Growing an audience
Running the business
Both cover monetization & payments and tips & donations. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
| Ko-fi | Liberapay | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $12 | Free |
| Pricing model | Free plan, paid tiers | Free |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Usage-based |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Not stated | Not stated |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | Not stated | None |
| Runs on | Not stated | Web |
| Covers | Monetization & Payments, Memberships & Subscriptions, Tips & Donations | Tips & Donations, Monetization & Payments |
| Works with | YouTube, Twitch | Nothing in particular |
| Founded | Not listed | Not listed |
| Reader rating | No reviews yet | No reviews yet |
| Live deals | None right now | None right now |
Tips, memberships and a shop with no platform cut
Ko-fi takes nothing from tips on the free plan, which no other platform of its size does. Memberships, commissions and digital downloads all work from the same page. It is lighter than Patreon in every direction, which is often the point.
Our note
The best free option for somebody who mostly gets tipped, and worth weighing against Patreon the moment memberships become the larger half of the income. Do the Gold arithmetic yourself rather than taking the upgrade prompt's word for it.
Only on this side
Recurring donations with no platform cut
Liberapay is a non-profit that collects recurring donations and keeps none of them, funding itself from donations to its own page. Money moves weekly rather than monthly, and a donor pays several weeks ahead so the processing fee is charged once. There are no tiers, no rewards and no shop, which is the point for people who wanted a way to be paid rather than a platform to run.
Our note
Nothing else in this catalog takes zero. The cost is everything a platform normally provides, discovery, tiers, a shop and a support team, so choose it because you agree with how it works rather than to save the ten percent.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.