Hotplate đ€Â your food biz
Last updated February 26, 2025
Give me the quick pitch
Hotplate is the all in one ordering platform for chefs and bakers. We give you the tools to accept and manage orders while automating things like marketing and communicating with customers. We built our product specifically for new and growing businesses to help you stay organized and efficient so you can focus on what actually matters: the food!
The Hotplate pre-order model
Weâve worked with thousands of chefs that have built successful food businesses centered around pre-orders. What this means is that they pick a few days a month - sometimes even a few times a week - where people can actually get their food. Customers place pre-orders days ahead of time and have a scheduled pick up time and place to get their order. With this model, chefs are able to focus their time and effort into prepping food a few times a month, and only prepare orders that have been paid for. That means much no wasted ingredients, inventory, or time.
This model also makes it possible to start a food biz without a brick and mortar or high operating costs. Many Hotplate chefs operate out of their homes, commissary kitchens, mobile carts, and pop up events. Weâve even found that customers get excited about foods that are available only at exclusive times or in limited quantities and are picked up from unconventional locations. âThe cookies with a waitlistâ taste so much better when you finally get your hands on them!
Huge, locally famous businesses like Pop Up Bagels (East Coast) and A to Z Creamery (Minnesota) have built their cult following by offering their food by pre-order only and to this day they sell out of every menu within minutes.
Who uses Hotplate?
Thousands of chefs use Hotplate to manage and grow their businesses. Most of them fall into these categories:
- Micro bakeries selling at markets or porch pickups
- Chefs experimenting with selling food from their home kitchen
- Bakers working out of commissary kitchens
- Brick and mortars with a devoted fan base
- Pop up pizza, BBQ, and grill chefs
- Ice cream churners with seasonal small batches
What you get
- đ A Hotplate storefront so you can accept orders from customers in a seamless, professional looking way (no more taking orders by DM or email!)
- đ Inventory and order management built for pre-orders (lose the hacky Square or Shopify set up)
- đ Printable prep lists and order packing tickets (generated from your orders, so you donât have to tally items by hand!)
- đČ Automated text messages sent to your customers as marketing or reminders (basically guaranteeing immediate sales)
- đ«Â An experienced team ready to help with any issues, give you guidance to grow, and celebrate your wins (no more solo fist pumping in the kitchen!)
How much is it?
Thereâs no subscription or membership fee to use Hotplate! Instead, your customer pays a small fee on their order to help cover the cost of our service. If you accept payments through your Hotplate storefront, youâll also pay a standard card processing fee.  Read up on our pricing here .
How fast is the set up or switch?
We built our product to be easy to understand and implement. Whether youâre  switching over from another system or starting fresh,  just create your account here to get started.