Ko-fi vs Buy Me a Coffee vs your own website
Both put a coffee button on a page of theirs, and both take a cut. Here's how their fees, payouts and limits differ, and what your own website and app get you instead.
Ko-fi and Buy Me a Coffee look a lot alike. Each gives you a page with a coffee button, memberships and a shop, and each takes a cut. The differences are in the small print: what’s charged on which payment, how the money reaches you, and what each one can’t do.
This guide compares them using each one’s own pricing and help pages, checked on October 12, 2026. Then it covers the third option: a website and app of your own. For that we use Drate, our product.
At a glance
| Ko-fi | Buy Me a Coffee | Your own site (Drate) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly price | $0, or $12 for Gold | $0 | $9 for Regular ($60 a year), or $12 for Pro ($99 a year) |
| Fee on memberships | 5%, or 0% on Gold | 5% | 5% on every plan |
| Getting paid | Straight into your PayPal or Stripe | Through Stripe, after a review before your first payout | Straight into your own Stripe account |
| Your address | ko-fi.com/yourname | buymeacoffee.com/yourname | Your own domain |
| Your look | Ko-fi’s layout, your colors and images | Buy Me a Coffee’s layout, your colors and cover | Your own website, in your look |
| App | None yet | Buy Me a Coffee’s app, shared by every creator | Your own iOS and Android app on Pro |
| Memberships | Monthly only | Monthly, yearly or lifetime | Monthly, yearly and fixed-length passes |
| Video | Embeds from YouTube, Vimeo, Twitch or Instagram | Embeds from other sites | Hosted on your site |
| Physical products | You pack and ship | You pack and ship | Print-on-demand merch, printed and shipped for you |
On all three, card processing comes on top. Stripe’s standard US rate is 2.9% + $0.30.
Fees
Both are free to start and both take a percentage. They differ on tips, on Ko-fi’s flat-price plan, and on the extras Buy Me a Coffee adds to card processing.
| Ko-fi | Buy Me a Coffee | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly price | $0, or $12 for Gold, monthly only | $0 |
| One-time tips | 0% on Ko-fi Free, 5% on Standard, 0% on Gold | 5% |
| Memberships and monthly support | 5%, or 0% on Gold | 5% |
| Shop sales and commissions | 5%, or 0% on Gold | 5% |
| Card processing | Your Stripe or PayPal account’s own rates | Stripe’s 2.9% + $0.30, plus 0.5% for payout processing |
| On top of that | Stripe and PayPal each add 1.5% for payments from outside the US | 1% more for payments from outside the US, 0.5% more on subscriptions |
Ko-fi has three plans. New creators start on Standard, which takes 5% of everything, tips included, and is the plan you need for supporter-only posts. Ko-fi Free takes 0% on one-time tips but drops supporter-only posts. Gold costs $12 a month for 0% on everything, but memberships that began before you joined keep paying 5%. Our guide to Ko-fi’s fees covers every detail.
Buy Me a Coffee has one plan: 5% of every payment, with no monthly price. Its fee page lists processing on top: Stripe’s 2.9% + $0.30, plus 0.5% for payout processing, 1% more for payments from outside the US, and 0.5% more on subscription payments. By default, that comes out of your earnings.
What a $10 payment leaves you
Here’s what reaches you from a $10 payment by US card, with Stripe on both, at each one’s published rates.
| $10 by US card | Ko-fi Free | Ko-fi Standard | Ko-fi Gold | Buy Me a Coffee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| One-time tip | $9.41 | $8.91 | $9.41 | $8.86 |
| Monthly membership | $8.91 | $8.91 | $9.41 | $8.81 |
| Plan price each month | $0 | $0 | $12 | $0 |
On Ko-fi Standard, a $10 membership pays $0.50 to Ko-fi and $0.59 to Stripe. On Buy Me a Coffee, it pays $0.50 to Buy Me a Coffee, $0.59 for card processing, and $0.05 each for payout processing and for being a subscription. The Gold figures assume members who joined after you switched.
