Costs · Margins · The business of ecommerce
A reader searching for a Shopify FAQ section theme usually wants to know whether the accordion is a real section or a layout trick, and across the six themes UTD publishes in the Shopify Theme Store the answer is more uniform than the search results suggest.
A reader typing “shopify faq section theme” is usually trying to settle one thing: does the theme already have an accordion, or will they be bolting on an app the week before launch. The honest answer, once you open the actual section files instead of trusting a demo screenshot, is that the FAQ accordion is a real, named section in every one of the six themes UTD publishes in the Shopify Theme Store, but it is not switched on anywhere by default. That second half rarely makes it into the marketing copy, and it is the part worth checking before you commit to a theme.
Across the six UTD themes examined, Gain, Boutique, Impression, Ultra and Victory all implement FAQ as a section stored at sections/faq-page-template.liquid. Allure is the outlier, using sections/faq-simple.liquid instead. In every one of these six cases the FAQ block is something the merchant adds through the theme editor rather than a feature baked into a template automatically. That distinction matters because a section a merchant has to add is a section that can be missed during setup, and a missing FAQ page is a common reason support tickets pile up after launch.
The file name itself is a clue to how the section is organized internally. faq-page-template.liquid, used by five of the six themes, suggests the section was built to anchor a full page rather than sit as one block among many on a homepage. faq-simple.liquid, Allure’s version, reads as a lighter-weight implementation. Neither name tells a merchant how many question-and-answer pairs the block supports, so that detail has to come from testing the section directly in the editor rather than from the file name alone.
This is the part a merchant needs going in: every one of the six themes requires the FAQ section to be added manually, the same way Announcement Bar, Recently Viewed, and in most cases Lookbook, work. None of the seven feature areas tied to FAQ in the measured settings show an “enabled by default” FAQ toggle. That is a consistent pattern across the lineup, not a gap in one theme.
Compare that to Gain’s own announcement bar, which does ship with a show_announcement_bar checkbox defaulting to on, tracked under a single setting in sections/announcement-bar.liquid. So the absence of a default-on FAQ is not because UTD themes generally ship features off. It is specific to how FAQ, Recently Viewed and Lookbook are treated versus how Announcement Bar and some Reviews configurations are treated.
A merchant evaluating Gain for its FAQ accordion should know where that section sits relative to the rest of the theme’s setting load. Gain’s countdown timer carries 48 settings on its own, tied to timer_type with a default of end_date. Its built-in popup setup carries 58 settings under is_newsletter_popup_enabled, defaulting to off. Against those numbers, the FAQ section is comparatively simple: it is a section you add, not a block of toggles you configure.
| Theme | FAQ file | Size Chart default | Quick View settings count |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gain | sections/faq-page-template.liquid | on (14 settings) | 13 |
| Boutique | sections/faq-page-template.liquid | on (14 settings) | 18 |
| Impression | sections/faq-page-template.liquid | on (10 settings) | 11 |
| Ultra | sections/faq-page-template.liquid | on (12 settings) | 21 |
| Victory | sections/faq-page-template.liquid | on (12 settings) | 25 |
| Allure | sections/faq-simple.liquid | on (12 settings) | 8 |
The Size Chart column is a useful comparison because it is the other accordion-style disclosure pattern present in every theme, and unlike FAQ it defaults to on everywhere, controlled by show_size_guide in sections/featured-product.liquid. So the “add it yourself” rule is not universal across every collapsible-looking feature in these themes, just the ones gated as standalone sections like FAQ, Recently Viewed, and Lookbook.
The settings and file paths above were read directly from each theme’s own section and schema files at the versions listed: Allure 1.2.5, Boutique 2.3.4, Gain 4.3.1, Impression 1.1.1, Ultra 2.3.4 and Victory 1.2.2. Because the FAQ section itself carries no documented setting count the way Countdown Timer or Built-in Popup do, the honest measurement is structural: which file it lives in, and whether it is pre-placed or merchant-added. On both counts, five of the six themes behave identically, and Allure differs only in file name, not in the add-it-yourself behavior.
A merchant who wants an FAQ accordion without hunting through the editor should still expect to add the section themselves regardless of which of these six themes they choose, since that step is consistent across the lineup. For a storefront that also leans on quick product views, Victory’s 25 Quick View settings and Ultra’s 21 give more configuration room in that adjacent area, but for FAQ specifically Gain sits in the middle of the pack with the same faq-page-template.liquid file and the same add-it-yourself default as Boutique, Impression, Ultra and Victory.
If the FAQ accordion is the deciding feature, pick based on what sits around it rather than the FAQ section itself, since that part is nearly identical across five of the six themes. Check the Shopify Theme Store listing for current pricing and demo links, and check UTD’s own overview page for the full current lineup before finalizing a choice.
Gain 4.3.1 ships a dedicated FAQ section at sections/faq-page-template.liquid, so no app is required to get an accordion-style question list. The section is not placed on any page by default; a merchant adds it through the theme editor the same way they would add any other section. This matches what Boutique, Impression, Ultra and Victory do, all four sharing the identical file name, while Allure uses a different file called sections/faq-simple.liquid.
No. The FAQ section in Gain is something the merchant adds in the theme editor rather than a feature that appears automatically, the same pattern used for Announcement Bar, Recently Viewed and Lookbook in Gain. By contrast, Gain's announcement bar itself has a `show_announcement_bar` checkbox that defaults to on with only 1 setting attached to it, so not every section in Gain starts hidden.
The structural difference is the file name: Gain and four other UTD themes use sections/faq-page-template.liquid, while Allure uses sections/faq-simple.liquid. Both require the merchant to add the section manually in the editor. Neither file name by itself tells a merchant how many questions or answer blocks the section supports, only that the section exists as a standalone building block in the theme.
None of the seven measured settings blocks show an FAQ section enabled by default across any of the six themes, so a merchant should plan to add it manually regardless of which theme is picked. Gain compensates with Quick View on by default across 13 settings and Predictive Search on by default across 2 settings, so merchants get other accordion-adjacent discovery features turned on even if FAQ is not.
Size Chart in Gain has its own `show_size_guide` checkbox, on by default, spread across 14 settings in sections/featured-product.liquid, and it is a separate section from the FAQ block. They are built in different files and controlled independently, so turning one on or off has no effect on the other.