Patreon vs Ko-fi: membership fees compared (10% vs 0%)

Quick answer

Ko-fi Gold ($12/month, 0% fee) beats Patreon (10% + processing) on cost once you pass $120/month in memberships. Patreon offers built-in discovery and more mature tools — Ko-fi is cheaper but you bring your own audience.

Patreon and Ko-fi both run recurring memberships, and on fees they sit at opposite ends. Every new Patreon creator pays a flat 10% platform fee plus payment processing — roughly 12.9% all-in on a web pledge. Ko-fi charges 5% on memberships on its free plan, and 0% on its Gold plan for a flat $12/month.

So Ko-fi keeps more of every membership dollar. The honest question is whether Patreon's higher cut buys you enough — discovery, tooling, and fan habit — to be worth it.

The same $5 membership, three ways

Compare your real take-home

Switch between Patreon, Ko-fi's free plan (5%), and Ko-fi Gold (0%) at any membership price.

The gap at scale

On one $5 membership the difference is about $0.50. Across a membership base it compounds. At $1,000/month in $5 web memberships, Patreon's 10% platform fee alone is about $100/month — before processing. Ko-fi Gold removes the platform fee entirely for $12/month, so against Patreon, Gold pays for itself almost immediately and keeps widening the gap as your base grows.

Where Patreon earns its higher cut

Fees aren't the whole story, and Patreon's extra 10% buys real things:

Discovery and habit. Patreon is where many fans already are and already expect to pay creators monthly. That built-in behavior and search presence can drive memberships Ko-fi simply won't surface for you.

Tiered memberships and tooling. Patreon's tier system, gated posts, and member management are more mature for running a true membership program with multiple levels and perks.

The iOS caveat cuts the other way. Patreon pledges made inside the iPhone app get hit by Apple's cut of up to 30% — so Patreon's real rate on app sign-ups can be far worse than 12.9%. Steering fans to the web matters on Patreon in a way it doesn't on Ko-fi.

Where Ko-fi pulls ahead

Cost, plainly. 0% on Gold versus 10% on Patreon is the largest structural fee gap in fan funding. The more predictable your membership revenue, the more that flat $12/month wins.

Tips and shop included. Ko-fi bundles 0% tips and a low-fee shop into the same page, so it's not just memberships — it's your whole supporter surface at a lower blended cost.

The verdict

If you're building a serious membership program and lean on discovery, tiers, and fans who already live on Patreon, the 10% can be worth it. If your audience comes from your own channels and you mostly want to keep the most per dollar, Ko-fi — especially Gold once you're past ~$120/month in memberships — keeps noticeably more. Many creators run a Ko-fi page for tips and a Patreon for tiers, and split the difference. For the complete fee math on each platform, see Patreon fees 2026 and Ko-fi fees 2026. If you're weighing Ko-fi against another tipping platform, see Ko-fi vs Buy Me a Coffee.

If you run both

A Patreon and a Ko-fi side by side means two dashboards, two fee structures, and no single view of your real net or your tax set-aside.

That's what Owelet does. Connect Patreon, Ko-fi, and everything else, and see your true take-home, fee drain per platform, and tax set-aside in one place. Free to start at owelet.app.

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