Stop paying 5% to be a tip jar
Buy Me a Coffee charges a 5% platform fee on every tip — on top of Stripe's processing fees. Your supporters land on a generic bmc-of.co page that owns the relationship, the email list, and the payout schedule. Here's how to swap it for a self-hosted button on your own site.
What Buy Me a Coffee actually costs you
BMC's pitch is convenience: sign up, share a link, get tipped. The convenience is real. So is the 5% platform fee that compounds on every transaction, the routing through Stripe (with its own 2.9% + €0.35 cut on small tips), and the fact that supporters end up on bmc-of.co/yourname instead of your own site. The platform owns the email, the recurring relationship, and the brand impression. You get whatever's left after two layers of fees.
- 5% platform fee on every tip — even one-time €5 coffees.
- Stripe processing fees stacked on top: 2.9% + $0.30 (US) or 1.4% + €0.25 (EU cards).
- Supporters land on bmc-of.co/yourname, not on your domain.
- Recurring memberships are locked into BMC's subscription system.
- Your supporter email list belongs to BMC, not you.
- Payouts only release weekly with a $20 minimum threshold.
What a self-hosted tip button looks like
PayRequest's Payment Button is a single HTML anchor. Drop it on your blog, portfolio, newsletter, Substack, or any site you own. Set the amount as variable (let supporters pick) or fixed. Toggle on recurring for monthly support. Your supporters click, land on a checkout in your colours on your domain, and the money lands in your bank account at provider rates with 0% PayRequest fee on top.
0% PayRequest fee
Connect Stripe, Mollie or Ponto and pay only the provider's processing rate. No 5% platform cut on top.
Your domain, your brand
Supporters tip on payrequest.me/yourhandle/coffee in your colours. The seam between your blog and the checkout disappears.
Variable + recurring
One Smart Link, two toggles. 'Supporter picks amount' for tips, 'Recurring' for monthly memberships. Same anchor, both behaviours.
You own the supporter list
Every tip's email lands in your dashboard. Export, import to your own ESP, send your own newsletter. No platform-owned audience.
Fees on a €5 coffee tip, side by side
Tips are usually small — and small payments get hammered by percentage-plus-fixed-fee structures. Here's exactly what reaches your account on a typical €5 coffee tip across the major options.
| Method | Supporter pays | Platform + processing | You receive | % lost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Buy Me a Coffee (EU card via Stripe) | €5.00 | €0.57 | €4.43 | 11.4% |
Ko-fi (Gold tier required for 0% platform) | €5.00 | €0.32 + Ko-fi Gold subscription | €4.68 (minus monthly fee) | 6.4%+ |
PayPal.me | €5.00 | €0.50 | €4.50 | 10.0% |
PayRequest + Stripe (EU card) | €5.00 | €0.32 | €4.68 | 6.4% |
PayRequest + Mollie (iDEAL)Best | €5.00 | €0.25 | €4.75 | 5.0% |
PayRequest + Ponto (SEPA bank transfer)Best | €5.00 | €0.00 | €5.00 | 0% |
PayRequest charges 0% on top of provider fees. iDEAL is the cheapest option for European supporters; SEPA bank transfer can hit 0% total but settles slower than card payments.
Buy Me a Coffee vs PayRequest Payment Button
| Feature | Buy Me a Coffee | PayRequest |
|---|---|---|
| Platform fee | 5% on every transaction | 0% |
| Processing fee | Stripe's standard rate | Stripe / Mollie / Ponto rate |
| Hosted on | bmc-of.co/yourname | Your domain + payrequest.me |
| Custom branding | Limited (BMC theme) | Your colours, your handle |
| Variable amount | Yes (tip increments) | Yes (any amount) |
| Recurring memberships | Yes (BMC-owned) | Yes (you own it) |
| iDEAL / SEPA / Bancontact | Limited | Yes |
| Apple Pay / Google Pay | Via Stripe | Yes |
| Supporter email ownership | BMC's list | Yours |
| Payout schedule | Weekly, $20 minimum | Provider's schedule (often instant or daily) |
| Embed on your site | Widget/badge link | Plain HTML anchor |
| Migration if you leave | Tell every supporter manually | URL doesn't change |
Step-by-step: replace your BMC button
Sign up for PayRequest
Free to start. Connect Stripe, Mollie or Ponto on your account. You don't need PayPal — but you can add it as one more method.
Create a Tip Smart Link
Payment Page → Smart Links → New. Tick 'Supporter picks amount' for variable tips, or set €3 / €5 / €10 fixed amounts. Tick 'Recurring' if you want monthly support too.
Copy the Payment Button snippet
Click 'Embed Button' on the share menu, pick a style (Blue, Dark, Outline). Copy the two-line snippet.
Replace the BMC widget on your site
Find your existing BMC button or widget (usually a <script> or an <a href="https://www.buymeacoffee.com/...">). Delete it. Paste the PayRequest snippet. Save.
Tell your supporters once
Send a one-line email or social post: 'I'm switching off Buy Me a Coffee — tips now go to me directly, not 95% of them. Same coffee link, lower fees, all platforms accepted.' Watch the average tip size go up.
Who switches from Buy Me a Coffee
Newsletter writers and Substack creators
Replace the BMC tip jar at the bottom of every issue with a Payment Button that goes straight to your account. iDEAL converts dramatically better with European subscribers.
Open-source maintainers
Pair the Payment Button with GitHub Sponsors instead of stacking BMC on top. One link in your README, supporter relationship lives with you.
Indie podcasters and YouTubers
Tips from listeners and viewers — variable amount, optional recurring. Apple Pay and Google Pay convert better than 'sign up for BMC' on mobile.
Bloggers and writers
End-of-post tip CTAs that don't redirect to bmc-of.co. Supporters stay on your blog, your brand stays consistent, your fees drop.
Why a self-hosted tip button beats BMC on every metric except onboarding
BMC has one real advantage: a 30-second signup that gets your first tip the same day. After that first tip, BMC's economics work against you. Every supporter pays you 5% less. Every recurring member is locked into BMC's billing. Every email goes to BMC's list. PayRequest takes one extra evening to set up, and from tip #2 onwards you're keeping money you'd otherwise hand to a platform.
- 0% platform fee compounds: 100 €5 tips = €25 saved vs BMC.
- iDEAL conversion in the Netherlands is 95%+ — tips you'd otherwise lose.
- Recurring memberships you own can be migrated to any payment provider.
- Branded checkout = higher trust = higher conversion = bigger tips.
- Email list ownership means you can newsletter your supporters without a platform middleman.
Frequently asked questions
Is PayRequest more expensive than Buy Me a Coffee?+
Can I migrate my existing BMC supporters and recurring memberships?+
What if I want to keep BMC's social proof (the supporter wall)?+
Can supporters still pay with PayPal?+
Does PayRequest send a thank-you email to supporters automatically?+
What about the BMC blog/posts feature for paying members?+
Stop paying 5% on every coffee
Sign up, create a Tip Smart Link, paste the snippet on your site. Five minutes, 0% platform fee, your supporters tipping on your domain.