Patreon vs. Ko-Fi vs. Buy Me a Coffee: What Creators Actually Keep
Compare Patreon vs. Ko-fi fees and Buy Me a Coffee costs, from platform cuts to payouts and iOS billing, and learn when your own checkout pays off.
Photo: Pixabay
On this page 7 sections
- Patreon vs. Ko-Fi Fees: How Creator Platforms Stack Their Costs
- Patreon Fees: Plan Percentages, Processing and the iOS App Change
- Ko-Fi and Ko-Fi Gold: Tips, Memberships and Shop Fees
- Buy Me a Coffee Fees: Payouts and Digital Product Sales
- What You Keep on $1,000 a Month at Each Platform
- When to Move Members to Your Own Subscription Checkout
- Choosing the Best Platform for Creator Memberships
Key takeaways
- Creator platform costs come in layers: platform percentage, card processing, payout or transfer fees, currency conversion, and app store billing.
- Fixed per-transaction fees hit small pledges hardest, so pledge size and billing frequency can matter as much as the headline platform rate.
- Ko-fi Gold and similar paid plans are a break-even calculation: the monthly cost divided by the fee rate it removes.
- Your own recurring checkout tends to pay off when supporters already find you elsewhere, pledges are larger, and you're ready to handle tax, renewals, and disputes.
Comparing Patreon vs. Ko-fi fees, plus Buy Me a Coffee, is harder than reading three pricing pages. Each platform layers its own cut on top of card processing, payout charges, currency conversion and, for some members, app store billing. This guide shows how those layers stack, what to look up on each platform, and how to estimate what you keep on $1,000 a month. It also covers when moving supporters to your own subscription checkout is worth it.
A note on numbers: Creator platforms change pricing often, and terms can differ by signup date, plan, country and currency. We don't quote specific rates here. Check each platform's current pricing and help center before you decide, and treat every dollar figure below as illustrative.
Patreon vs. Ko-Fi Fees: How Creator Platforms Stack Their Costs
Every creator platform takes money in roughly the same five places. The difference is how big each layer is and who controls it.
| Fee Layer | What It Is | Who Usually Sets It |
|---|---|---|
| Platform fee | A percentage of what supporters pay, or a flat subscription | The platform |
| Payment processing | A percentage plus, often, a fixed amount per transaction | The platform or the processor you connect |
| Payout or transfer fee | The cost of moving money to your bank | The platform, PayPal, Stripe or another payout provider |
| Currency conversion | A spread when supporters pay in one currency and you're paid in another | The platform or payout provider |
| App store billing | A commission when a member joins through an iOS app's in-app purchase | Apple, passed through by the platform |
Two things catch creators off guard.
Fixed per-transaction fees. A processing fee with a fixed component costs the same in dollars on a small tip as on a large membership. On small pledges, that fixed piece can become a meaningful share of each payment.
Fees you don't see on the platform dashboard. If the platform connects to your own PayPal or Stripe account, those providers' fees and transfer terms apply separately. You'll only see the full picture by reading both statements.
Patreon Fees: Plan Percentages, Processing and the iOS App Change
Patreon is built around recurring memberships, with tiers, posts, and member management in one place. Its costs are the most layered of the three.
Plan Percentage
Patreon has used different plan structures over time. Some creators joined under tiered plans with different percentages and features. Newer creators may see a single standard plan. Your rate can depend on when you launched. If you're relying on a "Patreon fees 2025" summary you found online, check your own account settings and Patreon's current creator pricing, because older breakdowns may not match your terms.
Payment Processing
Patreon charges a separate processing fee on top of the platform percentage. Historically, that fee has varied with pledge size, with small pledges treated differently from larger ones, and it can also vary with currency. That's why a creator with many low-dollar members can pay a higher effective rate than one with fewer, larger pledges, even on the same plan.
Patreon Payout Fees and Currency
Patreon payout fees depend on how you withdraw. Options have included methods such as PayPal, Payoneer and direct deposit, and each can carry a different fee or currency conversion cost. If your supporters pay in several currencies and you're paid in U.S. dollars, review how and where conversion happens.
