Buy Me a Coffee review
A single creator page for one-off tips, memberships, and a digital or physical shop, with no monthly fee and a flat 5% cut of every transaction.
By Noahlast updated pricing verified
Buy Me a Coffee screenshots & video
Buy Me a Coffee in 20 seconds
Best for: solo creators who want tips, memberships, and a small shop on one page with no monthly fee
Pricing: No monthly fee; Buy Me a Coffee keeps 5% of each transaction and Stripe adds 2.9% + $0.30 per charge.
- Buy Me a Coffee charges no monthly fee and takes a flat 5% platform fee per transaction, leaving creators 95% of the payment.
- Stripe adds 2.9% + $0.30 per successful charge, 0.5% for payout processing, +1% on international transactions, and +0.5% on subscription payments.
- Creators can request a payout through Stripe once their balance reaches $10.
- More than 1 million creators use Buy Me a Coffee, which is backed by Y Combinator and Stripe.
- Buy Me a Coffee supports one-time tips, unlimited membership tiers, and a shop with unlimited digital or physical products.
- Buy Me a Coffee holds a 3.9/5 TrustScore across 1,627 Trustpilot reviews.
Limitations: The 5% platform fee cannot be bought down with a paid plan.; Payouts are Stripe-only, excluding creators in countries Stripe does not serve.; Public review scores are middling: 3.9/5 on Trustpilot and 3.5/5 on Product Hunt.
Top alternatives: Ko-fi, Patreon, Gumroad, Substack, Memberful — full list
What is Buy Me a Coffee?
Buy Me a Coffee is a hosted page where an audience can support a creator in three ways at once: a one-off tip (the "coffee", $5 by default), a recurring membership tier, and a purchase from a shop of digital or physical products. The business model is the defining detail. Buy Me a Coffee sells no subscription to creators — publishing, posts, galleries, direct messages, and email to supporters are all included for free — and instead takes a flat 5% platform fee on every transaction, leaving the creator 95%. Payment processing is separate and handled by Stripe: 2.9% + $0.30 per successful charge, 0.5% for payout processing, plus 1% for international transactions and 0.5% for subscription payments; creators can optionally pass the card fee to supporters. Payouts are released through Stripe once a balance reaches $10, after a moderation review of the account. Creators can run unlimited membership tiers with monthly or yearly billing (one lifetime tier per account), list unlimited shop products with instant download links, publish supporter-only or member-only posts, and wire up live stream alerts for OBS, Streamlabs, or StreamElements.
Buy Me a Coffee is a creator monetization platform that puts one-time tips, unlimited membership tiers, and a digital or physical goods shop on one public page. It charges no monthly fee and no listing fees: the company takes a flat 5% platform fee per transaction so creators keep 95%, on top of Stripe's standard 2.9% + $0.30 per successful charge, 0.5% for payout processing, an extra 1% on transactions outside the US, and an extra 0.5% on subscription payments. More than 1 million creators use it, payouts run through Stripe once a balance reaches $10, and supporters can pay by card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, or Cash App in one tap without creating an account. Creator apps ship for iPhone and Android alongside the web dashboard, and Buy Me a Coffee holds a 3.9/5 TrustScore across 1,627 Trustpilot reviews.
Standout feature: One page carries one-time tips, unlimited membership tiers, and an unlimited-product shop, and supporters can pay in one tap with a card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, or Cash App without creating an account.
Biggest weakness: The 5% platform fee is permanent — there is no paid plan that buys it down, so a creator earning $2,000 a month hands over $100 before Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30 per charge, 0.5% payout fee, and the extra 1% on international payments, while Ko-fi sells a $12/month plan that removes its equivalent fee entirely. Payouts also run only through Stripe, so creators in countries Stripe does not serve cannot get paid at all.
Pros
- No monthly fee and no listing fees: publishing, posts, galleries, supporter emails, memberships, and the shop are all on the single free plan.
- One page combines one-time tips, unlimited membership tiers, and an unlimited-product shop, so a creator does not stitch together separate tools.
- Supporters check out in one tap with a card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, or Cash App and never have to create an account.
- Creator apps for iPhone and Android cover earnings, payouts, posts, and supporter messages from a phone.
- Creators own their supporter list — Buy Me a Coffee states it does not email supporters and the list can be exported at any time.
Cons
- The flat 5% platform fee applies to every transaction with no paid plan that removes it.
- Stripe fees stack on top: 2.9% + $0.30 per charge, 0.5% for payouts, +1% international, +0.5% on subscription payments.
- Payouts are Stripe-only and start at a $10 balance after account moderation, which shuts out creators in countries Stripe does not support.
- Public review scores are middling: a 3.9/5 TrustScore across 1,627 Trustpilot reviews and 3.5/5 from 26 Product Hunt reviews.
Buy Me a Coffee pricing
Free · verified from the vendor's pricing page
| Plan | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | The only plan: no monthly fee and no listing fees, with all publishing, membership, shop, and email features included. Buy Me a Coffee takes a flat 5% platform fee per transaction (creators keep 95%); Stripe adds 2.9% + $0.30 per successful charge, 0.5% for payout processing, +1% on non-US transactions, and +0.5% on subscription payments. |
What reviewers say
Scores belong to their platforms; we display them with attribution and never fold them into our own ratings.