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A very interesting topic and a question we receive frequently: how to accept donations? What alternatives to Patreon? In fact, if you decide to eliminate advertising from your website, perhaps for ethical reasons, how can you have any type of economic return? We, for example, have chosen not to have any type of advertising nor will you find affiliate links on our site. We therefore decided to rely on donations, thanks always to anyone who decided to help us. 😊
In another article we also addressed the alternatives to Google AdSense. In this case, however, we focus on donations which are often underestimated! Try to think of the beautiful project Pepper & Carrot. Do you remember? This comic lives only thanks to donations!
Last clarification: as we have been advised, it is important that you find out independently from your accountant or from a CAF whether in your case it is necessary to pay taxes on donations or not. Second this article it is necessary to pay taxes only when you offer an exclusive service in exchange for a donation (for example Patreon) and not when you offer a free service and ask for donations (like a blog or YouTube). However, find out independently from specialists!
Patreon and Tipee
To receive donations, we generally advise against using famous platforms such as Patreon or Tipeee. They are for-profit companies that take high commissions.
Patreon in fact you take the 5% of all the monthly income that you will be able to make with the basic plan. He will take it8% if you are on the Pro plan 1. Tipee instead it costs for the whole8% of donations 2.
There are different methods to receive donations:
- A one-time tip
- A recurring payment
- A recurring payment that also unlocks premium content
The latter method is not too much to our liking and we prefer when the contents remain free and available to all without creating fans better of others. Now let's see together which ones alternatives to Patreon we found.
Before starting we also suggest using the platform Open source 3 Coindrop. It is a platform that allows you to put all your methods of receiving donations, including cryptocurrencies, on a single page! This it's our link.
Alternatives to Patreon
Liberapay
Open source
0% commissions
registration required
recurring and one-time donations (but only by stopping recurring donation)
anonymous donations possible
Absolute first choice. Liberapay it is in fact a non-profit organization founded in France 4. It is also a project Open source 5. It actually survives thanks to donations and for this reason not Fees apply of any kind other than those requested by PayPal or Stripe. Liberapay It only allows recurring donations, so you won't be able to just "give a one-off euro" but you commit to supporting the project for a certain number of weeks. In fact on the FAQ page they suggest that if you want to make a one-off donation you could stop the donation immediately after the first payment 6.
This doesn't mean you have to donate a lot of money. They can also be donated 0.01€ per week, the equivalent of 0.52€ the year.
Beyond we Also Digital Ethics, mastodon.one And peertube.uno they use Liberapay.
Ko-fi
0% commissions
registration not mandatory
cashcoin one-time donations
anonymous donations possible
Another good alternative is Kofi, this also does not ask for any commission. Creators can pay 6$ per month for one version Gold where you will have some additional advantages and functionality 7. However, it is not mandatory and you can request your "coffee" without it Kofi hold nothing back.
Beyond we the group too Devol uses Ko-fi.
Brave Rewards
Open source
5% commissions
cashcoin one-time donations
anonymous donations
As we have already seen inarticle about Brave, the cryptocurrency created by them (Basic TOattention Token) can be a valid substitute for donations and also banners. Who uses Brave can participate in the program Rewards, watch advertisements and earn cryptocurrency to donate to the sites you prefer. Unlike the previous ones, the donations here are totally anonymous. You can choose whether to make a micro-donation or a full donation. However, a 5% commission is requested.
Mastodon.one uses Brave Reward and we are approved creators too 🙂
Buy Me a Coffee
5% commissions
registration not mandatory
cashcoin one-time donations
recurring donations
Let's now come to the more mainstream products. Buy Me a Coffee it's interesting even if you take the 5% of commissions. Unlike Patreon they also offer one-time donations and you don't need to sign up to their site to do so. It offers many extra services.
•Patreon
5% commissions
registration required
recurring donations
As we have already seen at the beginning of the article, Patreon always asks the 5% of commissions that rise to 8% for Pro accounts. It is one of the most famous and used sites and only allows recurring donations with registration on their site. However, if you really want to receive only recurring donations, we recommend you focus on Liberapay.
Criptomonete
commissions depends
cashcoin one-time donations
anonymous donations
If you have a virtual wallet, or want to create one, you can ask your users to receive also anonymous donations thanks to cryptocurrencies. You can create virtual wallets on which to receive Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies are Coinbase And Bitpanda.
For some time now we have also been accepting donations in cryptocurrency and found here are all our references.
PayPal
0% fees on domestic transactions
from €1.99 to €3.99 for international transactions
registration required
recurring donations
cashcoin one-time donations
We put it here at the bottom, almost hidden. Why PayPal it is a real empire. The other sites we told you about act as "mediators" and often many people use them themselves PayPal and then pay your donation. PayPal however it is free for national donations 8 so if you think your audience only uses PayPal or if you want to receive donations only via PayPal Please note that the donation commission has been eliminated.
Coil
Unfortunately Coil has closed the doors.
Finally, obligatory mention for OpenCollective a site created to manage donations from large projects in which they participate many collectives.
- Patreon pricing page[↩]
- What is the cost of the service?[↩]
- source code by Coindrop[↩]
- Who is Liberapay?[↩]
- Liberapay on GitHub[↩]
- Can I make a one-off donation?[↩]
- Kofi Gold[↩]
- Sending and receiving money[↩]
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