WooCommerce Pre-Orders
by WooCommerce
Official extension for selling products before release, charging up front or on release day.
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What WooCommerce Pre-Orders does
Official extension for selling products before release, charging up front or on release day.
It sits in the ecommerce part of a WordPress stack and is sold by WooCommerce on a premium basis. We recommend it in our ecommerce guides because it does that one job well without asking you to rebuild the rest of the site around it.
Every plugin adds work to a page request, so treat this as a decision with a cost. Record a speed test before you install it and run the same test afterwards, on the same page, so you know exactly what it charged you.
Real user ratings
WooCommerce Pre-Orders is sold outside the WordPress.org directory, so there is no public user rating to quote. Our own editorial score is 4.1/5, based on the vendor documentation, the refund window and the measured performance cost.
Where WooCommerce Pre-Orders ranks elsewhere
WooCommerce Pre-Orders does not appear in the published "best of" lists we track from WPBeginner, TechRadar, Kinsta, Themeisle and similar sites. That is not a mark against it - those roundups are short and skew towards the biggest names.
What changed in the latest version
WooCommerce Pre-Orders does not publish a changelog we can read automatically, so check the vendor's own release notes before you update a live site.
Pros and cons
- Official support for charge-later orders
- Paid support and updates from the vendor
- Actively maintained and used on production sites we test
- Premium extension only
- Renewal cost is annual and per site
How to use it
- 1Set up currency, tax and shipping rules before importing products.
- 2Test a full purchase with a real card in live mode, then refund it.
- 3Exclude cart, checkout and account pages from page caching.
- 4Confirm order emails send through an authenticated SMTP connection.
- 5Re-test store page speed after every extension you add.
How it compares
Other ecommerce plugins we recommend, with their rating and pricing model.
| Plugin | Our rating | WordPress.org | Pricing | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WooCommerce Pre-Orders | 4.1 | n/a | Premium | Official support for charge-later orders |
| Checkout Add-Ons | 4.1 | n/a | Premium | Simple margin at the last step |
| Composite Products | 4.5 | 5 (2) | Premium | Guided build-your-own products |
| Discount Rules for WooCommerce | 4.6 | 4.9 (1,368) | Freemium | Powerful scheduled sale rules |
| Easy Digital Downloads | 4.5 | 4.7 (589) | Freemium | Purpose-built for downloads |
| Mix and Match Products | 4.5 | n/a | Premium | Perfect for boxes and subscriptions |
Guides that cover WooCommerce Pre-Orders
Alternatives
Other ecommerce plugins
Checkout Add-Ons
WooCommerce
Adds optional paid extras such as gift wrap or express handling at checkout.
Composite Products
WooCommerce
Builds configurable kits where the customer chooses a component at each step.
2 reviews · 12K downloads · v2.0.3
Discount Rules for WooCommerce
Flycart
Rule-based pricing: bulk discounts, BOGO offers and scheduled sales without touching product prices.
1,368 reviews · 3.0M downloads · v2.6.17