[Websites] Choosing a Website Platform for your Sugar Cookie Bakery Business in 2025

Choosing a website platform for your bakery business is no small decision, and what you choose will have an impact on your future sales, customers, and bottom-line income. So, what platform should you choose? Can you do it on your own, or do you need to hire a web designer? How much will this cost you? Can you switch platforms down the road, or will you be tied to the one you start with? 

With platforms starting and stopping (lookin’ at you, Castiron), you might be in the market for a new platform that’ll be both user-friendly and customer-focused so you can make more sales and grow your business all in one. This blog is going to help you find the right direction that’ll meet you where you are in your current business.

PS - want to hear us talk about this topic on the Baking it Down Podcast?

💻 Paying for a Website Provider

Before you decide what platform you’ll use, you'll need to decide what you can invest in it - show me the money, honey! You can love a platform, but what will make it a possibility for your business is how much you’re willing to or can invest into it. Nothing good in this world is free, and, if it is, it rarely is a 1-size-fits-all and will lack a lot of customization. So, you’ll need to sit down and consider your monthly income and what you can feasibly contribute to your new website platform each month.

• $0 Budget: Google Forms and Jotform are far from a website, but they are a great entry point for collecting customer information in an organized way that will help you grow your business into a place that can afford a more customizable website down the road.

• $1 - $10 Budget: Weebly, My Custom Bakes, and GoDaddy have a low monthly fee with minimal customization options, but can be great for a growing business that is transitioning into a larger operation.

• $10 - $20 Budget: Squarespace and Wix have plans that fall in here, and Baksey has a Premium option with a lot more features than with their standard plan.

• $20 + Budget: Hosts like WordPress, Shopify, and Square are going to be on the higher end just because of how customizable they are to your specific needs. From templates to plugins- these builders and platforms are great for long-term business websites that you’ll use for years to come.

• Custom Websites: You can hire a web designer to build a website of your dreams, but dreams are typically expensive and the more custom you go, the higher the price will be. You can get someone to build a website for as low as $100 and as much as $10,000 or more, depending on your needs.

• Fee-Based: Etsy and Hotplate are fee-based platforms that don’t necessarily require a monthly commitment, but you’ll be required to pay per sale you make.

While these pricing structures I’ve listed are current for today, there isn’t a way to guarantee the prices won’t go up in the future. Make sure to research past pricing changes and the jumps between them to make sure you don’t invest in a platform that’ll price you out in a few months.

I’ve just named a fraction of the platforms that you can use because there are hundreds of different options out there, and that will lead us to our next factor: longevity.

💻 Longevity of a Website Platform

A lot of times, a new platform will incentivize you to join by offering low buy-ins and big promises so they can start attracting investors to beef up the platform and add new revenue so they can act on those promises. The issue is that new companies don’t always get the investments, and they end up shutting down, or, similar to Castiron, they sell to another company, and that company ends up shutting them down.

You run a risk choosing a platform that’s “too good to be true,” and they change the pricing structure on you - similar to what MyCustomBakes is doing with the ending of their free tier plan (hey now, y'all had mooched off that free tiew for YEARS, so no complainin') - or the platform closes down completely, like Castiron.

Being on the cutting edge of something new is enticing, and you might have the time right now as your business is starting out to grow with a platform, but consider it down the road when you’ve established your business and are ranking for keywords, and how starting over could hurt your leads and cost you valuable time.

Choosing a platform that has been around for a decade plus is nearly a guarantee that it’ll be around for a decade to come. You don’t have to reinvest time into learning something new every few years because your old platform closed down - and that's a time-saving win.

Consider factors like the team behind the smaller platforms:

• Are they adding new folks to the company to keep it going?

• Is this a family-run business that might close down if someone moves away or they have a family crisis that will cause them to shut down like Bake Diary did this year?

• Are they makin’ good on their promises of new features, or are they just sayin’ things to calm down their users and keep them on the hook longer?

Saying something and doing it are vastly different, and they might say the right things, but look back and see when a new feature has dropped in the last year and what their track records are with listening to the users and their needs.

Check their history and see if they’ve made a lot of changes to their pricing structure in a short amount of time. Oftentimes, a company will lower the monthly buy-in cost to boost numbers to potential buyers when they are lookin’ to ditch the platform and sell it off for a profit. This is something to keep in mind because what the founders promise can change when they sell the company to a new owner, and you’re under new management.

