Looking for a simple, powerful
WooCommerce preorder plugin?
PreOrders for WooCommerce – PreCart is the easiest way to let customers
pre-order products before they're available. Whether launching new items, restocking popular ones, or selling out-of-stock products with automatic backorder support, this plugin helps you capture sales you'd otherwise miss.
With this free preorder plugin for WooCommerce, customers can place pre-orders for upcoming, out-of-stock, or limited-edition products directly on your site. Gain early insights into demand, improve inventory planning, and secure revenue in advance.
👉
Perfect for:
- Product launches & crowdfunded items
- Out-of-stock products with automatic backorder
- Limited-time offers & seasonal inventory
- Digital content, books, music, and more
💡 Give your customers the power to pre-order WooCommerce products confidently — and deliver a premium shopping experience with automatic email updates and customizable preorder settings.
📘 Full Documentation
Why PreCart is the best free WooCommerce Pre-Order plugin
Unlike paid alternatives that charge a monthly fee, PreCart gives you everything you need to run preorders on your WooCommerce store for
free:
- Stock-based preorder — products automatically become available for preorder when they go out of stock (new in 0.7)
- Global or per-product — enable preorder for everything at once, or pick individual products
- Preorder limits — cap how many customers can preorder per product
- Custom status — preorders get a dedicated order status so you can filter and manage them
0.8
Release Date: 2026-10-30
- NEW: Per-variation pre-order for variable products — each variation can be configured with its own pre-order enable, release date, pre-order limit, stock trigger, and backorder limit.
- NEW: Parent/child mode for variable products (PreCart > Settings > "Pre-Order for Variable Products") — choose whether options live under each variation or are overridden by the parent product's Pre-Order tab.
- IMPROVED: On variable products, the pre-order message and add-to-cart button text now appear only once a pre-order variation is selected.
- NEW: Dedicated pre-order message for virtual/downloadable products, so "shipped" wording is not shown for items that are never shipped.
- NEW: Color settings for the pre-order notice text and the pre-order badge (background and text).
- NEW: "Pre-Order" badge next to the product name in the Products list.
- FIXED: Product page displayed the current date instead of the configured release date on sites using a non-US date format.
- FIXED:
{precart_release_date} now renders "TBD" instead of the current date when no release date is set.
- FIXED: Stock-triggered pre-order now activates only when the product is actually out of stock.
- FIXED: Global "Enable Pre-Order for all products" toggle now activates reliably.
- FIXED: Added a guard against a fatal error when the order cannot be loaded in the admin pre-order meta handler.
- SECURITY: Added nonce and capability checks to the review-notice dismiss links.
- SECURITY: The HelpSpace support widget is now loaded only on the PreCart settings screen.
- IMPROVED: Consolidated the WordPress nonce-verification notes in the product save handlers.
- IMPROVED: Regenerated the translation template (
languages/precart.pot).
0.7
Release Date: 2026-06-17
- NEW: Stock-Based Preorder / Backorder — products automatically enter preorder mode when they go out of stock. No manual toggling needed.
- NEW: Per-product "Enable Stock-Based Pre-Order" checkbox and "Backorder Limit" field in the product data tab.
- NEW: Global stock trigger setting with configurable out-of-stock preorder message (PreCart > Settings > Stock Trigger).
- NEW: Distinct amber badge style (
.wcpo-pre-order-badge--stock) to visually separate stock-triggered preorders from date-based ones.
- NEW: Custom
wc-precart order status is now editable in the admin — change items, recalculate totals, and apply actions.
- IMPROVED:
{precart_release_date} token in stock messages shows "TBD" when no release date is set.
- FIXED: Preorder counters could double-increment on thank-you page reloads — idempotency guard added.
- FIXED: Duplicated eligibility logic across Product, Cart, and Validation consolidated into a single
Helper::is_preorder_product() method.
- FIXED: Preorder/backorder counts now decrement when an order is cancelled or refunded.
- NEW: Admin review prompt with modern card-style design, shown on PreCart pages after 5 days of installation.
- NEW: Dedicated settings-page review notice with a "Leave Review" button only (no dismiss controls) above the PreCart Settings page.
- FIXED: Global preorder mode now correctly displays the global release date instead of the per-product date when the per-product preorder is not enabled.
- FIXED: Product list page "Pre-Order Now" button now also renders for out-of-stock products when stock-based preorder is active.
- FIXED: Infinite recursion / memory-exhaustion bug in
woocommerce_product_is_in_stock filter — now uses raw get_stock_status() to avoid the loop.
- IMPROVED: Helpspace support widget link replaced with direct WordPress.org support forum link in admin settings.
0.6
Release Date: 2026-06-09
- FIXED: Fatal error "Call to member function get_id() on null" when product page contained WooCommerce shortcodes without a valid product context.
- FIXED: Invalid release date display when switching between per-product and global preorder modes.
- IMPROVED: Internal code cleanup and WooCommerce HPOS compatibility hardening.
0.5
Release Date: 2026-05-31
- FIXED: Incorrect date displayed when the global pre-order option was enabled.
- FIXED: Setting Pre-Order Product Limit to
0 prevented products from being added to the cart. Value of 0 now means unlimited.
- ADDED: Support for WooCommerce 10.8.
- UPDATED: Tested up to WordPress 6.9.
0.4
Release date: 2025-11-11
- Fixed: preorder product showing error on
Add To cart
0.3
Release date: 2025-06-01
- Fixed issue where button text would not update correctly.
- Fixed text domain error notice.
0.2
Release date: 12-03-25
- Added: New fields in Settings
- Added: Set global preorder for all products
- Added: Prevent customers to order pre order and regular products at once
- Fixed: cart-key error showing in the cart page
0.1