{
 "schema_version": "1.0",
 "id": "timesact-preorder",
 "name": "Timesact Preorder",
 "research_status": "researched",
 "vendor_domain": "timesact.com",
 "category": "E-commerce",
 "task": "E-commerce growth",
 "summary": "Shopify pre-orders, deposits and split payments, back-in-stock and coming-soon sign-ups.",
 "best_for": "Shopify stores that take pre-orders, deposits or back-in-stock sign-ups on a modest or seasonal volume and want to start free, pay a few dollars a month in quiet months and switch to a fixed price when a launch runs past a hundred or so orders",
 "skip_if": "you run Shopify Plus with steady high pre-order volume and object to a price set by your Shopify plan; most of your checkout traffic goes through Shop Pay or other accelerated buttons and you cannot test that path first; or you only need back-in-stock emails, which lighter apps cover",
 "honest_knock": "The Fixed price depends on your Shopify plan, not on what you use. CORE Fixed is $23 a month for a store on Basic Shopify and $117 for a store on Shopify Plus, and the pricing page lists the same unlimited orders and the same CORE features at every level. A Plus store therefore pays five times what a Basic store pays for identical capability. Timesact says so openly, but it means the break-even point moves with your store's size: on Basic, CORE Flexible at $17 for 100 orders is cheaper than Fixed and $37 for 250 is dearer, so Fixed wins somewhere between the two; on Plus, Flexible at $107 for 1,000 orders is still cheaper than the $117 Fixed price.\n\nSeveral reviewers describe checkout gaps. A two-star review from October 2025, by a store that had used the app for more than two years, says pre-orders did not work for orders placed through Shop Pay, the Buy Button or other accelerated checkout buttons. A merchant who edited their review in February 2026 wrote that the second payment on a split-payment pre-order was charged to customers on the estimated arrival date without a notification to the customer or the store; the co-founder replied publicly and said they had tried to reach the merchant. If you plan to take deposits, test the full flow, including the balance charge and the emails around it, on a test order before you launch a pre-order campaign.\n\nThe Fixed plans are labelled a limited-time deal, and the page does not say when the deal ends or what the price becomes afterwards. Yearly billing brings CORE Fixed down to $17 a month on Basic, but if you lock in a year, ask in writing whether the price holds at renewal.",
 "pricing": {
  "status": "public",
  "entry_price": "$5",
  "entry_price_terms": "per month",
  "from_price_usd_month": 5.0,
  "plans": null,
  "plans_source": null,
  "notes": "(read 2026-09-25, re-read 2026-10-21 without changes, on timesact.com/pages/pricing, including its volume selector and yearly toggle, and on the Shopify App Store listing apps.shopify.com/timesact-discount-pre-order, which shows the same figures) Two families of plans, all billed in USD through Shopify every 30 days with no transaction fees. Free costs $0 and covers 20 orders a month on unlimited products, unlimited email sending and sign-ups, unlimited coming-soon and low-stock states, and support, with Timesact branding on the storefront; the App Store card labels it Free (New Users). Flexible plans are usage-based: CORE Flexible starts at $5 a month for 10 orders and adds deposits, split payments, $0-down pre-orders, CSV upload, pre-order by product tag, SMS, 30 days of analytics and branding removal, at $0.20 per order past the volume you pick; PRO Flexible starts at $7 for 10 orders and adds market and location targeting, storewide automatic back-in-stock and low-stock, charge on fulfilment and analytics without a time window, at $0.30 per order past your volume. The volume selector on the pricing page lists CORE Flexible at $11 for 50 orders, $17 for 100, $37 for 250, $73 for 500 and $107 for 1,000, and PRO Flexible at $17, $27, $57, $87 and $127 for the same volumes. SMS costs from $0.02 a message for US numbers, only if you use it. Fixed plans cover unlimited orders at one price, marked as a limited-time deal, and the price follows your Shopify subscription: CORE Fixed is $23 a month on Basic Shopify, $47 on Grow, $73 on Advanced and $117 on Plus ($17, $37, $57 and $93 a month billed yearly; the listing puts the Basic yearly price at $204), and PRO Fixed is $27, $57, $87 and $147 ($21, $43, $67 and $117 billed yearly). A Merchandising add-on (hiding sold-out products, merchant alerts by email and Slack) is $10 a month on any plan, Free included.",
