Bakery website: what to put on it, how to take orders, and what it costs

A bakery website has to answer three things fast, on a phone: what's in the case today, when you're open, and how to order ahead. Everything else (the story, the photos, the wedding gallery) helps, but those three bring people through the door and fill your pre-order book.

Below: what a bakery website should have, how to take pre-orders and custom cake orders without losing details, how to show allergens, layouts worth copying, and what Wix, Squarespace, Square and others cost side by side.

1. What should a bakery website have?

In the order your customers look for them:

• Today's hours, and whether you're open now. Bakeries open early and close early, and many close one or two days a week. "Open now until 2pm" near the top saves a wasted trip.
• What you bake, as text, with prices. Breads, pastries, cookies, cakes by the slice, whole cakes, each in its own group. Prices for each size (a 6-inch and an 8-inch cake are different items).
• Which days you bake what. If the challah is Friday only and the cinnamon rolls are weekends, say so next to the item. This is the question bakeries get asked most on the phone.
• Order ahead, with a clear cutoff. "Order by 6pm for pickup tomorrow." More on this below.
• Custom cakes: what you make, starting prices, how far ahead to order, and a form that collects every detail you need.
• Allergens and dietary notes: which items contain nuts, which are vegan or gluten-free, and whether your kitchen handles everything on one bench.
• Address, a map link, and parking. One tap opens directions.
• A tap-to-call phone number. For the customer asking whether the sourdough is sold out.
• Real photos of real bakes. Your case, your loaves, your cakes. Phone photos in daylight beat stock pictures every time.

The general list for any food business is in what a restaurant website must show. The bakery-specific parts are the baking schedule, the cutoff and the cake form.

2. Put the bake list in the page, not in a picture

Many bakery sites show the menu as a photo of the chalkboard or a PDF. It looks nice, but a phone has to zoom, and Google can't read a price inside a picture well. A menu written as text loads fast, reads on any screen and can show up in search when someone types "sourdough near me" or "birthday cake [your town]". How Google reads your menu explains why.

A layout that works for most bakeries:

1. Every day: the items always in the case, with prices.
2. By day: a short list per weekday ("Friday: challah, rye. Saturday: croissants, kouign-amann").
3. Whole cakes and pies to order: sizes, flavors, starting price, notice needed.
4. Seasonal: holiday pies, king cake, hot cross buns, with the order-by date.
5. Drinks, if you have a coffee bar.

Keep it short enough to change from your phone in a minute. A bake list that's true today beats a beautiful one from last spring.

3. How to take bakery pre-orders online

Pre-orders are where a website pays for itself in a bakery. You bake to orders instead of guessing, and the customer skips the line. Four rules make pre-orders run smoothly:

• A cutoff per item, written on the item. Bread baked overnight needs the order the day before; a tiered cake needs a week or more.
• A pickup window, not a pickup time. "Pick up 8–11am" lets you batch orders at the counter.
• A daily limit. If you can bake 40 extra loaves, stop taking orders at 40. A sold-out line is better than a disappointed customer.
• One confirmation that reaches you. The order should ring or buzz your phone, not sit in an inbox nobody checks at 4am.

A cutoff schedule many bakeries use as a starting point (adjust to your ovens and staff):

These are working ranges, not rules from any authority. Use your own: write down how long each item really takes from order to box, add a margin, and post that.

Pay at pickup or pay online?

For everyday pre-orders (a dozen bagels, two loaves), pay at pickup is simplest: no card fees online, no refunds to process, and most customers are regulars. For custom cakes and large orders, take a deposit, because you've spent the ingredients and the hours before they arrive. Many bakeries take a deposit by card link or in person when the design is agreed, and keep everyday pre-orders as pay at pickup.

4. A custom cake order form that gets the details right

Custom cake orders fail on missing details: the wrong name spelling, a date mix-up, a nut allergy nobody wrote down. A form that asks for everything up front saves a phone call per order. The fields worth asking for:

1. Name, phone and email.
2. Pickup or delivery date and time (with the earliest allowed date set by your lead time).
3. Occasion (birthday, wedding, baby shower, office).
4. Number of servings, or size if they already know it.
5. Cake flavor, filling and frosting, as choices from your real list.
6. Shape and tiers.
7. Colors and theme.
8. The exact words to write on it, typed as they should appear.
9. Allergies or dietary needs (nuts, gluten, dairy, eggs, vegan).
10. A photo upload for the design they have in mind.
11. Budget range, so you can suggest what fits.
12. How they want to hear back (call or text).

Then say on the page what happens next: "We reply within one business day with a price. Your date is held once the deposit is paid." State your deposit, changes and cancellation terms in plain words next to the form, so nobody is surprised.

5. How should a bakery show allergens?

Customers with allergies check a bakery's site before they come in, and parents of kids with nut allergies check twice. The US Food and Drug Administration names nine major food allergens: milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans and sesame; sesame became the ninth on January 1, 2023 [1]. Most bakes contain several of them.

• Mark each item with what it contains, in words ("contains: wheat, milk, eggs, almonds"), not only with icons.
• Say plainly if everything is made in one kitchen that handles nuts and wheat. "Gluten-free" items baked next to wheat flour are not safe for everyone with celiac disease; say how you make them and let the customer decide.
• Keep the list true when a recipe changes. An old allergen list is worse than none.

Packaged food you sell (a bag of cookies with a label) has its own federal labeling rules; your local health department can tell you what applies to your counter. If you bake from home, see the next section.

6. Home bakery website: what's different?

Many home bakers sell under their state's cottage food law. Those laws differ a lot from state to state: which foods are allowed, whether you can sell online or only in person, whether you can ship, yearly sales limits, and what the label must say. Look up your state's health or agriculture department page for cottage food before you put prices online, and follow what it says about online sales and delivery.

