Ko-fi
Worth it
Confidence: High
Buy if you're a solo creator taking tips, commissions, or small memberships and want near-zero fees.
Comparison
Ko-fi vs Buy Me a Coffee
Ko-fi lands on Worth it, and Buy Me a Coffee lands on Depends.
Buy Me a Coffee
Depends
Confidence: Medium
Buy it if you're a solo creator who wants a fast, free-to-start page for tips and memberships.
| Compare | Ko-fi | Buy Me a Coffee |
|---|---|---|
| Verdict | Worth it | Depends |
| Best for | Artists taking commissions | Individual creators |
| Who it's not for | Serious online stores needing inventory and shipping | Businesses selling actual products or services |
| Privacy | Runs a HackerOne bug bounty program; a 2023 XSS hit the unofficial Ko-fi WordPress button plugin; no confirmed breach found in reviewed sources.⁸ | No platform-wide breach found in reviewed sources; its WordPress plugin had three CVEs in 2023. |
| Support quality | 4.6/5 Trustpilot, but payout complaints exist | Users report email and login failures |
| Public sentiment | Creators broadly praise Ko-fi's low fees and simplicity, with recurring complaints about payout hiccups and support.³ | Praise for fast, simple setup is balanced by recurring complaints about support, fees, and account reliability.10 |
| Biggest gotcha | The 5% fee applies to shop and membership income, not just tips . margins shrink on product sales.¹ | 5% platform fee applies to every contribution . it compounds as your income grows12 |
Pick Ko-fi when
- Artists taking commissions
- Streamers and YouTubers collecting tips
- Writers running small memberships
- Hobbyists monetizing a side project
When Ko-fi is not a fit
- Serious online stores needing inventory and shipping
- Businesses needing invoices or B2B billing
- Large creators wanting Patreon-style discovery tools
- Anyone needing enterprise support or uptime SLAs
Pick Buy Me a Coffee when
- Individual creators
- Podcasters and writers
- Artists and indie devs
- One-off tip monetization
When Buy Me a Coffee is not a fit
- Businesses selling actual products or services
- Fee-sensitive creators . 5% beats Patreon but loses to Ko-fi's 0%
- Anyone needing deep membership management or content hosting
- Teams wanting guaranteed support response
Sources
- Ko-fi Pricing | Just 0-5% feesko-fi.comofficial
- Ko-fi featuresko-fi.comofficial
- Ko-fi Trustpilot reviewstrustpilot.comreview
- Ko-fi Review 2026: Is It Worth It for Creators?builtbyfoundry.ioreview
- Patreon vs Ko-Fi vs Buy Me a Coffeealitu.comreview
- Reddit: Is Ko-Fi underrated?reddit.comreview
- HackerOne: Ko-fi bug bountyhackerone.comsecurity
- CVE-2023-2254: Ko-fi Button XSSfused.comsecurity
- Ko-fi Termsmore.ko-fi.comofficial
- Buy Me a Coffee Reviews . Trustpilottrustpilot.comreview
- Buy Me a Coffee . Google Playplay.google.comreview
- Buy Me a Coffee Review 2026: Is the 5% Fee Worth It?builtbyfoundry.ioreview
official
review
review
- CVE-2023-2078 . Missing Authorization (NVD)nvd.nist.govsecurity