Frequently Asked Questions

Bakery Buddy is an AI-native bakery management platform for independent bakeries and dessert brands. It combines order management, invoicing and Stripe payments, recipe and inventory costing, a customer CRM, financial reports, email automations and campaigns, and a hosted bakery website in one app. What makes it different is Buddy: an AI teammate that drafts the follow-ups, prices the quote, and answers questions about your own numbers — then waits for you to approve before anything reaches a customer.

Bakery Buddy is pre-launch. The product is built and running, but access is by waitlist rather than open signup — join at bakerybuddy.ai/waitlist and we'll be in touch. Everything described on the site is shipped and working in the app today.

Cake Boss is desktop-only software focused on basic order and recipe management with no AI features. Bakery Buddy is a cloud-based platform with an AI teammate, Buddy, that handles pricing checks, order parsing, allergen flags, invoice drafting, and a plain-language morning briefing — all in one subscription.

Yes. Bakery Buddy is built specifically for independent and home-based operations, not just brick-and-mortar shops. It handles DM-to-order intake, recipe costing at small batch sizes, and mileage logging for taxes — the things a cottage-food baker actually runs into.

There is no native iOS or Android app. Bakery Buddy runs in a browser and is built to work on a phone or tablet, so you can check orders between batches or prop a tablet by the register for voice counter ordering. There is nothing to install.

Yes. Bakery Buddy supports CSV import for orders, customer records, and recipes from Bake Diary, and Buddy's import wizard maps your columns and catches duplicates. A typical migration takes well under an hour.

Yes. Bakery Buddy imports order history, customer contacts, and recipes from Cake Boss exports, and Buddy's AI import wizard maps your columns and catches duplicates. Most of the work is exporting from Cake Boss; the import itself is a few minutes.

Bake Diary shut down on May 31, 2025. Bakery Buddy is the most direct replacement: it covers the same order management and recipe tracking workflows, and adds AI-powered pricing, invoicing, and email marketing that Bake Diary did not offer.

Castiron began winding down operations in early 2026 and fully closed by mid-2026. Bakery Buddy supports Castiron data exports and covers the order management and customer management workflows sellers relied on — plus a public order-intake form so customers can request quotes at your own link, and an AI teammate Castiron did not have.

There are three plans and the whole app is unlocked on all of them. Home is $0 a month with unlimited customers, no order caps, and a $2 monthly Buddy Balance. Baker is $29/month, or $23/month billed annually, and adds a $15 monthly Buddy Balance that rolls over, your own custom domain, and waived online payment fees. Bakery is $59/month, or $49/month billed annually, and adds a $40 monthly Buddy Balance, full financial and tax reports, and priority support. There are no per-seat charges on any plan. Cancel anytime.

Bakery Buddy's Home plan is genuinely free rather than a trial: $0 a month, the whole app unlocked, unlimited customers, no order caps, and a $2 monthly Buddy Balance for AI. The paid plans buy a bigger Buddy Balance, a custom domain, and waived online payment fees — not access to features.

Two things. When you build a recipe from your inventory, Buddy uses your ingredient costs and target margin to suggest a price. And when you write a quote, Buddy compares it to your past orders of the same event type and flags when you're underpricing.

For most independent bakeries, yes. Bakery Buddy handles invoicing, expense tracking, and income reporting built into the same workflow as your orders — so you don't need a separate accounting app. Bakeries that need double-entry accounting, bank reconciliation, or payroll will still want FreshBooks or an accountant alongside it.

Stripe payments are built in today — charge saved cards or send a Pay-Now link right from an order. Shopify and Square integrations are on the roadmap. Bakery Buddy manages orders, invoicing, and customer records natively.

Yes. Month-to-month plans cancel with one click and take effect at the end of the billing period. Annual plans end at the billing cycle with no cancellation fees or penalties.