The iOS App Change
Apple's App Store rules on digital purchases have pushed Patreon to change how memberships started inside its iOS app are billed. When a supporter joins through Apple's in-app purchase, Apple's commission applies to that payment, in addition to or in place of standard processing. The rules for linking app users to outside payment have also been shifting in the U.S.
Things to confirm in Patreon's help center:
- Which of your members are billed through iOS in-app purchase versus web checkout
- Whether you can set different pricing for app-billed memberships
- How app-billed memberships appear in your earnings reports
For background on how the App Store affects digital sales generally, see our guide to linking iOS users to web checkout to cut App Store fees.
Ko-Fi and Ko-Fi Gold: Tips, Memberships and Shop Fees
Ko-fi started as a tip jar and has grown into memberships, a shop for digital and physical products, and commissions. Its structure is different from Patreon's in one important way: Ko-fi connects to your own PayPal or Stripe account. Supporter payments generally flow to that account, and PayPal or Stripe processing and transfer terms apply on top of anything Ko-fi charges.
How Ko-Fi Charges
Ko-fi has positioned one-off tips as its lowest-cost feature. Memberships, shop sales and commissions on a free account have typically carried a platform fee. Confirm the current rates for each product type, because they aren't necessarily the same.
Is Ko-Fi Gold Worth It?
Ko-fi Gold is a paid subscription that Ko-fi positions as removing or reducing platform fees on certain sales, along with extra features. Whether Ko-fi Gold is worth it is simple arithmetic:
- Find the current Gold price (monthly or annual).
- Find the platform fee rate Gold removes on your sales type.
- Divide the Gold price by that rate. The result is your monthly break-even in fee-eligible sales.
Illustrative example: If a plan cost $10 a month and removed a 5% fee, it would break even at $200 a month in fee-eligible sales. Above that, the plan saves money. Below it, the free plan is cheaper. Gold doesn't change PayPal or Stripe processing fees, which you pay either way.
Buy Me a Coffee Fees: Payouts and Digital Product Sales
Buy Me a Coffee offers one-time support, memberships and a shop for digital products and extras. Buy Me a Coffee fees have generally been structured as a flat platform percentage across these features, with payment processing charged separately by the underlying processor, commonly Stripe.
What to check:
- Platform percentage on one-time support, memberships and shop sales, and whether it differs by product
- Processing fees, including any fixed per-transaction amount, which matters for small "coffee" payments
- Payout method and timing, including how funds reach your bank and any transfer or currency charges
- Digital product sales, including whether sales tax or VAT is collected on your behalf for supporters in certain locations
If you sell downloads, presets or templates alongside memberships, compare the fees on product sales separately from support payments.
What You Keep on $1,000 a Month at Each Platform
Because we aren't quoting current platform rates, the most useful tool is a worksheet you fill in from each platform's pricing page. Then the illustrative scenarios below show why pledge size, billing frequency and app billing change the result.
Fill-In Worksheet
| Line | Patreon | Ko-fi | Buy Me a Coffee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross supporter payments | $1,000 | $1,000 | $1,000 |
| Platform fee (your plan, your product mix) | |||
| Processing (percentage x gross, plus fixed fee x number of payments) | |||
| Paid plan cost, if any (such as Ko-fi Gold) | |||
| App store commission on iOS-billed members | |||
| Payout or transfer fees | |||
| Currency conversion | |||
| Estimated amount you keep |
Illustrative Scenarios
The following uses hypothetical rates that are not any platform's published pricing: a 6% platform fee, processing of 3% plus $0.30 per payment, and a $1 monthly payout fee.
| Scenario (Illustrative) | Platform Fee | Processing | App Store | Payout | You Keep |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 200 members at $5 | $60.00 | $90.00 | $0 | $1 | $849.00 |
| 40 members at $25 | $60.00 | $42.00 | $0 | $1 | $897.00 |
| 200 members at $5, 50 billed via iOS at an assumed 30% store share | $60.00 | $67.50 | $75.00 | $1 | $796.50 |
What the example shows:
- Same gross, different results. The fixed per-payment fee costs $60 across 200 small payments but $12 across 40 larger ones.