With 100 members at $10 a month, you keep $891 a month on Ko-fi Standard, $881 on Buy Me a Coffee, and $929 on Ko-fi Gold after its $12.
Getting paid
Ko-fi never holds your money. Each payment goes straight into your own PayPal or Stripe account, with no minimum and no payout schedule of its own. Stripe then pays out to your bank, usually within 7 days the first time and on a rolling 2, 4 or 7-day schedule after that. PayPal sometimes holds money for new accounts or unusual payments, and Ko-fi says it usually releases it within 21 days.
Buy Me a Coffee pays out through Stripe only, to creators in the 49 countries on its list. Before your first payout, its moderation team reviews your account, and it says that first payout can take 7 to 14 days in all. Its help pages say you can request a payout once your balance reaches $10. And if you don’t log in for 18 months, Buy Me a Coffee unpublishes your page and pays out or refunds whatever is left in your balance.
Memberships
Ko-fi memberships bill monthly, on the date each member joined. Annual payments are on Ko-fi’s list of features that “could be coming next”, not something you can offer today. Supporter-only posts need Standard or Gold. A new price only applies to new members: you update existing Stripe members in Stripe, and PayPal members have to cancel and rejoin at the new price.
Buy Me a Coffee memberships bill monthly or yearly, and you can add one lifetime level. Raising the price for existing members needs Buy Me a Coffee’s approval, which comes within 5 to 7 business days. Each increase is capped at $20, and once you change a price, it’s locked for 90 days.
Both can give members Discord roles, and both put members-only posts on your page.
Shop and commissions
Both sell digital and physical products, and on both, physical orders are yours to pack and ship.
Ko-fi has a shop plus a separate commissions feature, with slots, add-ons and your own terms. When you ship a physical order, you mark it as sent and add tracking yourself.
Buy Me a Coffee sells digital products, physical items and services from one shop. For physical items, it suggests asking buyers for their shipping details with a question at checkout.
Your page, their address
Both give you a page at their address, in their layout.
Ko-fi puts you at ko-fi.com/yourname. You choose colors, images and links, and Standard adds a shorter page name and your own word in place of “coffee.” To show Ko-fi on a site you run elsewhere, Ko-fi offers widgets, embeds and links. Video posts are embeds from YouTube, Vimeo, Twitch or Instagram. And there’s no app yet: Ko-fi’s help center says its app is in development and suggests pinning the website to your phone’s home screen.
Buy Me a Coffee puts you at buymeacoffee.com/yourname. You choose a cover image, colors, your “coffee” emoji and wording, and the order of your sidebar. Video in posts is embedded from other sites. Its app is Buy Me a Coffee’s own, shared by every creator, and it invites your supporters to “discover new creators to follow and support.”
On both, you’re the seller, so sales tax and VAT are yours to work out. Buy Me a Coffee says it doesn’t have built-in tools to add them yet.
The third option: your own website and app
Ko-fi and Buy Me a Coffee both give you a page on someone else’s site. The third option is a home that’s yours.
On Drate, you get a website made around you, on your own domain and in your look, ready in minutes. Memberships, members-only posts, video hosted on your site, courses and a community feed live together on it. Members pay through your own Stripe account, and each membership can come with Discord roles. On Pro, members also get your own iOS and Android app, not one shared with every other creator.
Be clear on what you’re paying for. Drate takes 5% of membership sales on every plan, the same as Buy Me a Coffee and Ko-fi’s default, and the plan comes on top: Regular is $9 a month or $60 a year, and Pro is $12 a month or $99 a year. Card fees apply on all three. On fees alone, Ko-fi Gold’s flat $12 costs less than Drate Regular once you sell more than $60 a month, or $140 with Regular billed yearly, and less than Drate Pro billed yearly once you pass $75. What Drate charges for is a site of your own, and on Pro your own app.
