Cook the story.
Skip the plugin bloat.
VeloCMS is a recipe blogging platform with built-in schema.org/Recipe markup — no WordPress plugin required, no 400KB of recipe-plugin JavaScript, and no algorithm deciding which of your posts get seen. The Restaurant theme — a Smitten Kitchen-style long-form food writing preset — ships free on every plan so your recipes look as good as they taste.
Why recipe bloggers keep hitting walls
WordPress plugins eat your page speed. Pinterest owns your audience. And your recipe schema is locked to a plugin you're stuck paying for. Three problems with one root cause — the wrong platform.
WordPress recipe plugins slow your site to a crawl
Tasty Recipes, WP Recipe Maker, and Cookbook — every one of them ships 200–400KB of JavaScript just to render a single Recipe schema block. That's before the other plugins your WordPress install needs to stay functional. Recipe sites already carry heavy image loads; piling plugin JS on top is exactly the kind of thing that drags down Core Web Vitals. The plugin was supposed to help your SEO. Instead it's tanking it.
Pinterest and Instagram own your audience
Recipe bloggers who built their traffic on Pinterest in 2018 woke up in 2024 with zero email subscribers when the algorithm shifted to prioritizing video and deprioritizing static pins. Instagram is no different — your followers sit behind a platform API that can change its terms or vanish overnight. Every reader who found your chicken tikka masala on Pinterest and never signed up to your list is an audience member you don't own. VeloCMS gives you a custom domain, an email list you export, and a platform that doesn't decide which of your recipes people see.
Your recipe schema is hostage to a plugin subscription
Stop paying a recipe plugin $49-79 a year to keep your Recipe schema rendering. On VeloCMS, tagging a post recipe is enough — the schema comes from the platform, not a renewable license. Switch themes, skip a renewal, migrate hosts — your schema markup doesn't depend on any of it.
What a recipe-first platform gives you
Recipe schema that comes from the platform, not a plugin subscription — plus a photography-ready image pipeline, your own custom domain, and a paid-newsletter option from day one.
Recipe JSON-LD baked in — no plugin needed
Tag any post recipe and VeloCMS automatically emits a schema.org/Recipe block, extracting your ingredient list from the first bulleted list in the post and your instructions from the first numbered list. Google Search, Bing, and AI answer engines pick it up for rich results without any additional configuration or plugin.
Own your audience — custom domain, exportable email list
Point your CNAME at VeloCMS to publish on your own domain, and collect email subscribers directly on your site through VeloCMS membership features. You own that list and can export it any time — a Pinterest or Instagram algorithm shift becomes an SEO inconvenience, not an existential threat to your traffic.
AVIF/WebP image optimization for recipe photography
Every photo you upload passes through Cloudflare R2 and next/image for automatic AVIF/WebP conversion, responsive srcset generation, and lazy loading. A large raw food photo from your camera arrives on the reader's screen as an optimized image at the correct viewport width — no manual export step.
BYOK Stripe paid newsletter — 0% platform fee
Connect your own Stripe account in Admin → Settings → Membership and add a paid newsletter tier from day one. VeloCMS charges 0% platform fee — you pay only Stripe's standard processing fee. No traffic floor, no ad-network approval process to wait through.
Restaurant theme — included free on all plans
The Restaurant preset ships as a free baseline for recipe bloggers. It brings a warm serif typography, clean recipe card layout, generous whitespace, and food-friendly color palette. It's designed for Smitten Kitchen / Food52 / Serious Eats-style long-form writing — not menu-card style. Switch themes instantly with zero content changes.
Features recipe bloggers actually need
Auto Recipe JSON-LD from a simple tag, a WordPress/Squarespace importer, the Restaurant theme, AVIF/WebP image optimization, and a BYOK Stripe paid newsletter — all without a single plugin.
Auto Recipe JSON-LD from post content
Tag a post recipe and VeloCMS extracts ingredients from your first unordered list and instructions from your first ordered list. The full schema.org/Recipe block is emitted server-side in the page head, so Google and Bing pick it up on crawl without any client-side JavaScript running.
