Key
Hotplate costs you nothing a month, but your customers pay a 5% plus 55 cents fee on every order at checkout. The main alternatives are KeyHUD ($29 a month, first 30 days free, no customer fee and no commission, set up for you for $20), Homegrown ($10 a month flat), Square Online (free with generic shop pages) and Etsy (about 10% of every sale in fees). If you sell a few orders a week, Hotplate’s free plan is hard to beat. If you sell every week and want a clean price with no surprise fee at checkout, a flat monthly tool like KeyHUD or Homegrown works out better for your customers.
Hotplate is good at what it does. It was built for drops, those scheduled sale days where you open orders at 9 AM and sell out by lunch, and it handles pre-orders, reminders and pickup well. So why do bakers go looking for an alternative? Almost always one of three reasons: the fee their customers see at checkout, wanting a shop that looks like theirs instead of Hotplate’s, or wanting to take orders every day instead of running drops.
Here’s an honest look at the options, with the real fees, so you can pick the one that fits how you sell.
👉 Free tool: price your cookies in 30 seconds →
What Hotplate Actually Charges
There’s no monthly fee. At checkout, your customer pays 5% of the subtotal plus 55 cents, which comes to about $1.55 on a $20 order. You pay the card processing fee, 2.9% plus 30 cents, out of your payout. You can change the split and absorb the fee yourself, but most sellers leave it on the customer.
That model is genuinely free for you, and it’s why Hotplate grew so fast. The trade-off is that a $20 box of cookies shows up as about $22.30 at checkout, with the fees listed as a line item. Some customers never notice. Some do, and they ask you about it.
The Alternatives, Side By Side
| Platform | Monthly | Per-Sale Fees | Customer Sees A Fee? | Built For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hotplate | $0 | 5% + 55¢ (customer) + 2.9% + 30¢ card fee (you) | Yes, by default | Scheduled drops, pre-orders |
| KeyHUD | $29, first 30 days free | No commission; card fee 2.9% + 30¢ goes to Stripe | No | Everyday orders, pickup days, your own menu page |
| Homegrown | $10 (paid yearly) | No commission; card fee to the processor | No | Menu-based local pickup |
| Square Online | $0 (paid plans add features) | Card fee 2.9% + 30¢ | No | General online shops, any business |
| Etsy | $0 | 20¢ listing + 6.5% transaction + 3% + 25¢ processing | No | Shipped goods, not local pickup |
| Facebook messages | $0 | None | No | Nothing. Lost orders and “how much?” all day |
Fees as published by each company in October 2026. Check their pricing pages before you decide; they change.
A Real Month, Three Ways
Say you sell 20 orders a month at $20 each, $400 in sales.
- Hotplate: your customers pay about $31 in fees between them. You pay about $18 in card fees. Your cost: $18.
- KeyHUD: $29 for the month plus about $18 in card fees. Your cost: $47. Your customers pay nothing extra.
- Etsy: about $47 in fees, and it still doesn’t do pickup days.
At that volume, Hotplate is the cheapest for you, no question. Now say you grow to 100 orders a month, $2,000 in sales. On Hotplate your customers are now paying about $155 a month in fees. On KeyHUD or Homegrown the monthly price doesn’t move. That’s the whole decision: a per-order fee is cheap when you’re small and expensive when you’re busy. A flat fee is the opposite.
Who Should Stay On Hotplate
If you run drops, sell out fast, and your customers are used to the checkout fee, stay. It’s free for you and it’s built for exactly that. Don’t switch tools to save a few dollars if your customers are happy.
Who Should Switch
- You take orders all week, not just on drop day. You want a menu page people can order from any time, pick a pickup day, and pay ahead. That’s what KeyHUD is built around.
- Customers have asked about the fee. A flat monthly tool means the price on the menu is the price they pay.
- You want it to look like your bakery. Your name, your menu, your pickup days, not a platform’s page with your name on it.
- You’re still doing it through messages. Any of these beats a text thread. Moving from messages to a real order page is the single biggest step up, whichever tool you pick.
How KeyHUD Compares, Honestly
KeyHUD is ours, so here’s the plain version. It’s $29 a month after a free first 30 days, no commission, and no fee added to your customer’s order; the only per-sale cost is the normal card fee, which goes to Stripe, not to us. You get your own order page with your menu and prices, customers pick a pickup day and pay ahead, and every order lands in one list instead of a message thread. If you’d rather not set it up yourself, we’ll build your shop for you for $20, and you only pay once you like it.
What it isn’t: it’s not a marketplace, so it doesn’t bring customers to you the way Etsy can. Your customers are the people who already know you, from the farmers market, your Facebook page, or word of mouth. That’s true of Hotplate too.
Before You Pick Any Of Them
Price your product first. Most home bakers charge too little, and no platform fixes that. Our cookie pricing calculator and sourdough pricing calculator are free and take about two minutes. Then read how to sell cookies online from your home kitchen for the rest of the setup, including your state’s cottage food rules.
Common Questions
Is Hotplate really free?
For the seller, yes. There is no monthly fee. Your customer pays 5% of the subtotal plus 55 cents at checkout, and you pay the card processing fee of 2.9% plus 30 cents out of your payout. You can choose to absorb the customer fee yourself in Hotplate's settings.
What is the cheapest Hotplate alternative?
If you sell only a few orders a month, nothing beats Hotplate's $0 plan for the seller. Once you sell every week, a flat monthly tool costs less for your customers: Homegrown is $10 a month paid yearly, and KeyHUD is $29 a month with the first 30 days free and no customer fee.
Does KeyHUD charge a commission?
No. KeyHUD is $29 a month after a free first 30 days. The only per-sale cost is the standard card fee, 2.9% plus 30 cents, which goes to Stripe. Nothing is added to your customer's order.
Can I take everyday orders, not just drops?
Hotplate is built around scheduled drops. KeyHUD and Homegrown are built around a menu page that is open all the time, where customers pick a pickup day and pay ahead.
Do I need a cottage food license to sell on any of these?
The platform does not change the law. Most states let you sell certain foods made in a home kitchen under a cottage food law, with rules about what you can sell, labeling and where you can sell it. Check your state's rules before you take your first order.
Want to see this working on a real storefront?
See Ana's Kitchen → — a real KeyHUD storefront we built as an example (not an actual business).
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