No matter which one you choose, understand what can happen if you go with new and fancy versus old and reliable.

💻 Ease of Use in the Website’s Dashboard

Another big factor that you’ll want to consider for your future website is whether or not it’s easy to use. I’ve seen folks want to throw their computers at a wall when trying to set up their Square accounts, and I’ve seen folks love the versatility of a drag-and-drop they can find on Wix.

This comes down to who you are as a user. Are you willing to invest time, Google issues, and speak to support when things aren’t going right on your site? Or are you able to sacrifice customizability to get the job done good enough?

If you’re going to be doing this alone, you’ll want to be honest with yourself on how much time and energy you can dedicate to your website with monthly updates, removing old cookie classes, and adding new pre-sale options.

If you’re lookin’ to hire this out to a professional web designer or firm, you have a lot more flexibility because they are doing the foundational work, but consider down the road if you part ways with them, can you edit your products easily on your own, or will you always need to call into them to change out photos and update your blog?

Wix and My Custom Bakes are great for drag-and-drop templates and being easy to work with- the issue is that a lot of websites can look similar because they are dragging and dropping the same forms, fonts, and styles.

WordPress is great for customizations that can set you apart from other bakers in your area, but there is a slight learning curve to setting one up. The payoff is a unique-to-you website that has great rankability, with the trade-off being a lot of Google-ing and some minor hair-pulling out.

💻 SEO or Search Engine Optimization

SEO (short for “search engine optimization”) is the ability for your website to show up in search engines like Google or Microsoft’s Bing. Consider how often you use Google search to find a local business. 

For example, if you needed to get something fixed on your car, you may find yourself googling, “Mechanics near me.” 

The websites that show up after you type in that keyphrase (also called a search query) are SEO-optimized, meaning they rank well in search results. Because of that, you’re more likely to choose the websites that show up at the top of SERPs (search engine results). You call to book an appointment with the mechanic’s shop, and BOOM - SEO has made them a sale, and they didn’t even have to lift a finger because your lil’ fingers were doing all the heavy lifting. 

So, your next question should be, “How do I get my websites to show up when someone googles “sugar cookie bakery near me”? You smart marketer, you - that’s a great question. The ability to optimize your website’s ability to show up in search is dependent on what your website allows you to optimize. 

Look for website platforms that allow you to edit or add the following (brace yourself for buzz words):

• H1 and Title Tags

• Nested Tags

• Allows your website to have a Blog

• Has the ability to add pages (About Us, Services, Classes, Contact, etc.)

• Ability to edit a running Footer

• Retains image names and metadata

• Allows for analytics tracking

• Allows for third-party tracking (like the Facebook Pixel)

• Allows for long-form text

No single website platform can do it all - some (like WordPress) are easier to optimize for showing up in search, but they’re also more susceptible to hackers. On the flip side, a web builder that doesn’t allow for much customization can have the benefit of keeping things from breaking (conflicting plugins can conflict with each other and really mess up a website’s UX).

You’ll want to find a website platform that at least offers some of the SEO-centric features listed above to get your share of some of that search engine traffic. A website platform that allows you no ability to optimize your website to rank will likely be one you’ll find yourself leaving in a year or two. So look for a platform you and your website can grow with long-term.

💻 Hosting and Uptime

Confusingly (I know, I know - this is already confusing, but stay with me), some website platforms integrate both hosting and a website builder (think: Wix) while some you’ll pair a hosting provider with your website (think: WordPress). 

With WordPress, you’ll find your WordPress host, connect it to your registrar (the company that has your domain name), and then load up a WordPress website on that host. You’ll likely pay your hosting provider monthly, your registrar yearly, and you may pay for a template one time. It’s a lot of moving pieces.

Alternatively, finding a company that handles it all can make it an easier experience for you, the baker-turned-web-admin. Being able to log into one interface and pay one bill while immediately being able to access your website from the same screen is a better experience if you find yourself in the “not tech-savvy” camp. 

Look for an all-in-one host that has a really high uptime (meaning the entire platform doesn’t go dark). When a host has downtime, every website connected to that host also goes down with it, making a mess of conversions (people buying from your website). 

