Patreon vs Ko-fi vs Buy Me a Coffee (2026 Fee Comparison)
Three Buttons, Very Different Fee Structures
Your audience starts asking where they can send money. That’s a good problem. Choosing between Patreon vs Ko-fi vs Buy Me a Coffee is the usual next step, and the three buttons look interchangeable until you read what each one actually does with your cash. The differences hide in fee tables, payout rules, plus a few quiet policy details most roundups skip.
A quick note on how I put this together, since fee comparisons deserve receipts. None of these three runs my own income. My newsletter goes out through Buttondown, I sell the occasional template on Gumroad, and this site is a WordPress build, as readers of the About page will recognize from the one-person-with-automation setup I keep describing. I’ve also watched enough creator platforms change rates mid-run to trust fee tables more than vendor promises. Rather than invent a testing lab I don’t have, I did what I’d want a reviewer to do for me: I pulled the fee pages from all three platforms’ own help centers this week (October 2026), including the boring fine-print pages, and cross-checked them against each other. The numbers below come straight from those pages, and I’ll link each one where I use it.
The Big Change: Patreon Now Takes 10% From New Creators
Patreon spent years advertising an 8% take. That era is effectively closed to new signups. Patreon’s fee overview states that any creator who published their page after August 4, 2025 is on the standard 10% plan, plus taxes and payment processing on top.
Older creators keep legacy rates: 5% if you’re from the early days (that tier shut back in 2019), or 8% on the Pro plan. But here’s the trap that startled me while reading the fine print. If someone unpublishes their page, even briefly, Patreon flips them to the standard 10% plan when they republish. Pausing is protected. Unpublishing is not. For a founder who tears a page down during a rebrand, that’s an expensive way to move a logo around.
There’s also a deadline most long-time creators haven’t clocked. Legacy billing pages have to move to subscription billing by November 1, 2026, with automatic migration and paused billing if you don’t act first. It’s not a fee change by itself, but pricing math that assumes old setups is already dated.
Patreon’s processing fees stack on top of the platform fee: 2.9% plus $0.30 for cards or Apple Pay on payments over $3, the same for US PayPal and Venmo, and 3.9% plus $0.30 for PayPal outside the US. A 2.5% currency conversion fee applies when a supporter pays in a different currency than yours. The platform fee itself runs on successfully processed memberships plus one-time purchases.
Ko-fi: The Tip Jar That Stays Free
Ko-fi’s pitch is blunt. On the free tier, Ko-fi’s fee page spells it out: 0% on one-off tips and crowdfunding goals, and a flat 5% service fee on shop items, memberships, monthly tips, plus commission sales. There’s no monthly cost either way.
Two structural differences matter as much as the percentages:
- Money goes straight to your accounts. Payments land in your own PayPal or Stripe, not in a Ko-fi balance you have to withdraw. Their docs put typical processor fees around 3% plus $0.30.
- There’s a “Standard” mode now. Turning it on takes 5% on one-off tips too, in exchange for perks like supporter-only content, custom branding, a shorter page URL, plus more shop storage. You can toggle it off whenever you like.
The old Ko-fi Gold subscription still exists for new users at $12/month, but only on a monthly plan now, and the help center openly admits the paid-tier model stopped working for most creators. Regular readers may remember when Gold was $8; existing subscribers keep their old rate, and anyone who cancels moves to the contributor model where 5% of tip income replaces the subscription.
Buy Me a Coffee: One Fee, Then the Small Print
Buy Me a Coffee keeps the headline simple. Per its fees explainer and FAQ (both updated March 2026), there’s no monthly charge and every feature stays free. BMC takes a flat 5% platform fee per transaction while you keep 95%. Publishing and email tools are bundled in at no extra cost, which is rare.
Then the small print arrives, and it’s not nothing. Payments run through Stripe at 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction. Stripe also applies a 0.5% payout processing charge. International cards cost an extra 1%. Subscription payments cost another 0.5%. BMC lets you pass the card fee to supporters if you’d rather not eat it, which some founders do and some find pushy.
