How to Accept Tips on Your Own Domain

Short answer on Buy Me a Coffee: no custom domains. Its own comparison page sums up the deal as "No hosting. No custom domains." Your page lives at buymeacoffee.com/you. Ko-fi and Patreon pages live on their sites too.

That is fine for most people. But if you want supporters to tip you at yourname.com, here are the real options, from cheapest to most yours.

Why bother with your own domain?

• It outlives the tool. Link in bio tools and creator platforms close or change terms; Bento and Tap Bio did. A domain you own can point somewhere new in minutes.
• Trust. Paying on yourname.com feels like paying you.
• One address. The same domain on your card, your podcast and your bio.

Option 1: forward a domain to your tip page

At your registrar, forward tips.yourname.com to buymeacoffee.com/you. Free, five minutes.

What you get: an address you control and can repoint later. What you do not: your domain on the page. A forward is a redirect, so the browser ends up on buymeacoffee.com.

Option 2: embed a widget on a site you already have

Buy Me a Coffee's help center describes website buttons and widgets: buttons link to your page, and widgets let supporters give without leaving your site. Ko-fi offers an embed too. If you already run a site (WordPress, Ghost, a static site), this is the quickest way to take tips on it.

The trade-off: you need that site, and its upkeep, in the first place.

Option 3: your own Stripe Payment Link

Stripe lets you make a payment link and put it on any page. You are the seller and pay Stripe's processing fees, 2.9% + 30¢ on US cards per Stripe's pricing, with no platform fee. But you build the page, the thank-you, the supporter list and the monthly options yourself.

Option 4: a support button on a page you own

This is the gap makerhandle's support button fills. On Pro your whole page lives on your custom domain, such as yourname.com or links.yourname.com, with SSL handled for you, and the button is on it:

• Today, on every plan: the button opens your Buy Me a Coffee, Ko-fi, Patreon or GitHub Sponsors page. Your domain is the front door; payment happens there.
• Built in: one-time support and monthly memberships through Stripe Checkout, paid into your own Stripe account, with a supporters wall and thank-you page on your page. 0% platform fee on Pro, 5% on Free, plus Stripe's processing fees. It is opening to makers in stages.

Pro is $20 a year, and the domain stays at your own registrar. If you ever leave, you change one DNS record. The DNS steps are in connecting a custom domain to your link in bio.

Which should you pick?

• You just want a nicer address: forward a domain. Free.
• You already run a website: embed a widget, or add a Stripe Payment Link.
• You do not want to run a website: a page with a support button on your own domain. It is one page to keep, not a site.

Whatever you choose, the cheapest move is the same: buy the domain now, and point it at whatever you use today. The address on your cards never has to change again.