Software for farmers markets
Updated 10 October 2026
A farmers market is a weekly promise to shoppers that runs on growers' calendars. The stallholders who make it worth visiting are also the ones whose availability moves with the season, the weather and the harvest — so the admin isn't one big application round, it's a steady trickle of "can I have the next three Saturdays but not the fourth?"
Every week is a new lineup
A grower with strawberries in November may have nothing to sell in March. Weekly markets that force season-long commitments lose good producers; markets that take bookings by text message lose track of who's coming. What works is letting approved stallholders book the specific dates they can make, and planning the site around what's actually booked.
Producer rules are your brand
Many farmers markets only admit stallholders who grow, raise or make what they sell — it's the difference between a farmers market and a fruit shop in a car park. Enforcing that means asking the right questions at application time (where's the farm, what's grown versus bought in) and keeping the answers on file for when a shopper or another stallholder asks.
Food paperwork is the default, not the exception
Most of a farmers market's stallholders sell food, so food business registration or notification is something you'll collect from nearly everyone — alongside public liability insurance. How that works depends on your state and council; ask yours once and build the answer into your application.
How StallsApp fits a farmers market
- Recurring market days
- Set the pattern once (every Saturday, the first Sunday of the month) and StallsApp generates the dates. Approved stallholders pick the weeks they can make from your calendar, several at a time.
- Your own application questions
- Add questions to the application form — "Do you grow what you sell?", "Where is your farm?" — as short text, choices or tick boxes. Answers stay with the stallholder's record and in your CSV export.
- Food registration required at application
- Switch on food registration for the market and the application collects it alongside insurance, with expiry dates so renewals can be chased before they lapse. StallsApp stores what the stallholder uploaded; confirming it's current stays with you.
- One-action weather cancellation
- Call off a market day and every booking on it is cancelled, card payments are refunded in full, and each stallholder is emailed your reason. The public page shows the day as cancelled straight away.
- Waitlist that refills itself
- An approved booking that isn't paid within your payment window is released, and the next waitlisted stallholder is offered the spot — useful in peak season when a site is in demand.
- A calendar feed for shoppers
- Your market's dates are published as a calendar feed shoppers can subscribe to, so "is it on this week?" is answered in their own calendar.
Setting it up
- Create a recurring market and set its schedule — weekly is typical for farmers markets.
- Add your stall types and prices (a standard site, a powered site, a double site).
- Turn on food registration so it's part of every application.
- Add producer questions to the application form.
- Leave booking on request-to-book so you approve each week's lineup, and set how far ahead stallholders can book — a season at a time works well.
- Publish your weather policy on the market's public page before the first wet Saturday.
Run your farmers markets on StallsApp
Applications, approvals, stall payments, ticketing and market-day tools in one place. Free to start — no card required.
Questions organisers ask
Can stallholders book only some weeks?
Yes. Once a stallholder is approved for your market they choose the dates they want from your calendar — one week, several, or every week in the booking window. You approve the requests (or switch the market to instant booking if you'd rather not).
Can I make sure stallholders are genuine producers?
You can ask whatever you need on the application — farm location, what's grown versus bought in, accreditation — and decide each application yourself. StallsApp keeps the answers on file; the judgement about who meets your producer rules is yours.
What happens to stall fees when we cancel for weather?
Cancelling a market day in StallsApp refunds card payments for that day in full automatically. Payments you recorded as cash or bank transfer are yours to return the same way they came in.