Import your existing WordPress or Squarespace archive
In Admin → Import, pick the card matching your export. Common shortcodes and embedded media references are recognized and converted; anything the importer doesn't recognize comes through as literal text to clean up during review. Existing recipe-plugin markup (Tasty Recipes, WP Recipe Maker) is not converted automatically — you re-enter ingredients and instructions in the recipe tag wherever you want structured schema.
Restaurant theme — a food-first design, free
Warm serif typography, a clean recipe card layout, generous whitespace, and a food-friendly color palette, tuned for long-form blog-style writing rather than a menu-card format. Apply it in Admin → Themes in one click; content re-flows immediately with zero markup changes.
AVIF/WebP automatic image optimization
Photos run through Cloudflare R2 and next/image for automatic AVIF/WebP conversion, responsive srcset generation, and lazy loading — full resolution stored, multiple viewport sizes served, no manual Lightroom export step required.
BYOK Stripe — 0% platform fee
Connect your own Stripe account in Admin → Settings → Membership. Paid newsletter subscriptions flow through your Stripe account directly — VeloCMS charges 0% platform fee, you pay only Stripe's standard processing fee.
Digital cookbook and course sales
Sell digital cookbooks as PDF downloads, video cooking courses, or ingredient-sourcing guides through the same BYOK Stripe checkout flow, at 0% platform fee. Files are delivered to the buyer's email automatically on purchase.
VeloCMS vs WordPress vs Squarespace vs Substack
| Feature | VeloCMS | WordPress | Squarespace | Substack |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Recipe JSON-LD baked in (no plugin) | Yes | Plugin required | No | No |
| AVIF/WebP automatic image optimization | Yes | Plugin required | No | No |
| Custom domain | Pro — yes | Yes | Yes | Paid add-on |
| Paid newsletter — 0% platform fee | Yes | Plugin required | No | 10% platform cut |
| Digital cookbook / course sales | Yes | Plugin + payment gateway | Built-in (commerce plan) | No |
| Plugin maintenance burden | No | Yes | No | No |
| Cost per year ($) | Free–$108 | $120–$300+ | Paid plan (price varies by billing country) | 0%+10% revenue |
From WordPress or Squarespace to VeloCMS in five steps
No developer required. Your posts import as text, recipe cards and all — rebuilding them with the recipe tag for structured schema is a manual step you do during review. You handle the cooking.
Export your WordPress or Squarespace recipe site
In WordPress, go to Tools → Export → All Content and download the XML export. For Squarespace, use Settings → Advanced → Import / Export → WordPress. For sites on other platforms, VeloCMS doesn't have a raw-HTML or Markdown-directory importer yet — those posts go in one at a time, pasted into the editor. You don't need to manually clean the WordPress or Squarespace export first — the card handles nested shortcodes it recognizes and embedded plugin output; anything it doesn't recognize comes through as literal text.
Upload your archive
In Admin → Import, pick the WordPress or Squarespace card matching your export. Tasty Recipes and WP Recipe Maker plugin shortcodes aren't stripped — they come through as their original markup, and posts keep their original published or draft status. Recipe cards don't become structured VeloCMS recipe fields automatically; you'll re-enter the ingredients and instructions by hand in the editor wherever you want the structured version.
Tag your recipe posts with recipe
Open any imported recipe post in the editor and add the recipe tag in the Tags field. This is the trigger that activates Recipe JSON-LD emission and ingredient/instruction extraction from your post's first bulleted and numbered lists. The importer does not pre-tag posts automatically, so plan on reviewing and tagging each recipe post yourself.
Apply the Restaurant theme
In Admin → Themes, select Restaurant and click Apply. Your imported content re-flows into the recipe-card layout immediately — no CSS or template editing required. Switch to a different theme at any time with zero content changes.
Publish your first recipe with auto-emitted schema
Hit publish on any recipe-tagged post. VeloCMS emits the Recipe JSON-LD server-side in the page head. Point your CNAME at VeloCMS to go live on your custom domain, or start immediately on your velocms.org subdomain while DNS propagates.
Start a 14-day free trial. Pro ($9/mo) gives you unlimited recipes and a custom domain.
