A new product is ready to launch, but the print run is still in production. Customers are asking on social media, but they can't buy yet. A familiar situation for anyone who's launched a product in WooCommerce.

Pre-orders solve exactly this problem: the customer places an order now and receives the product later, when the batch arrives at the warehouse. The store gets payment or a payment commitment before purchasing the print run, and the customer gets a guarantee that they'll get the new product. Without a WooCommerce plugin, this mechanism doesn't work out of the box.

Below are four tools for pre-orders in WooCommerce, from free options to the official $179 per year solution. We tested each one on a test site: we looked at setup, working with variations, customer notifications and behavior with a mixed cart (pre-order + regular product).

💡 Quick overview:

• Decide on your budget: PRENA and YITH (Lite) are free, brightvessel and WooCommerce Pre-Orders cost $79 to $179 per year for full functionality
• For partial prepayment, check out YITH Pro, the only one with a discount mechanism for pre-orders
• If you need automatic payment when the product is released, only the official WooCommerce Pre-Orders with a supported gateway
• For a quick start without extra settings, go with PRENA: one button on the product page and pre-orders work

Comparison table

1. PRENA, Product Pre-Orders for WooCommerce

A free plugin from VillaTheme that changed its name from "Product Pre-Orders for WooCommerce" to PRENA in 2025. Functionally it lost nothing, on the contrary, it gained a product filter by pre-order status in the admin and a column with the release date on the product page.

In practice, this is the simplest entry into pre-orders: install the plugin, go to the product card, enable "Pre-order", and the "Add to cart" button changes to "Pre-order Now". The date and time of availability are configured separately for each product and even for each variation.

• Pros: pre-order price setting (fixed amount or percentage of base price), pre-order filter in product list, separate column with release date, works with simple and variable products
• Cons: no "payment upon product release" mode, money is charged immediately, email notifications are only standard WooCommerce without text customization
• Price: free
• Download: 🔗 PRENA on WordPress.org

2. YITH Pre-Order for WooCommerce

A plugin from YITHEMES with the richest free version among competitors. In Lite you can not only enable pre-order and set the date, but also give a discount for pre-orders, a feature that marketplaces like Amazon and Apple use to boost launch sales.

The free version notifies the admin about a new pre-order, sends an email to the customer, changes the button text and works with variations. Pro adds automatic pre-orders for all out-of-stock products, payment upon release (Pay Later) and free shipping for pre-orders.

Since April 2026, the plugin has been updated for each WooCommerce version, which is a plus for compatibility. Downsides: some users complain that the plugin doesn't pass pre-order status to Google Merchant Center, and product feeds lose this information.

• Pros: discount for pre-order even in the free version, manual and automatic mode, release date accurate to the minute, compatibility with WooCommerce 10.7
• Cons: no integration with Google Merchant for pre-order status, Pro version became more expensive: the old $99 price tag remained on the annual subscription, but the trial is shorter
• Price: Lite, free, Premium, $99 per year
• Download: 🔗 YITH Pre-Order (Lite) | 🔗 Pro version on YITH site

3. Pre-Orders for WooCommerce (brightvesseldev)

The most popular of the free options: 7,000+ active installations and 66 reviews on WordPress.org. The plugin from brightvesseldev covers four business cases even in the free version, from simple "pre-orders only" to mixed cart where regular and pre-order products are processed separately.

The key feature is four checkout scenarios. You can set it up so that the entire cart is sent in one package by the latest release date. Or conversely, generate a separate order for each product with a different availability date. The free version includes only case #4 ("pre-orders only"), the other three are in Pro.

In reviews, stores praise stability on real projects. Downsides: the Pro version requires annual payment, and the price on the vendor's site is not publicly listed, you need to request it.

