With 2025 coming to an end, it's time to look back on how the year went with regards to Cakedesk, my simple invoicing app for Windows and Mac.
I've been building the app on the side since the end of 2021, so this makes 2025 my fourth year working on it.
In this post, we'll take a look at the biggest new features and how the business did (how many copies were sold).
You might also be interested in last year's post.
Notable new features
Cakedesk had 12 new releases in 2025, about the same as 2024 (13).
1. Discounts
Discounts was a surprisingly tricky feature to get right, taking into account the fact that invoices can have or not have VAT, items can have different VAT rates, discounts can be percentage-based or fixed-price and you can have more than one discount at a time.
More info: Discounts
2. Delivery dates
Delivery dates are one of those feature that Cakedesk users had been requesting for a while and I'm happy that the app supports it now.
Users who don't need the feature can turn off delivery dates in their invoice settings.
More info: Delivery date / service date
3. Email sending
Sending invoices directly from Cakedesk makes the whole invoicing process so much faster. This feature was a lot of fun to build. Check out this behind-the-scenes post if you're interested.
More info: Emails
4. Custom filename formats
I love that Cakedesk users care about small details like what the PDF filenames of their invoices look like. Now everybody can choose the format that suits them using simple variables like:
{yyyy}-{mm}-{documentId} // 2025-07-001.pdf
or
{documentId}-{documentTitle|lower|dashed} // 001-website-redesign-proposal.pdf
More info: Filename formats
5. Spaces (multiple companies)
Some users want to use Cakedesk for all of their companies. In my development setup, I've had the ability to switch between different workspaces / companies for a while.
With the official Spaces feature, every user can now manage multiple companies with a single Cakedesk installation.
More info: Spaces
6. Dark mode
A bit overdue (it's 2025 afterall), Cakedesk finally supports dark mode.
I think the app looks great in these dark colors and I'm very pleased to no longer be blinded when writing invoices or working on Cakedesk late at night myself.
Cakedesk website
Just like the app, the Cakedesk website received a lot of love in 2025.
1. Experimental AI proposal generator
I built an experimental web-based AI proposal generator which could make writing them much faster.
Here's what my friend Richard said:
I was surprised by how well I was able to do everything I needed. I love that the chat gets out of the way and just handles the data entry for me. I still have to think up what I wanted to offer, but once I had that, it's a convenient way to get to PDF quotes out.
Try it out: Generate proposal online with AI (and let me know your feedback!)
2. New website design
The old website from 2023 was starting to look quite old, so I completely redesigned it and relaunched it at the end of December. I really took the time to get the details right, spending tens of hours on the screenshots alone. 😅
Check out the new website or read the behind-the-scenes post. And let me know if you find any issues or bugs!
3. Other
- Translated all docs: Previously, most docs were only available in English. Now every docs page is available in German as well.
- Updated online invoice generator: Cakedesk's free web version was continuously updated throughout the year to benefit from some of the app's new features, like discounts, delivery dates and dark mode.
Cakedesk Community
Cakedesk's users are very passionate and I receive almost daily feedback with questions and feature requests. Those are usually accompanied by very kind words about the product which makes me very happy.
1. Feature requests
Cakedesk received 44 new feature requests in 2025. 13 feature requests were completed. At this pace I don't think I'll ever run out of things to work on.
Thanks to everybody who participated by submitting ideas, voting and commenting. I'm glad you took the time to share your perspective or give your vote.
Somewhat related: Cakedesk is switching its feature requests board to UserJot. I was actually happy with Canny but their pricing model changed which would have required me to start paying. As a small indie business, every cent counts.
UserJot made the move super easy. All you need to do is paste the Canny API key and they migrate all posts, comments and users+upvotes (very important) over.
More: Submit your own feature request!
2. The future of the forum
At the end of last year, I tried to bring the community together by launching an old school forum. It had some initial activity but didn't prove to be very useful.
So the forum is being closed and all links to it have been removed.
3. A new home on Discord?
I wonder if a Discord server could work better for Cakedesk. If you're interested in participating over there, please leave your vote on the feature request. :)
How's the Cakedesk business doing?
Copies sold: In 2024 Cakedesk sold ~170 copies. At the time of writing this article, we're at 239 copies sold in 2025. This is new licenses only and doesn't include renewals or spaces.
New revenue stream: Users who want to manage more than 1 company with Cakedesk can buy additional spaces. Some users have been making use of this, so there's a new way for Cakedesk to generate some revenue (of course everything is still a one-time purchase).
Traffic & advertising: Sales are up, traffic is about the same as last year. One advertising channel that worked very well for me last year has significantly decreased in effectiveness. However, I'm starting to get more traffic from Google which kind of makes up for it.
Building features vs. marketing: With the limited amount of time I have for working on Cakedesk, I often prioritize improving the app itself over working on marketing initiatives. I believe that over time, happy users will be the best advertising. It might just be an excuse for working on the things I enjoy more though!
Conclusion
Overall I'm pretty satisfied with Cakedesk's year. While it's not making enough money to graduate from side project to something more serious, I really enjoyed working on it.
Every sale gives me a bit of joy and I always love hearing from users of which most seem to really like the product. It's a very satisfying hobby for me and I'm proud to have continuously improved it for over 4 years now.
I think there is still a lot of potential for Cakedesk if I can manage to generate more traffic. So...
What's coming up in 2026?
There are so many things I want to work on for Cakedesk. However, I'm very careful not to commit to any features or dates for Cakedesk because there can easily be a change of plans or delays since it's still a side project. So you'll have to wait and see! 😋
If you don't want to miss out on any news you can follow me on X and subscribe to Cakedesk's newsletter.
Thanks to everybody who tried Cakedesk, bought a license or sent me their feedback. I'm looking forward to continuing the journey in 2026!