The short version: Hotplate and Bakesy solve two different problems. Hotplate runs timed drops, where you open a window, customers order during it, and you bake to the order count. Bakesy manages custom orders, where a customer describes the cake they want and you send back an invoice. Hotplate charges no subscription and takes 5% plus $0.55 per order, added to your customer's checkout total by default, while you separately pay 2.9% plus $0.30 in card processing. Bakesy charges $9.99 or $17.99 a month, takes no per-order platform fee, and routes card payments at 3.9% plus $0.30, a full point above the standard online rate. If you sell the same items on a schedule, Hotplate's model fits. If every order is a conversation, Bakesy's does. If you want a shop customers can order from any day of the week, neither one is built for that.
Every price below was read off each company's own pricing page in July 2026. Check both before you sign up, because platform pricing moves.
They are not two versions of the same product. They are different tools that happen to share an audience.
Hotplate is built around the drop. You schedule a release window, say Thursday at 7pm for Saturday pickup. Customers see a countdown, order during the window, and the window closes. You get an order count and a prep list, then you bake exactly that. Hotplate's pricing page states the model plainly: no subscription, no setup cost, no contract, everything included.
Bakesy is built around the custom order. A customer fills out an order form describing what they want. You review it, price it, and send a branded invoice. Bakesy's feature list is order forms, invoices, galleries, availability calendars, and automated receipts. It is a back office for a baker who quotes work one job at a time.
That difference settles most of this comparison before price enters it:
The fastest way to settle it is not reading either pricing page again but running one real weekend through a trial. Load your actual menu into a storefront and see which half of this trade you feel first.
Here is the full stack on both, plus a third option for reference. Every row shows the same four things, because a platform fee quoted without its processing fee attached is not a real number.
| Hotplate | Bakesy | Homegrown | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subscription | $0/mo, there is no plan to buy | $9.99/mo Standard, $17.99/mo Premium | $10/mo billed annually, or $12.50/mo billed monthly |
| Free trial | None needed, nothing to subscribe to | 30-day free trial | 7-day free trial |
| Platform fee | 5% + $0.55, added to the customer's subtotal by default | $0 | $0, 0% commission |
| Card processing | 2.9% + $0.30, paid by you | 3.9% + $0.30 through Bakesy Secure Payments | 2.9% + $0.30 |
Two rows in that table deserve more than a glance.
Hotplate's 5% plus $0.55 lands on your customer, not on you, unless you choose otherwise. Hotplate's own pricing page walks through a $30 order: the customer sees a $2.05 fee added at checkout, and you separately pay $1.27 in card processing. You can absorb the fee instead. That is a real choice with a real cost, and it is the largest single variable in this comparison.
Bakesy's 3.9% sits a point above the standard online card rate. Most online checkouts, Hotplate's and Homegrown's included, run at 2.9% plus $0.30. Bakesy's payments page states 3.9% plus $0.30 for Bakesy Secure Payments and notes the method is optional. Bakesy also lets you accept Venmo, PayPal, Zelle, or Cash App with no Bakesy fee, but then you are arranging and chasing payment by hand, which is most of what a platform exists to remove.
For what card acceptance costs underneath all of this, the Federal Reserve publishes average interchange fees by payment card network under Regulation II. Interchange is the wholesale piece your processor pays the card networks, and it is the reason almost nobody prices online card acceptance below roughly 2.9%. A platform charging 3.9% is keeping the extra point.
Take a baker doing 25 orders a month at a $20 average order, so $500 in monthly sales. That is an ordinary weekend cottage bakery, not a hypothetical.
Hotplate, fee passed to the customer
Hotplate, fee absorbed by you
Bakesy Standard
Homegrown, annual billing
The break-even between Hotplate-with-absorbed-fees and Bakesy sits at roughly seven orders a month. Below that, no-subscription pricing wins even when you eat the fee. Above it, a flat monthly plan is cheaper, and the gap widens with every order.
If you pass Hotplate's fee to your customers, Hotplate is the cheapest option on this page for you at any volume. It is also the only option where your customer pays about 7.75% more than your listed price on a $20 order. Whether that is a good trade depends on your buyers, and it is worth testing rather than assuming. Platform fees and card processing are deductible business expenses either way, which the IRS covers in its guide to business expense resources.
Work the decision in this order.
Hotplate is the stronger tool when demand is bursty and supply is capped.
