Looking for an alternative to Buy Me a Coffee? You have come to the right place. If you’re an artist, YouTuber, podcaster, writer or someone engaging with a dedicated audience, you probably know Buy Me a Coffee. Although the service is very popular, not every creator will find themselves perfect for Buy Me a Coffee. So just make sure to research several alternatives before deciding to rely on one of them. In this post we have compiled for you 8 good alternatives and what makes each special. This will be all the info you need to pick the best Buy Me a Coffee alternative. So let’s get started!
Table of contents:
- Why Consider Buy Me a Coffee Alternative?
- Key Features to Consider:
- 8 Best Buy Me a Coffee Alternatives in 2025
- Conclusion
Why Consider Buy Me a Coffee Alternative?
- Fees: If you’re getting paid through Buy Me a Coffee they take a flat 5% of every payment. When choosing a platform to receive donations, you need to consider these fees along with the benefits and features of each service.
- Customer Support: Buy Me a Coffee’s customer support has mixed reviews. A few customers have been banned from the platform without warning.
- Payment Limitations: Buy Me a Coffee doesn’t accept PayPal. If you or your supporters use PayPal, this could be a deal breaker.
- Content Limitations: Buy Me a Coffee has content limitations. The community has rules about what type of content can be hosted on the site. They don’t support adult content creators or other types of content hosting.
Key Features to Consider:
There are so many features to consider when choosing the platform you’ll be collecting donations through for your creative work. Let’s go over these key features and why they matter:
1.User-friendly
A good donation platform should be easy to use for you and your supporters. Complex systems are a hassle, so keep it simple when choosing a donation platform. A platform that’s easy to use will encourage people to donate.
2.Customization
Every creator is unique and therefore should have their donation platform personalized to their taste. You should be able to add your personal logo on the donation platform and add your brand colours.
3. Flexibility in Payment Options
No one pays the same. Make sure the platform you choose accepts different ways of paying, like credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal and if your crowd loves it, consider cryptocurrency as well.
4.Recurring donations
Recurring donations can basically become a steady stream of income. Recurring payments can automate the payment collection, so people can give to you every month.
5.Simple Charges
You’d want to know how much you’ll get after the platform fees. Some platforms take a percentage cut off every donation while some take a fixed fee-per-transaction, so make sure the mechanism by which they operate is considered when making a final decision according to your needs.
6. Analytics and Report
The platform should give data and statistics on who’s donating.
7. Integrations
If you have email marketing or social media tools that you’re using to connect with your audience, make sure the donation platform integrates well with these. It will save you so much time and help you connect better with your supporters.
8.International gifts
Make sure that the platform supports international donations too. It’s just that simple that every person can donate without hassle regardless of their country.
9. Security
You really need to protect your financial and personal info. The platform you choose must have good security measures like encryption that will protect your data as well as that of your supporters.
10. Good customer service
Helpful support for customers can be really a big help when you face some problems with the donation platform. Fast, friendly support makes your life much easier.
11. Audience Engagement and Community Building
Audience engagement and community building are part of any successful online platform. When choosing a Buy Me a Coffee alternative, it’s important to consider the features that allow creators to interact with their audience. Here are some to look for:
- Comment Sections: Allow creators to interact with their audience through comments and discussions. This builds a sense of community and encourages more engagement.
- Social Sharing Options: Allow creators to share their content on social media and encourage their audience to do the same. This can increase the reach and visibility of the creator’s work.
- Membership Level Rewards: Offer exclusive content or perks to loyal followers who support creators through recurring donations or subscriptions. This will incentivize more people to become recurring supporters and make them feel special.
- Direct Messaging: Allow creators to message their audience, build a sense of community and connection. This personal touch makes supporters feel more involved and appreciated.
Now that you have all the key features to consider when looking for a buy me a coffee alternative, lets look at the top 8 picks that stand out as the best buy me a coffee alternatives.
8 Best Buy Me a Coffee Alternatives in 2025:
1. CheckYa:
CheckYa is a platform similar to buy me a coffee that allows you to take one-time and recurring donations but has a few advantages over Buy me a coffee. Here are the features of CheckYa.
Key features:
- One-off and monthly donations: With CheckYa, you can take one off donations and also on a recurring basis.
- Free to sign up: You don’t have to pay to sign up with CheckYa. So all features in CheckYa can be tried for free without any upfront costs.
- Branded Profile Creation: You can create a branded profile that allows you to showcase your work, customize colours and tell your story while increasing the branding with a professional and editable profile.
