
Show HN: Buy Me A Coffee – A free, fast and friendly way to receive donations - josephsunny
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/
======
dulse
Looks good. Few notes:

1\. During sign up, I'm super confused why you have to set up anything related
to payout before setting up your coffee page -- this is inverted to the way it
should be. Get them the page as soon as possible and let them share and accept
donations, then IF (big if, I bet the median amount raised is $0) they have a
literal financial incentive to set up their friction-filled payout form
process. If you're too worried about things going viral, then set a limit
(e.g., if after $600 raised they don't have payout set up, e-mail them saying
the page will stop being public until they set up payout).

2\. You should curate your "creators we love" page. I hit explore and found a
softcore instagram BDSM model as the first hit, and a page with a lot of
comments about foot fetishes. Probably not the content you want to call out as
one of the companies favorites. I would actually look at all the ones you
rotate on that page and make sure they are on brand.

There are some tactical things (eg, the dropdown for country should have USA
at the top, assuming thats where most of your users are) but those micro
optimizations won't matter if you just re-arrange the info gathering to after
the delivery of value.

#1 is will going to totally change your funnel in an important way -- I'd try
it out!

Good luck!

~~~
ascorbic
> Dropdown for country should have USA at the top.

Better, have it in regular order but pre-select with geolocation. If you use
something like freegeoip.net you can progressively-enhance this with a couple
of lines of JS.

~~~
josephsunny
Quick update: We've pushed this feature live. Thanks!

------
patja
I feel this is unintentionally going to the lowest end of this space with the
whole "buy me a coffee" message and brand.

I run a site which is 100% monetized through voluntary donations and I would
never use language like buy me a beer/buy me a coffee for it. It feels like
you are marginalizing your work to the hobby/side-project realm with low
expectations. We strive for $40 a year as a target donation from those who use
our site, which is a lot more than a coffee.

~~~
josephsunny
I'm sorry you feel that way, but I disagree. Creators, charities and public
figures of all sizes and type use BuyMeACoffee to receive support.

William LeGate, an activist (#boycottNRA) used BuyMeACoffee just yesterday to
raise $2500 in less than an hour:
[https://twitter.com/williamlegate/status/968630079285686273](https://twitter.com/williamlegate/status/968630079285686273)

It exceeded all his expectations, and I think the branding and it's friendly
tone went a long way in achieving it.

~~~
masukomi
there's a difference between getting people to say _right now i need you all
to "buy me a coffee"_ and getting the same people to buy you a coffee on a
repeated basis.

I need help now != support my ongoing work on x

my point being, that it's irrelevant that William got $2500 fast. the question
is how many people on the platform have been able to earn anything more than
just a random occasional tip on it? Is anyone getting even "poverty level"
worth of donations (~12k in the US because our gov't has no concept of how
much things cost).

~~~
josephsunny
You'll be surprised.

Meet Jo Qatana. A small-time embroidery artist who's making ends meet with
BuyMeACoffee. She's one such creator who's receiving donations from her
audience on a regular basis.

"Thanks to the Generosity of Strangers, and Friends, I've made a car insurance
payment and can finally buy the supplies I need for my @PPact fundraising
item. I am So Very Grateful." \-
[https://twitter.com/joqatana/status/951943659301187584](https://twitter.com/joqatana/status/951943659301187584)

'Buy Me A Coffee' is just a friendly way to ask for support, and do not
suggest the size or consistency of support one could receive. Contributions
very well depend on one's audience and creativity.

------
Sir_Cmpwn
If anyone would like a similar self-hosted/FOSS option, I wrote this:

[https://github.com/SirCmpwn/fosspay](https://github.com/SirCmpwn/fosspay)

I use it here:

[https://drewdevault.com/donate](https://drewdevault.com/donate)

Another instance in the wild:

[https://donate.mastodon.club/](https://donate.mastodon.club/)

~~~
abetusk
I'm sorry but this is so clearly a much better step in the right direction. As
slick as the 'buy me a coffee' site is and as nice as Patreon is, I can't help
shake the feeling that it's only a matter of time before the company goes
under, or they sell my data, or they engage in other shady shenanigans.

I would trust a 'buy me a coffee' site so much more if it were managed by
somone like Sir_Cmpwn with a FOSS backed system. I wish we would start moving
more towards FOSS infrastructure.

Why FOSS isn't the norm, especially for systems dealing with money, is beyond
me.

------
delgaudm
I signed up, and it looks good.
[https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BoothJunkie](https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BoothJunkie)

My feedback:

I've been using paypal.me, and the ability to change the donation at the URL
has been incredibly helpful towards getting patrons to choose an amount that
suits them. I suggest $X but they are free to change, and it's super easy.
Often patrons up the number and I get more donations. I'm not convinced the
multiplier buttons do the same thing.

Further that URL bit allows me to suggest different donation amounts to
different patrons. If I offer someone tech support I might sent a link with
/10 or /20 at the end, others who I just answer a quick question might get a
/2 at the end. It allows me to suggest amounts on the fly based on our
relationship.

But on BMC, I see that I have to pre-guess a donation amount and run the risk
of alienating donor with an amount that's too high (they don't donate), or
leaving money on the table by choosing too low. I've definitely had donors
give more than 5X my suggestion.

Giving the donor agency in selecting an amount may help in gaining more
overall donation.

~~~
jjjensen90
Are you the Mike DelGaudio who contributes to the NoSleep Podcast?! If so,
I've listened to your voice acting for hundreds of hours... HN never ceases to
amaze me for bringing dialogue from people you would never expect to run in
to.

But on topic, I agree with your feedback. I run a volunteer video game project
with about 8000 users who are pretty active and also come from a huge variety
of economic situations. Right now I don't ask for donations but I've been
considering the best way to do it without it in any way appearing to be a fee
or charge for the project. I've considered using paypal.me and really like the
URL based system for donation amounts. I love the idea of BMC because it
targets exactly what I want to express--give something back but you aren't
buying a product or special treatment.

