Kulfi vs Gelato vs Softy: Which Makes More Money in India?

Softy makes the most money per unit sold. At roughly Rs 6 production cost and Rs 20-25 selling price, you’re looking at 70% gross margins on every cone. Kulfi sits at 25-45% net but sells year-round, including winters when softy carts shut down. Gelato has the slimmest margins at 20-30% net, but each scoop sells for Rs 180-250, so the daily revenue can be higher if your location pulls enough footfall.

India’s frozen dessert market crossed Rs 30,000 crore in 2023 and is growing at 13-15% annually (IBEF, 2023). All three models can turn a profit inside that growth. The question is which one fits your capital, your city, and your customer base. This comparison breaks it down across startup costs, per-unit economics, seasonality, and scaling potential.

Key Takeaways

• Softy needs just Rs 1.5-3 lakh to start and delivers around 70% gross margin per cone
• Kulfi returns 25-45% net margins on a moderate Rs 5-15 lakh outlay (Franchise Khoj, 2024)
• Gelato demands Rs 35-60 lakh upfront, returns 20-30%, but holds up better in winter
• Combining two formats under one counter often beats running either one alone

Quick Comparison: Kulfi vs Gelato vs Softy at a Glance

Softy needs the least capital at Rs 1.5-3 lakh, kulfi sits in the middle at Rs 5-15 lakh, and gelato demands Rs 35-60 lakh. But the break-even gap matters more than the upfront number: softy pays back in 3-6 months, kulfi in 12-18, and gelato takes 2-3 years.

How Much Does Each Model Cost to Start?

A softy stall in Pimpri started selling in March 2025 with Rs 1,87,000 total. That covered a single-flavour unit from a local Ahmedabad manufacturer (Rs 95,000), a stainless steel cart, power inverter, and the first 20 kg of vanilla premix. Fourth day, cones were moving. Machines run between Rs 55,000 for a tabletop and Rs 2,55,000 for a three-flavour commercial unit (Coldex India, 2025).

Gelato, on the other end, is a different conversation altogether. Just the batch freezer runs Rs 4-8 lakh if you want an Italian-made unit (and you do, because the cheaper ones break down mid-summer when you need them most). Display cabinets, imported pistachio paste at Rs 3,500 per kg, chocolate couverture, seasonal fruit purees, a fit-out in a location where people actually pay Rs 200 for a scoop, and a few trained hands who understand overrun ratios. Total spend before your first customer walks in: Rs 35-60 lakh (Earn Yatra, 2026)).

Kulfi lands somewhere in between, and the range is wide. Making your own kulfi in a rented kitchen with large kadais, moulds, and a deep freezer can start at Rs 5-6 lakh. Going the brand-licence route with Chennai Kulfi means Rs 10 lakh setup plus a Rs 2 lakh franchise fee (Business Unfold, 2024). Famous Bombay Kulfi is in a similar bracket. The interesting thing about kulfi is that you don’t need a single machine. The entire production process is stovetop cooking and freezing.

Forget Monthly Revenue. Look at What Each Cone Actually Earns You.

Here’s the maths on a single softy cone. Two litres of full-cream milk (Rs 108) plus half a kg of premix (Rs 75) gives you 2.5 kg of soft-serve material. Cost per batch: Rs 183. Each cone uses about 74 grams of filling at Rs 5.40, plus a Rs 0.50 waffle cone. Your all-in cost per softy: roughly Rs 6 (Hindchef, 2025). A college kid outside a gate in Aundh, Pune, pays Rs 20-25 for that cone. You keep Rs 14-19. Before rent, before electricity, that’s 70% gross on every sale.

Kulfi margins work differently because the recipe itself is your moat. Slow-cooking milk overnight in a kadai isn’t something you can replicate in a premix packet. A matka kulfi costs Rs 10-12 to produce and sells for Rs 40-60 at most outlets. Famous Bombay Kulfi reports around 45% on their branded menu (Franchise Khoj, 2024). No machine depreciation, no maintenance contracts. Your costs are milk, sugar, kesar, dry fruits, and the person stirring the pot until 2 AM.

Gelato is the odd one out. The ticket size looks amazing on paper. A serving at a parlour in Indiranagar sells for Rs 180-250. But your ingredient costs are brutal. Imported pistachio paste at Rs 3,500-4,000 per kg. Premium chocolate base at Rs 1,200 per kg. Fresh mango puree in season, frozen at triple the price off-season. Layer on Rs 1.5-2 lakh monthly rent for a decent mall kiosk and wages for your team, and you’re at 20-30% net. Still profitable, but you need patient capital and steady footfall to make the numbers stack.

What Does an Actual Working Day Look Like?

A softy operator near Sarkhej Cross Road in Ahmedabad shared his April numbers with us. On weekdays he moves 130-160 cones at Rs 25. Cash collected: Rs 3,250-4,000. Material cost for the day: roughly Rs 900. Electricity: Rs 100. He pockets Rs 2,250-3,000 before rent. His rent is zero because he operates from a municipal-permit cart spot that costs Rs 800 a month. So his monthly gross from a single setup is somewhere around Rs 56,000-75,000.

Kulfi is steadier but less exciting per day. A shop in Electronic City, Bangalore, doing matka kulfi, stick kulfi, and falooda moves 80-120 pieces on a decent day, average ticket Rs 50. After costs, the owner takes home Rs 1,400-2,100 daily. What keeps this model interesting is the falooda counter. Even in January and February when nobody wants frozen desserts, the falooda alone covers rent and salaries. Without that add-on, pure kulfi shops in Bangalore struggle from November through February.

