Built by a baker, for bakers

BreadHydration.com started with a frustration: most hydration calculators online were either buried inside paywalled apps, cluttered with ads, or just did not handle the real-world complexity of multi-flour blends, preferments, and sourdough starters. So I built one that did. Then another. Then ten more.

Our mission

Baking is a craft anyone can learn, and the math behind it should never be a barrier. Every tool on this site is free, works without an account, and runs entirely in your browser. There is no data sent to a server when you punch in your flour weights. Your recipe history lives in your own browser's local storage and goes nowhere.

We cover the full range of baked goods — sourdough boules, Neapolitan pizza, classic baguettes, New York bagels, laminated croissants, and even cookies and cakes. Whether you are mixing your first loaf or running a small bakery, the calculators handle the arithmetic so you can focus on the dough.

The site is deliberately simple. No account required. No email capture. No dark patterns. You open a tool, you use it, you bake.

What you will find here

  • Bread Hydration Calculator — calculate exact hydration for any flour blend, or work backward from a target percentage to find the water amount.
  • Sourdough Calculator — accounts for the flour and water inside your starter so your overall hydration is always accurate.
  • Pizza Dough Calculator — scales for any number of balls at any style, from Neapolitan (58%) to pan pizza (78%).
  • Baker's Percentage Calculator — converts any recipe to baker's math and scales it to any batch size.
  • Sourdough Starter Calculator — precise feeding amounts for any target weight and hydration.
  • Baguette, Bagel, and Croissant Calculators — specialist tools for the breads that have the most variables.
  • Hydration Chart — a quick-reference visual for where every bread type sits on the hydration spectrum.
  • Cookie and Cake Moisture Guide — because not every baker is making bread.

New tools are added regularly. If there is a calculation you wish existed, use the contact page to suggest it.

How the site stays free

Running a site costs money — hosting, domain, and the time it takes to build and maintain every tool. BreadHydration.com is supported by ads, which means we may show a small number of display advertisements so the tools can stay free for everyone. We aim to keep the ad experience tasteful and unobtrusive: no autoplay video, no interstitials, no pop-ups.

If you use the site regularly and want to show your support without waiting for an ad impression to do it for you, you can buy us a coffee on Ko-fi. Every contribution goes directly toward keeping the site online and building new features.

Support us on Ko-fi

Privacy and technology

The site is built with Astro, a modern static-site framework. Every page is pre-rendered at build time and served as plain HTML — no server-side processing, no database calls. The calculators run entirely in your browser using React components compiled into static JavaScript.

We use localStorage to save your theme preference (light or dark) and your recent calculator inputs so the tool remembers where you left off. This data never leaves your device.

We use anonymized, cookie-free analytics to understand which tools are most useful so we can prioritize improvements. We do not track individual users or sell data to third parties. See the full privacy policy for details.

The site loads fast by design. There are no heavy JavaScript frameworks on pages that do not need interactivity. Tool pages lazy-load their calculators only when you visit them. Fonts are loaded from Google Fonts with a preconnect hint to minimize latency.

Get in touch

Spotted a bug? Have an idea for a new tool? Found a calculation that does not match your professional experience? I genuinely want to hear about it. The contact page has a simple form — no account needed.

You can also reach out via the social links below. Response time is usually within 48 hours.