Add a fact people usually miss: payouts reach bank accounts in 44 countries on a monthly rhythm, and the platform’s FAQ promises you own your supporter list and can export it whenever you want. BMC also says it never emails them. For a founder who sees supporters as future customers, that clause carries real weight.
The Fees, Side by Side
Here’s the same information condensed. Processing figures assume US dollars and cards unless noted.
| Patreon | Ko-fi | Buy Me a Coffee | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | $0 | $0 (Gold $12/mo optional) | $0 |
| Platform fee | 10% new creators since Aug 2025; legacy 5%/8% protected | 0% on one-off tips + goals; 5% on memberships, shop, commissions | 5% on everything |
| Processing | 2.9% + $0.30 over $3; 3.9% + $0.30 non-US PayPal; 2.5% currency conversion | Your own PayPal/Stripe rates, around 3% + $0.30 | Stripe 2.9% + $0.30, +0.5% payout fee, +1% international, +0.5% subscriptions |
| Money arrives | Patreon balance, then your withdrawal | Straight into your PayPal or Stripe | Bank payout via Stripe, monthly rhythm |
| Supporter ownership | Exportable, but billing and discovery live on Patreon | Payments are yours from the start | Explicitly yours, exportable, never emailed by BMC |
| Extras | Chats, polls, video hosting up to 100 hrs/mo for paying fans, digital products | Shop, commissions, Discord role integrations | Shop, supporter emails, one-tap payment flow |
| Best fit | Serious recurring memberships | Tips-first projects | Simple all-in-one creator page |
The Fee Math on a Realistic Small Month
Percentages hide more than they show, so here’s a concrete case. Say ten supporters each give $10 in one month, all US cards. By my math, here’s roughly what survives:
- Patreon (standard 10% plan): $10 platform fee plus about $5.90 in processing across ten payments, leaving roughly $84.
- Ko-fi (free tier): if those ten payments are one-off tips, 0% platform fee and about $5.90 in processor fees, leaving around $94. If they’re memberships instead, the 5% service fee brings it back down to something like $89.
- Buy Me a Coffee: $5 platform fee, $2.90+$3.00 in Stripe processing, and that 0.5% payout charge lands the total around $88 to $89.
Those are estimates (exact figures shift with taxes, payment methods, currencies and card types), but the pattern holds. On pure tips, Ko-fi keeps the most in your pocket. On recurring memberships, Ko-fi and BMC land close together while Patreon costs meaningfully more, with the argument for Patreon being its membership tooling rather than the price tag.
What Each Platform Actually Does Best
Patreon, for recurring content that needs structure. Tiers, gated posts, member management, mobile apps, plus a discovery surface that can still introduce you to strangers, which the other two just don’t offer. You pay for that with the heaviest fee load. Serialized writing, series podcasts and video formats fit best.
Ko-fi, for money that arrives in small bursts. Commission slots, quick tips from people who liked a post, goal campaigns for specific needs. The 0% tip rate is genuinely unusual and the direct-to-Stripe setup means no waiting on someone else’s payout schedule. What I’d flag honestly: the membership features trail Patreon’s badly if recurring tiers become your main event.
Buy Me a Coffee, for not stitching anything together. One page that handles tips, memberships, a shop, plus sending posts to supporters without a second tool. For indie builders taking early pre-orders or support for side projects, the bundled emails save real setup time. The monthly payout cadence is the main gripe, and creators in a hurry for cash should plan around it.
If what you’re actually selling is a downloadable product rather than membership perks, compare against dedicated storefronts too. I broke down Gumroad vs Lemon Squeezy vs Payhip in detail, since those handle taxes and file delivery more seriously than any coffee-button platform.
Who Owns Your Audience When You Leave?