Gelato operators in malls don’t openly talk numbers, which itself tells you something. Across food court businesses we’ve worked with at Petpooja, the range is wide: daily revenue between Rs 9,000 and Rs 14,400 on 50-80 scoops, but monthly net profit after rent, salaries, and imported ingredients lands anywhere from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1,20,000. Location makes or breaks gelato more than any other factor. A corner kiosk near the food court entrance outperforms a back-wall counter by 2x on the same menu.

How Bad Does Winter Get for Each Format?

The impulse ice cream segment makes up 60.59% of India’s total ice cream market revenue (Expert Market Research, 2026), and softy sits right in the middle of that segment. When the temperature in Jaipur drops below 18 degrees in December, a cart that was selling 150 cones in May struggles to push 35-40. Some operators we’ve spoken to shut down completely from November to February. One guy in Rajkot told us he drives an auto-rickshaw those four months and reopens the cart in March. Another added a hot chocolate dispenser beside his softy machine, which helped, but that’s a separate Rs 25,000 investment and a different inventory to manage.

Kulfi doesn’t face the same cliff because Indian families eat kulfi at occasions that have nothing to do with weather. Engagement parties in Surat, Navratri gatherings in Vadodara, post-dinner dessert orders in Hyderabad in January. A kulfi shop near Manek Chowk in Ahmedabad sees maybe a 30% dip in winter, not 70%. The cultural connection to celebrations is a buffer that softy will never have.

Gelato owners barely think about seasons, and that’s one of its underrated advantages. A person paying Rs 200 for a pistachio cup in Indiranagar isn’t doing it because it’s 38 degrees outside. They’re treating themselves the way they’d order a cheesecake or an espresso in January. Mall-based gelato spots in Hyderabad report a 15-20% winter dip at most.

Which Format Scales Easiest to Multiple Locations?

The scaling story is where these three models diverge the most, and where most first-time operators get surprised.

Softy looks dead simple to scale. Buy another machine, find another busy corner, hire one person, start selling. Except the problem nobody warns you about is trust. Your guy at the Hadapsar stall could be selling 120 cones and reporting 90. You’d never know unless you’re standing there yourself or have a POS tracking every cone dispensed in real time. Past two carts, this stops being a minor worry and becomes a business-critical leak.

Kulfi actually has the cleanest scaling model of all three. Cook everything at one central kitchen, load the freezer van at 6 AM, and distribute frozen stock to your points of sale. This is exactly how Chennai Kulfi and Famous Bombay Kulfi run their franchise operations. Your outlet staff just need to know how to plate, pour falooda, and operate the billing counter. No cooking skills required at the point of sale.

Gelato cannot work this way. You can’t prepare a batch in Andheri and send it to your Bandra counter in an auto because it’ll lose its texture in transit. Every new shop needs its own batch freezer (Rs 4-8 lakh), its own trained gelato maker (3 months of training minimum), and its own ingredient supply chain. Replication bill per location: Rs 35-40 lakh. That’s why gelato chains in India stay small. Even well-funded ones rarely cross 8-10 stores nationally.

For shops that sell multiple formats from one register, and we’re seeing more of these every quarter, multi-category billing is the part you can’t skip. Petpooja POSS handles this with separate menu categories per GST slab and item-level profitability reports that tell you whether your falooda is subsidising your kulfi or the other way around.

Which Model Fits Your Budget and City?

Start by looking at your bank account, not the product. If you have Rs 2-3 lakh and want to test whether frozen desserts work in your area, softy is the lowest-risk entry. Park a cart near a school, temple, or railway station. Sell for a month. If you’re crossing 100 cones daily, you’ve got your answer. Here’s a broader list of low-investment food business ideas if you’re still weighing options.

Kulfi makes sense when you have Rs 10-15 lakh and want to build a proper shop with repeat customers. The audience is wide. A 6-year-old tugging at his mother’s hand for a mango stick. A retired couple ordering malai kulfi falooda after dinner at 9 PM. Festivals, weddings, house parties. Kulfi has a seat at every Indian table that softy doesn’t get invited to. Produce in-house and your margins stay above 40%.

Gelato is a different game. You need Rs 40-60 lakh, a premium metro location, and two to three years before the venture fully pays for itself. Your buyers are cafe-hopping millennials in Jubilee Hills or HSR Layout who think nothing of spending Rs 200 on dessert. If that profile matches your neighbourhood, gelato can print money. If it doesn’t, you’ll burn through capital waiting for footfall that never comes.

One thing worth noting: the smartest operator we came across in 2025 was a kulfi shop in Madhapur, Hyderabad, that bolted a softy dispenser onto their existing counter in April. Walk-ins jumped 40% that summer. Parents got their kulfi, kids got their softy, and everything billed through one POS with separate categories.

Conclusion

There’s no single “best” frozen dessert business. There’s only the one that fits your situation right now.

With Rs 2-3 lakh and a busy street, softy gets you earning within a week and pays itself back in 3-6 months. Kulfi needs Rs 5-15 lakh but gives you year-round demand that softy can’t match, especially in Gujarat and Rajasthan where kulfi falooda sells at every wedding and festival. Gelato is a premium play for metro cities where your customer happily pays Rs 200 per scoop, but you’ll need Rs 35-60 lakh and two to three years of patience.

The most profitable operators we’ve seen on Petpooja aren’t married to one format. They stock two or three categories behind one counter, track each line separately, and let the data tell them what to double down on next summer.

Frequently Asked Questions