Comparison
A CakeCost alternative that runs the rest of your bakery too
If you want a CakeCost alternative, the short answer is this: CakeCost is a focused mobile calculator that turns ingredients, time, expenses and a profit margin into a price, while Farinu does the same costing and then carries it into price lists, custom orders with deposits, a sales log, a monthly profit and loss, production and stock. Choose CakeCost if a price is all you need. Choose Farinu if you also want to know whether the business made money this month. Both start free, and the comparison below sticks to what each product publicly lists as of 2026-10-11.
| What you need | CakeCost | Farinu |
|---|---|---|
| Ingredient costing | Yes | Yes |
| Labour and overhead in the price | Time and expenses | Labour, machines and overhead |
| Packaging and sub-recipes | Not listed | Yes |
| Suggested price from a target | From a profit margin you set | Yes, from a target markup, with retail and wholesale price lists |
| Alerts when an ingredient price rises | Recipes recalculate | Recost plus margin alerts with a suggested price |
| Custom orders, deposits and balances | Not listed | Yes, free up to 50 a month, with customer WhatsApp numbers |
| Sales log and monthly profit and loss | Not listed | Yes, on Team |
| Production plan, purchases and stock | Not listed | Yes, on Team |
| Recipe import from a photo or spreadsheet | Not listed | Yes, with the AI assistant on Team |
| Helper access without seeing costs | Not listed | Yes, on Team |
| How to start | Free download, Premium 8.99 dollars a month (US) | Free plan up to 10 recipes, then Team |
Last verified October 11, 2026
What CakeCost does well
CakeCost is a recipe cost and price calculator for bakers and cake decorators, available as an app for iPhone and iPad and for Android. Its App Store listing describes three jobs: work out what your ingredients cost, cost your time and expenses properly, and set your profit to see the price and net costs. When an ingredient price changes, you update it once and the recipes that use it recalculate.
It is free to download, and its US App Store listing shows a Premium Plan at 8.99 dollars a month, which the release notes tie to extras such as folders for organising recipes and keeping recipe version history.
If you bake a handful of cakes a month and mainly want to stop guessing at prices, a focused calculator on your phone is a reasonable choice, and that is the job CakeCost is built for.
Where bakers look for a CakeCost alternative
A price is the first question. The next ones come quickly once orders pick up: who still owes the balance on Saturday's wedding cake, what to bake on Thursday, how much butter is left, and whether last month made a profit after boxes, gas and the new mixer.
CakeCost's public listing focuses on costing and pricing. It does not list order tracking, deposits, a sales log, a profit and loss report, production planning or stock, so a baker who needs those usually ends up adding a spreadsheet, a notebook and a chat app next to it. That is the gap Farinu is built to close, with costing as the foundation rather than the whole product.
CakeCost alternative: how Farinu costs a recipe
Farinu costs a recipe from everything that goes into it: ingredients at the price you paid, packaging, sub-recipes such as a buttercream or a sponge used in several cakes, your labour, the machines you run and a share of overhead. From that cost it suggests a price from the target markup you set, and you can keep separate price lists, for example retail and wholesale.
Here is an example with made-up but realistic numbers for an 8-inch coconut cake. Ingredients come to 9.40 dollars, the cake box and board 2.10 dollars, 1.5 hours of your time at 18 dollars an hour is 27.00 dollars, oven and mixer time 0.90 dollars, and overhead 2.60 dollars. The full cost is 42.00 dollars. With a 43 percent target markup, Farinu suggests 42.00 times 1.43, about 60 dollars, which leaves a 30 percent margin. Both apps can do this kind of maths; the difference is what happens after.
In Farinu, when you record a higher price for butter, every recipe that uses it is recosted and you get a margin alert for the products that fell below your target, with a suggested new price you can accept or dismiss. You do not have to remember which cakes use butter.
What Farinu adds after the price
Everything below is live in Farinu today on the Team plan and uses the same recipes and costs, so nothing has to be typed twice.
- Customers with their WhatsApp number, and custom orders with a deposit and a balance payment
- A sales log for markets, shop days and orders
- A monthly profit and loss built from your sales and costs
- A production plan and a production log
- Purchases and stock, so you can see what you have on hand
- An AI assistant that imports recipes from a photo or a spreadsheet
- An MCP server, so you can ask Claude or ChatGPT about your bakery's numbers, once the owner turns it on
- Owner and helper roles, where helpers can log work but never see your costs
Price and plans
CakeCost is free to download with in-app purchases; on 2026-10-11 the US App Store listed its Premium Plan at 8.99 dollars a month. Prices can differ by country and change over time, so check the store before you decide.
Farinu has a free plan that includes costing for up to 10 recipes and up to 50 orders a month. The Team plan adds unlimited orders, sales, stock, the AI assistant and helpers for a growing bakery. The current price of Team is shown on the pricing page inside the app.
Moving your recipes from CakeCost to Farinu
You do not need to retype everything. On the Team plan, take a screenshot or photo of a recipe, or export your list to a spreadsheet, and hand it to the Farinu assistant. It drafts the recipe with ingredients and quantities, and you check it before it is saved.
A sensible way to switch is to start with your five best sellers on the free plan, typed in by hand, enter the prices you actually paid for ingredients, and compare the suggested prices with what you charge today. If the numbers change how you price, bring the rest across.
Which one should you choose?
Pick CakeCost if you want a simple phone calculator for pricing and you track orders, money and stock somewhere else already. It is focused, free to try and easy to learn.
Pick Farinu if you want your costs to flow into orders, sales, a monthly profit and loss, production and stock in one place, with margin alerts when ingredient prices rise. The free plan lets you test it on real recipes before you decide.
Sources
Questions
- Is there a free CakeCost alternative?
- Yes. Farinu has a free plan with costing for up to 10 recipes, including packaging, labour, machines, overhead and a suggested price. You only move to Team when you want more.
- Does CakeCost track orders and deposits?
- Its public store listing on 2026-10-11 describes costing and pricing only and does not mention orders or deposits. Farinu records custom orders with a deposit and a balance payment for each customer, free for up to 50 orders a month.
- Can I bring my CakeCost recipes into Farinu?
- Yes, on the Team plan. Give the Farinu assistant a photo, screenshot or spreadsheet of your recipes and it drafts them for you to check and save.
- Is Farinu a mobile app like CakeCost?
- Farinu runs in the browser, so you can use it on your phone at a market and on a computer at home with the same data.
Related pages
Try Farinu on your own recipes
Cost up to 10 recipes and take up to 50 orders a month free, see the price each one should carry, and add sales and unlimited orders with Team when you need them.