~~~
delgaudm
> Are you the Mike DelGaudio who contributes to the NoSleep Podcast?

I am! Thank you so much for listening! It's such a blast to do!

------
josephsunny
BuyMeACoffee.com co-founder here. BMC is a friendly way for creators
(bloggers, artists, developers) to receive donations from their audience.

We have seen the platform used in ways we never imagined. William LeGate, an
activist (boycottNRA) used BuyMeACoffee just yesterday to raise $2500 in less
than an hour:
[https://twitter.com/williamlegate/status/968630079285686273](https://twitter.com/williamlegate/status/968630079285686273)

Check out some 'Buy Me A Coffee' pages:

[https://buymeacoff.ee/kriswolf](https://buymeacoff.ee/kriswolf)

[https://www.buymeacoffee.com/joqatana](https://www.buymeacoffee.com/joqatana)

FEATURES:

\- Exclusive content: Publish supporter-only content on your BuyMeACoffee page
to encourage more donations.

– Multiple payment/payout options: Paypal and Stripe (direct bank transfer).

– One-click payment for supporters.

– Showcase your goals and comments left by other supporters.

– Beautiful (and customizable) 'Buy me a coffee' button to embed on websites +
Wordpress plugin with widgets and stats
([https://wordpress.org/plugins/buymeacoffee/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/buymeacoffee/)).

– Domain name. They say the domain speaks for itself ;)

– In the pipeline: Cryptocurrency Wix and Weebly plugin, more payment options
(Bitcoin, Apple Pay, Android Pay), referral program and much more.

We are waiving the 5% platform fee for HN users for LIFETIME! We'd also love
to be your first supporter. Tweet
([https://twitter.com/TheBuyMeACoffee](https://twitter.com/TheBuyMeACoffee))
or reply here with your beautiful ‘Buy Me A Coffee’ link (takes less than a
minute to set up) to claim it.

Let us know what you think :) Cheers!

~~~
scrollaway
> _We are waiving the 5% platform fee for HN users for LIFETIME!_

You're crazy :) But ok!
[https://buymeacoff.ee/jleclanche](https://buymeacoff.ee/jleclanche)

Feedback:

1\. My avatar wasn't picked up from Facebook, nor Gravatar. My email wasn't
either. I think it's OK for you to request these from Facebook.

2\. Recommended payout method was "Stripe" for me even though it was disabled
due to not being available in my country.

3\. Add an optional "Tell us why" textbox when I click "Delete my account".
Seriously, do this early. :)

4\. I see you are using Stripe Checkout.js for payment methods. Switch to
Stripe Elements ([https://stripe.com/elements](https://stripe.com/elements))
and the Source API to get the option to support a range of other payment
methods as well as 3d secure and such.

5\. What's your stack?

~~~
swastika
> Recommended payout method was "Stripe" for me even though it was disabled
> due to not being available in my country.

This is a good catch! The problem though is BMC will now have to keep the
country data updated from Stripe, unless Stripe provides it over their API

~~~
scrollaway
I meant during onboarding, Stripe was showing up as both disabled _and_
recommended.

------
songzme
Signed up for my non-profit, the onboarding flow was simple and fast:
[https://www.buymeacoffee.com/LlcnOfXiu](https://www.buymeacoffee.com/LlcnOfXiu)

However, I have a few pointers. During the onboarding flow, I had to fill out
the title, description, image / videos. It would be nice to see a layout of
how the page would look like so I can determine how these information would be
presented to the public and then fill it out according (how much to write,
what to write, etc.)

In the description, adding url links felt a little clunky. It seems that only
single words could be linked, whereas the expected experience is to be able to
link multiple words at once.

Looking at my created page, I could publish updates. This was a pleasant
surprise because I came in expecting a static page. Do you see non-profits as
a target audience?

Good Job, I like the product. It feels simple.

~~~
josephsunny
Welcome to BuyMeACoffee, @songsze. Good to see that you already started
receiving coffees :)

\- Thanks for the suggestion. Our intention is to make the onboarding process
as straightforward as possible and we will look into this. That hyperlink
issue could be a glitch. I've added to our Trello. Thanks for noticing.

\- Glad you liked the updates features. Tip: You can publish exclusive content
for your supporters, that's only visible to them after buying you a coffee.

\- Yes, very much. Several non-profits are already using BuyMeACoffee to raise
money. One such is called LittleHandsBigHearts, a small group of people
passionate about helping those less fortunate than ourselves on the Island of
Bali:
[https://www.buymeacoffee.com/v4J21UB](https://www.buymeacoffee.com/v4J21UB)

~~~
softawre
Just want to say that giving many examples of users of your site with links as
replies is a genius way to show off your existing customers. It doesn't feel
like spam, more like examples with proof. Good luck!

~~~
josephsunny
Thank you :)

------
adventured
I like the site, I appreciate that it's straight-forward and simple, as it
should be. A lot of Show HN's come out of the gate getting that wrong.

I found this section in the FAQ confusing, about what BMC charges:

"BuyMeACoffee is 100% free and do not charge a monthly fee or a percentage of
the donation. We plan to charge a 5% platform fee in the future to support
future development and expansion. So when a creator receives $100 from
supporters, BMC will earn a $5 platform fee. However, rest assured that all
our existing users (like you) won’t be charged, ever."

100% free. We plan to charge a 5% platform fee (what the hell is a platform
fee). All our existing users won't be charged, ever.

What? That's an extremely poorly structured explanation on something that
absolutely must be crystal clear (given it's core to what you're doing).

~~~
josephsunny
First off, thank you for the kind words.

That FAQ section was recently updated to make more clarity on the subject (the
irony!). I'll definitely bring this up in the next brainstorming session and
improve it.

To clarify, platform fee is the small cut platforms take for providing the
service (such as Patreon's 5% cut). BuyMeACoffee is 100% free for all its
early users, and forever will be.

~~~
xn
Is the donor charged a different amount based on whether they pay through
Stripe or Paypal?