- App billing can outweigh plan differences. A share of members joining through in-app purchase can cost more than switching plans saves.
- Your mix matters more than the headline rate. Run the worksheet with your actual member counts and pledge sizes.
When to Move Members to Your Own Subscription Checkout
Running memberships through your own merchant account and recurring billing tool removes the platform percentage. It doesn't remove processing, and it adds costs and responsibilities the platform used to handle.
Using the same hypothetical 3% plus $0.30 processing and an assumed $50 a month for membership software and a gateway:
| Scenario (Illustrative) | Processing | Tools | You Keep |
|---|---|---|---|
| 200 members at $5 | $90.00 | $50 | $860.00 |
| 40 members at $25 | $42.00 | $50 | $908.00 |
At small pledge sizes, the gain over a platform can be modest. It grows with larger pledges, higher volume, and annual billing, where the fixed per-transaction fee is paid once a year instead of twelve times.
Signs It May Pay Off
- Most supporters find you through your own email list, site, podcast or video channel, not platform discovery
- Pledges are mid-sized or larger, or you can offer annual plans
- You want to bundle memberships with courses, downloads or community access
- The platform fee in dollars clearly exceeds your tool costs plus the time you'll spend on billing and support
Signs to Stay Put (For Now)
- New supporters mostly discover you on the platform
- Your pledges are very small and you'd mostly trade one fee for another
- You don't have time to handle failed payments, refunds and disputes
- You haven't sorted out tax obligations on digital sales
What You Take On
- Sales tax and VAT. Platforms may collect certain taxes for you. On your own checkout, that can become your job, and digital goods are taxed differently by state. Our overview of sales tax on software and digital subscriptions by state is a starting point. Confirm your obligations with a tax professional.
- Seller-of-record responsibility. Understand the difference covered in our guide to merchant of record vs. payment processor before you switch.
- Renewal rules. Many states have automatic renewal laws covering disclosure, consent and cancellation. See our compliance map of automatic renewal laws by state, and confirm details with a qualified attorney.
- Failed payments and churn. Card updates, retries and dunning emails become yours to manage. Our subscription payment processing guide to reducing failed payments covers the basics.
- Disputes. Use a billing descriptor supporters will recognize, send renewal reminders, and make cancellation easy to reduce "I don't remember this charge" chargebacks.
- Underwriting. Digital goods and memberships get reviewed like any other business. Describe what you sell accurately. If you've been flagged before, read why digital products merchant accounts get flagged and what to fix.
How to Migrate Without Losing Supporters
- Start with new members or a new tier on your own checkout, rather than forcing everyone to move.
- Expect supporters to re-enter their card details. Payment credentials generally don't transfer between platforms, so every move is a new signup with fresh consent.
- Give a clear reason to switch, such as an annual option, bundled content or direct access, and avoid pressuring anyone.
- Run both for a while and compare actual net revenue, churn and support time before you close anything down.
Choosing the Best Platform for Creator Memberships
There's no single best platform for creator memberships. The cheapest option depends on your pledge sizes, product mix, how many members join through iOS, and where your audience finds you. Fill in the worksheet with current rates, run it against your real member data, and recheck it whenever a platform updates its pricing.
If your own checkout is starting to look worthwhile, MannyPay provides online payment processing for e-commerce and digital sellers and connects with payment gateways such as Authorize.net and NMI, plus integrations like WooCommerce for self-hosted membership sites. You can request a free processing quote, and a MannyPay specialist will respond within one business day to review your setup. Pricing depends on your business and underwriting.
This article is for general educational purposes and is not legal, tax or financial advice. Card network rules and state laws change; confirm current requirements for your business.
