# Is there free bakery software?

> Yes, in pieces: spreadsheets, free forms and calendars can run a small bakery, but they leave out costing, deposits and allergens. ibakepro is paid, with a 14-day trial.

Yes, in pieces. A spreadsheet, a free online form, a free calendar and the free
tier of a payments or invoicing tool can run a bakery taking a few orders a
week, and plenty of good bakers start exactly that way. What free tools rarely
do is connect: the order form does not know your recipe costs, the deposit is
not tied to the order, and the allergens live in your head. ibakepro is paid
software that joins those up, from US$17 (A$26, £13, C$23, NZ$29) a month, with
a 14-day free trial.

## What the free setup looks like

Most bakers who run on free tools use some version of this:

| Job | Free tool category | What it leaves out |
|---|---|---|
| Taking orders | Online form builder or social DMs | The price, the deposit and your availability |
| Costing | Spreadsheet | Updating when an ingredient price changes |
| Dates | Free calendar app | Which orders are paid and which are not |
| Payments | Free tier of a payment or invoicing app | Linking a deposit and a balance to one order |
| Allergens | Notes or memory | A record from each ingredient to the finished product |
| Customer list | Phone contacts or a spreadsheet | Order history and who to follow up |

None of that is wrong. The cost is time: every order gets typed into three
places, and every month something slips between them. The usual signs you
have outgrown it are a balance nobody chased, an order on the wrong date, or a
moment when you could not say whether the sourdough, the cookies or the cakes
actually made money.

## A fair way to decide

Add up the hours. If you spend an hour a week copying orders between a form,
a calendar and a spreadsheet, and you value your time at even A$30, US$20 or
£15 an hour, that is four or five times the monthly price of ibakepro's
Essentials plan. If you take two orders a month, a spreadsheet is the better tool, and
nobody should talk you out of it.

The other thing free tools rarely give you is costing from real ingredient
prices. A spreadsheet can do it, but only as well as you keep it updated, and
the moment butter goes up it is out of date for every recipe that uses it.

## Where ibakepro fits

ibakepro joins those five tools into one for bakeries of any size, from home
cake makers and cookie businesses to sourdough micro-bakeries and wholesale
bakeries, from US$17 (A$26, £13) a month.

The plans, by month:

| Currency | Essentials | Growth | Business |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| USD | $17 | $22 | $59 |
| AUD | A$26 | A$33 | A$89 |
| GBP | £13 | £17 | £47 |
| EUR | €15 | €20 | €54 |
| CAD | C$23 | C$30 | C$81 |
| NZD | NZ$29 | NZ$37 | NZ$100 |

- **The trial.** 14 days on any plan, with that plan's full feature set and 25
  Choux AI credits included.
- **Essentials** is one user and 100 orders over the life of the account, with
  quotes, deposits, costing, The Pantry, allergens and a website, which is the
  ground a free setup usually covers in five tools.
- **Card payments** go through your own Stripe account on every plan.

If you are weighing it up from a spreadsheet, the
[getting off spreadsheets](/blog/getting-off-spreadsheets) guide covers what to
move first, and [what does bakery software cost](/answers/what-does-bakery-software-cost)
covers the full price picture.