Best Platform to Sell Sourdough in Texas (2026)

If you want Texas customers to order your sourdough ahead for pickup, you can set up a Homegrown storefront and try it free for 7 days.

The best platform to sell sourdough in Texas for most home bakers is Homegrown, which gives you an online storefront for $10 per month (billed yearly) with no per-listing fees, no per-sale commission and no fee added to your customer's total. Card processing of 2.9% + $0.30 per order is the only other cost, and you pay it, not your customer.

Texas has a broad cottage food law. Since September 1, 2025, a home kitchen can make almost any food except meat, seafood and a short list of others, and sell up to $150,000 a year of it. The right platform lets you use that room without paying a marketplace a cut of every loaf, and without breaking the one Texas rule that trips up bakers who sell online: the hand-off. Our Texas cottage food law guide covers the whole law. This page covers the platform choice, plus the parts of the law that decide which platforms work at all.

We loaded every price, fee and rule below on October 13, 2026, from the company's or the state's own page.

What Does Texas Cottage Food Law Say About Selling Sourdough?

Texas cottage food law allows sourdough bread made in your home kitchen, sold straight to the people who eat it, with no license from your city or county. The law calls a home baker a "cottage food production operation," and the Texas DSHS cottage food page explains what changed when Senate Bill 541 took effect on September 1, 2025.

Here is what that means for a sourdough baker, in plain terms:

• Sourdough is allowed. Under SB 541 a home kitchen may make "any food" except meat and poultry products, seafood, ice and ice cream products, low-acid canned goods, products with CBD or THC, and raw milk products. Bread is nowhere on that list.
• The income limit is $150,000 a year. The law sets it at "$150,000" in annual gross income and has DSHS adjust it each year for inflation. The DSHS page still listed $150,000 on October 13, 2026.
• You sell to the person who eats it. You sell directly to consumers, or at wholesale to a registered "cottage food vendor" (more on that below). You cannot sell a loaf at wholesale to a grocery store yourself.
• You need a food handler course. DSHS says the operator "must successfully complete a basic food safety education or training program for food handlers." StateFoodSafety's Texas-approved course was $10.99 ($10.00 plus a $0.99 processing fee) and 40 minutes long on October 13, 2026.
• Your city cannot charge you. Under the law a local health department may not require a cottage food operation "to obtain any type of license or permit or pay any fee" to sell directly to a consumer.
• Registration is optional for plain sourdough. You register with DSHS only if you sell foods that need refrigeration, or if you want a DSHS number on your label in place of your home address.

The steps to get legal before your first online order are short:

• Take a food handler course. Pick one accredited for Texas; the StateFoodSafety course above takes about 40 minutes.
• Decide what goes on your label. Either your home address, or a DSHS registration number if you register on the DSHS Online Licensing Registry.
• Write your label. Business name, address or number, the name of the bread, allergens (wheat, plus milk, eggs or sesame if you use them) and the required statement about a private residence.
• Post your label details where customers order. Texas requires this before you take payment for an online order.
• Plan the hand-off. Every online order is handed over in person by you, your employee or a member of your household.

This article is about the platform decision. Read the law, confirm your menu fits it, then use the sections below to pick the tool that takes the orders.

Can a Texas Customer Order Sourdough Online and Pick It Up at Your House?

A Texas customer can order and pay online and then pick the loaf up at your house, as long as you, an employee or someone in your household hands it to them in person. The law does not require you to drive it to them. It requires a person from your operation to do the hand-off, and it rules out shipping an online order.

The exact words matter here. Section 437.0194(b) of the Health and Safety Code, as rewritten by SB 541, says a cottage food operation may sell through the Internet "only if" the consumer buys online from the operation "and the operator or operator's employee or household member personally delivers the food to the consumer." The DSHS page says the same thing: "The operator, an employee, or a household member personally delivers the food to the consumer."

That rule never names a place. The law's definition of a cottage food operation says it "delivers products to the consumer or cottage food vendor at the point of sale or another location designated by the consumer." So handing an online order to the customer at your front door meets the words of the law, and so does meeting them at a farmers market or driving it to their house.

