How Do I Get Pre-Orders to Fund My App Build?

Around 70% of app development projects run out of money before they make it to launch, which means thousands of great ideas never see the light of day simply because the funding dried up halfway through. The question of how to finance an app build has stumped countless founders who have brilliant concepts but limited cash reserves, and pre-orders can be the lifeline that turns an idea into reality. I've been building apps for over a decade now, and I've watched dozens of projects use pre-orders to fund their development, some raising £20k, others pulling in close to 200 grand before writing a single line of production code.

Pre-order funding lets you build the app your customers actually want, rather than the app you think they want, because they're voting with their wallets before you've spent months going in the wrong direction.

The beauty of pre-order funding is that it solves two problems at once... you get the money you need to pay developers, designers and infrastructure costs, and you get proof that people will actually use what you're planning to build. This second part matters more than most founders realise, because validation is worth more than the cash itself.

Understanding Pre-Orders for App Development

Pre-orders for apps work differently than physical products, mainly because you're asking people to pay for something they can't try or touch yet. The transaction is entirely based on trust, a compelling vision, and the belief that you'll deliver something worthwhile. I've seen apps collect pre-orders through several different models, and each one suits different types of projects and audiences.

Some apps sell lifetime access at a discounted rate, others offer the first year free plus exclusive features, and some bundle in personal onboarding sessions or early access to premium content. The model you choose depends on whether your app is subscription-based, one-time purchase, or freemium with paid upgrades. Understanding different revenue models and pricing strategies is crucial before deciding on your pre-order structure.

• Discounted lifetime access works well for productivity tools and utilities
• First year free appeals to subscription apps in competitive markets
• Founding member status with exclusive features suits community-driven apps
• Beta access with input on development attracts tech-savvy early adopters
• Bundled services or content works for education and professional development apps

The fact is that pre-orders aren't right for every app... if you're building something that requires network effects (like a social network or marketplace), you need a critical mass of users before the app becomes useful, which makes asking for payment upfront quite difficult.

Validating Your App Idea Before You Build

Before you even think about taking pre-orders, you need to validate that people actually want what you're planning to build. I've watched founders skip this step probably 30 times now, and almost all of them regretted it when they launched to crickets. Validation doesn't mean asking your mum if she thinks it's a good idea, it means finding strangers who will give you money based on a description and some mockups. This is where prototype validation and MVP testing becomes essential to prove your concept works.

Start with a landing page that explains what the app does, who it's for, and what problem it solves. Use proper tools like Figma or Sketch to create mockups that show the key screens, and write descriptions that focus on benefits rather than features. A healthcare app I worked on raised £45k in pre-orders with nothing more than five mockup screens and a detailed explanation of how it would help nurses manage shift patterns more efficiently.

1. Create a landing page with clear problem and solution statements
2. Build 5-8 mockup screens showing core functionality
3. Set up email capture and track conversion rates
4. Run small paid advertising campaigns to test messaging
5. Interview people who sign up to understand their pain points

Track the percentage of landing page visitors who give you their email address... if it's below 2%, your messaging isn't connecting with people and you need to rethink your positioning before asking for money. Building a strong email list before launch is crucial for converting visitors into pre-order customers.

The validation phase should cost you less than £500 if you're doing it yourself, maybe £2k if you need help with design and copywriting. You're looking for clear signals that people understand what you're offering and care enough to want updates about it.

Creating a Minimum Viable Offering That People Will Pay For

The hardest part of pre-orders is figuring out what to actually offer, because you can't give people a fully functioning app yet. You need to create something valuable enough that people will hand over money, but simple enough that you can deliver it without the full app being finished. This balance takes careful thought about what your early supporters truly want.

I've found that the best pre-order offerings combine immediate value with future benefits. A fintech app I helped build offered pre-order customers a detailed personal finance audit conducted manually by the founders, plus lifetime access to the app once it launched. This gave immediate value (the audit) and future value (the app access), and it meant the founders were speaking directly to their target users throughout development. This approach requires careful budget planning for your first year to ensure you can deliver on these promises.

The service-plus-app model is my favourite because it forces you to understand the problem deeply before you automate the solution. You're essentially doing the work manually for your first customers, which teaches you exactly what the app needs to do and where the tricky edge cases hide.

Setting Up Your Pre-Order System

The technical setup for collecting pre-orders doesn't need to be complicated, and you definitely don't need to build custom payment systems from scratch. I've set up pre-order systems using Stripe, Gumroad, and even just PayPal invoices, depending on the project size and complexity. The key is making sure you can collect payment, deliver whatever immediate value you've promised, and keep track of who needs access when the app launches. If you plan to include paid features later, understanding proper in-app purchase setup will save you headaches during app store review.

Stripe works well for most projects because you can create products and prices, generate payment links, and trigger email sequences when purchases complete. The fees are 1.5% plus 20p for European cards, which is perfectly reasonable when you're collecting thousands of pounds. Set up a simple checkout page using Stripe's hosted checkout, which handles all the payment security and compliance stuff without you needing to worry about PCI-DSS requirements.

The only way I've seen pre-orders work reliably is when you make the purchase process as simple as possible... every extra form field or confirmation step will cost you about 20% of potential customers who get distracted or change their minds.

Link your payment system to an email marketing platform like ConvertKit or Mailchimp so you can automatically send purchase confirmations, keep pre-order customers updated on progress, and segment them from your general email list. These people have given you money based on a promise, so they deserve regular updates about how development is progressing. Consider implementing essential email campaigns to keep your pre-order customers engaged throughout the development process.

