STOQ alternative: EZ Preorder compared

The short version

At a glance

A bill you can predict

Both apps have a free plan, and both start at $10 a month. What differs is what happens around that price. EZ Preorder’s paid plans are $10, $20, $30 and $50 a month, and on every plan below Scale that price is the whole bill.

STOQ’s plans are metered. Lite ($10) includes 100 preorder orders a month and Pro ($29) includes 400. Past the limit STOQ keeps taking preorders and charges $0.25 on Lite, or $0.10 on Pro, for each extra order. A launch that brings in 250 preorders in a month on Lite adds $37.50 in fees, for a $47.50 month, unless you move to Pro first. SMS alerts are billed by the segment on top, from $0.025 in the US and Canada, and back in stock alerts above the plan’s limit cost $0.10 (Lite) or $0.075 (Pro) each if you choose to keep sending.

EZ Preorder works the other way round. Each plan comes with an allowance: Core covers 50 preorders or $2,000 in preorder sales a month, whichever comes first, and Scale covers 500 or $20,000. When an allowance is used, the Pre-order button stops showing until the allowance resets or you move up a plan. The bill only goes up when you decide it should. Scale is the one plan that keeps selling past its allowance, at 1% of each extra preorder.

One thing goes STOQ’s way. Plan for plan it includes more preorders: 100 at $10 and 400 at $29, with no limit at $69. If your volume is high and a metered bill does not bother you, that counts.

Deposits through Shopify Payments or PayPal

Both apps can take a deposit at checkout and collect the rest later. In EZ Preorder, deposits are part of Professional ($30). You choose a percentage or a fixed amount, shoppers can still pay in full if you allow it, and the app charges the balance automatically on a fixed date or a number of days after each order. Deposits work with Shopify Payments and PayPal Express.

STOQ’s help center says deposits need Shopify Payments, and that stores on other gateways get full payment only. Deposits are on every STOQ plan with the balance collected by hand, and automatic collection needs a paid plan.

Tools that help a preorder sell

EZ Preorder puts as much into winning the preorder as into taking it. On Growth ($20), badges mark preorder products on collection pages, a preorder page shows everything you have on preorder in one grid, and a featured preorder section puts a preorder product on your home page with its own button.

On Professional ($30) you can add a preorder discount, give a free gift with preorders (on every preorder product or only the ones you pick, with a cap per order), and switch the Pre-order button to send shoppers straight to checkout.

STOQ has discounts and badges too. For a free gift, its own guide pairs STOQ with a separate gift app, and on preorder variants it hides the Buy It Now button.

Where each feature sits

The lowest plan, and its monthly price, on which each app includes a feature. STOQ’s column follows its help center and its own pricing page.

EZ Preorder plans

Start free and move up when your preorders do. Each plan includes everything in the one before it, and plans are billed in USD every 30 days through Shopify.

How EZ Preorder works

• Three rules decide when a product is on preorder. Always, for products that are not released yet. Sold out, to keep selling through a stockout. Specific inventory level, to stop at a set number of preorders. Rules are set per variant, so one size can be on preorder while the rest sell as normal.
• Orders stay ordinary Shopify orders. Shoppers go through your normal Shopify checkout, preorder and in-stock items can share a cart, and you fulfill each order the way you always do.
• A plan is a fixed price with an allowance. Each paid plan covers a number of preorders or an amount of preorder sales per billing cycle, whichever comes first, plus a number of restock alert signups. On Free to Professional there is no charge per order: when an allowance is used, the Pre-order and Notify me buttons stop showing until you move up a plan or the allowance resets with your billing cycle. Scale keeps selling past its allowance, at 1% of each extra preorder and $0.01 per extra signup. How limits work.
• Deposits charge their own balance. On Professional and Scale, shoppers pay a percentage or a fixed amount at checkout and the app charges the rest automatically, on a fixed date or a number of days after each order. Deposits run on Shopify Payments or PayPal Express with Checkout Extensibility, for online store orders, and apply to all of your preorder products once switched on. If a balance charge fails the app does not send a notice yet, so look over unpaid balances after the due date. Partial payments guide.
• Preorders get their own places in your store. On Growth and up, badges mark preorder products on collection pages, a preorder page lists everything you have on preorder, and a featured section puts a preorder product on your home page.
• Restock alerts work per variant. A Notify me button shows on sold out variants, shoppers leave their email, and the app emails everyone waiting on that variant as soon as its inventory is above 0. Each signup counts as one restock alert.
• Customers are kept in the loop. Preorder confirmation emails are on every plan, and if a ship date moves you can email everyone who preordered that product in one go.

Switching from STOQ to EZ Preorder

You can set EZ Preorder up on its Free plan, on one product, before you change anything else in STOQ.

1. Install EZ Preorder and turn on the app embed. You can start on the Free plan, which covers one preorder product and one restock alert product. The embed is a switch under App embeds in your theme editor.
2. Use one app per product. Two preorder apps changing the same Add to cart button get in each other’s way, so switch STOQ off for a product before you test EZ Preorder on it.
3. Add your products and pick a rule. In Preorders, select the products, then choose Always, Sold out or Specific inventory level for each variant and add a note with the ship date.
4. Set up deposits if you take them. On Professional, choose a percentage or a fixed deposit and the date the balance is charged. EZ Preorder collects balances for the orders it takes, so collect any balances still open in STOQ before you uninstall it.
5. Add the Notify me button. Add the EZ Preorder - Notify Me block to your product template and add products to the restock list. New signups are collected in EZ Preorder from then on, so send any alerts still waiting in STOQ before you remove it.
6. Turn on preorder confirmation emails. It is one switch under Configuration, in Notification Settings, and the template can be edited.
7. Add the selling tools. On Growth, switch on collection page badges and the custom preorder page and add its link to your menu. On Professional, add a preorder discount, a free gift or the direct to checkout button.
8. Place a test preorder. Open the product on your store, check that the Pre-order button shows where your rule says it should, and run it through checkout.

Each step is covered in the EZ Preorder help center.