Why I built Makerate

Makerate started because pricing prints by feel kept losing money. A spool cost is easy to remember; the electricity, the hours at the bench, the nozzle and belts wearing out, and the one print in ten that fails are not.

So the maths moved into one place: filament by weight, electricity by wattage, labour by time, printer wear amortised over machine life, a failure buffer, and the markup you actually want to make. Then quotes you can send to a customer, and invoices you can get paid on.

Makerate is for people selling prints — on Etsy, at markets, on commission, or through a small print farm — in the US, which is why the guides cover Schedule C, marketplace fees and USPS shipping rather than generic advice.