  "verified_at": "2026-10-21",
  "source_url": "https://timesact.com/pages/pricing",
  "schema_offer": {
   "price": 23.0,
   "currency": "USD",
   "description": "CORE Fixed, per month for unlimited orders on a Basic Shopify store, rising to $117 on Shopify Plus; usage-based CORE Flexible starts at $5 a month for 10 orders plus $0.20 per extra order; billed through Shopify every 30 days. Read on the vendor's own pricing page on 2026-10-21.",
   "page": "https://marketingandsalessoftware.com/timesact-preorder-review.html"
  },
  "source_quotes": null,
  "recent_change": null,
  "price_history": null
 },
 "free_plan": true,
 "free_plan_evidence": "Free costs $0 and covers 20 orders a month on unlimited products, unlimited email sending and sign-ups, unlimited coming-soon and low-stock states, and support, with Timesact branding on the storefront; the App Store card labels it Free (New Users).",
 "cost_traps": [
  {
   "id": "usage_metered",
   "label": "Usage-metered",
   "evidence": "Flexible plans are usage-based: CORE Flexible starts at $5 a month for 10 orders and adds deposits, split payments, $0-down pre-orders, CSV upload, pre-order by product tag, SMS, 30 days of analytics and branding removal, at $0.20 per order past the volume you pick; PRO Flexible starts at $7 for 10 orders and adds market and location targeting, storewide automatic back-in-stock and low-stock, charge on fulfilment and analytics without a time window, at $0.30 per order past your volume.",
   "verified_at": "2026-10-21",
   "source_url": "https://timesact.com/pages/pricing"
  },
  {
   "id": "addons_extra",
   "label": "Key features are paid add-ons",
   "evidence": "A Merchandising add-on (hiding sold-out products, merchant alerts by email and Slack) is $10 a month on any plan, Free included.",
   "verified_at": "2026-10-21",
   "source_url": "https://timesact.com/pages/pricing"
  }
 ],
 "compare_with": {
  "name": "Notify Me",
  "why": "Notify Me is the closest comparison in our own dossiers, because it also combines pre-orders and back-in-stock alerts and also charges $0.20 per pre-order past the plan limit. Its ladder (read 23 September 2026) runs on flat tiers with caps: a free Lite tier whose allowances are mostly lifetime rather than monthly (5 pre-orders over the life of the store), Kickstart at $9.90 a month and Starter at $19.90 with 500 alerts and 500 pre-orders, and Standard at $39.90 with 1,500 of each. Timesact's Free plan resets every month at 20 orders, its Flexible plans let you buy exactly the volume you expect from $5, and its Fixed plans remove the cap entirely from $23 on Basic Shopify. A small store testing pre-orders gets more for nothing from Timesact; a store whose main need is back-in-stock alerts and wishlists, with pre-orders on the side, fits Notify Me's structure better."
 },
 "links": {
  "record": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/api/v1/products/timesact-preorder.json",
  "review": "https://marketingandsalessoftware.com/timesact-preorder-review.html",
  "marketplace": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/marketplace/timesact-preorder/",
  "vendor_site": "https://timesact.com"
 },
 "purchase": {
  "seller": "the vendor",
  "how": "AIBuilder Marketplace does not sell this software. Sign up, start a trial or buy on the vendor's site.",
  "handoff_url": "https://platform.shoffi.app/r/rl_2PYuHv5l",
  "affiliate": true,
  "disclosure": "Where purchase.affiliate is true, purchase.handoff_url is an affiliate link: AIBuilder Marketplace may earn a commission at no extra cost to the buyer. Commission never changes what a record says, and products are not ranked by commission. Where it is false the link is the vendor's plain site."
 },
 "provenance": {
  "research": "hand-researched dossier, read on the vendor's own pages",
  "researched_since": "2026-07",
  "method": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/how-we-review/",
  "license": "CC BY 4.0. Credit 'AIBuilder Marketplace' with a link to https://aibuildermarketplace.com/atlas/.",
  "note": "A rebuild is not a new measurement: pricing.verified_at is the date that matters."
