Ko-fi Review
Tips, memberships, and a shop for creators, with 0% fees on tips
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Looking for a Ko-fi alternative? See our ranked comparison.→What is Ko-fi?
Ko-fi is a page where fans can tip you, buy from a shop, book commissions, or join a paid membership, all in one link. It started as a simple "buy me a coffee" tip button and has grown into a small creator storefront: digital and physical product sales, commission requests, Discord role integration, and a blog/post feed for updates.
The pitch is that tips stay free forever. Everything else (memberships, shop, commissions) costs a 5% cut unless you pay $12/month for Gold, which drops that cut to 0% and adds page customization and priority support. New signups are also opted into a separate "Contributor" program that adds 5% to tips specifically, which you have to find and turn off if you don't want it.
Ko-fi screenshots
Who it's for
- ✓ Creators who mainly collect one-off tips and want to keep 100% of them with no subscription
- ✓ Creators selling enough in shop, commission, or membership revenue that Gold's flat fee beats the 5% cut
Who should look elsewhere
- ✗ Creators who want membership tiers to be the main product, since Patreon and Memberful have deeper tools built specifically for recurring fan subscriptions
- ✗ Anyone who wants one plan with one clear fee, since the free-plan default Contributor toggle adds a 5% charge to tips that's easy to miss at signup
Pros
- + Tips are 0% fee on both plans, unlike most tipping and membership tools
- + One page covers tips, shop, commissions, and memberships instead of juggling separate tools
- + Gold's flat $12/month pays for itself once you're doing meaningful shop or membership volume
- + No long-term contract, Gold cancels like any monthly subscription
Cons
- – New accounts are auto-enrolled in the Contributor program, which quietly adds a 5% fee to tips unless you find the toggle and switch it off
- – 5% fee on memberships, shop sales, and commissions on the free plan, on top of card processing
- – Trustpilot reviews describe abrupt, unexplained account suspensions and slow support responses, including one case where a support ticket auto-closed after 15 days unresolved
- – Membership and community tools are lighter than dedicated platforms like Patreon or Memberful
Ko-fi pricing
What you pay for
Ko-fi's core plan is free, and tips never carry a Ko-fi fee. Memberships, shop sales, and commissions cost 5% on the free plan. Ko-fi Gold is a flat $12/month subscription that drops that 5% to 0%, so you only pay card processing (about 2.9% + $0.30 per charge, on both plans). New accounts are also auto-enrolled in a separate opt-in "Contributor" program that adds 5% to tips unless you turn it off in payment settings.
No public entry price to compare, so budget depends on a sales quote.
| Plan | Price | Highlights |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | 0% fee on tips · 5% fee on memberships, shop sales, and commissions · Payment processing fees still apply |
| Gold | $12/mo | 0% fee on everything, including memberships, shop sales, and commissions · Custom theme colors and page branding · Priority support · Only payment processing fees apply |
Gold is billed monthly at $12. Break-even for Gold is around $240/month in shop or membership revenue, since that's where the saved 5% equals the subscription cost. Prices and fee structure confirmed on ko-fi.com/pricing and help.ko-fi.com, checked 2026-07-07.
Pricing verified July 7, 2026 · source
How Ko-fi's pricing compares
Ko-fi next to its closest alternatives on entry price, billing, and whether pricing is public.
| Tool | Starting price | Billing | Free option | Pricing disclosed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ko-fi | Free tier + custom | tiered | Yes | Partly public |
| Patreon | Free tier + custom | usage-based | Yes | Not disclosed |
| Memberful | $49/mo | flat + transaction fee | Trial (Free until you go live and start accepting real payments) | Partly public |
| Buy Me a Coffee | Free tier + custom | usage-based | Yes | Not disclosed |
| Substack | Free tier + custom | revenue-share | Yes | Not disclosed |
Is Ko-fi still actively developed?
Last significant update: March 2026. Shipped messaging, shop, album, and blog upgrades: DM replies and emoji reactions, shop listings that support up to 20 images and 15 variants, album reordering and pinning, blog post autosave, clickable links and @mentions in comments, and the ability to turn off new comments on a post.
Top Ko-fi alternatives
Ko-fi FAQ
Is Ko-fi really free?+
The base plan costs nothing and tips are always 0% fee. Memberships, shop sales, and commissions carry a 5% fee unless you pay for Gold, which removes it.
What does Ko-fi Gold actually change?+
Gold is $12/month and drops the 5% platform fee on memberships, shop sales, and commissions to 0%. Tips are unaffected since they're already free. You still pay card processing fees on both plans.
Why is Ko-fi charging me 5% on tips when it says tips are free?+
New accounts start with Contributor status turned on by default, which adds a separate 5% fee to tips in exchange for extra features like custom colors and scheduled posts. You can turn it off any time in Payment Settings.