Price what survives the kiln —
on a $19 plan that knows your shrinkage.
Craftybase turned into Stocksmith and pointed itself at manufacturing-scale businesses, on a $49-to-$349 ladder. A studio potter isn't a factory: forty mugs go on the greenware shelf and thirty-four come out of the glaze fire whole, and your prices have to carry that loss. MadeKeeper costs your work by what survives, treats a kiln load as the natural batch, and puts it all on the $19 plan — with a fair that nets down to what the day earned.
$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 a studio potter is a different animal
Manufacturing tools assume clean yields; a kiln does not. MadeKeeper builds stage loss into the price — when 40 thrown become 34 sold, the survivors carry the cost of the whole board, so a cracked handle doesn't silently eat your margin. A firing is the batch, spreading its electricity across the pieces inside. Seconds and kiln-opening sales get logged at the price they actually fetched, so a discounted piece never reports full margin. And because you sell at fairs, every event nets booth fee, miles, and hours to a profit-per-fair verdict — the thing a tool built for a factory floor was never asked for.
Your studio history migrates free. Export from Stocksmith, drop the files in, and purchases become lots, firings become batches, and orders become sales on their original dates — previewed, and undoable 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 potter 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 potters ask
Is there a cheaper Craftybase alternative for potters?
MadeKeeper is $19/mo for the whole back office, with no order-line meters — versus Stocksmith's (was Craftybase) $49-to-$349 ladder built for manufacturing scale. For a studio potter it's the right size: clay and glaze as materials, the kiln load as a batch, kiln loss built into the price, and per-event fair profit included.
Does MadeKeeper handle kiln loss and firings like Craftybase?
It handles kiln loss more honestly for a studio: you log what went in and what survived, and the survivors carry the full batch cost. A kiln load is the batch, spreading its firing cost across the pieces inside. Glazes track by weight as recipes or by the pint — either way each piece pulls its real glaze cost.
Can I move my pottery records off Craftybase?
Your materials, purchases, firings (as batches), and sales migrate free on their original dates, costs frozen. Recipes are the one thing no Craftybase export contains, so you rebuild your glaze recipes with your old per-piece cost as a target. See the switch page for the steps.
See your real numbers
The app is live. $19/mo, kept for as long as you stay.