There’s a lot of sourdough advice online, and not all of it agrees, which is confusing when you’re starting out. The sites below are the ones worth your time, grouped by what they are best for, so you can pick the right resource for where you are instead of drowning in mixed advice.
Best for deep dives and reference
When you want the full explanation, the formula, the technique, and the reason behind both, these are the reference-grade sites.
The Perfect Loaf — Maurizio Leo’s site is one of the most complete artisan sourdough resources online, with detailed recipes, baker’s percentages, and strong notes on starter and fermentation. It is best once you are past your first few loaves.
King Arthur Baking — a very reliable big-reference site with tested recipes, clear technique guides, and a baker’s hotline. It is a strong choice for the basics and for recipes that are built to work.
Best for absolute beginners
If you have never kept a starter or baked a loaf, start here. These sites focus on plain language, lots of photos, and forgiving first-loaf recipes.
The Clever Carrot — Emilie Raffa’s beginner sourdough guide is one of the most useful first-loaf resources online, with step-by-step help and a very approachable style.
Little Spoon Farm — Amy Duska’s beginner sourdough posts are built for simple, easy-to-follow baking, with clear instructions and a friendly tone.
The Pantry Mama — Kate Freebairn’s site has a large set of sourdough basics, starter help, discard recipes, and troubleshooting, so it works well as a site you can grow with.
Best for science and troubleshooting
When a bake goes wrong and you want to know why, these resources explain the process instead of just handing you another recipe.
The Sourdough Journey — a top choice for bulk fermentation, overproofing, underproofing, and starter care, with strong focus on diagnosis and clear teaching.
The Perfect Loaf’s reference guides go deeper than the recipes and cover starter care, hydration, and fermentation in a way that answers a lot of common questions.
For the calculators that go with the theory, our own sourdough tools handle the math so you can apply what these sites teach to your own kitchen.
Best YouTube channels for technique
Some skills are much easier to learn by watching. For shaping, scoring, and reading dough by feel, video is the best teacher.
Full Proof Baking — Kristen Dennis’s videos are detailed and careful, with strong focus on shaping, dough handling, and open-crumb loaf work.
Bake with Jack — friendly, practical videos that fix common problems and keep the advice simple.
Grant Bakes — a good pick for clear, beginner-friendly loaves and starter help without a lot of extra noise.
Best for recipes and variety
Once the basics feel solid and you want more options, these sites give you more loaf ideas, discard bakes, and everyday bread recipes.
Feasting at Home — a useful source for sourdough recipes that are written clearly and fit everyday baking.
Farmhouse on Boone — a good fit for family-style baking, sandwich loaves, and discard recipes.
How to actually use these sites
The biggest beginner mistake is not picking the “wrong” blog. It is picking too many at once and mixing methods from five places that each assume a different starter, hydration, and schedule.
- 1Pick one method and finish it Choose one beginner site, follow its starter and first-loaf method exactly, and bake it start to finish before changing anything.
- 2Use others to fill specific gaps If you hit one problem, like a flat loaf, gummy crumb, or slow starter, go to a troubleshooting resource for that one issue, then return to your main method.
- 3Add technique videos for skills When shaping or scoring is the hard part, watch it done instead of only reading about it.
- 4Standardise the numbers with tools Convert any recipe to grams and your kitchen conditions so you can repeat good bakes instead of guessing.
Turn any recipe into exact grams of flour and water for your target hydration.