The short version
The basics.
What it costs, how your domain, payments, preorders, texts, and email work, what happens to your data, and how to get help. Prices, fees, and plan placements come from the same settings the product runs on, so this page cannot drift from checkout.
What it costs
Free: $0, no card needed What you get
Free is a real storefront with no time limit: products, availability windows, checkout, and customer records.
The only charge is the per-order platform fee on card orders, listed under Per-order fees.
Full pricing and plan comparisonPro: $20/month or $200/year What Pro adds
Pro adds Create Blank Pages, Blog Posts, Digital Products, Media Library, Hero Layout Options, Premium Plugins, and more.
Yearly billing is one $200 charge. Monthly billing can be cancelled anytime.
Everything in ProScale: $37/month or $370/year What Scale adds
Scale adds Custom CSS, Nationwide Shipping, Unlimited Locations, Email at Your Own Domain, Square Gift Cards, Customer Subscriptions, and more.
Everything in Scale
Yearly plans work out to $16.67/mo for Pro and $30.83/mo for Scale.
Your own domain
Connect one you own: Included on Pro and Scale How it works
Point your registrar’s DNS or nameservers at Cottage CMS, then wait for routing and SSL to show active before you print the address on labels or ads.
Your Cottage CMS web address keeps working alongside it.
Buy a domain or connect one you already ownBuy one in the dashboard: Set up automatically, on Pro and Scale How it works
Search for an address and buy it; DNS, routing, and SSL are configured for you.
Registration and renewal are billed separately from the plan, and a purchased domain is not refunded if you cancel the plan.
How domain purchase works- Registration: A separate cost, whether you buy through us or elsewhere
On Free: Your shop lives at a Cottage CMS web address What that means
Every shop gets one from day one. A custom domain stops serving if you later move to Free, and visitors are sent to that address instead.
Per-order fees
Free: 1.9% + 25¢ platform fee on each card order How it is charged
Paid by you, never added to the customer’s total, and calculated before tips.
It is how Free pays for itself; there is no monthly charge.
Compare total cost against other toolsPro and Scale: No platform fee on orders Why
The subscription replaces the per-order fee entirely. Card processing still applies.
Every plan: Card processing by Square or Stripe, charged by the processor Typical rates
Square’s typical online rate is 2.9% + 30¢ per card payment, and Stripe’s is similar.
On Pro and Scale you can pass processing fees to customers at checkout.
Cash, Venmo, and other outside payments: On Pro and Scale, with no platform fee How it works
Customers pick Venmo, Cash App, PayPal, Zelle, or cash at checkout and follow your instructions. You mark the order paid when the money arrives.
Offer Venmo, Cash App, PayPal, Zelle, and cash
Getting paid
Where the money goes: Your own Square or Stripe account, on their payout schedule How payouts work
You connect the account during setup. Card payments settle there, not with Cottage CMS, and payouts follow the processor’s normal timing.
On Free, the platform fee is taken out of each card payment, so there is no separate bill.
Connect Square-powered checkoutDeposits and balances: Included on Pro and Scale How it works
Take a deposit at checkout and collect the balance later, automatically when the customer has a card on file.
Collect deposits and later balances- Tipping at checkout: Included on Pro and Scale
Market Checkout: Included on Pro and Scale How it works
A pay-at-the-stand link or QR code for in-person sales. The customer enters the amount and pays by card, and the sale lands in your order history.
Use Market CheckoutPhone and in-person orders: Every plan How it works
Create a manual order or Quick Sale from the dashboard with the same products, choices, and stock holds as online orders.
Create a manual order or Quick Sale
Preorders and pickup
How ordering opens: Weekly schedules or specific drop dates, on every plan How it works
Set a weekly pickup schedule, or run specific dates and drops for markets, holidays, and launches. Each has its own opening time, cutoff, and lead-time rules.
Weekly schedule or specific datesPickup locations: One on Free; a second on Pro and Scale; unlimited on Scale Address privacy
Each location has its own address privacy setting, so you choose how much of a home address shows before an order is paid.
Add and manage pickup or delivery locationsWho sees your pickup address: Your choice, and the full address only after payment Stage by stage
Public pages show as much as you choose: the full address, city and ZIP, city only, or nothing. The full address and pickup instructions go out only once an order is paid in full, or right away for cash-at-pickup orders.
Who can see my pickup address, and when?Local delivery: Included on Pro and Scale Fee options
Flat fees, postal-code limits, or distance quotes from driving distance, with delivery instructions collected at checkout.
Configure delivery quotes and feesShipping: In-state on Pro and Scale; nationwide on Scale How it works
Shipping is its own checkout path with its own fees and eligible products, so pickup customers never see it.
Configure pickup, delivery, and shipping checkoutCustomer subscriptions: Included on Scale How it works
Recurring orders that customers can skip or edit, with the schedule managed for you.
Sell customer subscriptions
Customer texts
Order texts: Included on Pro and Scale Which texts
Confirmations, pickup reminders, and payment reminders go out on the order lane at no per-message cost on those plans.
Configure text messaging and creditsPromotional shop alerts: Prepaid credits on Pro and Scale How credits work
One credit sends one SMS segment: up to 160 standard characters, or 70 with emoji or other special characters. A longer message uses one credit per segment.
Purchased credits stay in your balance until you use them; only Scale's included monthly credits expire.
How text credits workConsent: Customers opt in, and you can export the record What we keep
Opt-ins, opt-outs, and the wording customers agreed to are kept, and a compliance packet can be exported from the dashboard.
Trust center
Hosted business mailbox: Included on Pro and Scale How it works
A working inbox at your shop name on a Cottage CMS mail domain, read and answered from the dashboard, ready before any custom domain is.
Set up hosted business emailEmail at your own domain: Included on Scale How it works
Send and receive as you@yourdomain once the domain’s DNS records are in place.
Set up domain-branded email
Your data
Export: Customers, products, and orders as CSV or Excel, on every plan What is included
Download from Account settings or the Customers, Products, and Orders pages, with column choice and date ranges for orders.
Recipes, website pages, and the media library have no bulk export today.
What each export contains, with samplesIf you downgrade: Your records stay; paid-plan features stop What happens
Products, customers, orders, pages, and posts remain in the account. A custom domain stops serving on Free, and visitors go to your Cottage CMS address.
What happens when you downgradeIf you leave: Close the account yourself; data is deleted in stages What happens
Closing needs the owner’s password and the word DELETE, and is blocked while a paid subscription or Square connection is active. Export first; the files cannot be produced after deletion.
Close an account safelySecurity: Passkeys, session control, and shop-scoped records; no certification of our own What protects it
Getting help
- Email: support@cottagecms.com, reply within 24 hours
Knowledge base: Step-by-step articles for every dashboard area Browse articles
Community: A Discord server, linked from the dashboard Help page What it is for
It is a community space, not the support queue. Send anything urgent by email.
Deeper reading: the full plan comparison, the cost comparison, and the trust center.