K1 PreOrder vs Advanced PreOrder: which pre-order app with deposits fits your Shopify store?

Pre-order apps on Shopify are crowded at the top, with a handful of names that every top 10 list repeats. One level below sit dozens of smaller apps that merchants actually install, and almost nothing is written about them beyond their own listing. K1 PreOrder and Advanced PreOrder are two of them. Both let you keep selling products that are out of stock or not released yet, both take partial payments, and both start with a free plan. They come from very different places, though: one is a 2024 newcomer built on Shopify's newest payment APIs, the other has been on the App Store since 2018. This page compares them using only what their developers publish on the Shopify App Store and on their own websites, checked on November 3, 2026.

Who is behind each app

K1 PreOrder

K1 PreOrder is listed on the Shopify App Store as K1 PreOrder Now & Deposit. It is published by K1 Apps, with an address in Sheridan, Wyoming, and launched on December 17, 2024. When we checked, the listing showed a 5.0 rating from 48 reviews and the Built for Shopify badge. It names Checkout, Customer accounts, Shopify Flow and Shopify Admin as the Shopify features it works with.

The app has changed a lot in a short time. In February 2026 the developer released a second version, which its blog describes as built on Shopify's Deferred Purchase Options API and which added split payments next to deposits and full payment in a single rule. The website says the team ships new features every one to two weeks and that support is led by the founders. It also claims more than 500 merchants, a self-reported figure.

Advanced PreOrder

Advanced PreOrder appears on the App Store as Advanced PreOrder Partial pay. It is published by Shine Dezign Infonet, a Shopify agency whose listing address is in Mohali, India (its website footer also shows an address in Hayes, England). The app launched on April 18, 2018, more than six years before K1. It had a 4.7 rating from 166 reviews when we checked, the large majority five stars and a handful of one-star reviews.

Advanced PreOrder positions itself as an all-in-one pre-order tool: pre-order buttons, coming soon products, a sales counter, Notify Me alerts, geo-location, request a quote and even a try before you buy option. It works with Shopify Admin, Advanced Invoice/GST and Zapiet, and its listing is in English only.

Payment options

This is where the two apps differ most.

K1 PreOrder treats payment as the heart of the product. Each pre-order rule can offer one full-payment option plus several partial-payment options side by side. Deposits can be a percentage or a fixed amount. The balance can be charged automatically or collected offline (the website mentions a B2B invoice style), and the due date can be a number of days after the order or a fixed calendar date. Each payment option can carry its own percentage or fixed discount, so you can reward customers who pay in full upfront. Since version 2, split payments are available too. The listing adds tags for deferred payments, payment schedules, payment reminders and manual payment.

Advanced PreOrder lists deposits and partial payments as well, but with less detail and with plan limits. On the App Store listing, partial payment appears on the Standard plan for up to 15 products and becomes unlimited on Platinum. The developer's own app page says partial payment is a Platinum feature, so the two sources disagree: confirm in the app's plan screen before choosing. The listing does not explain how the remaining balance is collected, and split payments or payment schedules are not listed. On the plus side, the Free plan already includes a discount option, and Standard adds coupons on partial payments.

If deposits are the main reason you need a pre-order app, K1 gives you more control for less money.

Storefront display

Both apps replace or complement the add to cart button with a pre-order button on chosen products and variants.

K1 lets a rule target products, collections or specific variants and choose when the pre-order shows: always, only when out of stock, or when stock drops below a threshold. Rules can be scheduled to start later and end on a set date. An estimated shipping date can be shown with a lead time of 1 to 365 days or a fixed date. The widget sits in an app embed plus an app block, and the developer lists compatibility work with GemPages, LayoutHub, Qikify product options and quick-view pop-ups.

Advanced PreOrder switches the button to Pre-order when an item is out of stock or not yet available, per product and per variant. Its listing tags include badges, countdown timers, custom branding and custom text, and the Free plan includes a sales counter and a pre-order description. The developer page also mentions custom delivery timing. What it does not describe is a threshold-based trigger or scheduled start and end dates.

For urgency elements around a launch, Advanced PreOrder brings more built-in pieces. For precise control of when the button appears and which date the shopper sees, K1 is more complete.

Notify Me and coming soon

This is Advanced PreOrder's clearest advantage. Its Standard plan includes Notify Me (back in stock alerts) and request a quote, and coming soon products are available from the Small plan. K1 lists coming soon as an order type, but back in stock alerts appear neither on its App Store page nor on its feature page, so you would need a separate app. If restock alerts are on your list, see our XFlow vs Back In Stock! Alert Engine comparison.

Advanced PreOrder's Platinum plan also includes try before you buy and packaging slips and invoices, two features with no equivalent on K1's pages.

Inventory, carts and orders

Overselling and messy carts are the hidden costs of pre-orders.

