Choosing tools
Is My Custom Bakes Free? What to Check Before You Rely On It
You will know exactly which questions to ask before you hand a free baking tool your orders and your customer list.
On this page
If you are looking for a way to run your home bakery and a page says free, the natural next question is “free how?” That is the right question to ask. Free can mean a tool you use at no cost. It can mean a free trial that turns into a monthly bill. It can mean free to join with a cut taken from every sale. The only way to know which one you are looking at is to read the fine print and ask.
What I could confirm about My Custom Bakes
I went looking for the cost details on the My Custom Bakes site. There is a page at info.mycustombakes.com/baker-tools/ with the title “Free Tools for Cottage Bakers.” When I tried to read that page, what came back was site markup and fonts rather than readable page text. So I could not pull the actual terms off it.
That is the honest state of things. The words “free tools” are right there in the page title, and the specifics behind them were not something I could verify. Before you build your shop around it, open that page on your own phone and note exactly what it says is free and what it says costs money.
Questions to ask before you count on free
- Is it free forever, or free for a set number of days?
- Does it take a percentage of each order you sell?
- What happens when the trial ends, and when would the first charge land?
- Are the free parts the parts you actually need, or the parts around them?
- What happens to your orders, your photos, and your customer list if you stop?
- Can you take card payments, and whose account does the money land in?
The costs that hide behind free
Two pricing styles matter for a home baker. One takes a percentage of each sale. The other charges a flat amount each month. A percentage costs you more as you sell more. A flat fee costs the same whether you sell two cakes or twenty. Neither is wrong, but you want to know which one you are signing up for before your busy season, not after it.
The other thing to watch is the payment side. Whoever handles the card decides when the money hits your account, and that timing matters when you are buying butter and eggs on Friday for a Saturday pickup.
How to check a baking tool’s real cost in ten minutes
Find the pricing page
Look for a link called Pricing, Plans, or Cost. If there is not one, that tells you something too.
Write down what is free
Copy the exact wording. Note whether it says free forever, free trial, or free plan. Those are three different things.
Look for a percentage
Search the page for the word commission or fee. A cut of each sale costs you more the more you sell.
Check what happens when the trial ends
Find out when the trial ends and when the first charge lands.
Test it on your phone
Open the page on the phone you actually use and try to place a test order the way a customer would.
Ask about leaving
Ask whether you can take your orders, photos, and customer list with you if you stop.
Where Brevl fits, honestly
If the thing you are really after is a free way to start, Brevl is not free, and I will not pretend it is. It is one flat $20 a month, and there is a 14 day free trial, so you can see whether it fits before you pay anything.
Here is why home bakers move to it. It is easier to set up, and we set it up with you and move your old shop over, including products, photos, reviews, and dates. Your shop is yours to customize with your photos, your colors, and your own web address. It works on a computer and on a phone, so it holds up whether you are at the kitchen table or in the car. And a real person answers, usually within minutes.
If you want to know how it lines up against the tools you are already weighing, read Bakesy vs My Custom Bakes and Does My Custom Bakes Have an App?. When you are ready to move, see how switching works, or compare side by side on Brevl vs Bakesy.
A fair word on picking
There is nothing wrong with starting on a free tool while you find your feet. Plenty of home bakers do. Just go in knowing what free means for the tool you pick, and check that it does the one thing you cannot run without, which is taking an order and getting paid without a headache.
Common questions
People ask whether a free tool can handle real orders. It can, if you have checked the payment side and the fees. They also ask whether they need a separate website. That depends on whether the tool gives you your own web address or keeps you on theirs. Our guide to a home baking business app walks through what to look for, and My Custom Bakes vs Bakesy Reviews covers how to read reviews without getting spun around.
The short version: free is worth checking out, as long as you know what you are checking.
Sources
This is general information about comparing tool costs, not financial advice. Confirm current pricing with each company before you sign up for anything.