The Homegrown Vendor Blog

MyPorch runs batches, Hotplate runs drops, Bakesy runs quotes. Comparing them on price is the wrong axis. Here is what each is actually built for.

MyPorch is built for cottage bakers doing porch pickup. If you sell more than baked goods or need customers rather than just orders, here are the alternatives.

MyPorch is a batch tool for cottage bakers with automatic label printing. Homegrown is a storefront plus a local marketplace. Both flat-fee, both under $13/mo.

Custom orders feel efficient because nothing goes to waste. Here is why they trap a home bakery at a batch size of one, and the structure that fixes it.

A working pre-order system has four parts: the window, the capped batch menu, payment at order time, and the pickup handoff. Here is how to set each one up.

Eight elements belong on every cottage food label. Here is the checklist, the state-by-state disclaimer wording, and the five mistakes that cause most violations.

A cottage food permit and a business license are not the same approval. Here are the four separate layers of getting legal, who issues each, and what skipping one costs.

Bake first and hope, or collect paid orders and bake exactly that? The three costs of speculative baking, the batch-size lever, and when guessing is still right.

A microbakery is a one-person bakery running a short fixed menu on a weekly schedule, sold entirely by pre-order. Here is how the model works and what it earns.