What Buy Me a Coffee does
Buy Me a Coffee is a platform that lets independent creators collect one time tips, recurring memberships and digital sales from their fans. It is designed for creators such as artists, podcasters, YouTubers, writers and coaches rather than businesses. Supporters can send a coffee payment with a message, join monthly or yearly memberships with perks like exclusive posts and a members only Discord, or buy items such as 1 on 1 calls, commissions, eBooks and PDFs from a shop. Creators can publish posts and audio, email fans, and use QR codes, stream alerts and iOS and Android apps. Creators set their own prices; the home page does not state a platform fee.
How Buy Me a Coffee compares with its closest alternatives
All 5 closest alternatives have a free plan, as Buy Me a Coffee does. Only Beehiiv lists a starting price, $39 a month. All 5 offer an API, as Buy Me a Coffee does. Buy Me a Coffee offers a web app and a mobile app. Of the alternatives, all 5 offer a web app and 2 offer a mobile app. Buy Me a Coffee was founded in 2018; the alternatives were founded between 2012 and 2021, 4 of them earlier. The alternatives with a known headquarters are in the United States.