- Offer Free Discovery/Paid Calls: Grow your business by adding free discovery calls from inside your CheckYa profile. You can also monetize your expertise by offering 1:1 paid calls.
- Sell Digital Goods & Services: CheckYa helps you generate passive income by selling digital goods and services.
- Send Invoices: Send invoices & provide them with various payment options such as Credit card, ACH, Google Pay, Apple Pay, PayPal and get paid to your account faster.
- Get Paid: Create a business payment page using CheckYa that allows you to receive payment including donations.
- Flexible Payment Options: Allow your supporters to make payments through multiple payment methods, such as Credit Cards, ACH, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal and more.
- Simple Payment Form: Create a payment form to accept micropayments and donations directly on your website.
Fee Structure:
- If you’re on the starter plan (the free to use plan), you will be charged 2% (+ payment processor) fee on all donation types made to you, single and recurring. Pro plan users don’t pay any Platform fees! Explore more about CheckYa’s pricing here
2. Ko-Fi
Ko-fi is similar to Buy Me a Coffee which makes it easy for creators to interact with their audience and get support. Ko-fi’s standout features include:
Ko-fi’s Key features:
- Content Sharing: Members can create content for their fans which can be upcoming news, behind the scenes information and other content only for members.
- Online Tip Jar: Set up a virtual tip jar for your fans to leave one off donations to appreciate your work.
- Fundraising Goals: Create one off fundraising campaigns for your specific financial needs, whether for a project, research or charity.
- Monthly Memberships: Allow your fans and audience to support you on a recurring basis through monthly memberships and provide them with exclusive content and benefits only for subscribers.
- Commission: You can get direct commissions via Ko-Fi for the artwork and it’s a win-win for both you and the client.
- Shop Integration: A shop integrated feature in Ko-Fi allows you to sell physical and digital products, merchandise, e-books and art.
Fee Structure
One of the main reasons why people choose Ko-Fi as their platform of choice is due to its fee structure:
- 0% Kofi platform fees for one off donations: Ko-Fi doesn’t charge any platform fees for one time donations. So whenever someone tips you, the entire amount is credited to your account and that’s a big plus for creators.
- 5% Transaction Fee: Kofi does charge a 5% fee on all recurring contributions, commissions and item sales.
3. Patreon
With over 8 million active users worldwide, Patreon is one of the top platforms that allows artists and other content creators to monetize their work. Unlike Buy Me a Coffee and Ko-Fi, Patreon is more geared towards subscriptions and growing a large following of fans who want to support the creators on a regular basis. Patreon’s approach is for creators who want to receive a fixed monthly payout for their work rather than occasional tips. Here’s what makes Patreon appealing:
Key features:
- Membership Tiers: Creators can have multiple membership tiers where each tier has its own defined perks for its members including rewards. This allows the creator to have different levels of support which can be in the form of content only available to members or other benefits to the most loyal members of the membership.
- Free Trials and Freemium Memberships: Patreon allows you to offer free trials to would-be supporters so they can try out your content before they subscribe. You can also offer freemium memberships where you give the supporter a selection of the content and reserve premium offerings for paid patrons which can give potential supporters the nudge to subscribe.
- Easy Integrations: Patreon allows integration with a bunch of third-party apps including but not limited to Discord, Vimeo, and MailChimp.
- Digital Product Sales: In addition to membership subscriptions, Patreon allows creatives to sell digital products directly on the platform which can be ebooks, unique merchandise or digital paintings.
- Mobile Accessibility: Patreon has a dedicated mobile app for Android and iOS so you can access it as a creator or supporter and manage your content or community on the go.
Fee Structure
Patreon charges 8% fee for Pro accounts and 12% fee for Premium accounts. This fee is taken from the support you receive so do keep this in mind when pricing your membership tiers.
4. Gumroad
Gumroad is another platform, mostly for selling digital products. If you’re looking for an online tip jar like Buy Me a Coffee, it’s probably not your first choice but it does have features for creators to monetize their content. Its main strength is in selling digital products, online courses and memberships. It’s mostly for writers, artists and educators to make their first dollar online. Although it’s mostly for selling, Gumroad does allow a lot of room for monetization..
Key Features:
- Sell Digital Goods: Gumroad is designed for easy sales of digital downloads including ebooks, music files, software and more. Users can create their product offers by describing their products, its prices and even add multimedia.
- Offer Memberships and Subscriptions: One of the cool features of Gumroad is to set up members-only subscriptions. Creators can have multiple tiers of membership. This is for recurring revenue and to encourage a loyal community of supporters. Gumroad supports various subscription models for recurring billing and membership services to cater to different customer needs.