If I go to donate $5 at
[https://www.buymeacoffee.com/xn](https://www.buymeacoffee.com/xn), it looks
like I'll be $5 if I pay through Stripe with a credit card, and $5.45 if I pay
using PayPal:

[https://gist.github.com/cwarden/4df8d8a5df0ff010e39d810f58ec...](https://gist.github.com/cwarden/4df8d8a5df0ff010e39d810f58ec7092)

~~~
josephsunny
Both Stripe and Paypal charge a small processing fee (2.9% + 30 cents).

~~~
xn
In most cases, that charge isn't passed on to the buyer/donor. When it is, it
should be made explicit.

Nonprofits sometimes make it an option, e.g. "Add 3% to your donation to help
offset credit card processing fees".

~~~
josephsunny
Noted. Thank you, @xn.

------
phnofive
Seems very similar to [https://ko-fi.com](https://ko-fi.com) \- any contrast
we should recognize?

~~~
josephsunny
Yes, we are similar in branding :) Ko-fi is a good old product! Here's what we
do differently: Multiple payout option (Paypal and Stripe), Exclusive content
(gift your supporters with exclusive rewards to encourage more donations),
official Wordpress plugin, customizable coffee amount ($3, $4 or $5) and much
more.

------
ivanche
My feedback:

1\. "Create your button" seems to have a problem. When I click "Copy HTML
Code" or "Copy Image Code" text changes to Copied! but actually _doesn 't_
copy anything to clipboard. Windows 10, Firefox 55, uBlock Origin. I also
tried without uBlock and it's the same. I think it would be better that the
code is actually shown on the form (because I can copy paste it manually
then).

2\. Edit page, picture choosing - I've chosen a picture which looked OK but
after clicking "Save changes" the picture's width/height ratio is changed (it
was streched horizontally). So I had to manually resize it in Paint.NET and
then upload again. It'd be helpful if some info is added that the picture
should have equal height and width.

3\. During signup, after presenting the choice of Stripe and PayPal I was
confused. My thought process: why I need to choose between Stripe and PayPal?
Would you just generate Buy Now button? Will I have to open Stripe account? If
somebody wants to donate will he have to have PayPal/Stripe also? At the end
I've chosen PayPal. It seems to me this step can be skipped completely and be
done after the first donation is received.

All in all, excellent job! Good luck!

~~~
josephsunny
Thanks for taking time to write such comprehensive feedback!

1\. We were unable to replicate this, but there's the possibility for a
compatibility issue. Thanks for noticing.

2\. You're right; it can be improved. Noted.

3\. I think improving the copy on that page will go a long way in solving the
confusion. Currently, it is required for creators to choose a payout method to
make the page public. We are using Stripe Connect to facilitate instant
payments for creators who select Stripe.

So let's say a user did not choose a payout method and started receiving
coffees. After receiving a coffee or two, he wanted to use Stripe connect. In
this case, we will have to manually pay out his donations thus far before
connecting his account to Stripe (and what if it's less than the Paypal
minimum threshold of $10?).

For a platform that's trying to keep things simple and straightforward, that'd
be a whole lot of complications and manual work :) However, I understand that
this is not reason enough to ignore a critical UX concern. We'll try our best
to come up with something that's efficient and straightforward.

Cheers!

------
kqr
The way I understand your profit model is that you are, essentially, trying to
undercut the competition by operating at a loss until the amount of clients
you have surpasses some undisclosed number (or your initial capital runs
low?), at which point new customers will have to pay the market rate for your
service, and your initial customers still don't pay anything?

If you make it far enough to start charging for your services, what incentive
do you have to give the initial customers the same level of service as the
paying ones?

I hope you understand I'm just expressing a healthy level of skepticism, not
trying to degrade what looks like an awesome service.

~~~
josephsunny
Very good question, @kqr. Unlike our competitors, BuyMeACoffee is catering to
small and big creators alike. Even if we waive the platform fee for the first
100k creators, there is still room for us to make money as there are millions
of creators online. By making the entry barrier low, we are hoping to attract
the maximum number of creators and initiate a network effect. 90% of our
existing users are referred by other creators, directly or from their
promotions :)

~~~
kqr
I probably don't understand quite what you are getting at. If you bear with
me, I have an easier time with concrete examples: if I sign up now, and in two
years' time, Steve signed up as part of the post-critical mass. So I bring in
$0 to you while using your infrastructure, and Steve is also a smallish
creator using the infrastructure just as much as me, but bringing in, say, $8
per month, on average.

If Steve and I both have trouble, it would make business to prioritise helping
Steve, in order to be able to afford helping me, but I'd still be a second-
tier user.

Why should I believe this will not be the case?

~~~
josephsunny
Thanks for taking time to explain your point. I understand what you mean.

As a consumer product marketed towards masses, it is highly improbable that
there will ever occur an event when we have to prioritize one type of users
over another.

Also, it is wrong to think that creators who we don't charge a platform fee
are not valuable to us. Like I mentioned in my previous comment, BuyMeACoffee
has an innate virality where each creator who shares his BMC link attract more
creators to join the platform, making all our users more or less equally
valuable. Does that make sense? I hope this answers your question.

~~~
kqr
Thank you for the response. The reason I'm insistent is that I've been looking
for something just like BuyMeACoff.ee, and when things show up and appear
perfect at no or nearly no cost I get suspicious! But looks like you have a
good thing going. :)

------
Xeoncross
If anyone is interested, I just made a simple, free donation platform for
Stellar Lumens (XLM) cryptocurrency. No registration required and anonymous
since it reads directly from the blockchain for the data.

[http://xlm.party/](http://xlm.party/)

~~~
StavrosK
I love the style. Can you put a demo "donate to me" (the actual you, the
creator of the service) button so we can see the flow and/or donate?

~~~
Xeoncross
Thank you! At the bottom of the page is a non-obvious demo to my actual
account
([http://xlm.party/payments/GAATDRK3ZM2HJOYBADJTT3S6QZP7QLXK75...](http://xlm.party/payments/GAATDRK3ZM2HJOYBADJTT3S6QZP7QLXK75SQUWVW4CZGX2NILISYKUPK/200))
and you can generate fake demo donations by appending
`?generate_donations=true` to the URL.

The great theme is by [https://html5up.net/](https://html5up.net/) which is a
nice resource for free themes.