Pricing Strategy for Pre-Launch Apps

Pricing pre-orders is tricky because you're balancing several competing factors at once... you need to offer enough discount that people feel they're getting a special deal for taking a risk on an unfinished product, but not so much discount that you undervalue your work or create problems when you launch at full price. The discount needs to feel significant without being desperate.

I typically recommend offering pre-orders at 40-50% off the planned launch price, which feels substantial to buyers whilst still leaving room for your regular pricing to seem reasonable when you launch. A fitness app I worked on charged £29 for lifetime access during pre-orders, planning to launch at £4.99 per month subscription, which meant pre-order customers were getting the equivalent of six months access for the same price if they stayed subscribed long term.

Think carefully about whether you want to offer lifetime access or time-limited access, because lifetime deals can create problems if your app requires ongoing server costs or content creation. An education app I built offered lifetime access during pre-orders, but the server costs scaled with usage in ways we hadn't predicted, and those early customers ended up costing more to support than they'd paid.

Building Trust Without a Finished Product

Getting people to give you money for something that doesn't exist yet requires building trust through transparency, regular communication, and showing genuine progress towards launch. I've seen founders make the mistake of going quiet after collecting pre-orders, thinking they should focus on building and communicate when they're ready to launch. This is backwards.

Share your progress every week or two, even when that progress feels small or unexciting. Show screenshots of the design work, explain technical decisions you're making, share problems you're solving. An e-commerce app I worked on sent updates every Thursday showing exactly what had been completed that week, what was in progress, and what was coming next. The response from pre-order customers was overwhelmingly positive because they felt involved in the journey. When promoting your updates on social platforms, understand what makes users install apps from social media to maximise your reach.

Create a private Slack channel or Discord server for pre-order customers where they can ask questions, make suggestions, and see behind-the-scenes development work... this turns them from customers into supporters who will promote your app when it launches.

Put your face and real name on everything. Use video updates occasionally so people can see you're a real person working on a real project. Be honest when things take longer than expected or when you need to change direction based on what you're learning. The healthcare app I mentioned earlier had to delay launch by six weeks because of regulatory requirements we hadn't anticipated, and the founders explained this clearly to pre-order customers, who were completely understanding because they felt respected.

Managing Expectations and Timeline Communication

The biggest cause of problems with pre-order funding is unrealistic timeline promises that create disappointment and refund requests when you can't deliver on schedule. App development always takes longer than you think, because you discover complexity you didn't anticipate, APIs don't work the way documentation suggests, and testing reveals problems that need fixing before launch. Before making any timeline commitments, ensure you've covered essential development planning questions to avoid nasty surprises later.

When you're setting a timeline for pre-order customers, add at least 50% more time than your best guess for how long development will take. If you think you can build and launch in four months, tell pre-order customers to expect access in six months. This gives you breathing room for the unexpected problems that will definitely appear, and it means you might actually deliver early, which makes you look great.

Communicate about timeline changes as soon as you know about them. Don't wait until launch day to tell people the app isn't ready yet. I worked with a meditation app that realised three months into development they needed to rebuild the audio playback system because the original approach caused battery drain problems. They explained this to pre-order customers immediately, pushed the launch date back by five weeks, and not a single person asked for a refund because they appreciated the honesty. When stakeholders request changes, having strategies for managing scope changes and requirement shifts will help you communicate delays more effectively.

Legal and Financial Considerations for Pre-Order Funding

Taking money from people before you've delivered a product creates legal obligations that you need to understand and plan for. In the UK, you're bound by consumer protection laws that give buyers the right to refunds under certain circumstances, and you need to be clear about what you're selling and when you'll deliver it.

Your pre-order terms need to explain exactly what customers are buying, what they'll receive and when, what happens if you can't deliver, and how refunds work. Get a solicitor to review your terms if you're collecting more than a few thousand pounds, because the cost of legal advice upfront is much less painful than dealing with legal problems after you've spent the money on development.

The tax implications of pre-order funding catch a lot of founders off guard, because you might need to pay VAT on the money you collect even though you haven't delivered the product yet, which can create cash flow problems if you've already spent the money on development costs.

Keep pre-order money in a separate bank account from your personal or business accounts, and track every penny you spend from it. If you end up unable to deliver the app for any reason, you might need to refund customers, and having the money available makes that much less stressful. A productivity app I worked on collected £68k in pre-orders and kept £15k untouched in case they needed to issue refunds, which turned out to be smart when three customers needed refunds for various personal reasons.

Conclusion

Pre-order funding can be the difference between an app that gets built and an app that stays stuck in the idea phase forever, but it requires careful planning, honest communication, and realistic promises about what you can deliver and when. The apps that successfully use pre-orders to fund development are the ones that treat their early customers as partners in the process, keeping them informed, listening to their feedback, and delivering something that solves the problem they paid to have solved.

The money you raise through pre-orders is valuable, but the relationships you build with those early customers and the validation you get from their willingness to pay are worth even more. These are the people who will leave your first reviews, recommend you to their friends, and give you honest feedback about what works and what needs improvement. Treat them well.

If you're thinking about using pre-orders to fund your app development and want help planning your approach or building the landing pages and payment systems you'll need, get in touch with us and we can talk through your specific situation.

Frequently Asked Questions