Ko-fi vs Whop Comparison 2026
Ko-fi takes 5 percent from memberships and the shop on its free plan, or nothing at all once Gold's $12 a month removes that cut. Whop charges no monthly fee ever, only a per-transaction rate that starts at 2.7 percent plus 30 cents on a card, rising to 4 or 5 percent plus a dollar on other payment methods. The axis is what is being sold: Ko-fi is built around tips and creator support first, while Whop is built around selling access to a community, a course or software, with a marketplace attached that brings its own traffic.
Tips, memberships and a shop with no platform cut
Sell access to a community with no monthly fee
At a glance
- Both have a genuinely free tier.
Side by side
Ko-fi | Whop | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $12 | Free |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Free plan, paid tiers | Free |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing (they differ) | Monthly or annual | Usage-based |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Not stated | Yes |
Ko-fi
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
- Covers tips & donations
- Works with YouTube
- Works with Twitch
Whop
Sell access to a community with no monthly fee
Whop sells memberships, courses, software and communities from a storefront that handles the checkout and the access control together, so a paying customer lands inside whatever they bought rather than in an email thread. There is no setup cost and no monthly cost; the money comes off each transaction. Rates differ by how the customer pays, with cards cheapest and instalment financing dearest. The marketplace side brings its own traffic, which is either the reason to be here or noise to ignore depending on what is being sold.
Why people weigh these two
- Whop instead of Ko-fi
- Whop sells access to a community with no monthly fee, free to start, built for recurring membership rather than one-off support.
- Ko-fi instead of Whop
- Ko-fi runs tips, memberships and a shop with no platform cut at all, with a free tier and plans from $12, undercutting Whop's per-transaction rate entirely on the free plan.
Which one should you pick
Choose Ko-fi if tips are part of the income, since those are free on any plan, and a shop, commissions and memberships all live on the same page for creators rather than for selling access to software or a course. Gold's $12 a month removes the 5 percent cut once monthly non-tip sales pass roughly $444 on card payments, the point where the flat fee beats Whop's percentage too.
Choose Whop if the product is access itself, a community, a course or software, and the checkout needs to hand over entry automatically rather than through an email thread. There is no monthly cost ever, so a launch that has not proven itself yet costs nothing to list, and card payments at 2.7 percent plus 30 cents undercut Ko-fi's free-plan 5 percent rate.
Common questions
- Which one charges less per transaction?
- Whop's card rate, 2.7 percent plus 30 cents, is lower than Ko-fi's free-plan rate of 5 percent on memberships and the shop. Ko-fi Gold removes its cut entirely for $12 a month, which beats Whop's rate once monthly card revenue passes roughly $444.
- Does Whop accept tips the way Ko-fi does?
- Its listing does not describe a tipping feature; Whop is built around selling access to a community, course or software rather than one-off support. Ko-fi takes nothing at all from tips on either plan.
- Does either one have a monthly subscription fee?
- Ko-fi's Gold plan is $12 a month, optional, to remove its percentage cut. Whop has no monthly or setup cost at any point; every cost comes off individual transactions instead.
- Which one brings its own marketplace traffic?
- Whop does, with a marketplace attached that surfaces listings to people already browsing the platform. Ko-fi's listing does not describe an equivalent discovery marketplace; traffic comes from wherever the creator sends it.
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.