Buy Me a Coffee – Membership, Paywall & Fundraiser with Stripe & PayPal vs Simple Membership

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

A flexible, well-supported, and easy-to-use WordPress membership plugin for offering free and premium content from your WordPress site The simple membership plugin lets you protect your posts and pages so only your members can view the protected content. Unlimited Membership Access Levels Set up unlimited membership levels (example: free, silver, gold etc) and protect your posts and pages using the membership levels you create. Flexible Membership Duration Options Simple Membership supports multiple membership duration models, including: Fixed duration (days, weeks, months, or years) No expiry / until canceled Fixed future expiry date Annual memberships (calendar or fiscal year based) Subscription-driven access Each membership level can be configured independently to match your access rules. User Friendly Interface for Content Protection When you are editing a post or page in the WordPress editor, you can select to protect that post or page for your members. Non-members viewing a protected page will be prompted to log in or become a member. Have Free and Paid Memberships You can configure it to have free and/or paid memberships on your site. Paid membership payment is handled securely via PayPal. Membership payment can also be accepted using Stripe or Braintree payment gateways. Both one time and recurring/subscription payments are supported for PayPal and Stripe. You can accept one time membership payment via Braintree payment gateway. Option to make membership payment buttons using the new PayPal Checkout API. There is also option to use PayPal smart buttons for membership payment. You can enable email activation or email confirmation for the free memberships. Membership Payments Log All the payments from your members are recorded in the plugin. You can view them anytime by visiting the payments menu from the admin dashboard. Developer API There are lots of action and filter hooks that a developer can use to customize the plugin. There is also an API that can be used to query, create, update member accounts. Member Login Widget on The Sidebar You can easily add a member login widget on the sidebar of your site. Simply use the login form shortcode in the sidebar widget. You can also customize the member login widget by creating a custom template file in your theme (or child theme) folder. Option to show a password visibility toggle option in the login form. Documentation Read the setup documentation after you install the plugin to get started. Plugin Support If you encounter any issues with this plugin, please visit our website to post on the support forum or contact us directly. https://simple-membership-plugin.com/ You can create a free forum account to ask your questions. Additional Features Works with any WordPress theme. Ability to protect photo galleries. Ability to protect attachment pages. Show teaser content to convert visitors into members. Comments on your protected posts will also be protected automatically. There is an option to enable debug logging so you can troubleshoot membership payment related issues easily (if any). Ability to customize the content protection message that gets shown to non-members. Ability to partially protect post or page content. You can apply protection to posts and pages in bulk. Ability to use merge vars in the membership email notification. Membership management side is handled by the plugin. Ability to manually approve your members. Ability to import WordPress users as members. Search for a member’s profile in your WP admin dashboard. Filter members list by account status. Filter members list by membership level. Site admins can save private notes about members, providing a convenient way to keep track of important information. Can be translated to any language. Hide the admin toolbar from the frontend of your site. Allow your members to delete their membership accounts. Send quick notification email to your members. Email all members by membership level, with an option to filter by account status. Customize the password reset email for members. Use Google reCAPTCHA on your member registration form. Use Google reCAPTCHA on your member login and password reset form. The login and registration widgets will be responsive if you are using a responsive theme. Ability to restrict the commenting feature on your site to your members only. Front-end member registration page. Front-end member profiles. Front-end member login page. Option to configure after login redirection for members. Option to configure after registration redirect for members. Option to configure after logout redirection for members. Option force the members to use strong password. Option to make the users agree to your terms and conditions before they can register for a member account. Option to make the users agree to your privacy policy before they can register for a member account. Option to hide the registration/join option. Useful if you prefer visitors not to see the registration option on your site. Option to automatically logout the members when they close the browser. Ability to forward the payment notification to an external URL for further processing. Option to configure whitelisting for user email addresses to allow registration only from specific email addresses or email domains. Option to configure blacklisting for user email addresses to block registration from certain email addresses or email domains. Allows you to set an active login limit for members, helping to prevent account sharing. Option to enable and set failed login attempt limit, which helps to protect against brute force attacks. Option to enable login event tracking, allowing you to view the history of member logins. Option to reset the settings and data of the plugin to start fresh. Option to configure PayPal payment buttons for memberships (one-time and recurring payments). Option to configure Stripe payment buttons for memberships (one-time and recurring payments). Option to configure Braintree payment buttons for memberships (one-time payments). Free Social Login addon that lets users log in with their Google or Facebook accounts. The plugin is actively maintained and we are working on new features for the plugin. Browse the plugin documentation to learn more about the features of this plugin. Language Translations The following language translations are already available: English German French Spanish Spanish (Venezuela) Chinese Portuguese (Brazil) Portuguese (Portugal) Swedish Macedonian Polish Turkish Russian Dutch (Netherlands) Dutch (Belgium) Romanian Danish Lithuanian Serbian Japanese Greek Latvian Indonesian Hebrew Catalan Hungarian Bosnian (Bosnia and Herzegovina) Slovak Italian Norwegian Mexican Arabic Czech Finnish You can translate the plugin using the language translation documentation.