Shipping an online order is out because of the hand-off rule, and it was out under the old law too. Before SB 541, the section covered sales "through the Internet or by mail order," and even then the operator had to deliver the food personally; SB 541 added employees and household members. SB 541 struck "or by mail order," so the section now covers only online orders, and it no longer says anything about mail order. If you want to ship any other kind of order, ask DSHS first. The same bill raised the yearly income limit from $50,000 to $150,000.

Swipe sideways to see all three columns.

From Section 437.0194(b) and Section 437.001(2-b)(D) of the Texas Health and Safety Code (as amended by SB 541) and the DSHS cottage food page, all loaded October 13, 2026. The cooler row is our cautious reading of "personally delivers," not a DSHS ruling.

This is also why the platform matters. A tool that only ships, or that sends orders to a courier, does not fit Texas cottage food sold online. A tool built around pickup windows and your own delivery does.

What Must Your Storefront Show Before a Texas Customer Pays?

Your storefront must show the customer your label information before they pay. Texas law says that before the operator "accepts payment for the food," the operator must provide all required labeling information "by posting a legible statement on the operation's Internet website." Your home address can wait until after payment, but it, or your DSHS number, has to be on the label of the loaf itself.

The DSHS page lists what the label must include:

• The name of your cottage food operation
• Your address, or the unique identification number DSHS gives you when you register
• The common name of the product, such as "Country Sourdough Loaf"
• Any major food allergen in it. Most sourdough is made with wheat flour, so wheat goes on the label of nearly every loaf. Add milk, eggs, sesame or tree nuts when a recipe uses them
• This exact sentence: "THIS PRODUCT WAS PRODUCED IN A PRIVATE RESIDENCE THAT IS NOT SUBJECT TO GOVERNMENTAL LICENSING OR INSPECTION."

On a storefront, the easy way to meet the before-payment rule is to put the label text in every listing. On Homegrown that means the allergen and ingredient fields on each product, plus the private residence sentence in the description. Hotplate, Square and Shopify listings also have description fields that can hold it. Whatever you use, check that a customer can read all of it on their phone before the checkout button. A menu of 10 flavors means the label text goes on 10 products, so write it once and paste it into each.

Loaves too large for normal packaging can skip the package, but then the label details go on an invoice or receipt instead. Most sourdough goes in a bag, so label the bag. Our cottage food labeling requirements guide has label layouts you can copy.

Do Cream Cheese or Pepperoni Sourdough Loaves Change the Rules?

A pepperoni or bacon sourdough loaf is off a Texas cottage food menu, because SB 541 excludes "meat, meat products, poultry, or poultry products." A cream cheese filled loaf may count as a food that needs refrigeration, which Texas allows but with extra steps.

Texas calls a food that needs refrigeration a "time and temperature control for safety food," or TCS food. The law's definition names "baked goods that require refrigeration, including cream or custard pies or cakes." It also says a food is not TCS just because it uses a TCS ingredient, if "the final food product does not require time or temperature control." The law does not name cheese breads either way. If you are not sure whether a loaf needs the fridge, such as one with a soft cream cheese swirl, ask DSHS before you sell it.

If a loaf is a TCS food, the law requires you to:

1. Register with DSHS
2. Store and deliver it cold enough that it stays at 41°F or below inside
3. Put the date it was made on the label
4. Add this statement, in at least 12-point type, on the label or receipt: "SAFE HANDLING INSTRUCTIONS: To prevent illness from bacteria, keep this food refrigerated or frozen until the food is prepared for consumption."

TCS foods also cannot be sold at wholesale to a cottage food vendor or donated, per the DSHS page.

What Do Texas Sourdough Bakers Actually Need From a Platform?

A Texas sourdough baker needs six things from a platform: room for a long flavor list, more than one pickup spot, set pickup times, sell-out limits, a place to post label details before payment, and an in-person hand-off. The first four come from how sourdough sells. The last two come from Texas law.