If you’re switching
- On Ko-fi now? Drate as a Ko-fi alternative puts the two side by side and shows how switching works. Leave your Ko-fi page up while members join you on your site.
- On Buy Me a Coffee now? It works the same way. Members join again on your site and cancel their old membership themselves, so keep your page up while they move.
- On Patreon too? Ko-fi vs Patreon vs your own website covers what Patreon’s 10% costs you.
- Starting out? Start on your own site. It’s $9 a month on Regular, and nobody has to move later.
Questions
Which takes less, Ko-fi or Buy Me a Coffee?
It depends on what you sell. Both take 5% of memberships and shop sales. Ko-fi takes 0% on one-time tips if you switch to Ko-fi Free, and 0% on everything on Gold, which costs $12 a month. Buy Me a Coffee takes 5% of everything, and its fee page adds 0.5% for payout processing on top of Stripe's card fee.
How much does Buy Me a Coffee take?
5% of every payment. Stripe's card fee of 2.9% + $0.30 comes on top, and Buy Me a Coffee's fee page also lists 0.5% for payout processing, 1% more for payments from outside the US and 0.5% more on subscriptions. A $10 monthly membership paid by US card leaves you about $8.81.
Do Ko-fi and Buy Me a Coffee have apps?
Buy Me a Coffee has one app that all its creators and their supporters share. Ko-fi says its app is still in development and suggests pinning its website to your phone's home screen. Neither gives you an app of your own. Drate Pro does.
Can I move my members from Ko-fi or Buy Me a Coffee to my own site?
Not automatically. Drate can't move Ko-fi or Buy Me a Coffee memberships for you. Members join on your site and cancel their old membership themselves, so leave your old page up while they move.
Sources
Checked on October 12, 2026. Prices and terms change, so check the latest before you decide.
- Ko-fi: Does Ko-fi take a fee?help.ko-fi.com
- Ko-fi: What is Ko-fi Gold?help.ko-fi.com
- Ko-fi: How do I get paid?help.ko-fi.com
- Ko-fi: Connect your Stripe account and start earninghelp.ko-fi.com
- Ko-fi: Why are my PayPal funds on hold?help.ko-fi.com
- Ko-fi: Ko-fi Memberships and Membership Tiershelp.ko-fi.com
- Ko-fi: Ko-fi Shophelp.ko-fi.com
- Ko-fi: What are Ko-fi Commissions?help.ko-fi.com
- Ko-fi: Creating postshelp.ko-fi.com
- Ko-fi: Pinning Ko-fi to your phone home screenhelp.ko-fi.com
- Ko-fi: Featuresko-fi.com
- Ko-fi: Pricingko-fi.com
- Buy Me a Coffee: Frequently asked questionshelp.buymeacoffee.com
- Buy Me a Coffee: What is Buy Me a Coffee and how does it work?help.buymeacoffee.com
- Buy Me a Coffee: How to calculate charges on your paymenthelp.buymeacoffee.com
- Buy Me a Coffee: When are payouts processed?help.buymeacoffee.com
- Buy Me a Coffee: Supported countries for payoutshelp.buymeacoffee.com
- Buy Me a Coffee: Understanding the dormancy policyhelp.buymeacoffee.com
- Buy Me a Coffee: A simple guide to get started with membershipshelp.buymeacoffee.com
- Buy Me a Coffee: Adjusting your membership pricinghelp.buymeacoffee.com
- Buy Me a Coffee: A complete guide on Buy Me a Coffee Shophelp.buymeacoffee.com
- Buy Me a Coffee: Create and publish your first posthelp.buymeacoffee.com
- Buy Me a Coffee: How to set up your Buy Me a Coffee pagehelp.buymeacoffee.com
- Buy Me a Coffee: Understanding the tax processhelp.buymeacoffee.com
- Buy Me a Coffee on the App Storeapps.apple.com
- Stripe: Pricingstripe.com
- Patreon: Pricingpatreon.com
- Patreon: A standard platform fee for new creatorssupport.patreon.com
