For bakers Castiron left behind
Castiron wound down and took bakers' storefronts with it. CottageOps does the same job — your menu, orders, pickups, and payments in one link — but we're bootstrapped, have no investors, and no exit clock. Bring your Castiron menu over, keep your data, and run your bakery on something that isn't built to be sold.
Free in 2026 — no credit card. Then $19/mo or $190/year ($15.83/mo). No transaction fees, no commission, ever.
If you sold on Castiron, you already learned the hard way what happens when a venture-backed platform runs out of road: it gets acquired, the storefront goes dark, and your customer link 404s. CottageOps is built on the opposite structure — on purpose.
No investors, no exit clock.
CottageOps is bootstrapped. There are no venture investors waiting on an exit, so there's no pressure to get acquired and wound down the way Castiron was. Our subscription is the whole business — when you pay us, that's who we answer to. You.
Your data exports anytime.
Your menu, orders, and customer details are yours. You can export them whenever you want — not just on the way out, and not held hostage if you ever leave. Castiron taught bakers why that matters.
One flat price, posted in the open.
$19/mo, or $190/year ($15.83/mo). No transaction fees, no commission, no percentage of your sales. You get paid directly by your buyers (Venmo, Zelle, Cash App, PayPal, or cash) — we never touch the money, so there's no processor that can freeze it.
Same core job — sell your baked goods online and take orders. Here's what carries over and what CottageOps adds. (Castiron details reflect its platform before it wound down in 2025; verify against your own Castiron account.)
| Feature | CottageOps | Castiron |
|---|---|---|
| Online storefront / shareable link | Yes — your own storefront link | Yes[verify] |
| Menu + product catalog | Yes — categories, photos, modifiers | Yes[verify] |
| Custom-order intake forms | On the roadmap (custom-quote deferred to v1.1) | Yes[verify] |
| Order + pickup management | Multi-window pickup scheduling per day/location | Yes[verify] |
| Payments | You get paid directly — Venmo/Zelle/Cash App/PayPal/cash. We take no cut. | Card payments via the platform (Stripe-based)[verify] |
| Marketplace / buyer discovery | Direct-to-buyer link (no marketplace) | Had a marketplace directory[verify] |
| State-correct compliance labels | All 51 states — TX SB 541 all-caps, CA Class A/B, ND, VT Act 42, etc. | Generic / baker fills in disclosures[verify] |
| Revenue-cap tracking (per-state law) | Live counter, warns before the cap | Not tracked[verify] |
| Switch on-ramp | Castiron CSV import — map columns, menu lands as drafts | — |
| Company structure | Bootstrapped, no investors, no exit clock | VC-backed ($6M seed, 2022); acquired Nov 2024; wound down through 2025 |
| Price | $19/mo · $190/yr ($15.83/mo), 0% transaction fee | Subscription + payment processing[verify] |
Castiron raised $6M in venture funding in 2022, was acquired in November 2024, and its seller storefronts went offline through 2025 (SSL certificates expired, the help center closed). That's the structural risk we're built to avoid — not a knock on the people who built it.
Already have your Castiron export? You don't have to retype your menu.
Texas bakers: SB 541 rewrote the required disclosure to all-caps in September 2025, so older Castiron labels may be out of date. CottageOps regenerates state-correct labels for every imported item automatically.
Test a fake order on yourself first — confirm the label, pickup window, and payment handle look right before you point customers at your new link.
$19/month
Free in 2026 — no credit card. Or $190/year ($15.83/mo). Zero transaction fees, ever. Cancel anytime.
No longer operating
Castiron wound down through 2025. This page is here to help its bakers land somewhere stable.
Comparing CottageOps to something else? See the other guides:
Sign up free, import your Castiron menu, and run your bakery on a platform with no investors and no exit clock. Your data exports anytime — so there's nothing to lose by trying.
Start freeFree in 2026. No card. No transaction fees. Your data is always yours.
Castiron details reflect its publicly-known platform and wind-down (2024–2025); verify against your own records. Not legal advice — confirm cottage-food requirements with your state agency.