Buy Me a Coffee – Membership, Paywall & Fundraiser with Stripe & PayPal vs Mission – Donation Plugin for WordPress – Fundraising & Recurring Donations

User Guide | Demo | Visit Plugin Site Buy Me Coffee is a free WordPress membership plugin, paywall plugin, donation plugin, and creator monetization tool in one lightweight package. Sell paid memberships, protect premium posts and pages, accept tips, collect one-time donations, and run recurring monthly or yearly subscriptions directly through your own Stripe and PayPal accounts — with zero commission and no third-party platform in between. New in 1.2.6: Memberships and content monetization. Create paid membership levels, lock premium posts or pages, show teaser content with a built-in WordPress paywall CTA, and turn readers into paying members without sending them to Patreon, Ko-fi, or an external creator platform. Use it as a self-hosted Patreon alternative, Ko-fi alternative, Buy Me a Coffee alternative, WordPress donation plugin, Stripe donation plugin, PayPal donation plugin, or lightweight membership site plugin. Unlike hosted creator platforms, Buy Me Coffee keeps the payment flow on your WordPress site and sends payments directly to your merchant account. Your supporters pay you — not a middleman. Who Is This For? Buy Me Coffee is built for creators, publishers, educators, nonprofits, and membership site owners who want a direct, self-hosted way to monetize content and accept supporter payments: Bloggers & Writers — Monetize premium articles, paid newsletters, tutorials, and members-only posts Artists & Musicians — Accept donations and one-time tips for your creative work Podcasters & YouTubers — Sell supporter memberships and let your audience support you directly without a middleman Open-Source Developers — Fundraise for your project without a SaaS dependency Nonprofits & Charities — Collect donations with Stripe or PayPal, zero commission Educators & Coaches — Sell paid lessons, course updates, coaching resources, and monthly recurring access Freelancers & Consultants — Let clients or fans tip your work Church & Community Organizations — Accept recurring giving on your own WordPress site Membership Site Owners — Monetize premium posts, tutorials, newsletters, lessons, downloads, or private updates with paid access levels Independent Publishers — Build a lightweight WordPress paywall for subscriber-only content Why Choose Buy Me Coffee? Memberships and content monetization — Create paid membership levels, restrict premium posts, and convert readers into recurring members. Built-in WordPress paywall — Show a preview, then prompt non-members to join with a clean paywall CTA. Zero commission, zero fees — We never take a percentage of your donations. Free means free, forever. Direct payments — Stripe and PayPal deposit funds directly into YOUR bank account. No platform holding your money. No third-party account required — Supporters don’t need to sign up anywhere. They just donate. Self-hosted & private — All donor data stays on your WordPress site. No external tracking, no data harvesting. Recurring subscriptions built-in — Monthly and yearly Stripe subscriptions included free. No paid membership addon required. Modern admin dashboard — A beautiful Vue 3-powered admin panel with dark mode, revenue charts, and activity logs. One-click refunds — Refund any Stripe or PayPal transaction from inside WordPress — no need to log into your gateway dashboard. Full activity logging — Every payment, renewal, cancellation, refund, and webhook event is recorded with a searchable timeline. Key Features Memberships & Content Monetization Turn your WordPress site into a self-hosted membership platform. Create paid membership levels with monthly or yearly pricing, descriptions, and reward bullets. Mark posts or pages as members-only from the editor, choose which membership levels can access each piece of content, and show non-members a word-limited preview followed by a polished paywall CTA. Active members get access automatically based on their subscription status. WordPress Paywall for Premium Content Protect blog posts, pages, tutorials, newsletters, lessons, downloads, private updates, or creator-only resources. Use teaser content to improve conversions, then send visitors straight into the membership checkout flow with the selected level and return URL. Accept Donations via Stripe & PayPal On-site Stripe checkout and PayPal integration let your visitors donate or subscribe without ever leaving your website. Supports 135+ currencies via Stripe and 20+ via PayPal. Credit cards, debit cards, Apple Pay, and Google Pay — whatever your visitors prefer. Recurring Monthly & Yearly Subscriptions (Stripe) Let your supporters become long-term monthly or yearly members with Stripe recurring subscriptions. Full lifecycle management is included: automatic