K1 can manage Shopify's continue selling setting for you, applies pre-order limits per variant, and makes sure only one active rule owns a variant. Its mixed cart setting has three modes: allow, show a notice, or block carts that combine in-stock and pre-order items. On Growth and higher, Smart Cart Allocation splits a requested quantity into a regular part and a pre-order part, and mixed-cart shipping becomes available. Orders can be tagged by payment option, which helps your team filter deposit orders in the admin.

Advanced PreOrder's plans count published pre-order products (4 on Free, 15 on Small, unlimited from Standard). Quantity caps per product, mixed cart handling and order tagging are not listed on its App Store page.

Languages and markets

K1 reads the languages published in your Shopify store and lets you translate the button, badge, widget labels, messages and payment option text, falling back to your default language when a translation is missing. Market targeting is reserved for Growth and higher.

Advanced PreOrder's Standard plan adds geo-location, described as showing the pre-order or partial button based on the shopper's country. Multi-language support is not listed on its App Store page, and the listing itself is English only. For a store selling in several languages, K1 is the safer choice.

Integrations and automation

K1 lists Shopify Flow, Shopify Sidekick, GemPages, LayoutHub and Qikify, and adds a My pre-orders page inside the new Shopify customer accounts. Advanced PreOrder works with Advanced Invoice/GST, useful for Indian merchants who need GST invoices, and Zapiet, useful for stores offering store pickup or local delivery. Shopify Flow is not listed for Advanced PreOrder. Neither app lists Shopify POS as a feature.

Pricing

The two apps use different units, and that changes your budget more than the headline prices.

K1 PreOrder charges by pre-order revenue every 30 days:

The first four plans appear on the App Store listing; Pro, Scale and Unlimited are shown on K1's website. Paid plans come with a 7-day trial and a 60-day money-back guarantee. The listing says plans below Growth exclude some features without naming them all; the website places market targeting, mixed-cart shipping, Smart Cart Allocation, manual pre-orders and a custom email sender on Growth and above.

Advanced PreOrder charges by number of products:

A 3-day free trial is shown. The developer's pricing page lists extra tiers (Basic at $7.99 and a Custom Support plan at $60.99), so plan names vary depending on where you look. Both apps bill in US dollars.

How to read this: a store with 30 pre-order products but only $800 of pre-order sales a month pays $4.99 on K1 and at least $9.99 on Advanced PreOrder. A store with 3 pre-order products and $15,000 of pre-order sales a month pays $49.99 on K1 and nothing on Advanced PreOrder's Free plan, as long as it does not need partial payments. Shopify Plus stores pay a higher price on Advanced PreOrder, while K1 lists no separate Plus price.

Support and reputation

K1's website advertises founder-led support and free migration of settings and pending balances from another pre-order app. Its reviews are all four or five stars, a strong start on a still small sample for an app under two years old.

Advanced PreOrder offers support by email and through a ticket system, and its pricing page lists a paid Custom Support tier with 4 hours of custom work per month. With 166 reviews over eight years, its track record is longer, and the few one-star reviews show that not every install went smoothly.

Three store profiles

A small ceramics brand taking deposits on kiln batches

Around 20 products, a new batch every six weeks, customers pay 30% upfront and the rest when the pieces ship. Monthly pre-order sales stay under $1,000. K1 PreOrder on Starter at $4.99 fits: percentage deposits, automatic balance charge, a shipping date message and a mixed-cart notice.

An electronics accessories store with frequent stockouts

Hundreds of SKUs, a few go out of stock every week, and the owner wants both pre-orders and Notify Me emails without paying for two apps. Advanced PreOrder on Standard at $9.99 fits, with unlimited pre-orders, Notify Me and geo-location in one plan.

A multilingual brand launching a product with a long lead time

A launch expected to bring $8,000 of pre-orders in a month, sold in English, French and German, with buyers choosing between a deposit and full payment. K1 PreOrder on Growth at $29.99 fits: translations, market targeting, Smart Cart Allocation and Shopify Flow to tag and route orders.

Switching from one app to the other

1. Settle open balances first. Deposits waiting for a second payment depend on the app that created them. K1 says it offers free migration of pending balances, so ask its team before moving to it.
2. Write down your setup: which products and variants are on pre-order, button wording, limits and dates.
3. Install the new app and recreate the rules, then remove the old app embed or block so shoppers do not see two pre-order buttons.
4. Leaving Advanced PreOrder for K1? Plan a replacement for Notify Me alerts, since K1 does not list them.
5. Leaving K1 for Advanced PreOrder? Check which plan includes partial payment in your account and review mixed-cart behaviour, which Advanced PreOrder does not describe.
6. Place a test order with one in-stock item and one pre-order item before going live.

For another pair of pre-order apps, read our Bat Preorders vs PreProduct comparison. And if you plan to pair pre-orders with stock messages, our guide on low stock alerts that convert explains what to show and when.