Shopify Pre-Order Apps Compared: Pre-Order Now vs Timesact vs Appikon

The Pre-Order Zombie Pattern

The typical lifecycle: a merchant launches a new product line, installs a pre-order app so customers can purchase before stock arrives, inventory comes in 6–8 weeks later, and the merchant forgets to either disable pre-orders or cancel the app subscription. The app continues billing — often $14.99–29.99/mo — while doing nothing active for the store.

A secondary pattern: the app is actively used for one season and then becomes dormant. A merchant who ran a pre-order campaign for a summer drop may have forgotten the app entirely by winter, but it's still billing in the background.

Pricing Comparison

Prices as of May 2026. All three apps allow free tier testing before committing. Annual billing saves 10–15% across all three.

Pre-Order Now

Pre-Order Now (by Website on Demand Studio) is the most widely installed pre-order app on Shopify — partly from early market positioning, partly because it's genuinely easy to set up. It automatically replaces the "Add to Cart" button with a "Pre-Order" button when inventory hits zero, sends confirmation emails to pre-order customers, and handles the checkout flow for pre-order products. The free tier (1 product) is useful for testing the setup before a campaign launches.

The Professional tier ($24.99/mo) adds partial payment support — customers pay a deposit at pre-order, the remainder charged when the product ships. This is a genuine feature gap vs competitors. If your pre-orders involve high-ticket items where a deposit model makes sense, Pre-Order Now Professional is the tool for it.

Timesact

Timesact's main differentiator: mixed-cart support. Shopify has historically had checkout friction when a cart contains both in-stock and pre-order items — some apps force separate checkouts. Timesact handles mixed carts natively, allowing customers to add both pre-order and in-stock products to the same cart with clear communication about which items ship when.

It also offers countdown timers and stock countdown widgets ("only 12 pre-orders remaining") that layer urgency onto the pre-order experience — useful for limited-edition drops where scarcity is a purchase driver.

At $18.99–28.99/mo, Timesact is slightly more expensive than Appikon but cheaper than Pre-Order Now Professional. It's the best choice when mixed-cart shopping is important to your store experience.

Appikon Pre-Order

Appikon Pre-Order is the budget option: $9.99/mo Starter covers 10 pre-order products — enough for most single-campaign use cases at the lowest recurring cost in the category. Setup is straightforward, the button replacement works reliably, and customer notification emails are included.

It lacks the mixed-cart polish of Timesact and the partial-payment feature of Pre-Order Now Professional. For a simple "sold out, accepting pre-orders" use case where you need more than 1 product, Appikon at $9.99/mo is the most cost-effective entry point.

When to Skip Pre-Order Apps Entirely

If pre-ordering is not a recurring part of your business model — if you only needed one for a single launch — consider whether a simpler approach works:

• ✓Set the product to "continue selling when out of stock" and add "Pre-order — ships in 6–8 weeks" to the product title/description. No app needed for a single product.
• ✓Use a back-in-stock app (free or low-cost) to capture email signups for restock notification instead of pre-orders. Converts when stock arrives rather than before.
• ✓Use draft orders manually for very low-volume pre-order situations (under 20 pre-orders expected).

Which One Should You Use?

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