Ko-fi and Buy Me a Coffee look almost identical from the outside: a page, a button, a 5% fee and no subscription. For an artist taking commissions the differences are in the details that cost money: who processes the payment, whether PayPal works, how fast the money reaches you, and what a flat monthly plan does to the fee once orders pick up. Here is the comparison on real commission prices, with every figure read from the two platforms' own pages.
The short answer. For art commissions Ko-fi comes out ahead. Both charge 5%, but Buy Me a Coffee also passes on Stripe's 0.5% payout fee, so a $150 commission pays $137.85 on Ko-fi and $137.10 on Buy Me a Coffee. Ko-fi takes PayPal and pays you directly, and Ko-fi Gold drops the fee to 0% for $12 a month, which pays for itself above $240 a month in sales. Buy Me a Coffee is the simpler page to run if most of your income is small tips.
Is Ko-fi or Buy Me a Coffee better?
For commissions, Ko-fi is better on three of the four things that decide it: cost, payment options and payout speed. Buy Me a Coffee wins on simplicity. Its page is cleaner, supporters can pay in one tap without signing up, and there is no plan to choose. If you take a handful of $5 and $10 tips a week and the occasional sketch, that simplicity is worth more than a few cents a payment.
Once commissions become the main income, the gap widens. Ko-fi lets fans pay by PayPal, which many commission clients still prefer, and the money lands in your own PayPal or Stripe account the moment the payment clears. Buy Me a Coffee runs everything through Stripe, holds the balance until you withdraw, and reviews your account by hand before the first payout.
Ko-fi vs Buy Me a Coffee fees on one commission
The table shows what you keep from a single payment by a US client paying by card, unless the row says otherwise. Ko-fi's 5% applies on both its free plan and its Standard plan for commissions. Gold is shown before its $12 monthly charge.
| Where the client pays | $25 sketch | $60 bust | $150 half body | $400 full scene |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ko-fi Gold, Stripe (plus $12 a month) | $23.98 | $57.96 | $145.35 | $388.10 |
| Ko-fi free or Standard, Stripe | $22.73 | $54.96 | $137.85 | $368.10 |
| Buy Me a Coffee, US client | $22.60 | $54.66 | $137.10 | $366.10 |
| Ko-fi free or Standard, PayPal Checkout | $22.39 | $54.42 | $136.78 | $365.55 |
| Buy Me a Coffee, client outside the US | $22.35 | $54.06 | $135.60 | $362.10 |
| Patreon standard plan, for reference | $21.48 | $51.96 | $130.35 | $348.10 |
The per-order difference between the two free options is small: 75 cents on a $150 commission. What moves the needle is the monthly plan. Ko-fi Gold removes the 5% entirely, and at $1,000 a month in commissions the fees come to about $43 on Gold, $81 on Ko-fi's free plan and $86 on Buy Me a Coffee. Buy Me a Coffee has no equivalent plan, so its 5% never goes away. The full breakdown of every Buy Me a Coffee charge, with a calculator, is on our page on Buy Me a Coffee fees and how much it takes.
How much does Buy Me a Coffee take?
Buy Me a Coffee takes a 5% platform fee on every payment, including commissions. Stripe then charges 2.9% and $0.30 per payment and 0.5% for payout processing, so a US payment loses 8.4% plus $0.30. Payments from outside the US cost one point more and membership payments half a point more. You can make supporters cover the card fee, but the 5% and the payout fee stay with you.
Does Buy Me a Coffee take commissions?
Yes. Buy Me a Coffee has a Commissions tab on the creator page. A client picks a service, clicks Book this, fills in the details you ask for and pays up front, and you can enable messages so they can ask questions before buying. Several of the comparison articles that rank for this topic still say Buy Me a Coffee has no commissions feature. That is out of date, and Buy Me a Coffee's own help center walks supporters through booking a commission.
Ko-fi's commissions work the same way in principle: a commissions section on your page, your own terms, and payment when the client orders. The practical difference is the payment rail, covered next.
Payments and payouts compared
| Ko-fi | Buy Me a Coffee | |
|---|---|---|
| How clients pay | Card through your Stripe, or PayPal | Card or bank, crypto on US dollar accounts |
| Who holds the money | Nobody, it goes straight to your account | Buy Me a Coffee balance until you withdraw |
| Minimum withdrawal | None | $10 |
| First payout | When the processor pays out | After a one-time review, up to 7 to 14 days |
| Later payouts | Your Stripe or PayPal schedule | About 1 to 2 business days via Stripe Express |
| Monthly plan | Gold, $12 a month, 0% fee | None |
| Dispute handling | Through your own Stripe or PayPal account | Through Buy Me a Coffee, $15 US fee, proof within 7 days |
For commissions, the PayPal row matters more than it looks. Clients who order a $200 piece from an artist they found on social media often want buyer protection they recognize, and some will not enter a card on an unfamiliar page. Ko-fi gives them that option. Our comparison of art commission payment methods covers what each rail costs and how disputes play out, and the PayPal art commissions guide covers the seller protection gap on digital work.
Ko-fi vs Buy Me a Coffee vs Patreon
Patreon is the third name that comes up, and for commissions it is the most expensive of the three for anyone who joined after August 4, 2025, when its standard plan moved to 10%. A $150 commission pays $130.35 there, about $7 less than on either tip platform. Patreon makes sense when commissions are a perk of a monthly membership, a sketch a month for regulars, rather than one-off orders. The numbers for each plan are in our breakdown of Patreon fees and what Patreon takes.
Which one should an artist pick?
| Your situation | Best fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Mostly tips, a few small commissions | Buy Me a Coffee or Ko-fi free | No monthly cost; Ko-fi free charges 0% on tips |
| Commissions above $240 a month | Ko-fi Gold | $12 flat beats 5% from that point |
| Clients who want to pay by PayPal | Ko-fi | Buy Me a Coffee does not offer PayPal |
| Fans who want a monthly membership with perks | Patreon or Ko-fi memberships | Built for recurring tiers |
| Clients who do not follow you yet | A gig page with fixed tiers | Tip pages are built for an existing audience |
When neither tip page is the right tool
Both platforms assume the buyer already knows you. The button sits on your social profiles, your followers click it, and the commission form handles the rest. That works until you want clients from outside your audience: a small business that needs a mascot, an author who needs a cover, a streamer who needs emotes and is searching for someone to hire.
Those buyers compare listings. They want a price per tier, what is included, how many revisions, how long it takes and a few finished examples, all before they message anyone. A gig page is built for that, and on FreelanceNation the seller pays a monthly plan with a marketplace fee of 8%, 5%, 3% or 2% depending on the plan, while the client pays no service fee at all. At low volume that costs more than Ko-fi. Our Studio plan only beats Buy Me a Coffee above about $1,960 a month in orders, and Ko-fi Gold is cheaper than any of our plans for pure payment handling. What the plan buys is the listing and the order flow, not a lower fee. You can see how artists set it up on the sell art commissions page, and if you have not priced your tiers yet, start with art commission prices by type.
Most working artists end up with more than one of these at once: a tip button for followers, a gig page for client work, and maybe a membership for regulars. If you do, pull every payout into one income tracker built for creators before tax season, because three platforms means three sets of payout records and fee statements to reconcile.
The short version
Ko-fi is the better home for art commissions on cost, PayPal support and payout speed, and Ko-fi Gold is the cheapest way to take commission payments on this list once you pass $240 a month. Buy Me a Coffee is a fine choice for tip-first creators who want the simplest page, and it does take commissions, whatever older reviews say. For the full fee table across every platform artists use, see art commission sites compared by fee.