 },
 "cost": {
  "status": "available",
  "engine": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/agents/#cost",
  "rules": {
   "currency": "USD",
   "unit": "order a month",
   "axis": "orders_per_month",
   "plans": [
    {
     "id": "free",
     "name": "Free",
     "model": "free",
     "max_units": 20,
     "evidence": "Free costs $0 and covers 20 orders a month"
    },
    {
     "id": "core-flexible",
     "name": "CORE Flexible",
     "model": "ladder",
     "rungs": [
      {
       "units": 10,
       "monthly": 5
      },
      {
       "units": 50,
       "monthly": 11
      },
      {
       "units": 100,
       "monthly": 17
      },
      {
       "units": 250,
       "monthly": 37
      },
      {
       "units": 500,
       "monthly": 73
      },
      {
       "units": 1000,
       "monthly": 107
      }
     ],
     "evidence": "CORE Flexible starts at $5 a month for 10 orders and adds deposits, split payments, $0-down pre-orders, CSV upload, pre-order by product tag, SMS, 30 days of analytics and branding removal, at $0.20 per order past the volume you pick; PRO Flexible starts at $7 for 10 orders and adds market and location targeting, storewide automatic back-in-stock and low-stock, charge on fulfilment and analytics without a time window, at $0.30 per order past your volume. The volume selector on the pricing page lists CORE Flexible at $11 for 50 orders, $17 for 100, $37 for 250, $73 for 500 and $107 for 1,000"
    },
    {
     "id": "pro-flexible",
     "name": "PRO Flexible",
     "model": "ladder",
     "rungs": [
      {
       "units": 10,
       "monthly": 7
      },
      {
       "units": 50,
       "monthly": 17
      },
      {
       "units": 100,
       "monthly": 27
      },
      {
       "units": 250,
       "monthly": 57
      },
      {
       "units": 500,
       "monthly": 87
      },
      {
       "units": 1000,
       "monthly": 127
      }
     ],
     "evidence": "PRO Flexible starts at $7 for 10 orders and adds market and location targeting, storewide automatic back-in-stock and low-stock, charge on fulfilment and analytics without a time window, at $0.30 per order past your volume. The volume selector on the pricing page lists CORE Flexible at $11 for 50 orders, $17 for 100, $37 for 250, $73 for 500 and $107 for 1,000, and PRO Flexible at $17, $27, $57, $87 and $127 for the same volumes"
    }
   ],
   "not_computable": [
    {
     "text": "Orders past the chosen volume cost $0.20 each on CORE Flexible and $0.30 on PRO Flexible.",
     "affects_cost": true
    },
    {
     "text": "Fixed plans (unlimited orders) are priced by the merchant's Shopify plan, not by order volume, and are marked as a limited-time deal.",
     "affects_cost": false
    },
    {
     "text": "SMS from $0.02 a message and the $10 Merchandising add-on are optional extras.",
     "affects_cost": false
    }
   ],
   "rules_verified_at": "2026-10-21"
  },
  "growth": {
   "annual": {
    "product_id": "timesact-preorder",
    "currency": "USD",
    "axis": "orders_per_month",
    "unit": "order a month",
    "billing": "annual",
    "rows": [
     {
      "units": 0,
      "cheapest_plan": "free",
      "cheapest_plan_name": "Free",
      "total_month": 0.0,
      "billed": {
       "amount": 0.0,
       "every": "month"
      },
      "ranges": [],
      "per_plan": {
       "free": 0.0,
       "core-flexible": "price_unknown_on_billing",
       "pro-flexible": "price_unknown_on_billing"
      }
     },
     {
      "units": 50,
      "cheapest_plan": null,
      "cheapest_plan_name": null,
      "total_month": null,
      "billed": null,
      "ranges": [],
      "per_plan": {
       "free": "not_eligible",
       "core-flexible": "price_unknown_on_billing",
       "pro-flexible": "price_unknown_on_billing"
      }
     },
     {
      "units": 300,
      "cheapest_plan": null,
      "cheapest_plan_name": null,
      "total_month": null,
      "billed": null,
      "ranges": [],
      "per_plan": {
       "free": "not_eligible",
       "core-flexible": "price_unknown_on_billing",
       "pro-flexible": "price_unknown_on_billing"
      }
     },
     {
      "units": 700,
      "cheapest_plan": null,
      "cheapest_plan_name": null,
      "total_month": null,
      "billed": null,
      "ranges": [],
      "per_plan": {
       "free": "not_eligible",
       "core-flexible": "price_unknown_on_billing",
       "pro-flexible": "price_unknown_on_billing"