💻 Using Your Own Custom Domain

You will always - and let me stress always - hear me recommend purchasing a domain name. The domain name is the front door of your website, aka the house. For example, our domain name is SugarCookieMarketing.com - this “front door” is how I direct people to enter our house (the website). 

It’s much easier to verbally tell folks to go to “sugar cookie marketing dot com” than it is to have them type in something crazy like “shopify dot com forward slash sugar dash cookie dash marketing.” That’s why domains are important.

Not all website providers allow the use of your own domain name. Sometimes you’ll be forced to use a domain extension, like MyCustomBakes is configured. While you don’t have to pay for a domain registration fee billed yearly (yay for not having to shell out more money), you’ll also lose that branding aspect of your own custom domain. 

“Can’t I just redirect my domain to the landing page?” You can! That’s called a 301 redirect, but it does hurt your ability to rank (remember the section on SEO above?). Remember - it’s all about the give and take. 

Regardless of the website platform you choose - always purchase your custom domain name even if you don’t plan to use it. It’s $10 - $15 a year and protects you from losing it to another baker. And hey, if you decide down the road that you want either a website with a custom domain, to forward your custom domain, or to set up a custom email address, it’s waiting and ready for you.

💻 Hiring Outside Developers for Customization and Setup

Don’t be afraid to find a developer to help you with setup, customization, or website issues. Having a dev to quickly solve complex problems can make managing a website so much easier. I prefer to find my devs on websites like Upwork where you can post your issues with a flat fee rate, and developers will bid on your project. 

Upwork provides a digital resume of each developer,  allowing you to quickly sort by highly rated, well-established tech-savvy people from around the world at competitive prices. Yes, you’ll save money doing this in-house, but having a touch point for changes that need coding or for stuff you just don’t feel like doing yourself - these contractors are a blessing and worth every penny. 

Yes, you’ll be giving these folks access to your website’s backend and possibly to your domain main, so make sure you’ve chosen a trust-worthy contractor, which is often reflected in a higher price per hour, but worth the peace of mind when it comes to website security (on that note - change your password after you’ve had a dev working in there. And on that note - make sure you’re updating your passwords regularly for security reasons).

💻 Affiliate Programs and Their Kick-Backs to Bakers

It’s totally normal and encouraged to ask in marketing groups like the Sugar Cookie Marketing (Group) and on your own socials to see what other bakers are using for their platforms, but you’ll want to make sure they aren’t biased.

A big thing to come to these website platforms is affiliate programs where they incentivise current users to recruit new users so they can, in turn, receive free months for themselves, financial kick-backs and other incentives.

While it seems like these folks loooove their platforms, they are biased in their reviews because they are getting something out of it, and it isn’t just knowing they helped your future business choose a new website platform.

Consider if the person you’re asking is coming at it with your needs in mind or their wallet in theirs. You can typically weed out these recommendations by lookin’ for words like “referral code” or "affiliate link” and “partnership” in the URL and comments they share.

We see a lot of newer platform company owners joining groups to covertly recommend themselves in the comments without revealing they are the "Wizard of Oz” behind the curtain of the platform they claim to be recommending. A simple Google search of people’s names will typically reveal if they are associated with the company they’re recommending or not.

Consider looking for real feedback from users by asking questions like, “What is a feature you love and a feature you hate about using X platform?” instead of a broad question like, “Which platform do you use?”. This will help you get answers that you can use to guide you to the right decision for your current bakery business.

💻 Choosing a Website - In Closing

This feels like a lot of information all at once (especially if you’re reeling from the closing of Castiron), but I promise you that once you find a website platform you love - you’ll never need or want anything else. Front-loading the research on these platforms will save you time and heartache down the road from platforms closing, selling, and changing. And change isn't fully avoidable, we know that. The best part? You aren’t locked into a website platform for life. As your business changes, you can change your platform to match your needs!

A great place to stay in-the-know about website updates and changes in the baking community is by joining the Sugar Cookie Marketing Facebook Group. There are daily updates, posts, and recommendations (not affiliate, I promise) that can help you stay in the know and make educated decisions for your bakery business now and in the future.

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(Pssst - if you'd like to learn how to up your bakery business in marketing and lead generation - check out one of our sugar cookie marketing memberships. 🖱️ You can learn more about those here.)