Pro
$9
per month
- Unlimited recipes
- Custom domain + SSL
- BYOK Stripe paid newsletter
- Digital cookbook & course sales
- AI writing assistant
- Newsletter broadcasts
Business
$29
per month
- Unlimited recipes
- Multi-author food blog
- Custom sender domain (email)
- Priority support
- BYOK Stripe (member revenue)
- Team collaboration
Questions recipe bloggers ask before switching
Honest answers — no plugin upsell.
Does VeloCMS support Recipe JSON-LD / schema.org/Recipe?
Yes — VeloCMS emits a schema.org/Recipe block on any post tagged recipe. It extracts recipeIngredient from the first bulleted list in your post and recipeInstructions from the first numbered list. The JSON-LD is rendered server-side and ships in the page head, so Google and Bing pick it up on first crawl without requiring any client-side JavaScript to run.
How does VeloCMS extract ingredients and instructions from my post?
VeloCMS reads the first bulleted list (<ul>) in your post's content as the ingredient list and the first numbered list (<ol>) as the instructions. Keep your ingredient list as the first bulleted list and your steps as the first numbered list in the post body — a bulleted list earlier in the post (for example, a list of related links) will be read as ingredients instead if it comes first.
Can VeloCMS auto-compute nutrition info?
Not currently. VeloCMS does not integrate with Spoonacular or any other nutrition-calculation service today, so there's no NutritionInformation field to populate. If nutrition facts matter to your readers, add them as plain text in your post for now.
How do I import my existing WordPress recipe blog?
Export your WordPress site via Tools → Export → All Content and upload the XML at the WordPress card in Admin → Import. Recipe cards generated by Tasty Recipes or WP Recipe Maker come through as their original plugin markup, not converted to VeloCMS's Recipe JSON-LD — there's no automatic conversion, so you'll re-tag posts recipe and re-enter ingredients/instructions by hand wherever you want structured schema. Everything else keeps its original published or draft status.
Will my recipes still appear in Google Search Generative Experience?
Valid schema.org/Recipe markup with a complete ingredient list and instructions is one of the strongest signals for Google's AI-powered recipe cards, and VeloCMS emits this markup server-side on every recipe-tagged post. Eligibility also depends on your domain's crawl history, content quality, and whether your recipe passes Google's E-E-A-T guidelines — schema alone isn't a guarantee, but missing schema is a guaranteed disqualifier.
Does VeloCMS have a recipe-specific theme?
The Restaurant preset ships free on all plans and is the closest to a recipe-blog aesthetic — warm serif typography, clean recipe card layout, generous whitespace, food-friendly color palette. It's designed for long-form blog-style writing in the Smitten Kitchen / Food52 / Serious Eats tradition, not a menu-card format. You can apply the Restaurant theme in Admin → Themes in one click; all content re-flows immediately. VeloCMS has 13 other themes if you prefer a different visual direction.
What happens if Pinterest decides to deprioritize recipe pins next year?
Nothing — if your recipe blog runs on VeloCMS, your audience is on your email list, not on Pinterest's platform. VeloCMS membership features let you collect email subscribers directly on your site; you own and can export that list at any time. Pinterest, Instagram, and TikTok are traffic channels, not audience containers. When you publish to your VeloCMS blog and collect emails there, a Pinterest algorithm change is an SEO inconvenience, not an existential crisis.
Is VeloCMS faster than WordPress + a recipe plugin for recipe sites?
Architecturally, yes. WordPress + Tasty Recipes or WP Recipe Maker typically ships 200–400KB of plugin JavaScript on every recipe page just to render the schema block, on top of PHP and plugin hooks that re-run on every request. VeloCMS pre-renders recipe pages as static HTML with no client-side plugin runtime and no per-request plugin execution — the Recipe schema is emitted server-side from a simple tag, not a plugin bundle.
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Your readers came for the recipe, not the recipe plugin.
Start your free trial with the Restaurant theme. Recipe JSON-LD, a WordPress/Squarespace importer, and AVIF/WebP image optimization — all on a platform that stays out of your way so you can keep cooking.