How to Choose a Pre-Order App for Shopify

Search for a Shopify pre-order app and most of what comes back is a list of ten or fifteen apps, many of them written by companies that make one of the apps. We make one too, Timesact, so this guide doesn't rank anyone. It gives you the questions that separate pre-order apps for Shopify, so you can put the same questions to every app on your shortlist and compare the answers side by side. Timesact's answers are included, so you can see what a complete answer looks like.

What does a pre-order app add to a Shopify store?

Shopify's own setting for selling past zero is Continue selling when out of stock, on each product or variant. It lets customers buy at zero stock, but the product page keeps its usual Add to cart button and says nothing about when the item ships. Shopify's pre-order purchase option, which can take part of the price now and the rest later, comes from an app you install from the Shopify App Store.

A pre-order app adds the side your customers see and the rules behind it:

• a Pre-order button in place of Add to cart or Sold out, in your own words
• a message and a badge that tell the shopper when the item ships
• a cart label that travels with the order
• payment terms: the full price at checkout, or part now and the rest later
• rules for when the button shows: stock levels, dates, and how many units you'll take
• the emails that confirm the pre-order and keep the customer posted

Most apps do some of this. The differences are in the details, and the details decide how much work each launch takes.

Which questions separate one pre-order app from another?

Put these to every app on your shortlist. The App Store listing, the help centre and a short chat with support cover most of them.

Question to ask, and why	Timesact's answer
Can each variant run its own terms? Sizes and colours sell out at different times.	Yes. A Customer Experience is attached per variant, with its own dates and Pre-order quantity
When does the Pre-order button show? It decides whether pre-orders switch on by themselves.	Only when out of stock; Always, whatever the stock level; or Only while Shopify stock lasts, plus a Start date and an End date
Can you cap the units? You can't sell more than the run will make.	Switch off Unlimited pre-order quantity and enter a Pre-order quantity for each variant
What payment terms can you offer? A deposit asks less of the customer at checkout.	Full amount, or Split payment: a percentage, a fixed amount or nothing at checkout, and the rest on a specific date, a set time after checkout or (PRO) when you fulfill the order
Does it use Shopify's purchase option? It decides which payment and discount options you get.	Use Shopify purchase option, or Don't use a Shopify purchase option, chosen per template
How do orders arrive in Shopify? Your team and your warehouse work from the order.	Standard Shopify orders tagged Pre-order (plus Partial Pre-order in a mixed cart), with a fulfillment status of Unfulfilled, Scheduled or On hold
Which messages can it send? A customer who paid weeks ago expects updates.	Pre-order confirmation and shipping delay emails; back-in-stock emails, SMS (billed per message) and Shopify Flow triggers; Klaviyo events for both
Does it cover sold-out and upcoming products too? One app means one setup and one bill.	Back in Stock, Notify Me and Waitlist sign-ups, Coming Soon, Low Stock, Backorder and Made to Order, all in one app
Does it fit your theme? The button should look like part of your store.	Built for Shopify; works with Shopify themes and with EComposer, GemPages, Instant, PageFly and Shogun
How is it priced? The cost moves with your order volume.	A Free plan, usage-based plans from $5 a month, fixed plans with unlimited orders, no commission and no transaction fee
What support do you get? Questions come up on launch day.	Email, live chat, phone and video call, plus a free guided setup call

The sections below go deeper on the answers that differ most between apps.

How should a pre-order app take payment?

Most pre-order apps can take the full price at checkout. The ones worth a closer look also let the customer pay part now and the rest later, which suits higher-priced items and long lead times.

In Timesact this is the Billing setting on the template: Full amount, or Split payment. With Split payment you set the first charge as a percentage or a fixed amount, where 0 takes nothing at checkout, and choose when the rest is charged: On a specific date, A set time after checkout, or, on the PRO plan, When you fulfill the order. Split payments run on Shopify Payments and PayPal Express, and on Shopify Payments the balance is charged automatically to the payment method the customer saved at checkout.

Ask every app on your list who collects the balance, and on which payment providers.

Then ask whether the app runs on Shopify's purchase option. Split payments and the pre-order discount run on it. Timesact can also run a template without one: Don't use a Shopify purchase option works with gift cards, Buy X Get Y offers, native Shopify bundles, B2B checkout and every payment method your store already offers, with the full price taken at checkout. You choose it per template.

How will pre-orders show up in your Shopify orders?

This is the part your fulfilment team works with every day, so ask each app what a pre-order looks like in Shopify Orders.

With Timesact, every pre-order is a standard Shopify order. It carries the order tag Pre-order, and an order that also has in-stock items carries Partial Pre-order as well, so you can filter Orders, export them and build Shopify Flow workflows on the tags.

With the purchase option, Shopify sets the fulfillment status from the shipping date you chose: Unfulfilled for As soon as possible, Scheduled for an Exact date, and On hold for a set time or a time range from checkout. Without it, you pick Unfulfilled, or On hold, where Timesact holds the pre-order products or the entire order until you release it, in Shopify or in bulk with Release holds in Timesact's Pre-order sales report.

Stock stays in Shopify. Timesact reads your Shopify inventory for its stock-based options, and in the Only when out of stock and Always modes it turns Shopify's Continue selling when out of stock on and off for you while the pre-order runs. With the purchase option, you also choose whether a pre-order reduces stock when the order is placed or when it is fulfilled.

Can one app handle pre-orders and back-in-stock alerts?

Yes, and it means one setup, one set of emails and one set of reports instead of two.