~~~
StavrosK
Oh nice, thanks for that! html5up.net is great indeed, I've used them in the
past, though I didn't realize this theme was by them. Good job integrating it
well!

------
jiojfekjl
I'm a musician who gives their work away for free. I'm intrigued by this. I
don't make a living off my music, but I have a small following that supports
me in small ways (5 bucks here, 10 bucks there).

Can you tell me what the difference is between using this and say, using a
paypal donation button? If I use your product, aren't I being charged twice,
since you take a cut, and so does paypal / stripe?

~~~
josephsunny
Hi there!

1\. Some reasons to switch from PayPal a) Supporter rewards (gift them
exclusive content), b) Much friendly way to ask for support than sharing a
Paypal.me link or donate button (which also means higher conversion). c)
Multiple payment options (Stripe, Paypal and very soon - cryptocurrencies) d)
Showcase your goals and the comments left by other supporters.

2\. BuyMeACoffee is 100% free for all early users. Of course, the standard
credit-card processing fee will be charged, but no other cut is involved.

Please drop your BMC link and I'd love to buy your first coffee :)

------
fabianlindfors
This looks really cool. Really enjoying the branding.

If anyone is looking for an even simpler way to accept donations I've created
a donation platform where you only need a Stripe account to get started. Check
it out if you're interested: [https://stripity.com](https://stripity.com)

~~~
josephsunny
Thank you for the kind words, @fabianlindfors.

Stripity looks like a great product. Good luck!

------
michaelbazos
Love the clear and intuitive interface. Congratulations! Would be nice to have
a way to input a free amount, imho.

Here is mine:
[https://www.buymeacoffee.com/michaelbazos](https://www.buymeacoffee.com/michaelbazos)

Cool 404, by the way.

~~~
josephsunny
Thank you, Michael! Just shared your comment (about 404) with our designer :)

Welcome to BuyMeACoffee; glad to be your first supporter.

------
WingH
Starbucks used to have something call "Tweet a Coffee" where you could tweet a
coffee to someone, and Starbucks would tweet them a link to a gift card where
they could redeem it.

I used it a lot to replace cold emailing and it did lead to a lot of
serendipitous online conversations with decision makers. Starbucks have since
removed this feature, so I now just email random people Amazon gift cards
instead, hoping they'll respond (which they do, with a very good response
rate!)

However, for my use case, I would never use this because A) this isn't that
serendipitous/random B) There's really no way for me to send a custom message
with my email address so I can start a conversation with them, is there?

~~~
josephsunny
Nope, I'm afraid BMC won't work for such a use-case. Neat idea with the
Starbucks feature, BTW :)

------
oaf357
Having had Buy Me A Coffee promeniently featured on two websites and a
newsletter I never had anyone actually contribute a penny. YMMV of course but
with a quarter of a million page views you'd think people would have
contributed at least once.

~~~
zaroth
I tried to buy you a coffee, went through Stripe checkout process, got a green
check, saw a $1.00 Buymeacoffee charge show up on my iPhone via push
notification, and then hit an error message;

“We were unable to process your payment right now !

If you encounter this message more than once, please contact support for
further assistance Or you can try again“

Went through the whole process again with the same card, didn’t work. Same
error.

Went through the whole process _again_ with a _different_ card. Still didn’t
work. Same non-descript error.

So your account in particular may be blacklisted or broken for some reason :-(

Sorry, no coffee for you!

------
DoreenMichele
I have a Patreon account where I get paid via Stripe, but I don't believe I
ever properly set up a separate Stripe account. I filled out the Stripe
connect form and now I am worried that Stripe will have a problem with paying
me if there are any inconsistencies between Patreon info and what I just gave
Stripe to fill this out, such as different email addresses with the same bank
account.

I don't know that there is anything you can do about it. It is just an FYI.

Here is my page:
[https://buymeacoff.ee/DoreenMichele](https://buymeacoff.ee/DoreenMichele)

~~~
josephsunny
Welcome to BMC, Doreen!

It should be fine as long as the Stripe connection is successful. Please try
logging in to your Stripe account and see if everything is fine - we just
bought you a coffee :)

We're a tweet away if there's anything –
[https://twitter.com/TheBuyMeACoffee](https://twitter.com/TheBuyMeACoffee)

------
bojackstorkman
Too bad caffeine makes me anxious!

Jokes aside, I think this is kinda neat. Platforms like this are becoming more
and more necessary for a segment of the population. I have been considering
taking up a blog or other writing endeavor, but beyond building an audience,
paying to keep a domain or hosting can also be an issue.

Anyway, I am sure you've heard that before. I will likely be a user, and will
provide more feedback once I have used it for its intended purpose (it might
be awhile).

I do have a question about your policy on "any creator" though. I know a few
people that had a bad experience with Patreon/other similar sites because they
produced adult content. I do not work in this space, but my understanding has
been that this is a pain point for many self-employed content creators.

Anecdotally, I have heard from more than one person that systems like this
help protect people (disproportionately women) from exploitation in this
industry, by giving one autonomy over their finances without having to
contract with a studio or whatnot.

So, is this an issue that has been adressed in designing this platform?

(I know this looks like the ultimate "JUST ASKING FOR A FRIEND!!" post, but I
am not in that business, not that anyone should feel ashamed to be.)

