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 | Streamlabs | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $12 | From $19 |
| Pricing model | Free plan, paid tiers | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Not stated |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Not stated | Not stated |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | Not stated | Not stated |
| Runs on | Not stated | macOS, Windows, iOS, Android |
| Covers | Monetization & Payments, Memberships & Subscriptions, Tips & Donations | Live Streaming, Monetization & Payments, Tips & Donations |
| Works with | YouTube, Twitch | YouTube, Twitch |
| 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
Streaming with alerts, overlays and tipping
Streamlabs wraps OBS in something friendlier and adds alerts, overlays and a donation page. Setup takes minutes rather than an evening. It is heavier on system resources than plain OBS.
Our note
Start free and stay there until a specific Ultra feature is blocking you. The resource cost against plain OBS is real, and on a mid-range machine it is the difference between a smooth stream and a stuttering one.
Only on this side
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.