renewals via webhook, admin cancellation from WordPress, subscription status tracking, and a dedicated subscriber account page. No paid addon required. Membership Members Dashboard Manage active members from a dedicated Memberships screen. Search members by name or email, review their level, billing interval, renewal date, and subscription status, then jump directly to subscription details or cancel a membership when needed. No WooCommerce Required Run paid content, supporter subscriptions, donation forms, and membership checkout without installing WooCommerce or a heavy LMS. Buy Me Coffee is built for creators who want a focused monetization workflow. Supporter Wall & Donor Leaderboard Display a beautiful ranked leaderboard of your top donors on any page with the [buymecoffee_supporters] shortcode. Gold, silver, and bronze badges highlight your top 3 supporters. Choose which fields to display (name, avatar, amount, message) from the admin settings. Gutenberg Block & Shortcodes Add a donation button, inline donation form, or full donation page anywhere on your site using the native Gutenberg block or classic-editor shortcodes: [buymecoffee_button] — Donation button that opens a modal or links to your donation page [buymecoffee_form] — Inline donation form embedded on any post or page [buymecoffee_basic] — Full-page donation template with banner, profile, supporter wall, and form [buymecoffee_supporters] — Public supporter wall / ranked donor leaderboard [buymecoffee_account] — Subscriber self-service dashboard for logged-in recurring supporters One-Click Refunds Issue full refunds for Stripe and PayPal transactions directly from your WordPress admin. A confirmation modal displays transaction details and live gateway response — no need to visit your Stripe or PayPal dashboard. Subscriber Account Page Recurring supporters are optionally assigned a WordPress user account linked to their subscription. Place the [buymecoffee_account] shortcode on any page to give them a self-service dashboard showing active subscriptions, billing history, and payment status. Complete Activity Logging Every event is logged — payments, refunds, subscription renewals, cancellations, webhook events, and outgoing emails. Each supporter and subscription has its own chronological activity timeline. A global Activity Log page provides a filterable, paginated view across your entire donation history. Email Notifications Automatically send a branded thank-you email to donors after every successful payment, and receive an admin notification for each new donation. Both templates are fully customizable with dynamic placeholders: {{donor_name}}, {{amount}}, {{payment_method}}, and more. Supporters Admin Hub A dedicated admin hub with everything in one place: Metric cards — Total supporters, lifetime revenue, active subscribers, average donation amount Top supporters ranking — Your highest-value donors at a glance Configurable display settings — Control exactly what appears on the public supporter wall Shortcode documentation — Copy-paste shortcodes with descriptions, inline in the admin Privacy controls — Mask email addresses, allow anonymous donations, hide donor amounts Customizable Donation Page Appearance Personalize your donation page with a profile image, banner photo, brand accent color, and a custom quote. A live preview updates in real time as you make changes. Styling uses CSS custom properties — no bloated override rules. Modern Vue 3 Admin Panel The entire admin interface is a single-page application built with Vue 3, featuring sidebar navigation, breadcrumbs, a revenue chart dashboard, dark mode with system theme detection, and a responsive layout that works on desktop and mobile. WordPress Multisite Compatible Activate network-wide on WordPress Multisite — each site gets its own isolated tables, supporter records, and plugin settings. Guided Quick Setup Wizard A 5-step onboarding wizard (Welcome → Profile → Form → Payment → Launch) gets you from zero to accepting donations in under two minutes. Includes Stripe API key verification and PayPal credentials setup. Test Mode & Safe Data Reset Switch between Stripe test mode and live mode without changing your configuration. A “Delete all test data” button removes test transactions, supporters, and subscriptions in one click so your dashboard stays clean. Compare: Buy Me Coffee vs. Membership, Donation & Creator Platforms Buy Me Coffee is built for direct, self-hosted WordPress monetization instead of routing supporters through an external platform. Commission: Buy Me Coffee takes 0%. Official Buy Me a Coffee takes a platform fee. GiveWP Free takes 0%. Ko-fi may charge platform fees for some features. Payment routing: Buy Me Coffee sends payments directly to your Stripe or PayPal account. Official Buy Me a Coffee routes payments through its platform. GiveWP routes