------
vm
UX edge case for you: I use f.lux which turns makes my laptop screen appear
red at night. It makes the $ amount barely visible on the buy buttons. It took
me a lot of clicking around to realize that it was even there. I was trying to
figure out what the $ amount was for a cup of coffee and surprised that it
(seemingly) wasn't listed anywhere! Checkout what it looks like on iOS night
shift which has a larger user base.

~~~
josephsunny
You're right. Many have raised this concern, and we'll be sure to improve its
design. Thanks for taking time to share the feedback!

------
makecheck
This is very well implemented, and simple to use.

I would strongly recommend investing effort in the Search function though.
It’s extremely unresponsive: I literally can’t type a full word without it
“losing” characters due to background processing. Probably it should wait at
least a second before attempting to retrieve any results (assuming I even
_want_ instant results, which frankly I do _not_ ; a “Start Searching” button
would be _just fine_ ).

Also, it isn’t really clear how search categories work, since there are no
drop-down menus in a profile to select a category. In the text field beneath
your name that describes what you “do”, are you expected to type the name of a
category verbatim to match that category? And if your description doesn’t
match any of the categories, does that mean you can’t be “found”?

Finally, I find the site very “large” on the desktop; I can see almost nothing
without scrolling around. I know a lot of sites have this issue these days but
it’d be really nice if you could just fit the minimal content on one screen.

------
dawnerd
Surprised I was able to get this url:
[https://www.buymeacoffee.com/troy](https://www.buymeacoffee.com/troy)

Love how slick everything is. Although couple things:

\- Register page just hung with the spinning icon. Got the activation email
but not sure what happened on registration. Guessing it errored. I have
adblock so maybe theres something there?

\- Would be nice to change the amount down to just a buck (hey I'm a cheap
date).

\- Would also be nice to change coffee to something else, as in my case I love
tacos ;)

\- When donating, how are you tracking if I've already donated to someone to
show updates? If I don't have an account Im just guessing its cookie based and
I'd have to give again if it goes away?

Really love just how fast and low friction everything is though.

~~~
josephsunny
Thank you for the kind words, @dawnerd. Nice URL!

\- Weird. Shared with the team. We'll look into this right away.

\- It's the second time we're hearing this today, and we'll definitely
consider this. Thanks for the tip!

\- You're right. You can do it with the buttons though (custom text, font,
color, etc.). It's pretty cool :)

\- Yes, it's cookie-based if the supporter is not logged in. However, we do
our best to message properly and redirect them to the exclusive content to
avoid any confusion.

Thanks for the suggestions!

~~~
dawnerd
Just sayin, could probably get the url buymeata.co

------
raiichul
I love the name, Buy Me a Coffee. Really simple and catchy. :) A question, is
there a way to follow artists? I would love to follow everyone here!

[https://www.buymeacoffee.com/sen](https://www.buymeacoffee.com/sen)

~~~
josephsunny
Thank you for the kind words, Sen! You cannot follow artists at the moment,
but this something on our roadmap (along with many other community features)
and we'll be sure to give it a high priority.

BTW please choose a payout method so that I can buy your first coffee :)

------
tpxl
Hey, the page redirects me to
[https://www.buymeacoffee.com/'https://www.buymeacoffee.com/?...](https://www.buymeacoffee.com/'https://www.buymeacoffee.com/?PageSpeed=noscript%27)
when I try to access it which then shows an error of "The URI you submitted
has disallowed characters." Changing the URL to
[https://www.buymeacoffee.com/?PageSpeed=noscript%27](https://www.buymeacoffee.com/?PageSpeed=noscript%27)
works.

Edit: It redirects to a similar URL when clicking any links on the webpage, so
it's broken with noScript enabled.

------
Andrex
Love this idea and the execution is great. Two things you've probably been
told already:

\- No emoji support?? I mean, HN doesn't like them either but still... \- The
link dialog is all messed up, trying to apply URL rules to the actual text
being linked.

~~~
josephsunny
We love emojis! Supporters always leave comments with emojis. We'll check if
we missed to support it somewhere.

Link dialog issue - I've passed it on to our developers and we're looking into
it.

Thank you, Andrex!

------
ineptech
Looks great! One more piece of feedback, I got an obscure error trying to
update page settings ([https://www.buymeacoffee.com/page-
settings](https://www.buymeacoffee.com/page-settings)) after having left it
open while I went to lunch - presumably something timed out. Reloading and
saving worked fine. Error in the console was home/update_page_settings Failed
to load resource: the server responded with a status of 403 ()

Other than that, looks great, thanks!
[https://www.buymeacoffee.com/ineptech](https://www.buymeacoffee.com/ineptech)

~~~
josephsunny
Welcome to BMC, @ineptech!

We briefly went down to upgrade our server (happy problems!) which should've
caused that error. Thanks for noticing!

BTW please choose a payout method to make your BMC page public. Waiting to buy
your first coffee :)

------
newscracker
> We plan to charge a 5% platform fee in the future to support future
> development and expansion. So when a creator receives $100 from supporters,
> BMC will earn a $5 platform fee.

I read a great argument on a HN comment about how a percentage fee looks
inappropriate and very expensive when implemented without a cap or ceiling.
[1] I'd recommend that this factor be considered and there be a cap or ceiling
set on the platform fee.

[1]:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16327495](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16327495)

~~~
josephsunny
Good point. I'll be sure to bring this up in our next brainstorming session.
Thank you!

------
ISL
Does BMC give subscribers an annual 1099 to simplify tax reporting?

~~~
zaroth
Why would you report income on my tax free gift?

Unless someone is giving you more than $7k per year, there’s no quid pro quo
here, no contract, no barter, no exchange of goods.

Can’t see how this isn’t a tax free gift, but IANAL.

~~~
ISL
Where is the line between payment and gift, especially if it is in partial
exchange for a good/service?

------
acutesoftware
Looks good, and thanks for waiving the fees -
[https://www.buymeacoffee.com/acute](https://www.buymeacoffee.com/acute)

My only concern is when I linked my Stripe account it says "buy me a coffee
will have access to your data" \- no, I assume it doesn't have full access to
ALL the stripe data, so that could be clarified.

Or at least make it clear that you cant empty my Stripe account :)

~~~
josephsunny
Haha, rest assured we don't have enough access to empty your Stripe account :)
It is the permission required to make Stripe Connect work, and we don't store
any more data than what's needed.

