5% on memberships and monthly tips
On the Free setting, memberships, monthly tips, shop sales and commissions pay Ko-fi a 5% service fee, and Standard takes 5% on everything. Payly takes nothing from memberships.
The free Ko-fi alternative for memberships
Run memberships without Ko-fi's 5% fee or its Gold plan
For memberships and monthly support, Ko-fi takes 5%, or charges $12 a month for Gold. Payly takes neither, and takes nothing from tips either.
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Payly and Ko-fi at a glance
0%
On every tip and membership
Payly takes nothing from one-time tips, monthly tips or memberships, with no plan to buy. Ko-fi's default setting for new creators, Standard, takes 5% of all three.
5%
On memberships and monthly tips
Ko-fi's Free and Standard settings take 5% of memberships and monthly tips. Gold takes 0% for $12 a month. Payly takes 0% and has no monthly fee.
$455
Kept from 100 members at $5 a month
By card, a creator keeps $455.00 on Payly, $443.00 on Ko-fi Gold and $430.00 on Ko-fi Free or Standard.
Why creators move from Ko-fi
Ko-fi can cost nothing for one-time tips, so the gap is in memberships and monthly support.
Standard is the default
New Ko-fi creators start on Standard, which takes 5% even on one-time tips. Switching Standard off brings tips back to 0%, and Gold takes 0% on everything.
$12 a month to remove the 5%
Ko-fi Gold takes 0% for $12 a month. That pays off once you have more than $240 a month of income that carries the 5% fee. With Payly there is no plan to buy.
Where Ko-fi matches or beats Payly
Ko-fi's Free setting is also 0% on one-time tips, and Ko-fi pays straight into your own PayPal or Stripe account with no payout fees, as Payly does. Ko-fi also has a shop, commissions, direct messages and stream overlays, which Payly's creator pages do not list.
What you actually pay
A creator with 100 members paying $5 a month, $500 in all, with every member paying by card.
| Cost | Payly$0/mo | Ko-fiFree, Standard or Gold |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly fee | $0 | $0 on Free and Standard, $12 on Gold |
| Platform fee on one-time tips | None | None on Free and Gold, 5% on Standard |
| Platform fee on memberships and monthly tips | None | 5% on Free and Standard, none on Gold |
| Card processing, 2.9% + $0.30 a payment | $45.00 | $45.00 on every setting |
| You keep from 100 members at $5 a month | $455.00 | $430.00 on Free or Standard, $443.00 on Gold |
Every member pays by card, with no sales tax, refunds or disputes, and each fee is rounded to the cent per payment. Card processing is Stripe's standard US card rate, 2.9% + $0.30, charged to your own Stripe account on Payly and on Ko-fi. Ko-fi's 5% is paid by the creator, who sees it as a Partner Fee in PayPal or an Application Fee in Stripe, and Ko-fi charges buyers nothing. Gold is $12 a month for new users, counted once: $443.00 is $500.00 less $45.00 for processing and $12. A $5 one-time tip by card leaves $4.55 on Payly, Ko-fi Free and Ko-fi Gold, and $4.30 on Ko-fi Standard. If every member paid with PayPal (3.49% + $0.49) instead, you would keep $434.00 on Payly, $409.00 on Ko-fi Free or Standard and $422.00 on Gold. Ko-fi does not say which PayPal rate it gets, so the same one is used for both. Not counted: currency conversion, payments from outside the US, instant payouts, and Cloudflare or domain costs. Stripe also lists a separate fee for recurring billing, which is not counted. Ko-fi pricing as published November 2026.
What you get
- A free level and paid levels, with monthly and yearly prices
- Posts for everyone, all members, paid members, or a level and higher
- Posts published now or scheduled, with no republish of your page
- Polls and comments on posts
- Members sign in with a link or code by email, with no password
- A welcome message for new members
- A list of your members to download as CSV
- Members cancel from their account and keep access to the end of what they paid for
- Your own domain
How creator memberships work in Payly
You set the levels and write the posts. PayPal or Stripe collects each payment.
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Create a creator page
In Your sites, click New and choose Creator memberships. Start from a template or from scratch.
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Set your levels
Name each level, set its monthly price and, if you like, a yearly one, and say what members get. Add a free level too.
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Connect PayPal or Stripe, then publish
Your page runs on your own free Cloudflare account, like a store. Then write your first post.
Honest answers
Is Payly really free?
Yes. There is no monthly fee, no transaction fee and no paid tier. PayPal and Stripe charge their standard processing fees, as they would on any platform. How can this possibly be free?
What does Ko-fi charge?
It depends on the setting. Free takes 0% on one-time tips and 5% on monthly tips, memberships, shop sales and commissions. Standard, the default for new creators, takes 5% on everything. Gold takes 0% for $12 a month, but memberships that began before Gold keep the 5%. You pay Ko-fi's fee, and PayPal's or Stripe's fee comes out of your own account. Ko-fi charges buyers nothing and has no payout fees.
Is Payly cheaper than Ko-fi?
For memberships and monthly tips, yes: 100 members at $5 a month leave $455.00 on Payly, against $430.00 on Ko-fi Free or Standard, which take 5%, and $443.00 on Gold, which costs $12 a month. On one-time tips, Payly beats Standard, Ko-fi's default for new creators, and ties Free and Gold, which take 0% too. Ko-fi's fee table also lists supporter-only content and scheduled posts as extras on Standard and Gold, not Free. On Payly they come with every creator page.
What does Ko-fi do that Payly does not?
Ko-fi has a shop, commissions, goals, direct messages, Twitch and YouTube overlays, Discord roles, a cap on members per tier, and video and audio posts. Payly's creator pages do not list those. Payly does not email members about new posts, and a Payly post holds formatted text, links and a cover image, so video and audio are links. Members who pay with PayPal cannot change their own level on Payly.
How do I move my members from Ko-fi?
Payly has no importer for creator pages, so moving means setting your page up again. Start a creator page, add your levels and prices, copy over your posts, connect your own PayPal or Stripe account and publish. Then share the new link. Your members join your Payly page and pay again through your own account, because Payly cannot move their payments from Ko-fi. You can also keep a Ko-fi page for one-time tips on its Free setting, where they cost 0%, and use Payly for memberships. Nothing changes on Ko-fi until you change it.
Is there a catch?
PayPal and Stripe charge their standard processing fees. Your page runs on your own free Cloudflare account. Its free plan holds up to 10 creator pages, and its $5 a month plan holds up to 500, paid to Cloudflare. A domain of your own costs whatever your registrar charges. Payly stays free either way. What the free plan covers
Thinking about another platform?
Take memberships with no 5% cut
Your page, your payment account, your members. The only thing you pay is normal PayPal and Stripe processing fees.
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