Ko-fi keeps more of your money than Patreon at every revenue level we checked. On 100 US card payments of $10, Ko-fi memberships leave $891 in Free mode or $929 on Ko-fi Gold, and Patreon’s standard plan leaves $841. Ko-fi also puts each payment in your own account the moment a fan pays. Patreon earns its higher cut with a fuller membership product, which matters only if memberships are your whole business.
How much do Patreon and Ko-fi take?
Patreon takes 10% of everything from creators who published after August 4, 2025. Ko-fi takes 0% to 5% depending on what you sell, and nothing at all on Ko-fi Gold, which costs $12 a month.
Ko-fi’s Free mode charges 0% on one-off tips and crowdfunding goals and 5% on memberships, monthly tips, shop sales and commissions. New accounts start in Standard mode, which also takes 5% of tips, so switch it off under Settings, then Payment, on day one. Processing goes to PayPal or Stripe at their own rates. We use Stripe’s US rate of 2.9% + $0.30, which is also what Patreon charges on its standard plan, so the gap comes entirely from the platform fee.
The table is arithmetic on published fees as of October 2026, assuming $10 payments from US cards and one $0.25 Patreon bank payout a month.
| Monthly revenue | Patreon memberships | Ko-fi memberships, Free mode | Ko-fi memberships, Gold | Ko-fi one-off tips, Free mode |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $300 | $252 | $267 | $270 | $282 |
| $1,000 | $841 | $891 | $929 | $941 |
| $5,000 | $4,205 | $4,455 | $4,693 | $4,705 |
Ko-fi Gold pays for itself once fee-bearing sales pass $240 a month, because 5% of $240 is $12. At $300 a month Gold saves you $3. At $5,000 it saves $238, and it leaves you $488 more than Patreon.
Patreon creators on legacy plans narrow the gap. The Founders plan at 5%, open only to creators who joined before May 7, 2019 and never changed plan, roughly matches Ko-fi’s Free mode on memberships. Every new Patreon page pays 10%.
Who owns the audience on Patreon and Ko-fi?
Ko-fi gives you more direct access to supporters, and we score its ownership 6 out of 10 against Patreon’s 5. Ko-fi shares each supporter’s display name and email on every payment, and the money lands in a PayPal or Stripe account in your name.
Patreon processes payments itself. You can export member emails, paid and free, as a CSV from the Relationship Manager, but members’ saved cards stay with Patreon. Memberful’s migration guide says it cannot move cards out of Patreon, so leaving means asking every member to subscribe again.
Neither platform will find you many fans. Patreon scores 4 for discovery and Ko-fi 3. Patreon has one real advantage here, which is that many fans already have a Patreon login and a saved card, so checkout is short for them. Ko-fi fans can tip without an account at all.
What features differ between Patreon and Ko-fi?
Patreon is the deeper membership product, and Ko-fi is the better tool for tips, commissions and quick payouts.
Patreon’s 10% includes:
- Free memberships that need only a name and email, which Patreon uses as a funnel into paid tiers
- Video hosting, up to 100 hours of uploads a month once you have a paying fan
- Ticketed livestreams, with income held until 7 days after the event
- A shop for digital products, single posts and collections priced from $3 to $5,000
- Subscription billing with free trials, discounts, gifting and tier repricing
- An iOS app, where Apple takes 30% of in-app purchases and holds the money for up to 75 days
Ko-fi’s extras lean toward artists and streamers:
- A commissions tool with slots, up to 12 add-ons, shipping rates and terms buyers accept before ordering
- Crowdfunding goals at 0% in Free mode
- Stream alerts that show tips on screen during Twitch and YouTube streams
- A shop for digital files and physical goods with variants and shipping options
- Membership tiers linked to Discord roles, with optional shipping addresses and member caps
Payouts are the sharpest difference. Ko-fi never holds a balance, and every payment goes straight to PayPal or Stripe with no minimum. PayPal can hold new or unusual payments for up to 21 days, and Ko-fi supports only those two processors. Patreon holds your balance and lets you withdraw once every 24 hours, with a $0.25 fee per US bank transfer and a $10 minimum through PayPal.
Which should you choose?
Choose Ko-fi unless you need Patreon’s membership tools. Ko-fi keeps between $50 and $100 more of every $1,000 and pays instantly. Our best membership platforms list ranks both, artists should see our best platforms for artists, and anyone choosing between tip pages should read Ko-fi vs Buy Me a Coffee.
- Pick Patreon if free members, video hosting and livestream tickets all matter to you and you want them on one page.
- Pick Patreon if your fans already use Patreon and you want them paying with a login and card they have saved.
- Pick Patreon if you already have paying members there, because moving means every one of them has to subscribe again.
- Pick Ko-fi if most of your income is tips, goals or commissions.
- Pick Ko-fi if you want each payment in your PayPal or Stripe account the moment a fan pays.
- Pick Ko-fi Gold if memberships, shop sales and commissions pass $240 a month, the point where $12 costs less than Ko-fi’s own 5% fee.