Enterprise systems cost £400-1,000+/month, but they were designed for £10M+ industrial bakeries and then sold to £100k operations that don't need 90% of the features.
The real question isn't "how much does bakery software cost?" It's "what problem are you actually trying to solve?"
What problem are you actually trying to solve?
Stop taking orders by phone/email/text
The problem
You're spending hours every week taking orders, typing them into spreadsheets, and dealing with "Did I already order?" calls.
The solution
A customer portal where they place orders themselves.
What this actually costs
£30-80/month
Examples
- Wholesale Handler (this website) - £30/month
- Shopify with B2B app - £40-80/month
Reality check
This is probably all you need if you have 10-50 customers. You're not trying to optimize a supply chain - you just want customers to order themselves instead of texting you at 11pm.
Stop chasing payments
The problem
You send invoices, customers pay late, you spend time following up.
The solution
Take payment when they order.
What this actually costs
£0-100/month + 2-4% of every transaction forever
Examples
- Shopify (£29-79/month + ~2.5% transaction fees)
- Square (free software + 2.6% fees)
- Toast (£0-65/month + 2.9-3.5% fees)
Reality check
Your wholesale customers are businesses, not consumers. They're used to paying invoices via bank transfer. Do you really want to pay 3% of your revenue (£3,000/year on £100k revenue) to solve a problem that might not exist?
Most wholesale bakeries invoice monthly and customers pay by bank transfer. Zero fees.
Know what to bake each day
The problem
You need to total up orders to know what to bake.
What vendors will sell you
Production planning software with recipe management, ingredient calculations, and automated production reports (£200-400/month)
What you actually need
Print your order list.
Reality check
Can you count? Then you can do production planning.
Unless you're baking 100+ different items daily for 100+ customers, you don't need software to tell you "you have orders for 50 loaves, so bake 50 loaves."
You're already doing this in your head or with a spreadsheet. Software just formats the same information differently.
If you insist on paying for this
- BakeSmart (£190-320/month + £1,200-2,800 onboarding)
- FlexiBake Base (£235/month)
Know your actual costs
The problem
You don't know if you're making money on each product.
What vendors will sell you
Inventory management with recipe costing, ingredient tracking, and COGS calculations (£20-80/month standalone, or included in £200-400/month systems)
What you actually need
A spreadsheet with your recipes and ingredient costs.
Reality check
This requires religiously updating the system every time you use ingredients. One forgotten entry and your data is useless.
Do you really not know when you're running low on flour? Most bakeries under 50 customers can literally just look at their shelves.
If you need it for accounting compliance
- Craftybase (£20-80/month standalone)
- Included in BakeSmart, FlexiBake
Optimize delivery routes
The problem
You have multiple drivers and complex routing needs.
What vendors will sell you
Route optimization software with GPS tracking, driver apps, and delivery scheduling (£400-1,000/month)
What you actually need
Google Maps (free)
Reality check
Your routes are the same every week. You deliver to the same 20-50 customers. Your drivers already know which bridges to avoid and where to park.
Route planning software is designed for parcel delivery companies doing 200+ stops per day with constantly changing destinations. You're not UPS.
You're paying £400/month to replicate knowledge that's already in your drivers' heads.
If you genuinely have multiple vans and complex routing
- FlexiBake Corporate (£395/month)
- Cybake (custom pricing)
Handle retail AND wholesale
The problem
You have a retail shop and wholesale customers.
What vendors will sell you
Combined POS + wholesale system (£200-400/month + £500-2,000 in hardware)
Reality check
POS systems are cash registers. They're built for retail customers paying immediately at a counter. Bolting wholesale features onto a cash register doesn't make it good at wholesale - it makes it bad at both.
Usually only works with their hardware. If you switch later, you have to buy all new equipment.
If you need both
- BakeSmart (£190-320/month)
- Toast/Square (£0-65/month + hardware + payment fees)
Meet regulatory requirements (nutrition labels, FDA compliance)
The problem
You're selling to retailers who legally require nutrition labels.
What this costs
£100-400/month
Examples
- FlexiBake Nutritional (£100/month)
- Included in full FlexiBake systems
Reality check
This is a compliance tax, not an operational improvement. Only pay for it if someone is legally requiring you to have nutrition labels.
If you're selling to cafes and restaurants, they don't need nutrition labels. If you're selling to grocery stores, you do.
