Choosing a platform
FriendFund vs Ko-fi: who can see that you helped?
Compare supporter privacy on FriendFund and Ko-fi. Learn how anonymous nominations and support differ from a creator page for tips, memberships, and sales.
FriendFund lets you nominate someone and support them without displaying your identity to them. Ko-fi offers a creator-support page where creators receive information about the people paying them. If your main concern is helping quietly, that difference matters.
You might want someone to have a little more breathing room without feeling that they owe you thanks, updates, or repayment. FriendFund is designed around making that offer easier to receive. Ko-fi may be a better fit when the goal is accepting tips, memberships, or purchases from an audience.
We make FriendFund, and the fit recommendations here are ours. Ko-fi facts were checked against its official documentation on September 22, 2026.
What do you want your page to do?
| Your priority | FriendFund | Ko-fi |
|---|---|---|
| Offer help before someone publicly asks | Anonymous nomination; the recipient chooses whether to accept | The documented setup starts with a creator's own support page |
| Publish personal updates | Original journal entries | Posts with audience controls |
| Receive monthly support | Monthly journal support | Simple monthly payments or membership tiers |
| Offer one-time tips | Not the focus of the current journal-support flow | Available |
| Sell items or commissions | No shop or commission offering | Shop and commission tools |
| Keep supporter identities out of the recipient experience | Identities are not displayed to recipients or other supporters | Creators receive supporter details, including display name and email |
Ko-fi describes its monthly support and membership options, earning tools, and supporter-information sharing in its help center.
Ko-fi does not require you to build a complicated membership
Ko-fi offers simple recurring payments as an alternative to membership tiers. It also lets creators choose audiences for posts. You should not dismiss it just because you do not want several reward levels. See its monthly-support guide.
Our recommendation is to look closely at Ko-fi when you want several ways for someone to act on the same page. An artist might want people to leave a tip, buy something, or inquire about a commission. Those are useful choices if they match how you work.
FriendFund currently offers a smaller set of choices. There is a personal journal, open or supporter-only entries, caring reactions, and monthly support where the account is ready to receive it. It is not a replacement for a shop or commission workflow.
FriendFund lets someone else make the first offer
Needing help and wanting to ask for it are different things. FriendFund lets someone who cares take the first step with a nomination that does not display their identity.
The recipient can review the invitation and decide whether to accept. They do not have to start a public request, explain themselves to a named giver, or accept support just because someone offered it. An invitation does not move money or skip account setup.
This is the niche: helping people without putting them on the spot. It is not a promise that a product can remove every uncomfortable feeling. It is a set of choices designed to keep names, recognition, and social obligation from dominating the offer.
Personal journals are also part of FriendFund. People can share original entries with open or supporter-only access, and readers can send caring reactions. What someone chooses to write should be their decision, not a demand for a public hardship story.
Supporter privacy is a meaningful difference
Ko-fi says creators receive a supporter's display name and email, while payment providers can share additional details. Making a message private changes its public visibility; it does not hide the supporter from the creator. Ko-fi's privacy explanation sets out the distinction.
FriendFund does not display supporter identities to recipients or other supporters. Its support logs use generated names and avatars. FriendFund and its providers still know information needed to run accounts and payments, and a recipient may infer who helped from context. Our privacy policy explains what is and is not hidden.
Neither statement tells you whether a personal post should be public. On FriendFund, open entries are visible to visitors; supporter-only entries have access controls. Choose what you publish with the intended audience in mind.
Compare fees for the payment you actually want
Ko-fi's fee guide lists 0% service fees on one-time tips in Free mode and 5% on monthly tips, memberships, shop sales, and commissions. Standard mode also applies a 5% fee to one-time tips. Payment-processor fees are separate. See Ko-fi's current fee breakdown for mode-specific details.
For new FriendFund monthly support, the supporter pays the selected recipient amount plus a 5% platform fee and a payment fee. A $10 recipient amount currently totals $11.20: $10 support, $0.50 platform fee, and $0.70 payment fee. The selected $10 goes to the recipient account. Existing agreed pricing can differ; review FriendFund's terms and the payment review screen.
Matching 5% figures do not mean matching final charges. Work through the supporter total and recipient amount for the same size and type of payment before choosing on price.
Choose the page you will enjoy using
If you want to sell work, take commissions, or offer a flexible creator-support page, Ko-fi deserves a look. If you want to offer help anonymously so someone does not have to ask publicly, nominate someone on FriendFund. They stay in control of whether to accept.
Still comparing? Read FriendFund versus Patreon for creator memberships, or FriendFund versus GoFundMe for fundraising. You can also browse the broader GoFundMe alternatives guide.