Buy Me a Coffee vs Ko-fi vs Patreon in 2026: Fees Compared

Patreon vs Buy Me a Coffee is one of the most common questions creators ask when deciding how to accept support from their audience, and Ko-fi is almost always the third platform in the running. All three are among the most popular monetization platforms, and they are similar in spirit but differ on fees, features, and who they are best suited for.

If you are trying to choose between them, the comparison comes down to whether you want one-off tips or recurring memberships, and how much you care about the platform fee percentage. If you also want to sell live video sessions, that is a different question with a different answer, since none of the three platforms hosts live calls.

Here is the full breakdown.

Patreon vs Buy Me a Coffee: The Short Answer

If you are only weighing these two, the split is clean. Patreon is a membership platform: supporters subscribe monthly to tiers, you publish exclusive content for each tier, and Patreon takes 5 to 12% depending on your plan. Buy Me a Coffee is a support platform: fans tip you once (or start a simple membership), setup takes minutes, and the fee is a flat 5% on everything.

Choose Patreon when your audience is ready to commit to monthly payments for ongoing content. Choose Buy Me a Coffee when your support is mostly occasional, tip-style appreciation, or you want memberships without Patreon's setup overhead. At $1,000 per month in supporter revenue, the fee difference is real: $50 on Buy Me a Coffee versus $80 to $120 on Patreon.

Ko-fi complicates the two-way comparison because it does both jobs with a 0% platform fee, which is why the rest of this guide compares all three.

Quick Verdict

Ko-fi wins on price for one-off tips and shop sales. The free plan charges 0% on transactions (payment processing fees apply separately); our head-to-head guide answers is Ko-fi free in full, including what Ko-fi Gold actually costs. For creators who want minimal overhead, Ko-fi is the lowest-cost option.

Buy Me a Coffee offers a cleaner, more polished interface than Ko-fi and a slightly simpler membership setup. The 5% fee is higher than Ko-fi free but lower than Patreon's higher tiers. Best for creators who want a slightly more branded experience without paying for Patreon's features.

Patreon is the strongest platform for recurring memberships at scale, with the largest existing creator ecosystem and discovery features that help audiences find creators to support. Best for creators with an established following who want a managed membership program.

The shared limitation: all three are built for tips and content-based memberships. None hosts paid live video calls, workshops, or coaching sessions.

Head to Head: Pricing

Ko-fi

• Free plan: 0% platform fee on tips and shop sales. Memberships available on the free plan at 0% through Ko-fi's standard flow (payment processing fees still apply).
• Ko-fi Gold: $6 per month (or $54 per year). Removes Stripe/PayPal branding, adds custom URL, goal tracking, and additional shop features. Still 0% platform fee.

Ko-fi's fee model is the simplest and cheapest for high-volume creators. The platform earns revenue through Ko-fi Gold subscriptions, not by taking a cut of creator earnings.

Buy Me a Coffee

• Free plan: 5% platform fee on all transactions (tips, memberships, one-off purchases).
• No paid plan: Buy Me a Coffee has one model with a 5% fee. No option to pay a monthly fee to reduce the percentage.

At $100 in monthly supporter revenue, the 5% fee costs $5. At $1,000, it costs $50. The 5% is straightforward but adds up at higher volume.

Patreon

Patreon offers three plans (fees as of 2026, verify at patreon.com for current rates):

• Lite: 5% of creator revenue per month
• Pro: 8% of creator revenue per month (adds analytics, membership tiers)
• Premium: 12% of creator revenue per month (adds patron manager, concierge onboarding)

Patreon also charges payment processing fees on top of the platform percentage. The combined fee on a $10 monthly patron pledge runs roughly 11 to 17% depending on the plan and payment method.

For most creators, Patreon's Pro plan at 8% is the relevant comparison. At $500 in monthly patron revenue, that is $40 per month in fees. At $2,000, it is $160.

Head to Head: Features

Where All Three Fall Short

The shared limitation is live video. Buy Me a Coffee, Ko-fi, and Patreon were all designed for content monetization: supporters pay to access content, bonus posts, or early releases. None of them is built for selling a live coaching call, a group Q&A session, or a paid workshop.

This matters for creators who want to sell their time directly. A coaching session, a consulting call, or a live workshop is worth significantly more per hour than a content subscription. A fitness creator with 1,000 Patreon supporters at $5 per month earns $5,000 per month. The same creator running 20 live training sessions at $75 each earns $1,500 from sessions alone, with far fewer clients.

For creators in business, marketing, fitness, or any expertise-based niche, live sessions are often the highest-leverage revenue format, and none of the three platforms enables it.

For a full breakdown of alternatives for creators who want to move beyond Patreon, see Patreon alternatives for creators in 2026. For Buy Me a Coffee specifically, see Buy Me a Coffee alternatives for creators who sell video.