• Pros: 4 order processing scenarios, prohibition of mixing pre-order with regular products in the cart, auto-publishing of products after the pre-order period expires, bulk actions for product groups (Pro)
• Cons: Pro price is not transparent, free version is limited to one scenario, settings interface is overloaded
• Price: Lite, free, Pro, from $79 per year (check website for details)
• Download: 🔗 Pre-Orders for WooCommerce (Lite) | 🔗 Pro version on brightplugins.com

4. WooCommerce Pre-Orders (official)

The official extension from the WooCommerce team. This is the only plugin that can automatically charge money when the product is released, the customer "freezes" the card during checkout, and the actual payment goes through only when the product is physically available. Works with Stripe, Braintree, Authorize.Net and a dozen other gateways.

The plugin provides a separate pre-order management page in the admin, a countdown shortcode until product release and bulk actions: postpone, complete or cancel pre-orders for all customers of one product at once.

Rating 2.7 out of 5, lower than competitors. Main complaints: you can't buy several different products as pre-orders simultaneously, there's no partial prepayment (only full amount immediately or upon release), and the price per year jumped from $129 to $179 without adding new features.

• Pros: automatic charging upon product release (with supported gateways), countdown timer shortcode, email blast to all customers when the date is postponed, 30-day refund
• Cons: $179 per year, the most expensive option, multiple pre-orders in one cart are not supported, no deposit/partial payment, price increased by $50 per year without new features
• Price: $179 per year (1 year of updates and support)
• Download: 🔗 WooCommerce Pre-Orders on WooCommerce.com

How pre-orders work: video

A short video tutorial on setting up pre-orders through a free plugin: from installation to the first test order. Suitable for any plugin from the list, the setup logic is similar everywhere.

⁉️🤔 Frequently asked questions

Can you do a pre-order with partial prepayment instead of the full amount?

From our list, only YITH Pre-Order Pro allows you to give a discount for pre-orders, but this is not partial payment, it's a reduced price. A full deposit (a small part now, the rest upon release) is not supported by any of the four plugins. For deposits you need a separate plugin like WooCommerce Deposits, it works in parallel with any pre-order solution.

How does the customer know when the product becomes available?

All four plugins send an automatic email notification when the release date arrives or when the admin manually completes the pre-order. WooCommerce Pre-Orders additionally provides a countdown timer shortcode that can be placed on the product page. YITH and brightvessel simply change the product status and button from "Pre-order" back to "Add to cart".

What happens if you cancel a pre-order, will the money be returned automatically?

No. Canceling a pre-order is a manual process: the admin cancels the order in WooCommerce and manually processes a refund through the payment gateway. Exception: WooCommerce Pre-Orders with auto-charging upon release: if the product never comes out, no charge occurs and there's nothing to cancel.

Do these plugins work with WooCommerce Subscriptions?

No. Pre-order and subscription are different mechanics. If a customer is subscribing to a product that hasn't been released yet, it's better to create it as a Simple Product with pre-order enabled, and after release manually transfer customers to the subscription model. The brightvesseldev developers directly state that their plugin is not compatible with Subscriptions.

Which plugin should I choose for a store with 20-30 products with rare pre-orders?

PRENA, free, set up in a minute, works with variations. If you have few pre-orders (1-2 products per month), the free features are enough. YITH Lite adds a discount for pre-orders, useful if you're launching a new product and want to boost initial sales.

💎 What to install in 2026

For most WooCommerce stores, PRENA is enough, free pre-orders with release date, custom price and button, without product quantity limits. Scenario: a startup launches the first batch of products and collects orders before the print run arrives.

• If you're driving initial sales with a discount for pre-orders, go with YITH Pre-Order Lite. The "buy now cheaper" mechanic works without spending a penny on a plugin.
• If your customer's cart mixes regular and pre-order products, check out Pre-Orders for WooCommerce (brightvesseldev). Four order separation scenarios cover almost any e-commerce case.
• If automatic charging upon product release and integration with a dozen payment gateways is critical, WooCommerce Pre-Orders** for $179 per year**. Expensive, but it's the only plugin with charging upon release.

What pre-order plugin do you use? Write in the comments, especially if you found a solution with partial prepayment.