• Room for a long flavor list. Sourdough menus run wide. In our October 13, 2026 catalog pull, 37 of the 88 Homegrown vendors whose listings mention sourdough offered a jalapeño version of a sourdough product, mostly jalapeño cheddar loaves (counted on product names, descriptions and flavor options, then read one by one). A platform should not charge you per flavor, and Etsy's $0.20 listing fee does exactly that.
• More than one pickup spot. If you sell at a Saturday market and also hand off orders at home during the week, one storefront should hold both, each with its own days and times.
• Set pickup times. Texas summer afternoons are hard on bread left in a car or on a porch. "Sometime Saturday afternoon" is not a workable pickup window in Houston in August. Customers should pick a specific window when they order.
• Sell-out limits. Your oven bakes a fixed number of loaves. When the last one sells, the platform should stop taking orders on its own.
• A place for label details. Texas requires your label information to be posted where the customer can read it before paying, so every listing needs room for allergens and the private residence statement.
• An in-person hand-off. Texas does not let you ship an online order of cottage food. The platform should be built around pickup and your own delivery, not around mailing boxes.

These six needs are the lens for every platform below.

The Best Platforms to Sell Sourdough in Texas, Ranked

We ranked six platforms Texas sourdough bakers use or ask about, on cost at a typical month of sales and on how well each fits the six needs above. Every price was loaded from the company's own page on October 13, 2026. On fifty $20 orders a month, what you pay, card processing included, ran from about $44.00 to $46.25 for Hotplate's default, with your customers paying $77.50 more, up to $127.50 for Etsy. The full fee table is in the next section.

This is Homegrown's own blog, and Homegrown is one of the six, so here is exactly how we ranked them:

1. Fit with the Texas hand-off rule. Pickup windows by location and your own delivery come first, because every online order must be handed over in person.
2. What your customer pays on top. A fee added at checkout counts against a platform, though some bakers accept it.
3. What you pay in a month. Fifty $20 orders, card processing included.
4. Per-flavor costs. A fee for each listing hurts a wide sourdough menu.

On cost alone, Square's Free plan beats Homegrown by $6.00 a month at fifty $20 orders ($48.00 against $54.00), and Hotplate's default costs you less than both because your customers pay its fee. We still rank Homegrown first for a pickup baker because it is built around point 1 with no fee on point 2, and because Square's extra 0.4% of each order overtakes Homegrown's $10 above $2,500 in monthly online sales. If cost at low volume matters more to you than pickup tools, Square Free is a fair choice.

1. Homegrown: Best Overall for Texas Sourdough Bakers ($10 a Month)

Homegrown is the best fit for a Texas sourdough baker who sells for pickup, because it is built around the exact thing Texas law requires: an order paid online and handed over in person. You list your loaves, set pickup spots and times, share one link, and customers order and pay ahead. It costs $10 per month billed yearly ($120 up front) or $12.50 billed monthly, with no percentage fees beyond standard payment processing of 2.9% + $0.30 per order, which you pay. There is a 7-day trial, and your card is not charged until day 8.

Compare that with Hotplate and Etsy. On Hotplate your customer pays a 5% + $0.55 fee on top of the loaf, $1.55 on a $20 order, and you still pay card processing. On Etsy you pay $0.20 per loaf in listing fees, 6.5% per sale and 3% + $0.25 processing, about $2.55 on the same $20 order. On Homegrown the customer pays $20.00 and you pay $0.88.

Here is what Homegrown includes, per its signup page on October 13, 2026:

• A storefront with your loaves, prices and photos at one shareable link
• Flavors and sizes as variants under one listing, each with its own price, and no per-listing fee
• Allergen and ingredient fields on every listing, which is where your Texas label details go
• Multiple pickup locations, including markets picked from a list of 8,800+ and your own porch or door
• Pickup days and time windows for each location, plus the notice you need before each bake
• Local delivery within a radius you set (1 to 25 miles), with a delivery fee you set and keep, minus card processing
• Quantities that count down as you sell, so a sold-out loaf stops taking orders
• Sales tax collected and remitted for you on Homegrown orders, with qualifying food left untaxed
• Your exact address shown only after a customer orders; shoppers see an approximate location before that
• Setup in about 15 minutes

Pros:

• $10 a month flat on the yearly plan, with no commission and no fee on the customer
• Pickup windows and your own delivery match the Texas in-person hand-off rule
• Market booth, porch and weekday spots in one storefront
• Room on every listing for allergens and label text

Cons (honest bounds):

• No drops feature (a timed release with a countdown) like Hotplate's, and no release date to share
• Customers create a Homegrown account to place their first order
• Your storefront is listed on Homegrown's marketplace, but plan on most orders coming from people you send to your own link
• Card processing (2.9% + $0.30) is paid by you, with no option to pass it to the customer
• No recipe costing inside the storefront (Homegrown's free pricing calculator and recipe scaler are separate tools), no label printing and no shipping tools

Best for: Texas home sourdough bakers who sell at one or two farmers markets and take pre-orders for home pickup or their own delivery during the week. The full baking-to-selling workflow is in our guide to how to sell sourdough bread from home, and the national comparison of the best platform to sell sourdough online covers bakers in every state.

If your Texas orders live in text threads today, a storefront with pickup windows turns them into one list of who is picking up what, and when. Start your 7-day Homegrown trial and pay nothing until day 8.

2. Hotplate: Best for Texas Bakers Running Scheduled Weekly Drops ($0 a Month, Fee on Each Order)

Hotplate is the strongest pick for bakers who sell in "drops," which its pricing page defines as "a preorder window with a clear start and end time," with a countdown before orders open. There is no subscription. By default your customer pays Hotplate's fee of 5% of the subtotal + $0.55, and you pay card processing of 2.9% + $0.30.

Hotplate's pricing page says the fee split is "your choice," and its own post "What Hotplate does" says "we charge a fee to your customer" and "80% of Hotplate chefs keep the default as-is." On a $20 order in the default setup, your customer pays $21.55 and you pay about $0.88 to $0.92 in card processing. Hotplate's own pricing example puts the card fee on the order and tip, not on its own fee. If you choose to cover the fee yourself, you pay about $2.43 on the same order.

Pros:

• Drop tools are strong: a countdown, cart timers, waitlists, and text alerts to your subscribers
• $0 a month, with fees only when you sell
• Pickup locations and times set for each drop
• You can choose to cover the fee so your customer pays only the menu price

Cons:

• In the default setup your customer pays $1.55 more on a $20 order, and you still pay card processing
• Built around drops, so ordering between drops is not the main flow
• Hotplate says it is "not a consumer marketplace," so orders come from the audience you bring
• The fee shows as its own line at checkout; Hotplate's pricing page example reads "Hotplate fee (5% + $0.55)"

Best for: Texas sourdough bakers with an audience that already waits for a weekly drop, who are fine with customers seeing a fee at checkout. Our Hotplate alternative breakdown compares it with Homegrown line by line.

3. Etsy: Worst Fit for Texas Sourdough ($0 a Month Plus Fees on Every Loaf)

Etsy is the wrong fit for nearly every Texas sourdough baker, because its fees stack on every loaf and its strength, reaching buyers across the country, is the one thing Texas cottage food cannot use. An Etsy order is an online order, and Texas requires an online cottage food order to be handed over in person, so every Etsy order would still need an in-person hand-off.

Etsy's fee policy, loaded October 13, 2026, charges $0.20 to list each product, and listings expire after four months. When a listing with stock left sells, Etsy renews it for another $0.20, so you pay about $0.20 for every loaf sold. On top of that comes a 6.5% transaction fee and, for a US bank account, payment processing of 3% + $0.25 per order. A one-time set-up fee may apply when you open a shop.

Pros:

• A big marketplace with buyers who search by product

Cons:

• About $2.55 in fees on a $20 order of two loaves, before any ads
• Offsite Ads add a 15% fee on an order an ad brings in, or 12% (and required) once a shop has made $10,000 in a year, per Etsy's help page
• Etsy orders are normally shipped, which Texas does not allow when the cottage food was ordered online
• A wide flavor list means more listings and more $0.20 fees

Best for: Almost no Texas sourdough baker. A baker who also sells shippable products made in a licensed kitchen is the exception. Our Etsy fees breakdown for food vendors shows the full math.