Worth a minute, since switching costs are the invisible fee nobody lists. Buy Me a Coffee is the most explicit: your supporter list is yours and exportable, and they promise to never email those people. Ko-fi starts from the strongest structural position, because the payments already run through your own PayPal or Stripe and the relationships are portable from day one. Patreon keeps your earnings inside its balance until withdrawal (with currency conversion, that’s 2.5% when currencies differ) and keeps billing plus discovery centered on its platform.
Migrating members off subscription billing is famously messy wherever it lives. None of the three makes it delightful, so pick for the next two years, not the next two weeks. That argument gets even more important if a newsletter ends up being your core audience hub, which is why my Beehiiv review looks at owned-list platforms separately.
Which One I’d Point a Solo Founder At
My honest ranking for a side project in 2026, and the way I’d frame the Patreon vs Ko-fi vs Buy Me a Coffee decision for anyone building alone: the call comes down to how your money arrives, not which landing page is prettier.
- Just want a tip button next to your work? Ko-fi. The 0% one-off tip rate and direct Stripe or PayPal payouts make it the cheapest honest option, with Buy Me a Coffee a close second if you’d rather have the prettier page with everything bundled.
- Building real recurring memberships? Patreon still does this best despite the 10% cut, especially with its mobile apps and discovery. Price it into your tiers and move on.
- Want one page that does everything? Buy Me a Coffee. Just budget for the payout fee and check the country list before committing.
Whatever you pick, the fees only matter if someone’s actually paying. Figuring out what’s worth money in the first place is the hard part, and launching your first digital product with AI covers that end of the problem from zero.
Key Takeaways
The Patreon vs Ko-fi vs Buy Me a Coffee call in one line: it’s about how your money arrives and who owns the billing relationship.
- Patreon’s fees changed: new creators pay a 10% platform fee plus processing, while legacy 5% and 8% rates are protected, but unpublishing your page flips you to the new rate.
- Ko-fi is the cheapest for one-off tips: 0% on tips with money landing directly in your own PayPal or Stripe account, at your processor’s usual rates.
- Buy Me a Coffee bundles more: a flat 5% everywhere with free emails and shop included, plus an extra 1% on international cards and 0.5% added on payouts and subscriptions.
- Supporter ownership differs: Ko-fi starts portable by design, BMC promises export and no platform emails, and Patreon centers billing on itself.
- On a $100 tip month: rough keep is about $94 on Ko-fi, $89 on BMC, and $84 on a new Patreon account.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I own my supporter list?
Buy Me a Coffee is the most explicit, promising you can export supporters any time and that BMC won’t email them. Ko-fi routes payments straight to your PayPal or Stripe, so billing relationships live in your own accounts from the start. Patreon offers exports but keeps the billing relationship on its platform, which is why leaving is the heaviest lift there.
What does a $5 supporter tip actually leave me?
Processing fees exist everywhere, so nobody nets the full $5. On Ko-fi’s free tier, a one-off tip owes you 0% platform cut and only your processor’s usual cut (roughly $0.45 on a $5 card payment), leaving about $4.55. On Buy Me a Coffee, subtract 5% plus 2.9% and $0.30, leaving around $4.24. Patreon is really built for memberships over raw tips, so I won’t pretend it’s a tips platform.
Can I switch platforms later?
Exports exist everywhere, and BMC says your supporter emails are yours whenever you want them. The painful part is recurring billing, since payment authorizations don’t transfer cleanly between platforms. Ko-fi eases this structurally because Stripe or PayPal is already yours. If switching is likely, start where payments already land in your accounts and keep your list exported somewhere safe.
The Bottom Line
Tip-heavy audience, Ko-fi. Membership business, Patreon, paid for happily in exchange for the tooling. Somewhere between, or just starting, Buy Me a Coffee’s one-fee bundle is the easiest low-drama choice. All three beat a PayPal button from 2009, and the right fee structure is the one your audience behavior actually matches.
And if the plan this year is turning a side project into actual income rather than collecting occasional tips, the AI Blueprint walks through building an AI-assisted business from the ground up, which pairs well with this site’s running series on making one-person operations pay.
