Cakedesk
Cakedesk is a simple, privacy-focused invoicing app built for freelancers and small businesses who want full control over their data. It offers a one-time payment model, works entirely offline, and supports powerful customization with HTML/CSS templates. Designed with a clean, Mac-inspired UI, Cakedesk makes it easy to create e-invoices, proposals, and multilingual documents, without the clutter or subscription bloat.
Get to know Cakedesk
Who’s behind Cakedesk?
Hey, I'm Max. I’ve been building for the web for over 15 years now. The last three have been spent freelancing, and I’ve always had some kind of side project running in the background. I love building things, of course, I want to make money with projects, but the creative part is what really drives me.
I actually started back in 2007 with a guitar blog. A few years later, around 2010, I was selling ebooks on guitar courses. Eventually, I transitioned into software development ‒ built a puzzle game, some tools like a rhythm trainer and a note-taking app, and a handful of smaller web projects along the way.
For the past few years, I’ve been focused on Cakedesk, which is a simple invoicing app for freelancers. Alongside that, I’m working on building a web dev studio called Supercake, with Cakedesk as one of its main products.
What’s Cakedesk and what’s so cool about it?
Cakedesk came out of frustration, honestly. I couldn’t find an invoicing app that didn’t feel slow, bloated, or overly complicated. A lot of them looked bad, lacked customization, and forced you into subscriptions ‒ pretty rough when you’re just starting out as a freelancer.
I initially built it as a command-line tool. I was writing invoices in JSON and rendering them through Chromium. The idea in the back of my mind was always that web devs would love being able to write and style their invoices however they wanted using HTML and CSS.
Eventually, I started adding a UI around it, and it really took off. People liked that it wasn’t just customizable ‒ they loved that it’s private, offline, and available for a one-time payment. Your data stays yours. No cloud. Plus, I’m super hands-on with support.
The design is Mac-inspired. Even though it’s built with Electron, I spent a lot of time making sure it feels native ‒ context menus, drag-and-drop, keyboard shortcuts, fast performance, the whole deal. It also supports e-invoicing, which became mandatory in Germany in 2025.
Funny enough, I thought it’d mostly appeal to devs, but nowadays more traditional businesses use it ‒ turns out they appreciate how simple it is too. Still, I love hearing from the nerdy users who go wild customizing their invoices.
There’s even a free online version for creating invoices. The desktop version is free for up to three invoices or clients, and then it’s a one-time payment with free updates for a year. It supports things like multilingual invoices, custom fields, HTML/CSS templates, flexible VAT rates, proposals, e-invoices, and statistics.
Cakedesk's Tool Stack
What’s under Cakedesk’s hood? Which technologies were used and why did you chose them?
Cakedesk is built with Electron, so it runs on both Mac and Windows using web technologies, which I’m already super comfortable with. React powers the UI, and Node.js runs the backend stuff like license keys.
I use MongoDB for the backend server, and Nuts (an open-source tool) handles app updates. It uploads new versions to a private GitHub repo and makes them available for users to download ‒ super convenient and fully extendable with web tech. A lot of tools like that force you to use public repos or AWS, so this was a nice solution.
For storing data locally, I went with SQLite. Before that, it was all JSON files, which was messy. SQLite is fast, works across platforms, and still lets me store data in JSON format. It’s lightweight but powerful ‒ kind of the best of both worlds.
I host everything on DigitalOcean using Dokku ‒ been a big DO fan for years. For analytics, I use Umami, which is self-hosted and privacy-focused.
Do you use any other tools to run the business?
For email marketing, I use Sendy, which is a self-hosted newsletter tool. Great for sending out product updates. For collecting feature requests, I’ve been using Canny ‒ it’s decent, though I wish it had a forum feature built-in.
Project-wise, I rely heavily on Notion for managing to-dos, notes, and ideas. I like that I can link tasks with notes easily ‒ it’s flexible and keeps everything in one place. Figma handles all the design work. And the website runs on Next.js and is deployed with Vercel.
What’s your personal stack? Which apps do you love?
I’m a huge fan of Raycast ‒ use it for quick notes, emojis, clipboard history, timezone conversions, and more. It’s like a Swiss Army knife. For code, I use VS Code with the Vim extension, plus GitHub Copilot (I did try Cursor, but couldn’t get my theme imported properly). I also use the ChatGPT Plus desktop app regularly.
My terminal of choice is iTerm2. I use Cakedesk daily (of course), and I still swear by the native MacOS Reminders app ‒ Siri reminders, grocery lists, location-based stuff ‒ it just works.
For calendars, I use Fantastical. It’s super handy for quick joins and scheduling. I track time with Timing.app, which automatically logs time per project ‒ great for someone like me who forgets to start timers.
Mail is still the built-in macOS app, but I’m actively looking for a better alternative. I’m also a big CleanShot X user ‒ it’s great for capturing and sharing screenshots and videos, and I even pay for the branded version.
For database management, TablePlus is my go-to ‒ it’s fast, intuitive, and native to macOS with a one-time payment. And for mobile dev stuff, I use a little tool called IP Friend ‒ it lets me copy my local IP from the menu bar so I can quickly test things on mobile.
Anything else you’d like to share?
Yeah, if you’re a freelancer and want a no-fuss invoicing app, definitely check out Cakedesk. And if you’re into building MVPs or need help bringing a web idea to life, take a look at Supercake.
Now, discover Cakedesk for yourself
Huge thanks to Max for sharing the story behind Cakedesk and the details on the building blocks that make it such a great tool. Now, go download it yourself and start generating beautiful invoices.