Question 1

Is Stock Radar really free, no upsell?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Stock Radar is MIT-licensed and stays that way — the core module is free forever for every Magento store. The commercial story lives one layer up: a paid Plenty bridge (`byte8/module-stock-radar-plenty`) layers PlentyONE purchase-order data into the email template for DACH stores running PlentyONE as their ERP, sold separately. The core back-in-stock notifier is funded by surrounding Byte8 revenue, not by gating features.

Question 2

What exactly does the throttling do?

Accepted Answer

The stock observer queues every matching subscription into the `byte8_stock_radar_dispatch` table the moment `is_in_stock` flips from 0 to 1. Each row gets a `dispatch_at` set to `now() + random_int(0, throttle_window_seconds)`. A cron worker (`byte8_stock_radar_dispatch`, runs every minute by default) drains rows whose `dispatch_at` has passed. So instead of 814 simultaneous sends, you get a fairly uniform spread across the window — default 30 minutes, per-store configurable. Failed sends retry with exponential backoff up to 3 attempts.

Question 3

Does it work with configurable products and per-variant subscriptions?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Subscribers can subscribe to a specific child SKU (e.g. "Red, M" of a t-shirt) rather than the parent — they get notified only when that child's `is_in_stock` flips, not whenever any variant restocks. The subscription row stores both the child SKU and the parent product ID so the admin grid can group either way.

Question 4

Headless / Hyvä / Velafront — what's the integration story?

Accepted Answer

GraphQL-first by design. `mutation { byte8StockRadarSubscribe(input: { sku, email, variant }) }` and the `byte8StockRadarUnsubscribe(token)` mutation are exposed on `/graphql` with no extra setup. Luma ships a Notify-Me block out of the box; Hyvä storefronts get the companion `byte8/module-stock-radar-hyva` (also MIT); Velafront ships an example consumer. PWA Studio works against the same mutations directly. (REST isn't shipped — open an issue if you need it.)

Question 5

How does the GDPR storage work?

Accepted Answer

Each subscription row stores a sha256 `email_hash` and a signed HMAC `unsub_token`. The plaintext email column is opt-in (off by default) — when off, the dispatch worker hashes the inbound email at subscribe time and uses Magento's transactional email pipeline with a request-scoped token rather than persisting the address. Right-to-erasure / data subject deletion is a single indexed lookup by `email_hash` — O(1), no full-table scan. The one-click unsubscribe link in the email carries the signed token, so anyone clicking it removes themselves without authentication.

Question 6

What's the admin alert threshold, and what triggers it?

Accepted Answer

Stores → Configuration → Byte8 → Stock Radar → Admin alerts → High-demand subscriber threshold. Default 50. The moment pending subscriber count for any single product first crosses that number, Stock Radar posts a message into the Magento admin notification inbox (the bell at top-right) via the built-in `NotifierInterface` — zero external dependencies, no third-party service. You can additionally enable an admin email (default off) sent to a configurable recipient list using a Stock Radar transactional email template. Threshold of 0 disables both transports.

Question 7

What abuse protection ships out of the box?

Accepted Answer

Five admin-toggleable protections, all independent: (1) rate limit subscribe attempts per IP and per email, (2) honeypot field (UX-free, recommended on), (3) hide-already-subscribed-hint in the GraphQL response (always returns `created_at`, prevents email enumeration), (4) Magento's built-in CAPTCHA on the subscribe form, (5) double opt-in via confirmation email. Defaults: the zero-UX-cost protections are on (rate limit, honeypot, hide-hint). CAPTCHA and double opt-in are off by default because they add friction — turn them on if your fraud surface needs them.

Question 8

Does it integrate with PlentyONE or other ERPs?

Accepted Answer

Yes — separately, as a paid bridge for DACH stores running PlentyONE. The free Stock Radar fires notifications when Magento sees stock arrive; the paid `byte8/module-stock-radar-plenty` extension fires on ERP-confirmed inbound stock and enriches the email template with live PO data (expected arrival, supplier, quantity). €199/year for one Magento instance, €499/year for up to 5, custom above that. The free module is unchanged regardless.

Question 9

What Magento versions are supported?

Accepted Answer

Magento Open Source and Adobe Commerce 2.4.x on PHP 8.1+. MIT-licensed. The dispatch worker depends on Magento's `default` cron group being active — if you've disabled cron in dev, the queue won't drain.

Back-in-stock notifications that scale.

Throttled batched dispatch — an 800-subscriber restock doesn't blast at once

Demand heatmap in admin — a real merchandiser tool, not a vanity dashboard

Admin alerts when a single SKU crosses your threshold

GraphQL-first, Hyvä-ready, GDPR-safe by default

Free, MIT-licensed, install in five minutes

Frequently asked questions

More free Magento utilities from the Byte8 toolkit

Stop losing sales to the silent 'out of stock' page