InsightsJuly 9, 2026·By Thibault Mathian

10 Best Shopify Pre-Order & Back-in-Stock Apps (2026)

Compare the 10 best pre-order and back-in-stock apps for Shopify in 2026: waitlists, partial payments, presale discounts and restock alerts.

A sold-out product page is either a dead end or a demand sensor. Without a waitlist, the visitor bounces to a competitor. With one, you capture the sale for later, learn exactly how much to reorder, and can even collect the money before your inventory lands.

These are the ten best Shopify apps for pre-orders, presales and restock alerts in 2026.

1. Preorder, Back In Stock ‑ STOQ

STOQ is the category leader for a reason: restock alerts and pre-orders in one app, with per-variant waitlists and email plus SMS notifications that fire the moment stock returns.

Standout feature: Variant-level waitlists with instant automated notifications, so demand maps exactly to the sizes and colors you need to reorder.

2. Notify! Back in Stock | PreOrder

Notify! combines back-in-stock alerts, pre-orders and a "coming soon" mode, covering the full product availability lifecycle from teaser to restock.

Standout feature: Coming-soon campaigns that build a waitlist before launch day, turning product releases into events.

3. Preorder Now Presale Timesact

Timesact focuses on presale mechanics: pre-order discounts, countdowns and scheduled availability windows that create urgency around future inventory.

Standout feature: Automatic pre-order discounts that decrease as the ship date approaches, rewarding the earliest committers.

4. PreOrder Globo | Back in Stock

Globo's app covers pre-orders with partial payments and deposits, the feature that matters most for high-ticket items where full prepayment is a hard sell.

Standout feature: Deposit-based pre-orders, collecting a percentage now and the balance before shipping.

5. Essent Preorder Back in Stock

A fast, clean pre-order and restock app with the essentials done well. The right pick if the bigger apps feel like more machine than you need.

Standout feature: Setup measured in minutes, with sensible defaults that need no configuration rabbit hole.

6. Swym Wishlist Plus

Wishlists are the softest form of demand capture: shoppers flag intent months ahead. Swym then alerts them on restocks and price drops automatically.

Standout feature: Back-in-stock alerts triggered from wishlist items, catching demand that never clicked a "notify me" button.

7. Klaviyo: Email Marketing & SMS

Waitlist subscribers are your hottest segment. Klaviyo turns back-in-stock events into full flows: the alert, the follow-up, the cross-sell if the item sells out again.

Standout feature: Back-in-stock flows with your full customer data attached, so restock alerts become personalized campaigns rather than pings.

8. Pop Convert ‑ Pop Ups, Banners

Before a product launches, Pop Convert builds the audience for it with popups and banners that funnel visitors onto your launch list.

Standout feature: Free, unlimited popups and banners, the cheapest way to grow a presale list before the pre-order button even exists.

9. Shopify Flow

Flow automates the operational side of pre-orders: tag pre-order purchases, route them to separate fulfillment, and notify your team when waitlist thresholds are hit.

Standout feature: Free, first-party automation that keeps pre-order orders from getting mixed into regular fulfillment.

10. ParcelWILL Order Tracking

Pre-order customers wait longer, and waiting customers open more support tickets. ParcelWILL gives them a branded tracking page and proactive delay updates.

Standout feature: Proactive shipping updates that keep long pre-order lead times from turning into refund requests.


Picking your setup

If you want one app that does both jobs, start with STOQ or Notify!. Selling high-ticket items, add Globo for deposits. Then wire the demand you capture into Klaviyo flows so a restock becomes a revenue event, not just a notification. The stack pays for itself the first time a waitlist tells you exactly how many units to reorder.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between pre-order and back-in-stock apps?
Pre-order apps sell items before they are available, taking payment now or at shipping. Back-in-stock apps collect waitlists on sold-out products and notify subscribers when inventory returns. Most leading apps now do both.
Do pre-orders hurt cash flow or help it?
They help. Pre-orders with upfront or partial payment finance your inventory purchase before it arrives, and waitlist sizes tell you exactly how much to order. It is the cheapest demand forecasting available.

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