Welcome to BuyMeACoffee, and enjoy your first coffee on the house!

~~~
acutesoftware
Thanks for clearing that up, and cheers for the coffee!

One more suggestion - in 'Create your button' you have HTML or Image options,
but it would nice to have a simple github integration for Markdown or RTF
(like the other badges). Any plans for this?

------
sidyapa
I had been looking for such a product since a long time and had thought of
building it once as well. A week or two back I came across BMAC on PH and it
looked really promising so I signed up and got an anon donation of $3
(possibly from the founder or team). Will definitely use it in my side
project.

[https://buymeacoffee.com/sidyapa](https://buymeacoffee.com/sidyapa)

~~~
josephsunny
Yes, that was from us :) Glad you like BMC, @sidyapa!

Drop us a line when it's up on your side projects, would love to give it a
shout out –
[https://twitter.com/TheBuyMeACoffee](https://twitter.com/TheBuyMeACoffee)

------
ekiara
Nice! very easy on-boarding/signup flow. The only hiccup I had was on the
first screen for signup, the Facebook panel is so prominent (while the email
signup is far less so) that I thought the only sign-up option was to use a
Facebook account... almost closed the tab and moved on.

[https://buymeacoff.ee/emk](https://buymeacoff.ee/emk)

~~~
josephsunny
Good suggestion! We have Twitter log-in planned, so we'll have to rework the
design anyway.

Welcome to BuyMeACoffee!

------
edanm
A question that immediately popped up in my mind was "how is this different
from Patreon?". Searching here, I'm clearly not the only person to ask this,
and the answer you gave seems to be "this is for one-time payments rather than
recurring payments".

It might be worth writing this or conveying this in some way explicitly, since
this seems to be your big selling point.

~~~
josephsunny
Good question, @edanm.

The differentiator b/w Patreon is more than the one-time donation factor. For
one, BuyMeACoffee is geared towards creators of all sizes while Patreon works
best for large creators. For one, creators require a Stripe account to use
Patreon, which already limits it to the only 25 stripe-supported countries.

Secondly, small creators with a passive audience find it hard to get monthly
pledges from their supporters. BuyMeACoffee converts best in this case as it's
quick, straightforward and requires no sign-up to support a creator.

We like to think of BMC as complementary to Patreon than an alternative. We
often see creators using BuyMeACoffee alongside Patreon to fulfill the quick
one-time donation needs.

Hope this clarifies :)

~~~
buildbuildbuild
Congratulations on your launch, this familiar tipping model warms my heart as
a musician who occasionally busks in NYC subways.

I'd love to see a "Music" category as well as support for recurring donations.

You advertise that it's free, but do Stripe and Paypal's fees get added on on
the buyer's side or the receiver's side? Seems unclear. (During checkout is a
$5 donation billed as $5 + whatever percent to the donor?)

------
DpdC
Good job, really!!! I leave my link. I have a small and new blog about web
development in Spanish in medium ([https://medium.com/mundo-
framework](https://medium.com/mundo-framework))

[https://www.buymeacoffee.com/pac](https://www.buymeacoffee.com/pac)

Regards. Good luck, with the project!!!

~~~
josephsunny
Thank you. Love the updates, @DpdC. Welcome to Buy Me A Coffee!

Glad to buy your first coffee. Also, your platform fee is waived.

------
bonsai80
@josephsunny I'm curious how the money works out after Paypal/stripe get their
cut. From what I've seen transactions run around 3% + $0.30. Operating in
small amounts seems like the fees would sink any such effort. Have you found
something that works to handle small payments without getting killed on fees
for each transaction?

~~~
josephsunny
You're right, credit card processing fee can add up to a considerable amount
while processing micropayments, and this was one of our biggest concerns when
we started working on this. However, contrary to what we thought, more than
half the payments processed are for more than one coffee.

BTW we're currently passing on the card processing fee to supporters.

------
vivan
I love this, I'm actually working on something very similar (accepting
donations via Stripe/PayPal, but for a completely different niche), and
someone (@czue) pointed me to buymeacoffee for inspiration. There are a few
weird little niggles with the UI, but otherwise it's very slick.

What is the backend? Sadly WhatRuns can't identify it.

~~~
josephsunny
Thanks, Vivan! Our backend is LAMP. WhatRuns is picking up pretty much
everything we run.

BTW good luck with what you're working on :)

------
ekanes
Slight nitpick but feels relevant: for sites like this, having an about page
that doesn't tell you anything about who is behind the site is a miss. Instead
of who brought you this, it says, "Join the BuyMeACoffee community". Anonymity
is wrong here. Doesn't feel very ... community-esque.

~~~
josephsunny
Excellent point. We never thought of it this way TBH. Thanks for the
suggestion!

If you like to know more about us, check out our ProductHunt page; it is more
personal and transparent - [https://www.producthunt.com/posts/buy-me-a-
coffee](https://www.producthunt.com/posts/buy-me-a-coffee). We also have a
LinkedIn page.

------
voltagex_
Forgot / missed entering the code on signup

[https://www.buymeacoffee.com/adambaxter](https://www.buymeacoffee.com/adambaxter)
\- looks good, although I'd appreciate a dark stylesheet (although it may just
be the monitor I'm using at the moment

~~~
josephsunny
Welcome to BuyMeACoffee! Your platform fee is waived.

Regarding a darker stylesheet - it's a popular opinion, and we'll look into
it. Thank you!

------
xn
If you want a free, fast, and not so beautiful way to accept a fixed amount
with a Stripe account, here's a simple application with a Deploy to Heroku
button: [https://github.com/cwarden/pay](https://github.com/cwarden/pay)

------
matthewwiese
Like the design and approach, but what differentiates this from other methods?
A Patreon account, PayPal donate button, and public Bitcoin address
accomplishes all of the same thing.