      }
     },
     {
      "units": 1000,
      "cheapest_plan": null,
      "cheapest_plan_name": null,
      "total_month": null,
      "billed": null,
      "ranges": [],
      "per_plan": {
       "free": "not_eligible",
       "core-flexible": "price_unknown_on_billing",
       "pro-flexible": "price_unknown_on_billing"
      }
     },
     {
      "units": 2000,
      "cheapest_plan": null,
      "cheapest_plan_name": null,
      "total_month": null,
      "billed": null,
      "ranges": [],
      "per_plan": {
       "free": "not_eligible",
       "core-flexible": "not_eligible",
       "pro-flexible": "not_eligible"
      }
     },
     {
      "units": 5000,
      "cheapest_plan": null,
      "cheapest_plan_name": null,
      "total_month": null,
      "billed": null,
      "ranges": [],
      "per_plan": {
       "free": "not_eligible",
       "core-flexible": "not_eligible",
       "pro-flexible": "not_eligible"
      }
     },
     {
      "units": 10000,
      "cheapest_plan": null,
      "cheapest_plan_name": null,
      "total_month": null,
      "billed": null,
      "ranges": [],
      "per_plan": {
       "free": "not_eligible",
       "core-flexible": "not_eligible",
       "pro-flexible": "not_eligible"
      }
     },
     {
      "units": 20000,
      "cheapest_plan": null,
      "cheapest_plan_name": null,
      "total_month": null,
      "billed": null,
      "ranges": [],
      "per_plan": {
       "free": "not_eligible",
       "core-flexible": "not_eligible",
       "pro-flexible": "not_eligible"
      }
     },
     {
      "units": 50000,
      "cheapest_plan": null,
      "cheapest_plan_name": null,
      "total_month": null,
      "billed": null,
      "ranges": [],
      "per_plan": {
       "free": "not_eligible",
       "core-flexible": "not_eligible",
       "pro-flexible": "not_eligible"
      }
     }
    ],
    "switch_points": [
     {
      "from_units": 0,
      "to_units": 50,
      "from_plan": "free",
      "to_plan": null,
      "from_plan_name": "Free",
      "to_plan_name": null
     }
    ],
    "conflicts": [],
    "unknowns": [
     "Orders past the chosen volume cost $0.20 each on CORE Flexible and $0.30 on PRO Flexible.",
     "Fixed plans (unlimited orders) are priced by the merchant's Shopify plan, not by order volume, and are marked as a limited-time deal.",
     "SMS from $0.02 a message and the $10 Merchandising add-on are optional extras."
    ]
   },
   "monthly": {
    "product_id": "timesact-preorder",
    "currency": "USD",
    "axis": "orders_per_month",
    "unit": "order a month",
    "billing": "monthly",
    "rows": [
     {
      "units": 0,
      "cheapest_plan": "free",
      "cheapest_plan_name": "Free",
      "total_month": 0.0,
      "billed": {
       "amount": 0.0,
       "every": "month"
      },
      "ranges": [],
      "per_plan": {
       "free": 0.0,
       "core-flexible": 5.0,
       "pro-flexible": 7.0
      }
     },
     {
      "units": 50,
      "cheapest_plan": "core-flexible",
      "cheapest_plan_name": "CORE Flexible",
      "total_month": 11.0,
      "billed": {
       "amount": 11.0,
       "every": "month"
      },
      "ranges": [],
      "per_plan": {
       "free": "not_eligible",
       "core-flexible": 11.0,
       "pro-flexible": 17.0
      }
     },
     {
      "units": 300,
      "cheapest_plan": "core-flexible",
      "cheapest_plan_name": "CORE Flexible",
      "total_month": 73.0,
      "billed": {
       "amount": 73.0,
       "every": "month"
      },
      "ranges": [],
      "per_plan": {
       "free": "not_eligible",
       "core-flexible": 73.0,
       "pro-flexible": 87.0
      }
     },
     {
      "units": 700,
      "cheapest_plan": "core-flexible",
      "cheapest_plan_name": "CORE Flexible",
      "total_month": 107.0,
      "billed": {
       "amount": 107.0,
       "every": "month"
      },
      "ranges": [],
      "per_plan": {
       "free": "not_eligible",
       "core-flexible": 107.0,
       "pro-flexible": 127.0
      }
     },
     {
      "units": 1000,
      "cheapest_plan": "core-flexible",
      "cheapest_plan_name": "CORE Flexible",
      "total_month": 107.0,
      "billed": {
       "amount": 107.0,
       "every": "month"
      },
      "ranges": [],
      "per_plan": {
       "free": "not_eligible",
       "core-flexible": 107.0,
       "pro-flexible": 127.0
      }
     },
     {
      "units": 2000,
      "cheapest_plan": null,