- Integrated Sales Analytics: Gumroad has detailed analytics and reporting. Creators can see sales data, customer behavior and revenue trends.
- Embed Your Storefront in Your Website: You can also embed the Gumroad storefront in your existing website.
Fee Structure:
Gumroad charges a flat 10% fee per sale, plus additional fees for in-app sales, credit card processing, and for using the discover feature: Here’s the breakdown of its fee:
- Transaction fee: 10% of the sale
- In-app sales: 40% of the sale
- Discover fee: A minimum of 30% of the sale, but can be higher
- Credit card processing fee: 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction
That’s a bit higher than some of the other platforms.
5. Coindrop:
Coindrop is perfect for individuals who want a simple way for their followers to give them one-time tips or donations. Note that Coindrop doesn’t have support for recurring donations or memberships. One good thing about Coindrop is that it’s connected to many payment methods. So whether your followers like PayPal, Venmo, Cash App, or Apple Pay, they can easily send you support. And if you want to accept cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Coindrop allows you to accept that too.
Key Features:
- Zero-Fee for One-Time Donations: Users can receive one-time donations with no transaction fees so they get to keep all the support.
- Manage Multiple Donation Pages: Users can now manage multiple donation pages with one account, all their donation activities in one place.
- Customize a donation page and bio: You can customize the URL for every single donation page to be in line with your brand.
- Embeddable Button and QR Code: Coindrop allows an embeddable button on a user’s website to enable direct contributions from supporters. It also has a QR code for the donation page which can be saved digitally or printed out for offline promotions.
- Multiple payment methods with low transaction fees: The platform allows multiple payment methods including cash apps like PayPal, Venmo, CashApp, Zelle and even cryptocurrency Bitcoin Cash with very low transaction fees so donation is convenient and cost-effective for the creator.
Fee Structure:
Coindrop doesn’t charge fees on transactions made on their platform. You only pay the transaction fee of the payment processor. Coindrop generates revenue from affiliate links, ads etc.
6. Tipeee
Tipeee is a crowdfunding platform for creators, YouTubers and artists to receive support or donations from their fans. Initially it was designed for people who do live video streaming on Twitch and YouTube. Tipeee only allows access to users from European countries. If you’re outside of Europe then you can’t use it.
Key Features:
- Donation Options: One Time/Recurring Donation: Fans can just make a one-time contribution to support creators or offer recurring donations.
- Creator-Fan Engagement: Creators can reciprocate the support by offering content exclusive to the supporters or access to private chat for their donating fans.
- Goal Setting: Creators can set specific financial goals, like raising $500 for a new project. Fans can track the progress towards these goals so they feel involved and motivated to help creators achieve them.
Fee Structure:
Tipeee deducts 8% on the donation amount.
7. Fourthwall
Fourthwall is a platform that offers multiple revenue streams including selling digital products and merchandise, memberships with exclusive content and social media integration.
Fourthwall features include:
- Customizable Ecommerce Online Store: Creators can set up their own online store to sell digital products and merchandise. This feature allows for a high level of customization so creators can match their store with their brand.
- Sell Digital Products and Merchandise: Whether it’s ebooks, art prints or branded merchandise, Fourthwall makes it easy for creators to monetize their work.
- Memberships with Exclusive Content: Creators can offer memberships that give access to exclusive content. This can be behind the scenes videos, early access to new releases or special live streams.
- Social Media Integration: Fourthwall integrates with social media platforms so creators can promote their products and engage with their audience.
Fee Structure:
Fourthwall charges a 3% flat fee on digital product sales plus the payment processing fee and for membership, it charges a 5% flat fee (plus payment processing fees)
8. Liberapay:
Liberapay is a recurring donations platform. Its features include:
Key features:
- Schedule Regular Donations: Liberapay allows supporters to schedule donations for projects and creators. This ensures a steady income for creators so they can focus on their work without financial stress.
- Open-Source Donation-Based Platform: As an open-source platform, Liberapay is transparent and community driven. This can be very appealing to creators who value openness and collaboration.
- Recurrent Donation Model: The platform is built around a recurrent donation model, so supporters commit to regular donations. This helps to build a stable financial foundation for creators.
Fee Structure:
Liberpay doesn’t take any fees from creators. Only the Payment processing fees that vary between 3.1% to 5% apply.
Conclusion:
Now that you have the top 8 alternatives to buy me a coffee, weigh the pros and cons and choose what’s best for you. Each has its advantages and based on your needs, you can choose the one that best fits your needs.