4. Square Online: Workable If You Already Run Square at the Booth ($0 Free Plan, $49 Plus Plan)

Square Online is a good fit if you already take cards with Square at a Texas farmers market, because your online orders and booth sales land in one account. Its Free plan costs $0 a month per location and charges 3.3% + $0.30 per online card payment and 2.6% + $0.15 per in-person tap, dip or swipe. Square Plus is $49 a month per location and lowers online processing to 2.9% + $0.30.

On a $20 online order, Square Free costs you about $0.96, which beats Homegrown's yearly plan until your online sales pass $2,500 a month. Above that, Square's extra 0.4% of each order costs more than Homegrown's $10.

Pros:

• $0 monthly plan, with pickup and local delivery options
• One system for booth sales and online orders
• Square hardware for the booth

Cons:

• Higher online card rate on the Free plan (3.3% + $0.30)
• The $49 Plus plan is per location
• A general store builder: you set up pickup times and add your Texas label text to each listing yourself

Best for: Texas sourdough bakers already committed to Square hardware at their booth.

5. Castiron: Once Better for Custom Cake Bakers Than for Sourdough, Now Closed

Castiron is closed: on October 13, 2026, its old address, castiron.me, loaded an unrelated online casino page, so do not sign up for anything there. It used to be a common pick for home bakers who took custom cake orders.

Its strength was custom order forms, which matter more for custom cakes than for a weekly sourdough menu. If custom cakes are a big part of your Texas business, look for an order-request tool built for them; Bakesy, for example, lists custom order forms and invoicing on its site (we could not load its prices on October 13, 2026). For a sourdough menu, the platforms above fit better.

6. Shopify: Overkill for Most Texas Sourdough Bakers ($29 to $39 a Month)

Shopify is a full online store builder, and for a Texas baker selling 30 or 40 loaves a week for pickup, it is more than you need. Its Basic plan costs $29 a month billed yearly or $39 billed monthly, and online card payments through Shopify Payments cost from 2.9% + 30¢. If you use a different payment provider, Basic adds a 2% transaction fee.

At fifty $20 orders a month, Shopify Basic costs from $73.00 on the yearly plan or from $83.00 on the monthly plan, against Homegrown's $54.00. Shopify's Help Center explains how to set up pickup in store and local delivery for online orders, with no plan requirement beyond a location that fulfills online orders, but you set up the store, the theme and the pickup rules yourself.

Pros:

• Scales to almost any size of business
• Online, in-person and AI chat selling on one plan; its pricing page says "Sell online, in person, and in AI chats"

Cons:

• $29 to $39 a month before any paid apps
• You pay for shipping tools you cannot use, because a Texas cottage food order placed online cannot be shipped
• You build and maintain the whole store

Best for: Texas sourdough bakeries that have moved into a licensed commercial kitchen and ship bread, which takes them outside cottage food law.

How Do These Texas Sourdough Platforms Compare?

On a month of fifty $20 sourdough orders ($1,000 in loaf sales), Homegrown costs you $54.00 on the yearly plan, Square's Free plan $48.00, Hotplate's default setup about $44.00 to $46.25 plus $77.50 paid by your customers, Shopify Basic from $73.00, and Etsy about $127.50. Each total includes card processing. The cheapest option for you is not always the cheapest for your customer, so the table shows both.

Scroll sideways to see all eight columns.

Every fee comes from the company's own page, loaded October 13, 2026: Homegrown's signup page, Hotplate's pricing page and its post "What Hotplate does", Etsy's Fees and Payments Policy, Square's online store plans and Shopify's pricing page. Shopify's card rate and totals say "from" because that page lists 2.9% + 30¢ for standard cards and 3.5% + 30¢ for premium cards, which include business cards and American Express. A $20 order is two $10 loaves; Etsy's listing fee is counted as $0.20 per loaf sold. Hotplate's default card fee is shown as a range: $0.88 if it is figured on the $20 order alone, and $0.92 if it is figured on everything the customer pays, Hotplate's fee included. Hotplate's own pricing example puts the card fee on the order and tip, not on its own fee. Month totals use unrounded fees, so 50 times a rounded fee can differ by a few cents. Sales tax is left out because Texas does not tax bread sold without plates or utensils. Etsy's Offsite Ads fee (15%, or 12% for larger shops) is not included.

