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We lined up five UK shops that sell live sourdough starter and worked out what each one costs once you add postage. Live starter turns up wet and ready to feed, and you can be baking within a day or two. Dried starter keeps for months in the cupboard, but you will spend a few days feeding it back to life first. Most people are after live, so that is the main table. Dried is further down.
| Seller | Format | Live pack | Culture | Reviews | UK delivery | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sourdough Supply Co | LiveDried | £9.99 | 20g | Organic mother culture kept for 30+ years | 4.8 from 29 | £3.99 tracked |
| BakeryBits | LiveDried | £14.00 | Not stated | Organic white wheat | 4.66 from 206 | £4.80 |
| Hobbs House Bakery | Live | £17.50 | Not stated | Rye bakery starter, fed daily for 71 years | 5.0 from 3 | £6.50, dispatched twice a week |
| The Sourdough Cult | Live | £19.99 | Not stated | Cheshire family culture, claimed 100+ years | 5 stars shown, no count | £3.95 Tracked 24 |
| Bertinet Kitchen | LiveDried | £20.00 | 250g | Richard Bertinet's starter, 25+ years | None shown | £5.99, 2–5 days, UK only, temperature-controlled packaging |
A sourdough equipment shop selling an organic starter in live or dried form at the same price, with or without a WECK jar.
A specialist baking supplier selling its own fresh starter in wheat and rye, plus dried versions of both.
A family bakery near Bristol selling the same live culture that raises its own loaves.
A gift-led brand selling a live starter on its own or inside beginner kits.
The Bath cookery school sells a piece of baker Richard Bertinet's own starter, fresh or dried.
Dried starter keeps for months and posts easily, but needs a few days of feeding before the first loaf. Listed by delivered price, cheapest first.
| Seller | Dried price | Delivered | Pack | Type | UK postage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BakeryBits | £5.00 | £9.80 | 50g | Dried rye or wheat | £4.80 |
| Bertinet Kitchen | £7.95 | £12.94 | 50g | Dried | £4.99, 2–5 working days |
| Sourdough Supply Co | £9.99 | £13.98 | 20g | Dehydrated organic | £3.99 tracked |
| Freshly Fermented | £13.00 | £17.00 | 5g | Freeze-dried organic, six cultures | From £4, free over £30 |
Buy live if you want to bake this week. It arrives wet and active, so after a feed or two it is ready to use. Buy dried if you want something that keeps for months in the cupboard or you are sending it as a gift. Dried starter needs several days of feeding to wake up before it will raise a loaf.
Very little. A starter grows every time you feed it flour and water, so a small portion of 20g can be built up to baking quantity in a feed or two. A bigger pack only saves you that first day.
A healthy starter copes with a few days in transit without being fed. It may look flat or smell sharp when it arrives. That is normal, and a feed or two brings it back. Check whether the shop will replace one that does not recover.
Follow the instructions in the pack. In most cases you move it to a clean jar, feed it equal weights of flour and water, and leave it somewhere warm until it has roughly doubled and is full of bubbles.
An older culture is well established and tends to be stable and reliable. The flavour of your bread depends more on the flour you feed it, how often you feed it and how warm your kitchen is. Any starter adapts to its new home over a few weeks.
Everything was checked on the date at the top, using each shop's own product page and checkout. We have not bought or baked with the other starters. Culture ages and review scores are what each shop says about itself, so read the verified customer reviews on each product page and make up your own mind.
Delivered price means one starter plus the cheapest postage to a home address. The live table runs cheapest starter first, with postage in the last column. The dried table runs cheapest delivered first. Both are price orders, not a verdict on quality.
This is not every UK seller. We only included shops you can buy from directly, so brands sold through marketplaces or other retailers are left out, and some of those are cheaper. Nobody paid to be listed.