SMART Preorder vs Essential Preorder
Updated · SMART Preorder & Back in stock (E-TRADE PARTNER)
Both apps sell pre-orders with deposits and email shoppers when a product is back in stock. SMART Preorder is free and charges each remaining balance itself when it falls due, with retries. Essential Preorder, listed as Essent Preorder Back in Stock by Essential Apps, is free for 25 pre-orders a month, costs $4.95/mo to $59/mo on paid plans, and collects balances when you start a run from its Preorders tab or from Shopify Flow.
SMART Preorder & Back in stock is a free Shopify app for pre-orders, deposits, and back-in-stock alerts.
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One difference shows up on the day a balance is due. Essential's help center says that date alone triggers no charge, so someone has to run the collection. SMART treats the due date as the charge date. Most other differences come down to which Essential plan a feature sits on.
Quick comparison
| SMART Preorder | Essential Preorder | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free. The listing has no paid plans | Free; Lite $4.95/mo; Starter $8.95/mo; Essentials $24.95/mo; Professional $59/mo. One 14-day free trial per store |
| Pre-orders per month | No count | Free 25; Lite 100, then $0.25 each; Starter 300, then $0.20; Essentials 500, then $0.10; Professional unlimited |
| Back in stock emails | Daily limit by store size: 25 for stores under 14 days old, 100 for most new stores, rising to 20,000. Pre-order emails don't count | Monthly: Free 300; Lite 1,000; Starter 2,500; Essentials 10,000; then $1.00 per 100. Professional unlimited |
| Deposit | A percentage of the price, 0 to 99%, or a fixed amount per item | Partial payment, deposit can be 0. Shopify Payments only |
| When the balance is charged | On its own: a set number of days after checkout, on a set date, or when you fulfill the order | When you run Collect payments in the Preorders tab (Lite and up) or a Flow workflow with Collect preorder balance now |
| Declined card | Tried again on your schedule (3 attempts by default), then a payment link email, or cancel and refund if nothing has shipped | Marked Failed in the results email; optional Shopify invoice to the customer |
| Reminder before the charge | Upcoming charge reminder email, off by default | None in the app; the help center suggests building one in Flow |
| Scheduling, translations, markets, mixed carts | Included on every store | Scheduled campaigns and translations from Lite; specific markets and blocking mixed carts from Starter |
| Sales channels | Online store only | POS, Shop app and other channels from Starter |
| Payment methods at checkout | Hide, rename or reorder them with payment customizations | Not among the listed features |
Sources, checked November 2, 2026: Essential Preorder on the Shopify App Store and Essential Preorder pricing. Prices are USD list prices as shown on those pages, and features are described the way the vendor describes them. Trademarks belong to their owners. SMART Preorder is not affiliated with Essential Preorder. Spot something out of date? Email support@etradepartner.io.
When SMART Preorder fits better
- Nobody on your team should have to remember collection day. Essential's balance collection guide says the app doesn't charge on the due date by itself. SMART charges at the first run after the balance is due, every 15 minutes (how balance charges work).
- Customers should hear about the charge before it happens. SMART's Upcoming charge reminder goes out a set number of days before the due date (3 by default) once you turn it on in Settings > Pre-order emails. Essential's guide says the app sends no reminder emails.
- You want scheduled start and end dates, translations, specific Shopify Markets and a mixed-cart block without a paid plan. Essential puts the first two on Lite ($4.95/mo) and the last two on Starter ($8.95/mo); see mixed carts.
- You'd like checkout payment rules in the same app, such as hiding a payment method for one country (hide payment methods).
When Essential Preorder fits better
- You take pre-orders at the register or in the Shop app. Essential's Starter plan ($8.95/mo) accepts pre-orders from POS, the Shop app and other sales channels. SMART's pre-orders work in the online store only.
- Your list lives in Omnisend. Essential connects Omnisend on every plan and, from Lite, can send back in stock emails through Omnisend or Shopify Flow. SMART's built-in marketing integration is Klaviyo.
- You want shoppers to confirm their signup by email first. Essential lists GDPR double opt-in on every plan.
- You want an audit trail of inventory settings. Essential's Activity log records each time the app turned Continue selling on or off, with the reason.
Charging balances by hand in SMART
Automatic charging doesn't stop you from acting early. In SMART's Orders tab, Collect balance charges the selected orders' saved cards now and Change balance date moves the due date, with reminders and retries following the new date. The Flow action Collect pre-order balance does the same from a workflow (Flow triggers and actions).
Let the due date do the collecting
Install SMART Preorder for free, pick when the balance is due, and the app charges it then, with retries if a card is declined.
Install free on Shopify