Is it the community? The ease of setup? Don't get me wrong, the site is
polished and the idea cute, but... for what purpose?

~~~
josephsunny
BuyMeACoffee is a place to ask for quick one-time donations - supporters can
donate and leave a comment in less than a few clicks. Patreon is for monthly
pledging and does not usually work for small creators.

We have seen creators use BuyMeACoffee alongside Patreon links, and we think
it is a great idea to attract both loyal and casual supporters.

Compared to Paypal, BuyMeACoffee is a much friendly and efficient way to
accept donations. Multiple payment options, exclusive rewards for supporters,
ability to leave a comment with donations.. the list goes on. I hope this
clarifies :)

~~~
matthewwiese
Thank you for the reply!

What happens when Patreon implements this on their platform though? If its as
simple a premise as you make out, what's stopping your competition from
encroaching on your share of the market?

~~~
josephsunny
Patreon has placed itself as a 'membership business' as we can see from their
copy. The reason why Patreon did not implement this already, is that it'll
affect their recurring model. If supporters find out that there's an easy and
straightforward way to support, they are less likely to sign up and opt for
monthly recurring donations (except for exclusive content).

Also, nothing is stopping us from enabling recurring payments :) We believe
it's best to focus on solving an important problem than be the jack of all
trades. Hope that makes sense!

------
acct1771
I wasn't expecting the copy to be as good as it was this early. The branding,
and site, are beautiful.

You're onto something. Thanks for the generosity, and best of luck. Stay kind
when you get big!

[https://buymeacoff.ee/DK3](https://buymeacoff.ee/DK3)

~~~
acct1771
FYI - "Email verification failed." after clicking the link in the email.

~~~
josephsunny
We did have an issue with our email service provider (SendInBlue) during the
HN launch day. Please try again; and let us know if the issue persists:
hello@buymeacoffee.com, @TheBuyMeACoffee.

Cheers!

------
adaven_xt
Hahaha. Just last week I was telling my wife I should make a "buy me a coffee"
site to learn how to integrate with Stripe and other payment platforms, pad my
resume, have a few lulz, and maybe even get a coffee.

And... There's already a SaaS for that. Well done.

~~~
josephsunny
Haha, just in time, sir. Thank you, and be sure to share your BMC link when
you make one :) Cheers!

------
leejo
Nice, clean, and simple. Created myself a profile:
[https://www.buymeacoffee.com/leejo](https://www.buymeacoffee.com/leejo)

Feedback - links in bio/descriptions are not clear/intuitive enough perhaps?

~~~
josephsunny
Thank you, Lee! Good to see that you started receiving coffees. Enjoy one on
me too!

We'll look into the link 'link in bio' suggestion. Thanks!

------
jpmoyn
I'm getting a 522 timeout when trying to go to the site. Might be an issue on
your end

~~~
josephsunny
Yes, the site was briefly down while we upgraded our servers. Sorry for the
trouble!

------
viperscape
How does this differ or compete with platforms such as patreon? Also I signed
up and it defaulted to Artist, I feel like major category type should be
chosen during onboarding. Also, sign in with Google should be a thing I think.

~~~
josephsunny
Thanks for the suggestions, @viperscape. Here's how we differ from Patreon:

1\. For one-time payment needs. Only your most loyal followers are likely to
go through a sign-up process to pledge a monthly payment. Buy Me A Coffee
accepts payments in less a minute, without no commitments or friction.

2\. Showcase your goals, and comments left by other supporters.

3\. Shareable link, and a much friendly solicitation for support.

4\. Multiple payment options. We currently support Paypal, Stripe (Patreon use
this) and very soon - Cryptocurrencies too.

Hope this clarifies. Cheers!

------
Ndymium
Looks nice and simple, I like the graphical style. Unfortunately I cannot try
it out as putting the link on my site would be illegal in my country
(Finland). Here's hoping we get more sensible laws in the future. :/

~~~
chopin
I'm curious: Why would this be illegal in Finland?

~~~
Ndymium
It's against the money collection laws. Basically you have to have a permit to
collect donations. That permit costs money itself and has some bureaucracy to
it. It's also limited in time so you have to get a new permit after it
expires.

The only way to get a donation without the permit is if someone proactively
asks you how they can give money to you and _then_ you can tell them your bank
account number or PayPal or whatever.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, the permits are only given to associations and such,
not private persons. And even then the processing time for the permit request
is 5 to 6 months.

------
grzm
Did someone say coffee? I am insufficiently caffeinated. First time trying
something like this.
[https://www.buymeacoffee.com/grzm](https://www.buymeacoffee.com/grzm)

~~~
josephsunny
Haha, we did. Welcome to BuyMeACoffee, @grzm. Your platform fee is waived, and
I'm glad to buy your first coffee!

------
icarito
Thanks for the offer to waive fees. Please include me
[https://www.buymeacoffee.com/icarito](https://www.buymeacoffee.com/icarito)
Looking forward to using it. Regards.

~~~
josephsunny
Done! Thanks for trying us out, Sebastian.

We're a tweet away if there's anything -
[https://twitter.com/TheBuyMeACoffee](https://twitter.com/TheBuyMeACoffee)

------
i_live_there
Please, fix the text contrast on your Terms of Use page. It's barely readable.

~~~
josephsunny
Will do! Thanks for the tip.

~~~
BugsJustFindMe
Not just on the terms page. Text contrast is way too low all over the place. I
understand wanting to use lower contrast to control where the eye goes first,
but please don't make your text so hard to read.

~~~
josephsunny
Noted. I'll sit with the designer to see what we can do. Thanks for the
suggestion, @BugsJustFindMe!

------
dsr_
Sigh.

[https://www.buymeacoffee.com/untrustworthy](https://www.buymeacoffee.com/untrustworthy)

Is the limited range of donation sizes an attempt to avoid KYC anti-laundering
regulations?

~~~
dulse
I doubt it, as they will be enforced by Stripe / PayPal on the payout end.

The laws regulate once you hit certain thresholds, like $100-$500 but it's
aggregate not individual contributions (and this service is geared toward more
mass market crowd funding).

------
swavaldez
Wonder if you take a loot at Nano Currency? It will take less than a minute
for every transaction with zero transaction fee.

[https://nano.org/en](https://nano.org/en)

~~~
josephsunny
We did!