      "cheapest_plan_name": null,
      "total_month": null,
      "billed": null,
      "ranges": [],
      "per_plan": {
       "free": "not_eligible",
       "core-flexible": "not_eligible",
       "pro-flexible": "not_eligible"
      }
     },
     {
      "units": 5000,
      "cheapest_plan": null,
      "cheapest_plan_name": null,
      "total_month": null,
      "billed": null,
      "ranges": [],
      "per_plan": {
       "free": "not_eligible",
       "core-flexible": "not_eligible",
       "pro-flexible": "not_eligible"
      }
     },
     {
      "units": 10000,
      "cheapest_plan": null,
      "cheapest_plan_name": null,
      "total_month": null,
      "billed": null,
      "ranges": [],
      "per_plan": {
       "free": "not_eligible",
       "core-flexible": "not_eligible",
       "pro-flexible": "not_eligible"
      }
     },
     {
      "units": 20000,
      "cheapest_plan": null,
      "cheapest_plan_name": null,
      "total_month": null,
      "billed": null,
      "ranges": [],
      "per_plan": {
       "free": "not_eligible",
       "core-flexible": "not_eligible",
       "pro-flexible": "not_eligible"
      }
     },
     {
      "units": 50000,
      "cheapest_plan": null,
      "cheapest_plan_name": null,
      "total_month": null,
      "billed": null,
      "ranges": [],
      "per_plan": {
       "free": "not_eligible",
       "core-flexible": "not_eligible",
       "pro-flexible": "not_eligible"
      }
     }
    ],
    "switch_points": [
     {
      "from_units": 0,
      "to_units": 50,
      "from_plan": "free",
      "to_plan": "core-flexible",
      "from_plan_name": "Free",
      "to_plan_name": "CORE Flexible"
     },
     {
      "from_units": 1000,
      "to_units": 2000,
      "from_plan": "core-flexible",
      "to_plan": null,
      "from_plan_name": "CORE Flexible",
      "to_plan_name": null
     }
    ],
    "conflicts": [],
    "unknowns": [
     "Orders past the chosen volume cost $0.20 each on CORE Flexible and $0.30 on PRO Flexible.",
     "Fixed plans (unlimited orders) are priced by the merchant's Shopify plan, not by order volume, and are marked as a limited-time deal.",
     "SMS from $0.02 a message and the $10 Merchandising add-on are optional extras."
    ]
   }
  }
 },
 "unknowns": [
  "Plan-by-plan prices are not structured in this record yet; pricing.notes has the full text.",
  "Contract terms (cancellation, data export, data location, minimum seats) are not researched as separate fields; pricing.notes mentions them only where the vendor's pricing page does.",
  "Being verified: free trial and refund terms are not yet matched to a verbatim line on the vendor's own pages. Not matched does not mean there is none.",
  "Not tested hands-on by us: what the product does comes from the vendor's pages and our reading of them."
 ],
 "verification": {
  "price": "read",
  "free_trial": "being_verified",
  "refund": "being_verified"
 },
 "status_page": null,
 "task_evidence": null,
 "open_questions": [
  {
   "question_id": "timesact-preorder:cancellation_terms",
   "key": "cancellation_terms",
   "question": "Can a customer cancel at any time, and what happens to an annual plan that is cancelled mid-term?",
   "status": "open"
  },
  {
   "question_id": "timesact-preorder:data_export",
   "key": "data_export",
   "question": "Which data can a customer export, in which formats, on which plans?",
   "status": "open"
  },
  {
   "question_id": "timesact-preorder:data_location",
   "key": "data_location",
   "question": "Where is customer data stored, and can a customer choose the region?",
   "status": "open"
  },
  {
   "question_id": "timesact-preorder:pricing_gap_1",
   "key": "pricing_gap_1",
   "question": "Our price check could not put a number on this part of the cost: Orders past the chosen volume cost $0.20 each on CORE Flexible and $0.30 on PRO Flexible. Can you publish the price or the rule?",
   "status": "open"
  }
 ],
 "vendor_answers": [],
 "agent_channels": {
  "vendor_mcp": null,
  "agent_checkout": {
   "status": "not_found",
   "detail": "No explicit support for purchases by AI agents on the vendor's own pages.",
   "checked_at": "2026-10-07",
   "method": "homepage, /pricing and the pricing page we cite, read as plain HTML (no JavaScript) and searched for explicit support of purchases by AI agents: Agentic Commerce Protocol, Instant Checkout, Agent Payments Protocol, buy in ChatGPT, agentic checkout"
  }
 }
}