Tips, donations and memberships are always 0% fee on Ko-fi, per its Help Center.
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Ko-fi's free plan charges nothing on tips, donations or monthly memberships, a genuine 0% fee with no catch, according to Ko-fi's Help Center article on whether Ko-fi takes a fee. The only place the free plan charges anything is the Ko-fi Shop and Commissions features, where a 5% fee applies to each sale, on top of normal card processing charged by the payment provider.
Ko-fi Gold costs $12 a month and drops the Shop and Commission fee to 0%, alongside extra features like supporter-only posts. For a creator selling through the Shop, the breakeven point is around $240 a month in shop or commission revenue, since 5% of $240 is $12, the cost of Gold. Below that volume, staying on the free plan and paying the 5% per sale usually works out cheaper.
Buy Me a Coffee applies a flat 5% fee to everything, tips and memberships included, while Ko-fi's free plan charges 0% on those same categories and only takes 5% on Shop and Commission sales. For a creator whose income is mostly tips or memberships, Ko-fi's free tier is the cheaper option; for one running mostly a digital or physical Shop, the two platforms land closer together unless Ko-fi Gold is in the mix.
For the audience-growth side, see SEO content optimization and monthly SEO management.
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