We'd like to support multiple cryptocurrencies in a simple, secure and
straightforward way. We're looking at CoinBase Commerce and alternatives for
this.

Thanks for the suggestion!

------
alxwu
This is cool. Exactly what I was looking for. Thank you.
[https://www.buymeacoffee.com/hella](https://www.buymeacoffee.com/hella)

~~~
josephsunny
Thanks, @alxwu. Welcome to BMC! Please choose a payout method to make your
page public. Waiting to buy your first coffee :)

------
klistwan
Very easy to get set up! I'm impressed by the design and UX, best of luck!

[https://buymeacoff.ee/klistwan](https://buymeacoff.ee/klistwan)

~~~
josephsunny
Thank you so much, Konrad. Glad to welcome you with a coffee! P.S Your
platform fee is waived.

------
ggoss
Quick and simple setup, thanks!

[https://www.buymeacoffee.com/garrettgoss](https://www.buymeacoffee.com/garrettgoss)

~~~
josephsunny
Awesome! Welcome to BMC, Garrett. Glad to be your first supporter on the
platform.

------
asicsp
Stripe doesn't support India yet :(

and individuals cannot get donations in our country.. but paying tax is minor
issue, need to be able to get money first :-/

~~~
josephsunny
Good news: [https://stripe.com/blog/india-private-
beta](https://stripe.com/blog/india-private-beta)

We have a lot of users from India, and they use Paypal to receive payments :)
Please shoot us an email if you need help with anything - hello [at]
buymeacoffee.com

Cheers!

~~~
asicsp
waiting for Stripe to open for all :)

regarding paypal, I've only heard of all sorts of complaints using it in
India.. guess I'll have to try it myself..

------
werber
At my screen size (13in macbook air), you don't see the amount you're donating
until after the scroll, wish that duplicated higher up.

~~~
josephsunny
Sorry about that; we're still trying to find the right balance between having
a beautiful page and higher conversions :) We'll look into this.

------
bahador
Which Stripe Connect account type are you using (Standard or Express)? And
what type of charges are you using (Direct or Custom)?

------
Rhodesia192
As a creator, I'd like to understand the differences between this and Patreon.
Why would I use this instead of Patreon?

~~~
josephsunny
Absolutely.

1\. For one-time payment needs. Only your most loyal followers are likely to
go through a sign-up process to pledge a monthly payment. Buy Me A Coffee
accepts payments in less a minute, without no commitments or friction.

2\. Showcase your goals, and comments left by other supporters.

3\. Shareable link, and a much friendly solicitation for support.

4\. Multiple payment options. We currently support Paypal, Stripe (Patreon use
this) and very soon - Cryptocurrencies too.

Hope this clarifies. Cheers!

------
edent
I'm so glad that you support the UK! But it would be lovely to set the default
currency as £ (or €) rather than $.

~~~
josephsunny
This is a popular request. It was deliberate not to offer multiple currency
support. We believe having a unified payment flow will go a long way in
improving conversions. Higher conversions = happy creators :)

However, we're currently looking into paying creators in their currencies,
which will solve half the problem (+ a lot more payment options like Apple
Pay, Android Pay, Bitcoin, etc.)

~~~
edent
So why not offer £ as the default currency for all users?

Because you realise that currency conversion is a hassle for your (primarily
USA-based) users.

Well, guess what! It's a hassle for the majority of the world who don't use
the greenback. I don't intuitively know what today's exchange rate is. I
suspect you don't either.

Ideally, you'd geo-detect the user and offer them a currency suitable to their
location. If that's not possible, let creators choose their own currency.

If you think I'm making a fuss over nothing, listen to some UK based podcasts.
They all end with the hosts asking for a Patreon contribution - and then
apologising that it's only available in dollars.

------
BugsJustFindMe
I'm trying to set up an account, but it's stuck on "Creating".

~~~
josephsunny
Can you try again, please? The site was briefly taken down for a server
upgrade. It could be that. Let us know if the issue persists.

------
canvasduck
This is really awesome! I've been hoping for something like this for a while.

~~~
josephsunny
Thanks @canvasduck! Leave your BuyMeACoffee link if you made one. Would love
to buy your first coffee :)

------
lambic
Is there an API for this, or do you plan to develop one?

~~~
josephsunny
No, and yes. We recently launched a WP plugin
([https://wordpress.org/plugins/buymeacoffee/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/buymeacoffee/)),
and a feature-rich widget for websites is on its way.

------
zuzuleinen
I love the simplicity of the product! Good luck!

~~~
josephsunny
Thanks, @zuzuleinen. We've tried to keep it minimal from day 1.

"Design is how it works" – Jobs.

------
stevehawk
doesn't seem to work at all with NoScript. I get some sort of error / what
looks like a failed redirect.

~~~
josephsunny
Sorry to hear that. I've passed it on to our developers and we're looking into
it. Cheers!

------
chkte
How does this compare with PayPal.me?

~~~
josephsunny
Glad you asked!

1) Multiple payment options: Stripe, Paypal and very soon - Cryptocurrencies.

2) Rewards for supporters

3) Showcase goals and comments left by other supporters

4) Friendly solicitation, and beautiful page and buttons.

------
lamby
Just got my first coffee!

~~~
josephsunny
Awesome! Congrats on your first coffee, @lamby.

------
pknerd
Any plan for crypto?

~~~
josephsunny
Yep!
[https://twitter.com/TheBuyMeACoffee/status/94921063772447129...](https://twitter.com/TheBuyMeACoffee/status/949210637724471296)

We're integrating Coinbase Commerce to start supporting all the major coins
(BTC, ETH, BCH, LTC). Expect this to go live in a week or two :)

------
epa
How is this different from 21 or Gofundme

~~~
josephsunny
BuyMeACoffee is geared towards creators, much like Patreon.

Buttons for websites, quick one-click payment, supporter comments, multiple
payment options, etc. are some of the differentiators.

------
purans
Good one!

~~~
josephsunny
Thanks!