Cost is only part of it. Here is how the six compare on the needs that come from Texas law and from how sourdough sells:

Swipe left to compare all six platforms.

From each company's own pages, loaded October 13, 2026. "Not built in" and "not a listed plan feature" mean we did not find the feature on the pages we loaded, not that no app or workaround exists.

What Do Sourdough Loaves Sell For on Homegrown?

A plain sourdough loaf on Homegrown is listed at $10.50 at the median, across 48 vendors, in our catalog pull of October 13, 2026. The range ran from $5 to $15, and 33 of the 48 vendors priced their plain loaf between $10 and $12.

What that means for a Texas baker:

• Price the plain loaf first. It anchors everything else on your menu. A plain loaf at $10 to $12 sits where most vendors in the pull priced theirs.
• Charge more for inclusions. In the pull, 19 of 32 jalapeño, cranberry or garlic loaves were priced above the same vendor's plain loaf, 18 of them by $1 to $4. Cheese and add-ins cost you more, so the loaf should too.
• Do the math with your real fee. On Homegrown a $12 loaf ordered alone costs you $0.65 in card processing, so you keep $11.35. On Etsy the same loaf costs about $1.59 in fees, before any ad fee.

Our sourdough pricing guide walks through ingredient cost per loaf, and our guide to how long homemade sourdough lasts helps you set a pickup window that keeps the crust right.

Where Can You Sell Sourdough in Texas?

You can sell Texas cottage food sourdough anywhere the customer gets it in person from you, your employee or anyone in your household: from home, at farmers markets and farm stands, at events, and through online orders you deliver or hand over in person. You can also sell at wholesale to a cottage food vendor registered with DSHS, who can resell it at farmers markets and farm stands, and also in restaurants and retail stores. A store or restaurant can buy from you at wholesale only if it signs the contract and registers with DSHS as a cottage food vendor.

The full list from the DSHS page and the statute, loaded October 13, 2026:

• From your home. Customers pick up, in person.
• Online, with an in-person hand-off. At your door, at a market or at a spot the customer chooses, handed over in person.
• Your own delivery. You, a paid helper or anyone who lives in your home drives it over.
• Farmers markets and farm stands. Each market sets its own vendor rules and fees.
• Through a cottage food vendor. SB 541 lets you sell non-TCS foods at wholesale to a registered "cottage food vendor," who can then sell them "at a farmers' market, a farm stand, a food service establishment, or any retail store," with a sign about the private residence and the date made on the label.
• Samples anywhere in Texas. The law lets you hand out samples at any location.
• Donations to bake sales and events. Non-TCS cottage food can be donated, the same as any individual can.

Not allowed for an online order: shipping by mail or parcel service, or delivery by an app or courier. Not allowed at all: selling at wholesale to a store or restaurant that has not registered with DSHS as a cottage food vendor. For any other kind of shipped order, ask DSHS first. If you are also thinking about a booth, our Texas farmers market vendor permit guide covers what markets ask for.

How Do You Sell Sourdough at the Round Rock Farmers Market?

The Round Rock Farmers Market runs Saturdays, 10 AM to 2 PM, year-round, at Rock Creek Center, 2111 IH-35 N in Round Rock, per the market's site on October 13, 2026. It is run by Farmer George Farmers Markets, and its vendor standards say cottage food bakers are taken as annual vendors only.

Here is what the market standards page on Farmer George's site lists for a baker, loaded October 13, 2026:

• No permit for cottage food. The page says "NO PERMIT NEEDED FOR COTTAGE FOOD PRODUCERS."
• Annual commitment. "COTTAGE FOOD BAKERS/ CBD/ CANDLES/ SOAP: No drop-ins accepted. Annual vendors only," with a commitment to come "at least 48 weeks out of the year."
• Limited bakers. The market says it limits "number of bakers with very little duplication of product," so a sourdough baker with a different menu has a better shot.
• Full-time fees. $100 a year plus $35 per market day for a 10 by 10 tent, for 45 markets a year. That is $1,675 a year, or $37.22 per market. Bakers commit to at least 48 weeks, so at the full-time rate a baker should plan on about $1,780 a year, or about $37.08 per market.
• Part-time fees. $125 a year plus $45 per market day, for 20 markets a year, which is $1,025 a year, or $51.25 per market. Bakers are annual vendors, so ask which rate applies to you.
• How to apply. The application is at the bottom of the market standards page, and the market takes questions at vendors@farmergeorge.market.