payments directly. Ko-fi routes payments through Ko-fi. Content monetization: Buy Me Coffee includes paid membership levels, members-only content controls, and a built-in WordPress paywall CTA for premium posts and pages. Recurring subscriptions: Buy Me Coffee includes Stripe subscriptions free. Official Buy Me a Coffee requires a paid plan. GiveWP requires a paid addon. Ko-fi subscriptions stay on Ko-fi. Admin refunds: Buy Me Coffee supports Stripe and PayPal refunds from WordPress. The compared free alternatives do not include the same built-in WordPress refund workflow. Activity logging: Buy Me Coffee includes a full payment, refund, subscription, webhook, and email event log. Supporter wall: Buy Me Coffee includes a built-in [buymecoffee_supporters] shortcode. Admin UI: Buy Me Coffee uses a modern Vue-powered WordPress admin screen with dark mode. Data storage: Buy Me Coffee stores supporter and payment records on your WordPress site. Price: Buy Me Coffee is free forever with no plugin commission. Get Started in 2 Minutes Install and activate the plugin from the WordPress plugin directory Run the Quick Setup wizard (Dashboard → Buy Me Coffee → Quick Setup) Connect your Stripe or PayPal account in Settings Create membership levels if you want to monetize premium content Mark posts or pages as Paid and choose allowed membership levels Add [buymecoffee_button], [buymecoffee_form], or [buymecoffee_basic] anywhere on your site Start receiving memberships, donations, tips, and subscriptions directly to your account — zero commission

Mission is a free WordPress donation plugin built for nonprofits. Accept one-time and recurring donations, let supporters fundraise for you with peer-to-peer crowdfunding campaigns, manage donors and campaigns, give your supporters a self-service dashboard, and track everything from a modern admin, without paying for a single add-on. Most donation plugins lock the features you actually need behind a paid tier. Recurring donations? Add-on. Custom fields? Add-on. Peer-to-peer fundraising? That one costs hundreds per year. Donor dashboards, fee recovery, exports? Add-on, add-on, add-on. Mission takes a different approach: every feature ships in the free plugin, and we’re funded by an optional tip donors can choose to add at checkout. Donors can change the tip, lower it, or set it to zero. 100% of the donation amount always reaches your nonprofit. The result is a donation platform that grows with your organization without surprise upgrade prompts. The plugin you install today is the plugin handling your donations next year, with no upsell screens between you and your supporters. ✨ Why Mission No paid add-ons. Ever. Recurring donations, peer-to-peer fundraising, donor dashboards, campaign management, custom fields, tribute donations, fee recovery, exports, activity logs. All included in the free plugin. There is no “Mission Pro” version, no premium tier, and no upsell at checkout. Modern donation forms that convert. Multi-step forms with suggested amounts, custom amounts, tribute dedications, anonymous donations, optional fee recovery. Built to feel quick and trustworthy on every device. Built for performance. The donation form is built on the WordPress Interactivity API, so there’s no React on the public-facing site, no bloated JavaScript, and fast page loads for your donors. Donor data lives in dedicated database tables, not post meta, so reporting stays fast as your donor list grows into the thousands. 💝 Powerful donation forms The Donation Form block can be dropped into any post, page, or campaign. Configure it once and it adapts to your campaign and your brand: Suggested amounts and an optional custom-amount field, configured per frequency One-time and recurring giving (weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually), with per-form control over which frequencies to offer Multi-step layout that keeps the donor focused Cover-the-fees option lets donors absorb processing fees so 100% of their donation reaches your cause Anonymous donation toggle Tribute and memorial dedications, with an optional notification email to the honoree Custom fields per form: text, textarea, select, multiselect, radio, checkbox Built-in client and server-side validation Low-specificity CSS with no !important rules so themes can restyle freely 🔁 Recurring donations included free Recurring donations are the single biggest revenue lever for nonprofits, and they’re the feature other plugins charge extra for. Mission ships them free: Weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual frequencies Automatic renewal with retry on failure Donor self-service: pause, resume, or cancel from the donor dashboard Renewal history tracked per subscription Email notifications for renewals, cancellations, and failed payments Admin controls to pause, resume, cancel, or retry any subscription 👥 A donor dashboard your supporters will actually use Drop the Donor Dashboard block on any page and your supporters get a self-service portal. They can: See a complete donation history Manage recurring donations: pause, resume, or cancel without contacting you Download a receipt for any donation Update their profile and email address Sign in with a magic-link email, so there’s no password to forget Every action your donors can take in the dashboard is one less email in your inbox. 