Ko-fi alternatives
- Published
- July 31, 2026
Why ByteSell beats Ko-fi
Ko-fi takes 5% on shop sales, memberships and commissions, and new creators start in Contributor mode, where the same 5% applies to tips. Reaching 0% means paying $12 a month for Ko-fi Gold. ByteSell is 0% from the first sale on its free plan, with no fee left to upgrade away.
The free plan is a full commerce stack too. You get a branded storefront, subscriptions with native Discord and Telegram gating, coupons, upsells and a free affiliate program, with your own domain from the $29 Pro plan. Buyers pay your own Stripe, PayPal or crypto wallet directly, so the money never waits on a payout.
Why sellers leave Ko-fi
New creators now start in Contributor mode, which charges 5% on tips as well. You can opt out, but the default is not the 0% most people have heard about.
For anyone actually selling files rather than collecting tips, the rate was never 0% anyway. Shop sales, membership tiers, monthly tips and commissions are 5% on both free tiers. Ko-fi Gold removes that for $12 a month, and Ko-fi is steering people away from Gold: its own Gold page opens by saying you no longer need it, and annual plans are no longer sold.
One quirk is worth knowing before you switch anything: memberships taken through Stripe keep whatever fee rate applied when they started, even after you move to Gold.
Ko-fi’s structure is honest in the ways that matter. It never holds the money, there is no payout minimum, and it says plainly that the creator is the merchant of record.
Other Ko-fi alternatives
If ByteSell is not the fit, here is the rest of the field, with each platform's real pricing and a link to the full head-to-head. Every price and fee is computed from that platform's own published rates.
PayhipNo monthly fee · 5%
Sellers who want sales tax handled and buyers paying through local processors.
SendOwl
$39/mo · 0% per sale
Sellers who want a no-cut delivery and checkout tool and stay under the plan’s annual order and revenue caps, from $39 a month.
Podia
$49/mo · 5%
Course creators who want email marketing and a community in one place.
Sellfy$39/mo · 0% per sale
Sellers below the plan’s annual revenue ceiling who want print-on-demand in the same store.
GumroadNo monthly fee · 10% + $0.50
Sellers under a few hundred dollars a month, and anyone who wants a marketplace attached.
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Alternatives
Lemon Squeezy alternatives
Stripe acquired Lemon Squeezy in 2024, and signing up now opens a form that recommends a Stripe product. For anyone still selling there the fee is 5% and 50 cents a sale, with payouts twice a month after a 13-day hold.
ReadAlternatives
Payhip alternatives
Payhip’s free plan takes 5% of every sale. Getting that to zero means the $99 Pro plan, and the $29 tier in between still takes 2%.
ReadAlternatives
Podia alternatives
Podia’s Mover plan costs $49 a month and takes 5% of every sale on top. The fee disappears on the $99 plan, and email contacts past the first 100 are billed on top of either.
ReadKeep what you charge
0% platform fees on every plan, and no fee that only appears in a help article.
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