For creators looking to crowdfund, Buy Me a Coffee and Kickstarter are two names that pop up almost immediately. Both help you fund your creative projects, but the mechanics vary drastically. One has a very definite process and goal in place, while the other lends you more flexibility.
Here’s a closer look at how each works, so you can choose the one that fits your workflow the best.
Getting started
Who is it for
It isn’t for all creators. It is made for creators whose work can fit into one of the 15 main categories listed on their page. So, the first step in checking if Kickstarter is for you is to see if your project fits here.
It also needs to be a specific creative project with a clear outcome. You’re not really raising money for “your work” in general. You’re raising money to make a particular thing happen.
Buy Me a Coffee, on the other hand, welcomes creators of all kinds. You do not have to fit into a box to belong there. Whether you’re a writer, artist, musician, developer, podcaster, or another kind of creator, you can use your page to collect support for what you’re working on.
How to set up your page
As hinted before, there’s a process in place to get started. A quite rigid one.
Kickstarter works on a campaign basis. Your campaign needs to have a definite funding goal, which is the amount it takes to bring your project to life. It also needs to include things like prototypes, samples, images or other material that’ll give backers an idea of what you’re aiming to create.
Creators can also add reward levels for backers who decide to pledge a specific amount. Your campaign needs an end date too, and can run anywhere between 1 and 60 days.
And before any of this goes live, Kickstarter reviews your submission. They can ask you to make changes, or decide that the project doesn’t meet their requirements. So, submitting a project doesn’t automatically mean it gets to go live.
With Buy Me a Coffee, you don’t have to build a campaign around all of these requirements. You can create your page, tell people what you’re working on, and start sharing it with your audience.
When do you get to keep the money
Kickstarter works on an all-or-nothing model. Backers pledge money to your campaign and get charged only if the campaign target amount is met. So if your campaign falls short even by a dollar, no one’s charged and you don’t receive the funds.
While it’s understandable that this gives backers some stability, for creators it means you need to reach the target you’ve set before any of that money becomes yours to use for the project.
With Buy Me a Coffee, there isn’t an all-or-nothing funding requirement. Someone can send you support today, even if you haven’t reached a particular target, and you can continue collecting support as your project progresses.
You can also set a funding goal on Buy Me a Coffee if you have a specific amount you’re trying to raise. The difference is that you don’t have to reach it before you can use the support you’ve already received.
Start from 0, every time
There’s another part of crowdfunding that doesn’t get talked about enough: what happens when the campaign is over?
Every Kickstarter campaign has a beginning and an end. You build the page, write the copy, put together your reward tiers, and spend the campaign period getting people to back it. Once the campaign is over, the focus shifts to actually making the thing and fulfilling the rewards.
If you want to crowdfund another project later, you have to launch another campaign.
That doesn’t mean you literally lose your audience every time. Creators can build a following on Kickstarter, and previous backers can be notified when a creator launches a new project. But the fundraising itself is still tied to individual campaigns.
Buy Me a Coffee works a little differently because your page doesn’t disappear when one project is over. The same page can stay with you as you move from one project to the next.
Someone who found you because of one project can still support you when you’re working on something completely different. You don’t have to start another campaign every time you have something new you want to make.
More than one way to earn
Kickstarter has one main income mechanism: the campaign pledge. Everything a backer gives you is tied to a project, a reward tier, and a deadline. Outside of a live campaign, there isn’t really anything else to earn from on the platform.
Buy Me a Coffee is built to support creators in more than one way. You can share your page anywhere you post and receive one-time support from your audience. You can also add a funding goal if you’re raising money for a specific purpose. Then there are membership tiers, where you can offer different content and perks to your members. And there’s Shop, which lets you sell things ranging from digital products to services.
So even if you’re not working on something that can be turned into a Kickstarter campaign, you still have ways to earn from the people who want to support your work.
The relationship is less transactional as well. With Kickstarter, a pledge is usually tied to something specific. A backer gives you money towards a particular project and, depending on the reward they choose, expects something in return. On Buy Me a Coffee, someone can support you simply because they like what you make. They don’t have to wait for a new project to launch, and you don’t have to promise them something in return.
So, Buy Me a Coffee or Kickstarter?
Most creators wait longer than they should to start earning from their work. They’re waiting until the project is finished, until the audience is bigger, until there’s something polished enough to put behind a paywall. The campaign model reinforces this. It demands a finished pitch, a compelling video, a fully formed reward structure, before a single dollar can come in.
Buy Me a Coffee removes that barrier. You don’t need a funding goal or a deadline or a project ready to launch. You need a page that tells people what you make and gives them a way to support it. That takes five minutes to set up and starts working the moment you share it.
