The Real Cost
Every platform shows you a subscription fee. None of them show you the tools you'll buy separately, the hours you'll burn replacing features, or what it costs to migrate when you outgrow them. This is the honest math.
The Hidden Costs
When a platform charges you $10/month, that's the sticker. The actual cost is what you pay to make up for what the platform doesn't do.
A platform without a label maker means Canva Pro ($15/mo). Without seller tools, Butterbase ($12–29/mo). Without bookkeeping, QuickBooks ($20/mo). Those "cheap" platforms aren't cheap once you add the replacements.
Reading your state's cottage food law, designing compliant labels, tracking sales against the cap, figuring out what you're allowed to sell — that's roughly 8 hours a month most sellers don't get paid for.
Bakesy and Butterbase are storefront tools, not marketplaces. When you outgrow them, you migrate — rebuild your listings, move your customer list, start over on SEO. That's a one-time cost you're amortizing whether you know it or not.
The Calculator
Enter your numbers below. The table shows what you'd pay on each platform per month — platform fees, replacement tools, time cost, and migration cost where it applies. SellFood is locked in the first column so you can always compare.
Marketplace + compliance + tools
Online order form + directory
WordPress marketplace (Dokan)
Order-form app, no marketplace
Drop-based pre-order
Prepared-food delivery marketplace
Baker back-office SaaS, no marketplace
General marketplace, food as subcategory
Castiron charged sellers $0 and added a 10% "convenience fee" to every buyer's order at checkout. It worked — until it didn't. Conversion rates collapsed when buyers saw inflated prices. Revenue followed. The platform shut down in late 2025, orphaning thousands of food sellers overnight.
Hotplate is running the same playbook today. Watch the warnings on their column above.
Read the full competitive breakdown →At very low sales volume — if you're testing the waters, selling to friends, or running a once-a-month side hustle — some flat-fee tools like Bakesy or Butterbase can be cheaper than SellFood on the platform fee alone. The calculator above will tell you when that happens. What they won't give you: a marketplace that brings customers to your door, compliance tooling built into every listing, and a platform designed to grow with you instead of one you eventually have to leave.
Join SellFood.com. Transparent pricing, built-in compliance, a real marketplace behind every listing, and tools that scale with your business.