Subscriby vs Ko-fi
Subscription-first community automation, wherever members are, vs. a tip-first platform
Prices checked on 28 September 2026
Ko-fi is built around one-time tips — a digital tip jar that fans drop money into when they want to support you. Memberships exist on Ko-fi but they were added to a platform that started as a tip jar. Subscriby starts from the opposite direction: recurring subscription billing, automated access to your community on Telegram and Discord, and community revenue as the core product. If subscriptions are your primary model, the difference matters.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Subscriby | Ko-fi |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | Telegram and Discord today, Slack, WhatsApp, Microsoft Teams and more on the roadmap | Ko-fi page; Discord role integration |
| Primary Model | Recurring subscriptions + Telegram access automation | One-time tips with optional memberships added on |
| Telegram Integration | Native bot — automated invite and removal | None — no Telegram bot exists |
| Membership Fee (Free Plan) | 10% per transaction | 5% on memberships (0% on one-time tips) |
| Crypto Payments | Bitcoin, ETH, USDT, USDC | No crypto support |
| Telegram Stars | Native support | Not supported |
| Teams | 81 permissions, custom roles (Growth Plan) | Individual creators only |
| Webhook Events | 191 documented events | Basic webhooks (limited events) |
| API / Automation | REST API + MCP + Zapier + n8n | Ko-fi webhooks + limited API |
| Access Codes | Offline and gift subscription codes | Not available |
| Time-Limited Passes | Scheduled access windows: bought on Wednesday, admitted Sunday, removed that night | Not available |
| Disaster Recovery Program | Lost bot, channel or account detected in seconds; members re-admitted to a new one automatically | Not available |
| Coupon Codes | Percentage or fixed, capped in total and per subscriber, plan-restricted, scheduled; first payment only | Shop items and commissions only — not supported on recurring membership tiers |
| Referral Program | Members earn free days or cash for friends who pay; on Growth or as an addon | Not documented |
| Smart Links and Embeds | Tracked links per channel with clicks, checkouts, paid members and revenue; embeds for your site | Buttons and widgets for your site; no tracked links with a funnel documented |
| Portal Designer | Presets, colours, fonts, layout, blocks, your words and a stylesheet for the portal page, on every plan | A cover image and one theme colour on the page |
| AI Operator | Subscriby Copilot: answers from your data and does the routine work with your permissions | Not available |
| Failed-Payment Recovery | A grace window you set, four notices, a cancellation screen with one offer, win-back sequences | Failed renewals follow the processor's retries; no grace window, offers or win-backs documented |
| Checkout and Lead Follow-up | Sequences in your words for leads, stalled checkouts and ending trials; every checkout ledgered | Follow-ups for a lead, a stalled checkout or an ending trial are not documented |
| Fee Transparency | A Transaction Fees ledger: every fee tied to its payment, rate and invoice, exportable as CSV | 5% comes off each membership payment; no fee ledger documented |
| Partner Program | 5% to 30% of every invoice a referred creator pays, for 12 months | Not documented |
| Regional Gateways | Razorpay (India), Paystack (Africa), Mollie (Europe), CeyPay (Sri Lanka) | Stripe + PayPal only |
What Ko-fi Does Well
- Ko-fi has creator discovery — fans browse Ko-fi pages and can find you without you running any paid marketing.
- The zero-fee model on one-time tips is genuinely valuable for casual fan support where you don't want to think about subscription management.
- Multi-purpose: commissions, shop, digital products, fundraising goals, AND memberships — Ko-fi handles all of it, which makes it useful for creators with mixed income streams.
We believe in honest comparisons. If Ko-fi is right for you, we'll say so.
Pricing
- Free$0/mo10% per transaction— 3 projects, no revenue cap
- Starter$39/mo3% per transaction— 10 projects, 12 billed annually, white-labelled bots and portal, no revenue cap
- Growth$89/mo1% per transaction— 20 projects, 25 billed annually, white-labelled bots and portal, Teams, no revenue cap
- Ko-fi Free$0/mo0% on tips / 5% on memberships— Stripe/PayPal processing fees apply
- Ko-fi Gold$12/mo0% on everything— Billed monthly only; Stripe/PayPal processing fees still apply
Put your own numbers in: the fee calculator ranks Ko-fi, Subscriby and 11 more tools for your month.
Open the fee calculatorWhere Subscriby Wins
Disaster Recovery Program — peace of mind when access is lost overnight
A lost channel, bot or account is detected in seconds, you are alerted, and every paying member is re-admitted to a new one automatically, with standby bots and failover on Growth. Fair use: for creators who lost access through no fault of their own; self-service once per 90 days, then our support team reviews the account, and a confirmed violation of the platform's or Subscriby's terms closes it.
Subscriby Copilot — an AI operator that does the routine work
Ask about your members and money: the Copilot answers from your own data, does the routine work with your permissions, asks before anything it cannot undo, answers members from what you taught it and writes you every Monday. Free turns on every plan. Ko-fi has no AI operator.
Portal Designer — a member page in your brand, on every plan
The portal page members buy and sign in on takes your design: presets with light and dark palettes, self-hosted fonts, the layout and the plan cards, content blocks, your own wording in every language, your pixels and a stylesheet, previewed live and published when you say, on every plan, with a demo to try first. Ko-fi's page takes a cover image and one theme colour.
Revenue Recovery — a grace window, one offer, win-back sequences
A failed renewal keeps the member's access for a grace window you set, with notices carrying the way to pay again; a member who cancels is asked why and made one offer; one who left hears from you on the days you chose. Ko-fi's failed renewals follow the processor's retries, with none of the three documented.
Lead nurture and checkout recovery
A lead who never bought, a stalled checkout and a trial about to end each enter a sequence in your words, with the way to the plan and a coupon on every step and a Stop for the member; the ones that come back are counted. Ko-fi documents no follow-ups of this kind.
