code.
The Admin Console also received updated colors, logos, button styling, and other visual changes as part of Optimizely's rebranding. Prepare customer service representatives and administrators for the updated interface before deployment, particularly if they do not regularly work in Sandbox environments.
See the full patch notes here: July 2026 release notes.