Choosing tools
My Custom Bakes Website: A Fair Roundup for Home Bakers
You will know the four checks that matter before you pay for any bakes website, and which kind of tool fits a one person kitchen.
On this page
You bake to order. You need a page someone can find, a clear list of what you sell, a way to get paid, and a record of what is due on Saturday morning. That is the whole job. Anything a website does beyond that is optional, and optional extras are where the monthly bill quietly creeps up.
This guide is a roundup, not a sales pitch for anyone. I will tell you what to check, where the traps are, and where Brevl fits honestly into the picture.
What to remember
- Your shop should take card payments into your own Stripe or Square account, so the money lands with you. - Check the monthly price and whether the tool also takes a cut of each order. - Try the whole thing on your phone, because that is where you will be answering messages at 9pm. - Ask what happens to your photos and past orders if you ever leave. - A flat fee with no commission is easier to price into a cake than a percentage you have to remember.
The roundup: the kinds of tools you will meet
A named service, such as My Custom Bakes
If My Custom Bakes is a service you sign up to, treat it like any other. Read the price page properly, read the reviews with a cool head, and check the cancellation terms before you type in card details. Our guide to My Custom Bakes reviews shows how to weigh what you find, and the cost breakdown covers the numbers people forget to add up. If you want to know whether it works well on a phone, start with My Custom Bakes app.
A general order app, such as Bakesy
Order apps are built for a wide range of home sellers, not only bakers. That can be fine, and it can also mean the pricing and planning side is thinner than you need. Our Is Bakesy worth it guide goes through the questions to ask before you commit.
A small bakery focused tool, such as Cottage CMS or Hotplate
These tend to be built with home food sellers in mind. Compare them on the boring things: what the monthly fee is, whether there is a commission, and how easy it is to change a price when butter goes up. Our Cottage CMS vs Hotplate comparison is a fair starting point.
Brevl
Brevl is one flat $20 a month with no cut of your sales. It works on a computer and on a phone, takes card payments through your own Stripe or Square account, and gives you a shop you can customize with your own photos, colors, and web address. It also holds your recipes with real costing, ingredient inventory, and a weekly planner, so pricing and planning live in the same place as your orders.
What to check before you pay
How to choose, step by step
Write down what you sell and how orders reach you now
List your best sellers, your lead time, and where messages land today. This is the shape your website has to fit, not the other way round.
Check the money path
Confirm how card payments reach you, whether it goes to your own Stripe or Square account, and whether the tool takes a percentage of each order.
Try the whole thing on your phone
Add a product, set a price, and take a test order on your phone. If it is clumsy there, it will be clumsy when you are tired and the oven is on.
Add up the true monthly cost
Monthly fee plus commission plus anything extra for card payments. Compare that against a flat fee with no cut of your sales.
Ask about leaving before you join
Ask what happens to your photos, products, and past orders if you cancel, and whether anyone helps you move.
Where Brevl fits in this roundup
Brevl is the alternative many home bakers land on, and the reasons are plain. It is easier to set up, the shop is yours to customize, card payments go through your own Stripe or Square account, and it is reliable on both a computer and a phone. We set it up with you and move your old shop over, including products, photos, reviews, and dates. A real person answers, usually within minutes. If you are weighing it against Bakesy, read Brevl vs Bakesy, and if you are ready to move, Switch walks you through it.
The bottom line
Whatever name is on the signup page, judge it on four things: payments into your own account, a shop that looks like you, a price you can carry in a quiet month, and a way out that does not cost you your photos. Get those right and the rest is decoration.