PrestaShop 8 ships with native product tabs, but the system is limited: only one additional editable tab per product, no category or brand logic, and manual configuration product by product. This post covers what you can do with the native system, where it falls short, and what options exist to take it further.
What comes native in PrestaShop 8
By default, a product page in PrestaShop 8 has three tabs: “Description,” “Product Details,” and “Reviews” (the last one only if the reviews module is active). The extended product description is edited in the corresponding product field. The details tab populates automatically from attributes and features.
To add an extra tab with custom content (a usage guide, or a product-specific policy, say), you need a module or theme edits. Without an extension, there’s no easy way to get a fourth editable tab.
Option 1: global tabs in the theme
To add a tab that appears on every product with the same content (typically “Shipping & Returns” or “Warranty”), the simplest approach is to modify the theme template.
The file to edit is the product tabs template, located at themes/[your-theme]/templates/catalog/_partials/product-tabs.tpl. That’s where you add an extra tab with fixed content. The cleanest approach is to use a theme override so the change survives updates to the base theme.
Common trap: editing the theme directly and losing the change on the next theme update. Always work in themes/[your-theme]/templates/... rather than the original theme.
Option 2: an additional tab per product
To have a tab with different content on each product, there are two routes:
- Use product features: PrestaShop lets you add features to a product that show up in the details tab. It’s not a separate tab, but it covers the case if what you need is structured data (size, material, weight).
- Additional tabs module: several modules on the market add one or more tabs configurable per product from the back office. Content is edited as rich HTML, product by product.
The second approach is flexible but expensive to maintain: if you have 5,000 products and the tab needs to vary across some of them, configuring them one by one is hours of work. This is where the limitation shows up.
Option 3: tabs by category or by brand
The most useful setup for large catalogs is assigning tabs by category or brand. For example, every product in the “Footwear” category automatically gets a “Footwear Size Chart” tab; every product from Brand X gets a “Brand X Warranty” tab.
PrestaShop 8 doesn’t support this natively. It requires a specific module to add that logic layer. The reasonable options are:
Building it custom
PHP code in the theme that checks the product’s category or manufacturer and loads the corresponding content from a custom field. Controllable, but you’re on the hook for maintaining the code yourself.
Advanced tabs module
The logic is already built and configurable from the back office without touching code, with a reasonable interface — in exchange for the acquisition cost and dependency on the vendor.
Tab positioning
Tab order affects where user attention goes. The first tab (active by default when the page loads) gets the bulk of the attention; the rest only get explored if there’s active interest.
Operational recommendation: the default active tab should be the product description, not technical details or reviews. The description is what sells. Order the remaining tabs by priority for your sector: in fashion, Description – Size Chart – Shipping – Reviews tends to work well. In electronics, Description – Specifications – Shipping – Reviews.
Tabs on mobile
PrestaShop 8’s base theme (Classic and derivatives like Panda) typically renders tabs on mobile as expandable accordions rather than horizontal tabs. That tends to work well: the user sees all the titles and expands the one they’re interested in.
The problem shows up in custom themes that keep tabs horizontal on mobile with small text. Result: the user can’t find the information and scrolls around without understanding the structure. If your theme does this, it’s worth reviewing tab responsiveness as a UX task.
Validating that SEO isn’t broken
If you add tabs with SEO-relevant content, verify it renders in the initial HTML, not later via JavaScript. A quick way to check: inspect the page in your browser, look at the server-rendered HTML, and confirm the tab text is there. If it only appears after a click, it’s JavaScript-only and Google sees it with less weight.
The same applies to JSON-LD schemas: if tab content feeds into a Product or Review schema, the JSON-LD must be generated server-side with everything included, not built dynamically.
The shortcut: Zeyvro’s tabs module
Zeyvro’s tabs module for PrestaShop 8 covers all four levels: global, per-product, per-category, and per-brand. Configuration happens from the back office with a TinyMCE editor and configurable hierarchical precedence (for example, if a product has both a brand tab and a category tab, you decide which one wins).
When the module pays off: catalogs with more than 200 products where tabs vary by category or brand. Below that scale, a global tab or manual per-product tab covers most cases.
Known limitations
Regardless of how you implement tabs, two things don’t scale well without outside help:
- Tabs with multilingual content in catalogs with many languages. Maintaining four languages × four tabs × five thousand products is months of work.
- Tabs with dynamic comparison tables (price by feature, variants, compatible accessories). These usually need specific logic beyond standard tabs.
💡 If your case falls into one of those exceptions, or you have a custom theme where tabs misbehave, email us at hola@zeyvro.com with the context. And if you’re still unsure whether tabs are worth it for you, start with when they add value and when they’re just noise.
Frequently asked questions
Can PrestaShop 8 add custom tabs without a module?
Only in a limited way: the three native tabs plus whatever you edit in the theme (a fixed global tab in product-tabs.tpl). For tabs editable by product, category, or brand, you need a module.
How do I add a tab that’s the same for every product?
By editing the theme’s tabs template (themes/[your-theme]/templates/catalog/_partials/product-tabs.tpl), always as a theme override so the change survives updates.
Can tabs be assigned automatically by category or brand?
Not natively. You need custom code or a module with that logic — like Zeyvro’s tabs module, which covers global, per-product, per-category, and per-brand tabs with configurable precedence.
Which tab should be active by default?
The product description — it’s what sells. Technical details, shipping, and reviews come after, ordered by your sector’s priorities.
Four tab levels — global, product, category, brand — from the back office, with TinyMCE and configurable precedence.
View Zeyvro Product Tabs →Zeyvro builds PrestaShop 8 modules from a real store in production. Unobfuscated code.