Timesact sets everything up in reusable Customer Experience templates under Experiences: Pre-order, Backorder and Made to Order for selling ahead of stock; Back in Stock, Notify Me and Waitlist for collecting sign-ups; Coming Soon for a product before launch; and Low Stock for the last few units. Notify Me emails each shopper automatically when the variant is back in stock, and Coming Soon shows a button shoppers can't click yet, with an optional countdown.

When you compare apps, check where the numbers for both end up. Timesact's Analytics tab reports Pre-order sales and Top pre-order products alongside back-in-stock sign-ups and Sales from notifications, the orders that came in after a restock alert.

What does a Shopify pre-order app cost?

Pre-order apps charge a flat monthly fee, a price that grows with your number of orders, plans that unlock features as you move up, or a free plan that takes a share of each sale. Work out what each app on your shortlist would cost in your busiest month and in a slow one, including any per-order or transaction fee.

Timesact's plans, as listed on the Shopify App Store:

• Free: 20 orders a month on unlimited products, with unlimited email sends and sign-ups, Klaviyo, and unlimited Coming Soon and Low Stock.
• CORE Flex: from $5 a month for 10 extra orders on top of the free 20, then $0.20 per order above that.
• Fixed: unlimited orders, from $23 a month on Shopify's Basic plan.

Billing runs through Shopify, with no commission and no transaction fee, and usage counts orders, not items. Split payments and deposits work on every plan, Free included, and the PRO plan adds Markets & locations, charging the rest when you fulfill the order, and storewide automatic Back in Stock and Low Stock.

How do you test a pre-order app before you commit?

Shortlist first. In the Shopify App Store's Pre-orders category, each listing shows the rating and review count, the plans, the apps and page builders it works with, and whether it carries the Built for Shopify badge. Read the last six months of reviews, since they describe the app as it works today. Look for complaints that repeat, check whether the developer replies, and give the most weight to stores with a catalog like yours.

Then try your top two on a test product. With Timesact:

1. Install the app, then turn on the Timesact app embed in a copy of your theme (Online Store → Themes → Customize → App embeds) and click Save. The embed is switched on theme by theme, so your published theme stays as it is while you try it.
2. In Shopify, create a test product and set its Status to Unlisted. It gets a page at its direct address and stays out of your collections and search.
3. Under Experiences, create a Customer Experience with Pre-order. Its Functionality settings decide when Pre-order shows, how it is charged and the shipping date: pick Exact date, A set time from checkout or A time range from checkout. Its Product page holds the button text, the message and the badge; put {{shippingDate}} in the message to show that date.
4. Under Products, add the test product and attach the Customer Experience. On Only when out of stock, keep the test product at 0 stock; on Always, whatever the stock level, the button shows at any stock.
5. Preview the test product in the copy of your theme. The Pre-order button shows in place of Add to cart or Sold out, and you see the message, the badge and the cart label the way a customer will.
6. Send support one real setup question through live chat, and note how quickly, and how well, it gets answered.
7. When it looks right, set the Confirmation email to Live under Notifications, enable the app embed on the theme you publish, click Save, and attach the Customer Experience to your real products.

Try Timesact on Your Next Pre-Order

Put your shortlist to work on one real product. Install the app and try a small preorder first, or book a free setup call and we'll help you set up your first pre-order.

FAQs

Is there a free pre-order app for Shopify?

Yes. Timesact's Free plan includes 20 orders a month on unlimited products, with unlimited email sends and sign-ups, Klaviyo, a custom sending domain, unlimited Coming Soon and Low Stock, and support by email, chat, phone and video call. Split payments and deposits work on the Free plan too. Billing runs through Shopify, with no commission on pre-order sales and no transaction fee, and usage-based plans for more orders start from $5 a month.

Which Shopify pre-order app lets me change the Add to Cart button to a Pre-order button per product?

Timesact does this per product, and per variant. Enable the Timesact App Embed on the theme you publish (Online Store → Themes → Customize → App embeds) and click Save in the theme editor. Create a Customer Experience with Pre-order: its Product page holds your button text, badge and message, and its Functionality settings decide when Pre-order shows and how it is charged. Then add the product under Products and attach the Customer Experience to the variants that should take pre-orders. Always, whatever the stock level shows the Pre-order button straight away, and Only when out of stock switches it on when a variant sells out. Products you don't add keep their normal button.

What payment options should I offer with pre-orders?

Offer full payment at checkout, or a split payment that charges part of the price at checkout (a percentage or a fixed amount, which can be zero) and the rest on a specific date, a set time after checkout or, on the PRO plan, when you fulfill the order. Split payments run through Shopify Payments and PayPal Express, and on Shopify Payments the balance is charged automatically to the payment method the customer saved at checkout. A split payment suits higher-priced items, where a smaller first charge makes the order easier to place.

Can I set up pre-orders on Shopify without an app?

Partly. Shopify's Continue selling when out of stock setting lets customers buy a product at zero stock, but the product page keeps its usual Add to cart button and says nothing about when the item ships. Shopify's pre-order purchase option, which can take part of the price now and the rest later, comes from an app. A pre-order app adds the Pre-order button, the shipping message, the rules for when the button shows and the emails.

How can a pre-order app help me launch new products and collect revenue before production is finished?

A pre-order app keeps a buy button on a product you haven't finished making, so each pre-order is a real Shopify order, paid in full or with a deposit, while production is still running. With Timesact, you can give the pre-order a Start date so the Pre-order button switches on by itself on launch day, and cap each variant with a Pre-order quantity so you don't sell more than the run will make. Dates follow the Time zone set in Timesact under Billing & Account → Store settings. The Analytics tab ranks your top pre-ordered products by units, which helps you size the production order.