🎯 Campaign management Run a single ongoing campaign or dozens of named campaigns side by side: Set goals by total raised, donation count, or unique donor count Auto-generated campaign pages built on the WordPress block editor Start and end dates per campaign Active, draft, and archived statuses Real-time aggregates that update as donations complete Mission ships twelve campaign and donation blocks: donation form, donate button, campaign card, campaign grid, campaign image, campaign description, campaign progress bar, campaign statistic, donor wall, recent donors, top donors, and donor dashboard. Mix and match them to build campaign pages that match your brand. Not using the block editor? Every block has a shortcode equivalent that works in page builders like Elementor and Bricks. 🤝 Peer-to-peer fundraising Let your supporters fundraise for you. Mark a campaign as peer-to-peer and anyone can sign up, on their own or as part of a team, and get a personal crowdfunding page to share: Supporters sign up right on the campaign page, verify their email, and their page is live in minutes Personal pages with a story, cover photo, goal, and live progress bar Teams, with captains who can invite members by email, keep the team private, promote a new captain, and manage the roster Approve every sign-up manually, or let pages go live instantly A fundraiser dashboard where participants edit their page, track progress, see their donors, and grab share links Donations automatically credit the fundraiser and their team, including recurring renewals Milestone emails celebrate 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% of each fundraiser’s goal Twelve more blocks for fundraiser and team pages, including Top Fundraisers and Top Teams leaderboards, with both page layouts editable as Site Editor templates Peer-to-peer crowdfunding is the feature other donation platforms charge hundreds of dollars a year for. In Mission it’s free, like everything else. 📊 Reports and exports you can actually use The admin dashboard surfaces what fundraisers care about: total revenue, donation count, average donation, repeat donor count, top donor, and month-over-month growth, in test and live modes side by side. Need the data outside WordPress? Export donors, transactions, campaigns, and subscriptions to CSV or JSON in a single click. A built-in activity log records every donation, refund, subscription event, webhook, email, and admin action with a 90-day retention window so you can audit anything that happened on your site. 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Who Mission is for Mission is built to fit any organization or individual raising money online: Nonprofits and charities Foundations, clubs, and NGOs Churches and faith communities Schools, PTAs, and education nonprofits Political campaigns and advocacy groups Community groups and mutual aid funds Individuals crowdfunding for a specific cause 🫙 How the optional tip model works Mission is funded by donor tips, not by selling features. Here’s exactly how that works: At checkout, donors see a small optional tip alongside their donation amount. The tip is preselected at a small percentage by default. Donors can change it, lower it, or set it to zero. 100% of the donation amount goes to your connected Stripe account. Prefer a flat platform fee instead of donor tips? You can switch to a fixed 3% platform fee per form. Source Code The full, unminified source code for this plugin is publicly available on GitHub at https://github.com/mission-wp/mission See the README in the repository for full development setup, contribution guidelines, and a description of the build pipeline. External Services This plugin connects to the following third-party services: Stripe processes donations. Payment data is sent from the donor’s browser to Stripe via Stripe.js, and Stripe sends webhook notifications back for payment, refund, and subscription events. See Stripe’s Terms and Privacy Policy. Mission API proxies Stripe Connect onboarding, payment requests, and webhook forwarding to your site. If you opt in to feature notifications under Tools > Features, your email is also sent here. See Mission’s Terms and Privacy Policy. Gravatar supplies donor avatars in the admin and on the Donor Wall block. Email addresses are hashed before being sent. See Gravatar’s Terms and Privacy Policy.