Draft orders are a real Shopify feature, and if you only quote once in a while, they work. You open the admin, build the order by hand, and send the customer an invoice link they pay through checkout. No app, no cost. The gap shows up when quoting becomes a regular part of how you sell.
What draft orders do well
Native draft orders are free and built in. A staff member can assemble line items, apply a discount, and email an invoice link that settles through native Shopify checkout. For a handful of one-off deals a month, that is often enough, and there is no reason to add software for it.
The limits are structural. Draft orders start inside the admin, so the customer has no way to ask for a quote from your storefront. The invoice is plain and carries no branding beyond the basics. You get no signal on whether the buyer opened it, clicked, or is close to buying. And every step is manual.
Where ShopQuotes is different
ShopQuotes is built for merchants who quote a lot: B2B, wholesale, and made-to-order. It is a CRM for quotes (build, track, send), not just an intake form.
- Storefront request button. A native “Request a Quote” button and popup sits on your product and cart pages with no theme code. Buyers start the quote themselves.
- Requests become draft orders. Each request converts into a real Shopify draft order, so you are still working inside Shopify, not a separate silo.
- Branded Live Quote page. The customer opens a branded quote they can accept and pay for through native Shopify checkout, the same checkout draft orders use.
- Tracking on every quote. Open, click, and conversion analytics tell you which quotes are live and which went cold.
- Send from your own domain. Quotes go out from your Gmail, Outlook, SendGrid, Resend, or any SMTP, or by link or PDF.
Side by side
| Shopify draft orders | ShopQuotes | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free | Free plan, paid from $19/mo |
| Storefront request button | No | Yes, no theme code |
| Where a quote starts | Admin, manual | Storefront or admin |
| Customer-facing quote | Plain invoice link | Branded Live Quote page |
| Open / click / conversion tracking | No | Yes |
| Send from your own email domain | No | Yes (Gmail, Outlook, SMTP, more) |
| Checkout | Native Shopify | Native Shopify |
| Commission on orders | None | None |
Which to pick
Stay with draft orders if quoting is rare and you do not need a request button, branding, or tracking. There is no cost and nothing to install.
Move to ShopQuotes when quote requests are steady, when you want buyers to raise requests from the storefront, or when you need to see which quotes are converting. The Launch plan is free and covers up to 5 Live Quotes with unlimited quote requests, the form builder, draft order conversion, and analytics, so you can test it against your current draft order flow without paying. Paid plans from $19/mo add email sending, reusable branded templates, a custom quote domain, PDF quotes, and Zapier, each with a 30-day free trial, billed through Shopify in USD.
Merchants like SaunaKits, K&B Audio, PLG Automation, and Cards-X run this way. You can see the full feature list and reviews on the Shopify App Store, or check how it fits your sector on the industries page.