For the website itself, a home baker usually needs:

• No street address on the page if you don't want strangers at your door. Give a pickup area ("North side, near Elm Park") and send the exact address after the order.
• Pickup windows that fit around your day, and the days you take orders.
• A clear order cap so you don't take more than one oven can bake.
• Any label or notice your state requires, for example that the food was made in a home kitchen, where your state asks for it.

7. Bakery website examples worth copying

Rather than a gallery, here is what the best bakery sites have in common, and what to borrow from each pattern:

• The case on the first screen. A photo of today's bakes and one button: "Order for pickup". A one-shop bakery can lead with its case exactly as the big names do.
• The weekly bake calendar. Neighborhood bread bakeries often list what comes out each day. Regulars plan their week around it.
• A cake page with starting prices. "Celebration cakes from $45, serves 8–10" filters out the customers you can't serve and brings the ones you can. Pages that hide all prices get more "how much?" messages and fewer orders.
• A gallery that's really a menu. Each cake photo with its size, flavor and starting price, so a customer can say "this one, but in blue".
• One page, not five. A small bakery rarely needs separate About, Menu, Contact and Order pages. A single page that scrolls from today's bakes to hours to the cake form is faster on a phone.

For a café with a bakery counter, the drinks menu adds a layer; our cafe website guide covers that layout. If you sell from a truck or a market stall, the food truck website guide covers posting today's spot.

8. What a bakery website costs

From $0 to a few hundred dollars a month, depending mostly on ordering and on who takes a cut of each order. US list prices, read on the dates in the sources:

Prices read Oct 22–23, 2026; they change often, so check the source before you buy. The full comparison, with designers, agencies and delivery apps, is in what a restaurant website costs.

The fee per order matters more than the monthly price. A bakery taking 200 pre-orders a month at $30 each takes $6,000 a month online. A 3% fee on that is $180 a month, $2,160 a year: more than most plans. If customers pay at pickup, you pay your usual counter card rate and no online fee at all.

9. Do I need my own .com for a bakery?

It helps but isn't required to start. Your own name (yourbakery.com) is easier to say out loud, print on a box and remember, and it stays yours if you change tools. A .com costs about $10 to $20 a year [9]. Many builders include one free for the first year, then charge the renewal. Start with a free address if you want to test, and move to your own name once orders come in; a good service lets you keep the same QR code and menu when you switch.

10. Template, builder, or done for you?

• A free template (HTML or WordPress) costs nothing but your evenings, plus hosting, and you still need ordering on top.
• A site builder (Wix, Squarespace, Square) gives you drag-and-drop pages; plan a weekend to set up the menu, the cake form and ordering, and check the fee per order.
• A designer builds it for you, usually $1,000 to $3,000 one time for a small business site from a freelancer or small agency, by one firm's published ranges [8], and then each menu change goes through them.
• A menu-first service builds the site from your existing menu, so you check and fix rather than type. That's what we do: send a photo of your chalkboard or price list, or the link to your old site, and get a menu site with pickup ordering. You can build your bakery's menu site free and see it on your phone before you decide anything.

Starting with no budget? How to make a restaurant website for free compares the free plans and what each leaves out.

Common mistakes on bakery websites

• Hours that say one thing and Google says another. Change both the same day, especially for holidays.
• "Call to order" only. Calls come when you're elbow-deep in dough. An order form or ordering page takes them while you bake.
• No cutoff. Without "order by 6pm," people order tonight for 7am and you either bake at midnight or disappoint them.
• Cake prices hidden. Every "how much is a cake?" message is time you could spend decorating.
• A sold-out item still orderable. Turn items off for the day from your phone.
• Instagram as the only website. It's great for photos, but hours, prices and ordering are hard to find there, and you don't control it.

Questions

How much does a bakery website cost?

From $0 for a free site with pickup ordering, to $17–40 a month on site builders' paid plans, to $249–499 a month on restaurant platforms, as in the table above. Check the fee per order too.

What's the best website builder for a bakery?

The one that keeps your bake list as text, lets you set a cutoff and a daily limit on pre-orders, has a cake order form with a photo upload, and lets you change prices from your phone. Compare the fee per order before the monthly price.

Can a home bakery have a website?

Usually yes, within your state's cottage food rules, which differ on online sales, delivery and labels. Check your state health or agriculture department's cottage food page first.

Should I take deposits on custom cakes?

Many bakeries do, because the ingredients and hours are spent before pickup. Write your deposit, change and cancellation terms next to the order form so every customer sees them before ordering.

How do I get my bakery on Google?

Claim your free Google Business Profile, keep its hours true, add your website and an order link there, and put your menu as text on your site so Google can read it.

Want to see your own bakery's site? Send a photo of your price list and we'll build your menu site free, ready to take pickup pre-orders. For other layouts, see restaurant website examples and what a pizza website needs. More plain answers for food businesses are in all our guides.

Sources

1. Food allergies, US Food and Drug Administration, read Nov 1, 2026.
2. Wix plans, Wix, read Oct 22, 2026.
3. Squarespace pricing, Squarespace, read Oct 22, 2026.
4. Square Online plans, Square, read Oct 22, 2026.
5. Menubly pricing, Menubly, read Oct 23, 2026.
6. ChowNow pricing, ChowNow, read Oct 22, 2026.
7. Owner.com pricing, Owner, read Oct 23, 2026.
8. Restaurant website design cost, Evergreen, Jan 22, 2024, read Oct 23, 2026.
9. Restaurant website cost breakdown, Appello, read Oct 23, 2026.