People act like making sourdough is hard, but it’s actually super easy, and I find it easier than using store bought yeast. Yes, there are a million variables that will affect how the bread turns out, but that only really matters if you want to make super repeatable identical looking loaves. That, and speed, is why commercial bread baking turned to storebought yeast over sourdough. If you just want to make good tasting bread, sourdough isn’t hard; people have done it for thousands of years just fine.

The only real challenge that people tend to run into is if sourdough is their first foray into working with wet, lean dough. Not all sourdough is wet, lean dough, but 95% of the time, if you ask someone to picture sourdough, that’s what they picture. If your main breadmaking experience is something like brioche or pizza dough, and you try to kneed a high-hydration sourdough the same way, you might end up overwhelmed. To get an idea of what it’s like without actually making a starter, try your hand at Jim Lahey’s no-kneed bread

It’s like an hour’s work stretched out over two to three days. Nothing to be afraid of.