Smart Links that say which channel pays
A tracked address per channel with clicks, leads, checkouts, paid members and lifetime revenue, a bot link and a QR code per link, campaign tags kept, and a button or your plan cards to embed on your own site, on every plan. Ko-fi offers buttons for your site and no funnel per link.
Referral Program — members bring members
Every member gets a code and a link; a friend who pays earns them free membership days or a cash commission you set, held behind your refund window, with approvals, payouts per currency and a reward for the friend as well. On Growth or as an addon. Ko-fi has no member referral program.
Partner Program — creators bring creators
Bring other creators to Subscriby and earn from 5% up to 30% of every invoice they pay for twelve months, the rate climbing with your promotion work, settled as Subscriby Credit on your own invoices or paid in cash once a month. Ko-fi documents no partner program.
A Transaction Fees ledger, line by line
Every fee Subscriby charges is one line with the payment it came from, whether it was taken at source or metered onto your invoice, and the invoice that billed it; filter a month by project, channel and kind and export it as a CSV. Ko-fi takes 5% off each membership payment and documents no ledger.
Time-limited passes — scheduled access windows
Sell access to a window you schedule rather than an open-ended membership: a customer buys the Sunday pass on Wednesday, is admitted on Sunday morning and removed that night with no manual invites, however many people bought, and a pass series sells a whole season as one purchase. Ko-fi has nothing comparable.
Coupon codes that work on memberships, not just shop items
Ko-fi discount codes cover shop items and commissions and are not supported on recurring membership tiers, which is the thing you would actually want to discount. A Subscriby coupon discounts a membership plan: percentage or fixed, capped in total and per person, restricted to the plans you choose, with a start and an end date.
Subscriptions are the core product — not an add-on
Ko-fi's memberships sit beside tips, a shop, commissions and goals, and the subscription machinery reflects that origin. Subscriby was built from the first line to run recurring subscriptions at scale: trial periods, access codes, billing cycles, a grace window on a failed renewal, win-back sequences and webhook automation are all built in.
Telegram access is fully automated
Ko-fi has no Telegram bot, so Ko-fi members who belong in a private Telegram group mean copying invite links by hand and checking by hand who is still subscribed. Subscriby issues a unique invite link on subscribe, removes the member on cancel or expiry, tracks every renewal and answers them under your name.
Comparing the free tier honestly
Ko-fi's free plan charges 0% on tips and 5% on memberships. Subscriby's free plan charges 10% on subscriptions, and for that it includes full Telegram automation, access codes, 11 payment gateways and 191 webhook events that make those subscriptions manageable; on Growth the fee falls to 1%.
Crypto payments
Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT, USDC and Litecoin through CoinPayments, and stablecoins through CeyPay, settle into your own wallet with the member admitted the moment the chain confirms, which suits a crypto-native audience that would rather not hand a card to anyone. Ko-fi takes fiat only, through Stripe and PayPal.
Teams with role-based permissions
Ko-fi is built for one creator with one login. Subscriby Growth includes Teams with 81 fine-grained permissions and custom roles, so a community manager, a billing admin and a support agent each sign in with their own account and see exactly what their role allows, with every action in the activity log.
191 webhook events for automation
Ko-fi's webhooks cover a handful of events. Subscriby fires 191 distinct, documented webhook events covering every subscription lifecycle moment, from a member joining to a renewal failing and a payment being recovered, so any external system can react the moment something happens without polling an API.
Access codes for offline and gift subscriptions
Generate single-use or batch codes that subscribers redeem without a card, for gifting, in-person sales, sponsors and markets where cards are uncommon; each code is tied to a plan, expires when you say, and reaches you as a CSV or as one message per code. Ko-fi has no equivalent.
Two-way member support inside the bot
A member who messages your bot reaches you instead of an error: the thread lands in a shared inbox with their plan, join date and payment history, with assignment, notes and saved replies, and your answer arrives in Telegram under your own name, so they know a person read it.
Choose Subscriby if you…
- Creators whose primary revenue is recurring subscriptions, not one-time tips
- Anyone running private Telegram channels or groups who wants full automation
- Creators outside the US/EU who need Razorpay, Paystack, or CeyPay
- Communities wanting crypto or Telegram Stars payment support
- Teams managing multiple projects or communities
Stick with Ko-fi if you…
- Creators whose main income is one-time donations and tips — Ko-fi's 0% fee on tips is genuinely hard to beat for that model.
- Artists, illustrators, and writers with an established Ko-fi audience who browse and discover creators on the platform.
- Creators who want a simple shop, commissions, and goals alongside supporter memberships — Ko-fi handles all of that cleanly.
Common Questions
- Does Ko-fi automate Telegram group access?
- No. Ko-fi has no Telegram integration. You'd need to manually invite and remove members yourself. Subscriby automates every step — unique invite links on signup, removal on cancellation, and renewal tracking.
- How does the free plan compare between Ko-fi and Subscriby?
- Ko-fi's free plan charges 0% on tips but 5% on memberships. Subscriby's free plan charges 10% on all subscriptions. The difference is what you get: Subscriby includes Telegram bot automation, 11 payment gateways, access codes, and 191 webhook events — Ko-fi has none of that.
- Can I accept crypto through Ko-fi?
- No. Ko-fi only supports Stripe and PayPal. Subscriby supports Bitcoin, ETH, USDT, and USDC via CoinPayments plus stablecoins via CeyPay.
- Can I run multiple Telegram communities on Subscriby like multiple Ko-fi pages?
- Yes. Subscriby supports multiple projects in a single account. The free plan gives you 3, Starter 10 and Growth 20, with 12 and 25 on the annual plans.
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