The market's page also says it is planning a new Sunday market, "COMING 2026!" Its cottage food summary still names an older $50,000 income limit; the current Texas limit under SB 541 is $150,000.

Looking for sourdough at Round Rock or Pflugerville as a shopper? The market's site says its bakers include "scratch-made sourdough bread," but it does not publish a vendor list. We could not confirm a current Pflugerville market schedule on October 13, 2026: the City of Pflugerville's market page returned "page not found," and Farmer George's site listed only Round Rock. Check with the market before you go.

For a baker selling at Round Rock, a storefront with the market as one pickup location and your home as another lets regulars pre-order for Saturday and pick up at your door midweek.

Which Platform Should You Choose for Texas Sourdough?

For most Texas home sourdough bakers who take pre-orders for market pickup and home pickup, Homegrown at $10 a month billed yearly is the best fit. The other platforms each win one narrower case:

• "I sell at one or two Texas farmers markets and customers pre-order during the week." Homegrown. Multiple pickup locations with their own times handle a Saturday market and weekday pickups at your door in one storefront.
• "I run a scheduled weekly drop with a built-in audience in Austin or DFW." Hotplate, if you are fine with customers paying its 5% + $0.55 fee on top of 2.9% + $0.30 card processing, which you pay. Its countdown drop is something Homegrown does not have.
• "I take custom cake orders alongside sourdough." Castiron has closed, so use an order-request tool built for custom cakes for those, and a pickup storefront for your weekly loaves.
• "I already use Square Reader at my Texas booth." Square Online, for one system. The Free plan has no monthly charge and takes 3.3% + $0.30 per online order.
• "I bake in a licensed kitchen and ship bread out of state." Shopify, at $29 to $39 a month plus processing from 2.9% + 30¢. That business is no longer cottage food.
• "I want buyers across the country." Not with cottage food sourdough. An online order cannot be shipped, because Texas requires that you, a worker you employ or someone you live with hands it to the buyer face to face. If you want to ship any other kind of order, ask DSHS first.

If you are a typical Texas home sourdough baker selling at a farmers market or from your door, Homegrown is the best platform: a flat monthly cost, no per-flavor fees, multiple pickup locations, and set pickup times that keep loaves out of the Texas heat.

What Should You Look for in a Texas Sourdough Platform?

Look for nine things before you commit: no per-flavor fees, multiple pickup spots, set pickup times, sell-out limits, room for label text, an in-person hand-off, a flat cost, no fee on the customer unless you want one, and fast setup. Run any platform through this checklist:

• No per-listing or per-flavor fees. Texas sourdough menus rotate widely. A $0.20 fee per listing adds up when you sell ten flavors.
• Multiple pickup locations. If you serve more than one Texas market or run a porch-plus-market mix, one storefront should handle both.
• Set pickup time windows. Texas heat makes "sometime Saturday afternoon" a quality risk. Customers should choose a window.
• Sell-out limits. When the loaves you can bake this week are sold, the platform should stop taking orders on its own.
• Room for your label details. Texas requires them posted before payment, so each listing needs allergens and the private residence statement.
• An in-person hand-off. For online orders, pickup and your own delivery, not shipping or couriers.
• A flat, predictable cost. A $10 subscription stays $10 whether you sell $300 or $3,000 a month, and only card processing grows with your sales; commission platforms add their percentage on top of that.
• A clean checkout for your customer. Know whether a platform adds a fee to their total, and decide if that is fine for your regulars.
• Setup in minutes. A part-time Texas baker has dough to manage. Setup should take minutes, not a weekend.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I sell sourdough in Texas under cottage food law?

