From water bath to market day —
on a kitchen-table plan.
Craftybase is Stocksmith now, built for product businesses with staff and six figures in revenue, on a $49-to-$349 ladder. Cottage food is the opposite end: a batch of jam is fruit, sugar, pectin, and a case of jars — twelve half-pints, each needing a label, a price, and a sell-by — sold Saturday mornings at a table. MadeKeeper costs the batch to the jar, keeps the records your state's program asks about, and tells you whether the table beat staying home.
$19/mo for the whole back office, kept for as long as you stay. No card to start — MadeKeeper asks for one when you subscribe, not before. The shop stays free for cost a piece and one fair — no product cap. The tax packet, Etsy and Square, and more fairs are the $19.
Honest up front: the app is live and taking subscriptions today. It is young, so expect a rough edge here and there — tell me when you hit one and I will fix it. Every Craftybase fact below is sourced on the main comparison page.
Why cottage food fits MadeKeeper, not a factory tool
Cottage food runs on batches and market days, and MadeKeeper is built around both. Every water-bath run gets a batch date and a sell-by, so what's fresh, what's close, and what goes in the discount basket is a glance. Market day is the P&L: table fee, miles at the IRS rate, and the morning's hours against what actually sold — the drive-home question, "did I even make money today?", gets a number. And the batch records — dates, ingredients, lots — sit in the app instead of a recipe-box card, ready when your program asks. Your state's allowed list and caps stay yours to check; MadeKeeper keeps the paperwork, it doesn't make the compliance call for you.
Your history comes across free. Export from Stocksmith, drop the files in, and purchases become lots, batches stay batches on their dates, and orders become sales — previewed, and undone in one click. See how the migration works →
The short version
Craftybase is Stocksmith now, and it's grown toward bigger operations — a fair path for them, and the right tool if you run at scale. But if you're a cottage food maker at one bench and one booth:
- Craftybase / Stocksmith$49–$349/mo, metered order lines*
- MadeKeeper$19/mo, no order-line meters
- Your historymigrates free, previewed & undoable
- The applive now
*Stocksmith's published plans, read 11 August 2026: Studio $49/mo, Indie $99, Business $199, Growth $349, with order lines metered from Indie up (1,000/mo, then 5,000, then 5,000+). Their pricing FAQ also says Pro starts at $20/mo on a single sales channel. Every Craftybase and Stocksmith figure we use is sourced on the main comparison page.
Everything Craftybase was loved for at your size, plus a fair that nets down to what the day earned — and it stays this size on purpose. See the full head-to-head →
Straight about what's live
Materials and true cost per piece, batch "makes" with your labor amortized in, the suggested-price coach, product variants, sales that drain stock, the market-day quick-sale screen, lot tracking, the was-this-fair-worth-it event math, money-insight reports, multi-location consignment, the cure/best-by heads-up engine, mileage, expenses, and the Schedule C tax packet are all in the app today, with guided setup and the full Craftybase history migration to get you started. So are Etsy order sync, Square card sync, your own shop page, a Buy button on your own Square account, and custom-order requests off a piece you already sold. On the $24 MadeKeeper AI plan you also get receipts, shelves and recipe cards read from a photo — photo reads are on that plan; hand entry is how the $19 shop starts. Still building: your own books answered in plain words, buying a shipping label inside the app, and a best-customers report. MadeKeeper does not send marketing email to your buyers and is not going to: every maker here sends from one shared reputation, and a quote that has to arrive matters more than a mailing list. Nothing above is dressed up as done when it is not. See the full live-vs-building list →
Questions cottage food makers ask
Is there a cheaper Craftybase alternative for cottage food?
MadeKeeper is $19/mo for the whole back office, live now — against Stocksmith's (formerly Craftybase) $49-to-$349 ladder built for scale. For a home kitchen selling at markets it's sized right: batch-to-jar costing, sell-by dates, market-day profit, and exportable batch records.
Does MadeKeeper track sell-by dates and market-day profit?
Yes to both. Batches carry made-on and sell-by dates, so your stock answer is "what's fresh," not just "what's on the shelf." And every market logs its table fee, round-trip miles, and hours against what sold — profit, profit per hour, and a go-back-or-skip verdict, answered before the drive home.
Will MadeKeeper keep my cottage food records for the state?
It keeps the records — batches, dates, ingredients, lots, and sales — organized and exportable, the paperwork your program asks about. What your state allows, caps, and requires on labels stays between you and your program's rules; MadeKeeper helps with the records, it doesn't claim to make you compliant.
See your real numbers
The app is live. $19/mo, kept for as long as you stay.