Choosing tools
Hotplate vs Square: Which One Fits Your Home Bakery?
A plain look at what Hotplate and Square Online cost a small home bakery, who ends up paying the fee, and how to choose between them.
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If you sell bakes from your kitchen, both of these can take an order and take a card. The difference shows up in your pocket at the end of the month, and in what your customer sees at checkout. Here is the honest breakdown.
The short version
What to remember
- Hotplate: $0 subscription, a 5% plus $0.55 fee added to the customer’s subtotal by default, and card processing at 2.9% plus $0.30 paid by you. - Square Online: Free at $0, Plus at $49 a month, Premium at $149 a month, priced per location, with no commission on any plan. - Square Online card processing is 3.3% plus 30 cents on Free, and 2.9% plus 30 cents on Plus and Premium. - At $1,000 a month in sales, the vendor pays about $41 on Hotplate versus about $45 on Square Online’s free plan. - The fee you pass to the customer still shows up in their total, even when it does not show up in yours.
What you actually pay with Hotplate
Hotplate has no monthly subscription and no plan to buy. Instead it takes a fee of 5% plus $0.55, and by default that fee is added to the customer’s subtotal. Card processing runs 2.9% plus $0.30, and that part is paid by you.
So on a $25 order, the customer’s total grows by the fee, and your card processing comes out of what you collect. It is a simple shape, and it means a slow month does not cost you a monthly bill.
What you actually pay with Square Online
Square Online comes in three plans: Free at $0, Plus at $49 a month, and Premium at $149 a month, each priced per location. None of them charge a commission on your sales. Card processing is where the plans differ. On Free it is 3.3% plus 30 cents. On Plus and Premium it is 2.9% plus 30 cents.
That means a paid plan can pay for itself in processing savings once your sales are high enough, and it costs you money every month when they are not.
Who ends up paying the fee
This is the part that catches people. In the comparison, at $1,000 a month in sales taken as 40 orders at $25, the vendor pays about $41 on Hotplate versus about $45 on Square Online’s free plan. But when Hotplate’s fee is passed to the customer, those customers pay $1,072 on $1,000 of goods, versus $1,000 on Square.
Run your own numbers before you pick
Count your real orders
Look at a normal month. Write down how many orders you take and what the average order is worth. A dozen cookies and a decorated cake do not carry the same fee, and flat per order charges hit small orders harder.
Work out both sides
Add up Hotplate’s fee and processing on your real monthly sales. Do the same for Square Online, including any monthly plan cost. Then do it again for your best month and your worst month, because a monthly bill does not care that January was quiet.
Check the customer's total
Put yourself in your customer’s shoes and look at the final number at checkout. If a fee appears at the end, ask whether you would still pay it as a buyer.
What neither one settles for you
Fee math is only half the decision. Before you commit to either one, get clear on what you sell, how you take the order, and how you get paid. Ask how you would move your photos, your past orders, and your regulars if you changed your mind later. Ask whether you can use a web address you own. Ask what happens on a Saturday morning when you are elbow deep in buttercream and something will not load on your phone.
Why home bakers choose Brevl instead
If the fee math is the thing making this hard, Brevl takes it off the table. It is one flat $20 a month with no cut of your sales, and there is a 14 day free trial. Card payments go through your own Stripe or Square account, plus Venmo, Cash App, Zelle, and cash, so you are not handing a slice of every order to anyone.
Your shop is yours to customize, with your photos, your colors, and your own web address. Recipes carry real costing, ingredient inventory, and a weekly planner, so pricing and planning happen in the same place you take orders. It works on a computer and on a phone, and a real person answers, usually within minutes. We also set it up with you and move your old shop over, products, photos, reviews, and dates.
You can see the side by side at Brevl vs Bakesy and read how a move works at Switch. If you are still weighing Hotplate on its own, this look at Hotplate alternatives covers what to check first, and Bakesy vs Square runs the same kind of fee comparison on a different pair.
Sources
Prices and fees change. The figures here come from a comparison published in 2026, taken from each company's own pricing pages in July 2026. Confirm current pricing with each company before you sign up.