Ko-fi is the original, fun and friendly way to receive donations from your fans. You can use it as a tip jar and ask your fans to contribute towards your goal. You can even receive donation alerts while you stream.
Opening your Ko-fi Shop and adding your first digital or physical product is an easy task which can be accomplished in just 60 seconds.
Is Ko-fi Better Than Patreon?
If you create good content, you expect your audience to pay for your services. In order to receive donations from your fans, you have to set up a payment system where your fans can donate a small amount of money. For fans, it is just a simple way of acknowledging your services and saying thanks. Platforms like Patreon and Ko-fi allow you to create a “virtual tip jar” for this very purpose.
Ko-fi lets you receive donations from your fans. All that you need to do is set up an account and link it with your PayPal. For fans, donating small amounts of money is just the click of a button away. This donation could be as little an amount as a cup of coffee costs.
Unlike Ko-fi, Patreon is for those fans who can afford your services. You also have to create extra content for a Patreon channel. There is no such pressure on Ko-fi. You can even continue with a little work and receive donations.
Is Ko-fi Legal?
You can use Ko-fi.com either as a registered user or as a guest. It is operated by Ko-Fi Labs Limited. It is a UK-based company. Ko-fi.com is a platform, it is not a financial institution, merchant, creditor, charity, advisor or broker of any kind. Ko-fi is designed to allow a Creator to register and customize a page such as www.ko-fi.com/PageName. Creators can customize the page with images, text and video and use the page to facilitate the acceptance of monetary Donations. It is a legal platform. Ko-fi is a listing platform only. It neither endorses nor gives a guarantee for third-party content. Ko-fi is not responsible for refunds or managing disputes.
What Is Ko-Fi?
Ko-fi allows you to ask your fans to donate a small sum for your content. All you have to do is create your page and share it anywhere on the web. ‘Ko-fi’ is ‘Ko-fi’. This price can be paid by clicking your links. It’s free software. All you need is a PayPal account to receive payments.
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Best Ko-fi Alternatives
Ko-fi is very fast, and it is also user-friendly. Friens can support your content for as little as the price of a coffee. That explains its name. The best Ko-fi alternatives are Liberapay, Open Collective, Patreon, Flattr, Buy Me A Coffee. Have a look at the 10 best Ko-fi alternatives:
1. BountySource
Bountysource is the funding platform for open-source software. Users can improve the open-source projects they love by creating/collecting bounties and pledging to fundraisers. Any type of Open-Source or Free Software (as in speech) projects are allowed. Generally speaking, any software licenses approved by either the Open Source Initiative or the Free Software Foundation are acceptable.
How Bounties work:
- Users fund bounties on open issues or feature requests they want to see addressed.
- Developers create solutions which closes the issues and claim the corresponding bounties on Bountysource.
- Backers can accept or reject the claims.
- If accepted, Bountysource pays the bounties to the developer.
2. FreedomSponsors
FreedomSponsors is a platform for supporting free/libre software projects through microcrowdfunding – that is, crowdfunding individual open source project’s issues.
It lets help the Open Source projects you love by creating and collecting bounties.
How it works:
- A sponsor places a bounty for an issue.
- Other sponsors might places more bounties for the same issue.
- A developer resolves the issue.
- The sponsors verify the fix and pay the developer.
3. Crunchbase
Crunchbase is the leading platform for professionals to discover innovative companies, connect with the people behind them, and pursue new opportunities. Over 55 million professionals—including entrepreneurs, investors, market researchers, and salespeople—trust Crunchbase to inform their business decisions. And companies all over the world rely on us to power their applications, making over a billion calls to our API each year.
4. Patreon
On Patreon, you can let your fans become active participants in the work they love by offering them a monthly membership. You give them access to exclusive content, community, and insight into your creative process. In exchange, you get the freedom to do your best work, and the stability you need to build an independent creative career.
5. Tipeee
Tipeee is a participative financing platform devoted to Internet content creators. It allows them to receive “Tips” (monetary “thank-yous”) from their communities throughout the year.
The “Tip” is voluntary and optional support. It allows you to help creators and tell them that you love their work.
Tipeee helps creative people to concentrate on the work they are passionate about, without depending solely on advertising revenues, meaning they remain in control of the quality and pace of their content.
6. Buy Me A Coffee
Buy Me a Coffee is a simple, meaningful way to fund your creative work. Without stitching together a bunch of apps like Patreon, Mailchimp, and a donate button — you can accept support, memberships, and build a direct relationship with your fans.
7. Liberapay
Are you a creator of commons? Do you make free art, spread free knowledge, write free software? Or something else that can be funded by recurrent donations?
Yes? Then Liberapay is for you! Create your account, fill your profile, and ask your audience to financially support your work.
Liberapay’s recurrent donations system is designed to provide a stable crowdfunded basic income to creators, enabling them to keep doing great work that benefits everyone.
8. Open Collective
Open Collective lets you manage your finances so everyone can see where money comes from and where it goes. Collect and spend money transparently.
- Anyone can submit receipts or invoices online.
- Approve or reject expenses with one click.
- Have a transparent budget while keeping personal info private.
- Easy, automatic reports and record-keeping.
9. Zipsell
Zipsell is a free, open-source and self-hosted platform for selling digital downloads like ebooks. With Zipsell Business you can set up an online marketplace where users upload their files for sale and you collect a fee on every purchase.
10. Flatrr
Flattr is a social micropayment service, that makes it easy for you to “flatter” things on the internet that you like. When you’re registered to Flattr, you pay a small monthly fee of your own choosing. At the end of the month, that fee is divided between all the things you flattered. You can even flatter things in the real world, with the Flattr Android app!
Since you’re always logged into your Flattor account, giving someone some flattr-love is always just a button away. Clicking one more button doesn’t add to your fee, it just divides the fee between more people! Flattr tries to encourage people to share. Not only pieces of content, but also some money to support the people who created them.
The Team Compare BizTech is made up of people from marketing backgrounds, digital marketing & content marketing backgrounds, each with unique experiences and nuggets of wisdom to share with you. The team is passionate about creating unique, accurate, and engaging content.