Yes. Texas cottage food law, as expanded by Senate Bill 541 on September 1, 2025, lets a home kitchen make any food except meat and poultry products, seafood, ice products, low-acid canned goods, CBD or THC products and raw milk products, so sourdough bread is allowed. You can sell up to $150,000 a year directly to consumers, with a food handler course and a proper label. Check the current rules on the Texas DSHS cottage food page before you price or scale your business.

Do I need to register my Texas sourdough business?

Not with the state for plain sourdough. DSHS registration is required only if you sell foods that need refrigeration, or if you want a DSHS number on your label instead of your home address. You do need an accredited food handler course, and your city or county cannot require a permit or charge a fee for direct sales under Texas law.

What's the cheapest platform to sell Texas sourdough online?

Square Online's Free plan is the cheapest for you among the platforms that add no fee to your customer's total: on fifty $20 orders a month it costs $48.00 in card processing, against $54.00 on Homegrown's yearly plan. Homegrown's yearly plan becomes the cheaper of the two once your online sales pass $2,500 a month ($3,125 on the monthly plan). Hotplate's default setup costs you less (about $44.00 to $46.25), but your customers pay $77.50 more in its fee, so the best platform to sell sourdough in Texas on cost depends on who you want paying.

How do I handle Texas sales tax on sourdough?

A sourdough loaf sold without plates or eating utensils, and not heated, is not taxable in Texas. The Texas Comptroller's sales tax guide for restaurants says "Tax is not due, however, on bakery items (regardless of size, whether whole pies, for example, or individual portions) when sold without plates or eating utensils." Homegrown collects and remits sales tax for you on Homegrown orders and leaves qualifying food untaxed. If you also sell taxable products, or serve slices with a fork and plate, ask a Texas tax professional what you owe.

Can I sell Texas sourdough at multiple farmers markets through one storefront?

Yes. Homegrown supports multiple pickup locations in one storefront, each with its own days and times, so you can list "Saturday at the Round Rock Farmers Market" and "Wednesday pickup at my door in South Austin" side by side. Customers see every pickup option and choose the one that works for them. Every Texas online order still has to be handed over in person by someone from your household or business.

Should I use Hotplate or Homegrown if I do weekly drops in Austin?

Use Hotplate if your business depends on a countdown drop right now; Homegrown does not have a drops feature with a countdown, and there is no release date for one. Use Homegrown if you mix drops with everyday ordering or want no fee added to your customer's total; you can still cap quantities and announce each week's menu yourself. On a $20 order, Hotplate's default adds $1.55 for the customer, while Homegrown adds nothing and you pay $0.88 in card processing.

What about Texas-specific cottage food labeling requirements?

A Texas cottage food label needs your business name, your address or DSHS registration number, the product name, any major allergens (wheat for nearly every sourdough loaf), and the statement "THIS PRODUCT WAS PRODUCED IN A PRIVATE RESIDENCE THAT IS NOT SUBJECT TO GOVERNMENTAL LICENSING OR INSPECTION." Foods that need refrigeration also need the date made and a safe handling statement. For online orders, the label details must be posted on your storefront before the customer pays, whichever platform you use.

Related Reading

Six more Homegrown guides answer what Texas sourdough bakers usually ask after choosing a platform: what the law allows, what to charge, how long a loaf stays fresh, and what a market booth takes.

• Texas cottage food law: the full law, from the foods SB 541 allows to the label wording and the $150,000 limit
• How much to sell sourdough for: ingredient cost per loaf and the price ranges other bakers charge
• How long homemade sourdough lasts: how many days a loaf keeps, which helps you set pickup windows
• Best platform to sell baked goods in Texas: the same choice for cookies, cakes and pies
• Best platform for porch pickup food orders: pickup setups compared
• Texas farmers market vendor permit: what a market booth takes

Your Texas sourdough deserves a platform built for the way Texas bakers sell: a Saturday market, pickups at your door, a long flavor list and a hand-off in person. Homegrown is $10 a month billed yearly, with no commission and no fee on your customer. Start your 7-day Homegrown trial, with no charge until day 8.