What enterprise software companies will try to sell you
These systems were built for industrial bakeries with 200+ customers, multi-location operations, and nationwide shipping.
You have 20 regular customers and deliver within 30 miles.
They'll tell you that you need
Recipe management software
Store recipes digitally, calculate ingredient quantities based on order volumes
Do you actually need it?
Only if you have 50+ products and genuinely can't remember recipes. Most bakeries under 30 products can use a spreadsheet or a binder with recipe cards.
How many products do you actually make? If it's under 30 and you've been baking them for years, you don't need software to store your recipes.
Production planning software
Know exactly what to bake each day automatically
Do you actually need it?
This is Excel with a fancy interface. Unless you're baking 100+ different items daily, you don't need software to tell you 'you have orders for 50 loaves, so bake 50 loaves.'
Inventory tracking
Track ingredient inventory, prevent stockouts, calculate profitability
Do you actually need it?
Most bakeries under 50 customers can literally just look at their shelves.
This requires religiously updating the system every time you use ingredients. One forgotten entry and your data is useless.
Standing orders and recurring orders
Automate repeat orders for regular customers
Do you actually need it?
This is a nice-to-have but it's not worth the £200/month extra that most enterprise systems charge for it.
Your regular customers order the same thing every week anyway. You already know what they want.
Integrated payments
Get paid immediately instead of invoicing
Do you actually need it?
This costs 2-4% of your revenue forever. On £10,000/month revenue, 3% = £300/month in fees.
And it's hard to leave. Once customers are used to paying through the system, switching means retraining everyone.
Hidden costs to watch for
Onboarding fees
- BakeSmart: £1,200-2,800 one-time
- Many enterprise systems: £2,000-10,000
Per-customer fees
Some systems charge per wholesale customer (£1-5/month each)
Per-user fees
- FlexiBake: £115-140/month per additional user
- BakeSmart: £32/month per additional station
Payment processing
- 2-4% of every transaction
- £100k revenue × 3% = £3,000/year in payment fees vs £0 for invoices
Hardware
- POS terminals: £500-2,000
- Kitchen displays: £300-1,000
- Barcode scanners: £100-500
- Usually only works with their software. If you switch later, you have to buy all new hardware.
Contract lock-in
Some require 12-24 month contracts
The manual approach (£0-35/month)
What you do
- Take orders by phone/email/text
- Enter into spreadsheet
- Use QuickBooks for invoicing (£28-188/month)
- Print production lists from your spreadsheet
Real cost
Your time. Probably 5-15 hours/week on admin.
This works until
~15-20 customers, then it's unsustainable
When to upgrade
When you're spending more time on admin than baking
By customer count
5-15 customers
- Manual (£0-35/month) - still manageable
- Simple online ordering (£30-80/month) - if you want to save time
15-50 customers
- Online ordering essential (£30-80/month)
- Everything else is optional
50-100 customers
- Online ordering essential (£30-80/month)
- Consider production planning if genuinely complex (£200-400/month)
- Probably need multiple staff, so factor per-user costs
100+ customers
- May actually need more features (£400-1,000+/month)
- Route planning, inventory, compliance features start to make sense at this scale
What most bakeries actually need
If you're doing £50k-200k/year in wholesale
You need
- Customer portal so they can order themselves
- Order management so you can see what to make
- Invoice generation so you can bill them
That's £30-80/month.
You don't need
- Integrated payments (adds 3% cost for minimal benefit)
- Production planning software (a spreadsheet works fine)
- Inventory tracking (you know when you're running low on flour)
- Route optimization (you drive the same routes every week)
- Recipe management (you already know your recipes)
The salespeople will make you feel unprofessional for not having all the features. You're not unprofessional - you're appropriately sized.
Wholesale Handler's position
We're £30/month because we only solve one problem: letting customers order online.
We don't
- Take payments (so no 3% fees)
- Track inventory (you don't need software for this)
- Plan production (a daily order list works fine)
- Optimize routes (unnecessary for most bakeries)
- Manage recipes (you already know them)
We're for bakeries who want to stop taking phone orders and nothing else.
If you genuinely need those other features at your scale, the enterprise systems listed above are better fits. But most 10-50 customer bakeries don't need them - they just think they do because the software companies convinced them complexity = professional.
Simple = professional when you're appropriately sized.