Hotplate's weakness is the flip side of its strength. Between drops, you are closed. A customer who finds you on a Tuesday has nothing to buy. If a meaningful share of your sales come from people discovering you and ordering right then, that closed window is lost revenue, and it is why many bakers end up running a drop tool alongside a pre-order system that stays open.
The tie-breaker: if your product sells out in under an hour, Hotplate is doing something for you that a standard storefront will not. Scarcity is its whole design.
Bakesy is the stronger tool when every order is a negotiation.
Bakesy's weakness is that it is a back office, not a shop. It is not a public marketplace, and it does not put a browsable storefront in front of people who have never heard of you. It also gates a lot behind Premium at $17.99: tips, instant checkout, the revenue dashboard, inventory limits, automated customer reminders, and hiding the Bakesy logo on your shop and invoices. Price the tier you will actually need, not the one in the headline. Our fuller look at order management tools for home bakers covers where each of these categories starts and stops.
Both tools are narrow on purpose, which leaves the same four gaps.
Those gaps are exactly where a general storefront fits, and they are worth pricing before you commit to a tool that solves one workflow beautifully and ignores the rest.
If your real problem is that you want one link customers can order from any day, for pickup or delivery, without a drop window and without an invoice conversation, that is a different product than either of these.
Homegrown is $10 a month billed annually, or $12.50 billed monthly, with 0% commission and 2.9% plus $0.30 card processing, the same processing rate Hotplate charges and a full point below Bakesy's. You get a standalone storefront on your own link, pickup at the places you actually sell, local delivery with a radius you set and a flat fee you keep, a route to run on delivery day, and sales tax calculated and remitted in all 50 states. The trial runs seven days and nothing is charged until day eight.
Set against these two specifically: Hotplate runs a timed drop better than Homegrown does, because Homegrown does not have drop windows or hard per-release quantity caps yet. Bakesy handles a complicated custom cake quote better, because Homegrown does not have custom-order request forms. What Homegrown does that neither of them does is stay open between those moments, handle the tax filing, and cost the same whether you sell $200 or $2,000 in a week. You can see what the storefront looks like before committing to anything.
If you would rather see the whole category than these three, our cottage food platform comparison puts every major tool side by side using the same fee disclosure as the table above.
Do not migrate your business to find out. Run a controlled trial.
Bakesy gives you 30 days free, which is enough for two full cycles. Hotplate has nothing to trial because there is no plan to buy, so your test costs only the fees on real orders.
There is no plan to buy and no setup cost, so it is free to start. It is not free to use. Hotplate takes 5% plus $0.55 per order, added to your customer's subtotal by default, and you separately pay 2.9% plus $0.30 in card processing on every order. At $500 a month in sales across 25 orders, that is roughly $22 out of your pocket and $38.75 out of your customers' pockets.
No. Bakesy is $9.99 a month for Standard or $17.99 for Premium, with a 30-day free trial. There is no per-order platform fee, but card payments through Bakesy Secure Payments run 3.9% plus $0.30, which is higher than the 2.9% plus $0.30 standard on most online checkouts.
It depends on your volume and on who pays Hotplate's fee. If you pass Hotplate's 5% plus $0.55 to your customers, Hotplate is cheaper for you at any volume. If you absorb it, Bakesy becomes cheaper somewhere around seven orders a month, and the gap grows from there.
Nothing stops you, and some bakers do run a drop tool for scheduled releases alongside a separate tool for custom quotes. You will be paying two sets of fees, maintaining two product lists, and reconciling two payout streams, so it is worth checking whether one storefront covers both jobs well enough first.
No. Both leave sales tax calculation and filing to you. That is manageable if you sell in one state at a farmers market, and it gets complicated quickly if you ship or sell across state lines.
Not really. Neither runs a public marketplace that sends new buyers to vendors. Both assume you are bringing your own audience from Instagram, a text list, or a farmers market booth. Plan how you will find customers for a home baking business either way, because no platform on this page will do it for you.
Ask before you sign up, and test the export during your trial rather than at the moment you want to quit. Your customer list is the one asset that has to survive a platform change, and being able to download it is worth more than most features you will compare.
Pick Hotplate if you sell in scheduled drops and your customers will not blink at a fee at checkout. Pick Bakesy if every order is a custom quote and you want an invoice workflow more than a shop. Pick neither if what you actually need is a storefront that stays open, handles your sales tax, and costs the same every month regardless of how good a week you had.
If that last one describes your situation, you can start a Homegrown storefront and have it live in about fifteen minutes. List your products, share the link with a few regulars, and see real orders before you decide anything.