The Live-Video Third Option

Talkspresso covers what all three platforms are missing:

• Live 1:1 sessions: Built-in HD video for coaching calls, consulting sessions, or fan interactions.
• Group sessions and workshops: Up to 500 participants, with ticketing and payment built in.
• Digital products: Sell PDFs, recordings, and downloadable files alongside sessions.
• Session recording: Automatic. No Zoom required.
• Scheduling: Google Calendar sync, client self-booking from your profile.
• Intake forms: Collect context before any session.
• Fees: 10% on the free plan, 0% on Pro at $29.95 per month.

Talkspresso does not replace Ko-fi, Buy Me a Coffee, or Patreon for tip-style and membership revenue from content. It is not a discovery platform in the same way Patreon is. But for creators who want to sell live access to their expertise, it handles what all three platforms cannot.

Many creators run more than one platform simultaneously: Ko-fi or Buy Me a Coffee for tips, Patreon for content memberships, and Talkspresso for live sessions. The revenue streams complement each other because they serve different parts of the audience, from casual supporters who tip occasionally to committed clients who pay for direct access. For more on how creators layer these revenue streams, see how creators monetize beyond sponsorships in 2026.

For a head-to-head comparison of Ko-fi versus Buy Me a Coffee versus Talkspresso specifically for session-based revenue, the guide at Ko-fi vs Buy Me a Coffee vs Talkspresso covers the formats that convert for each platform.

Which Should You Pick

Choose Ko-fi if:

• You want to accept one-off tips with 0% platform fee
• Your audience is on social media and already familiar with Ko-fi
• You want to sell digital products or run a simple shop without monthly overhead
• You want to eventually add memberships without switching platforms

Choose Buy Me a Coffee if:

• You want a slightly more polished supporter experience than Ko-fi
• You are comfortable with a 5% fee in exchange for a cleaner interface
• You want one-off tips and memberships in one place without setting up Patreon

Choose Patreon if:

• You want recurring membership revenue and a large platform with discovery features
• Your audience is already on Patreon or likely to look there
• You are comfortable with the 5 to 12% platform fee for the creator ecosystem and features
• You want to run tiered memberships with exclusive content for different patron levels

Add Talkspresso if:

• You want to sell live coaching sessions, workshops, or group calls in addition to tips or memberships
• You want built-in video without a Zoom subscription
• You want booking, scheduling, and payment handling for live sessions in one place

For creators who are only interested in tips and content memberships, the comparison between Buy Me a Coffee, Ko-fi, and Patreon comes down to fee percentage and audience fit. For creators who also want to sell live access to their expertise, none of the three fills that gap, and a fourth platform enters the picture.

Hidden Fees to Factor In

Beyond the advertised platform percentages, there are a few costs that often get missed when comparing these platforms:

Payment processing: Ko-fi, Buy Me a Coffee, and Patreon all route payments through Stripe or PayPal, which add their own processing fees on top of the platform percentage. Stripe's standard rate is 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction. For small tip amounts, this processing fee can exceed the platform fee itself. A $5 Ko-fi tip with 0% platform fee still loses roughly $0.45 in Stripe processing.

Currency conversion: For international supporters, currency conversion fees add up if your supporters are paying in a different currency than your payout currency. Patreon and Ko-fi both apply conversion fees that are not prominently displayed in their pricing comparisons.

Payout timing and holds: All three platforms hold funds before releasing them to your bank account. Patreon releases funds based on your billing date. Ko-fi and Buy Me a Coffee release funds on their own schedules. If cash flow matters, understand the payout lag before choosing a platform.

Membership platform limits: Patreon's Lite plan lacks features like advanced analytics and membership tiers that Pro includes. Creators who start on Lite and upgrade pay 3 additional percentage points on every dollar they earn, which is meaningful at volume.

What the Fee Math Looks Like at Scale

Here is how the total fees compare across platforms at different monthly revenue levels, assuming standard payment processing on top of platform fees:

Note: Processing estimates assume 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction at typical transaction sizes. Patreon Pro at 8% is used for comparison. Talkspresso's 10% covers a different product type (live sessions, not tips or memberships). Always verify current rates on each platform's pricing page.

Ko-fi's 0% fee advantage compounds at scale. At $2,000 per month in supporter revenue, Ko-fi saves a creator $200 per month versus Patreon Pro and $100 per month versus Buy Me a Coffee, before accounting for the Ko-fi Gold subscription at $6 per month.

For a broader look at alternatives to each of these platforms, the Patreon alternatives for creators in 2026 guide covers the full set of options by use case and fee model.

Start your free Talkspresso profile and add live sessions to your creator offer today.

Related reads:

• Ko-fi vs Buy Me a Coffee vs Talkspresso
• Patreon Alternatives for Creators in 2026
• Buy Me a Coffee Alternative for Creators Who Sell Video
• How Creators Monetize Beyond Sponsorships in 2026