What's the Catch With Free Link-in-Bio Tools That Take Payments?

The catch is the transaction fee. On the free tiers of Linktree, Beacons, and Ko-fi — the three tools here that publish one — the link page costs $0/month while the platform keeps 5% to 12% of commerce sales (digital products, courses, shop items, memberships, and commissions), with card-processing fees charged on top. Each drops its own cut to 0% on one named tier only: Linktree Premium at $35/month, Beacons Creator Plus at $30/month, and Ko-fi Gold at $12/month. Two carve-outs matter: Ko-fi's Free setup charges 0% on one-time tips, and Stan Store publishes no free tier at all.

This page compares four independent tools — Linktree, Beacons, Stan Store, and Ko-fi — using each platform's own published fee and pricing pages. FanBell, the product that publishes this article, appears as one clearly labeled row in the comparison table and in a labeled publisher-disclosure section near the end; it is not part of the independent four. Across all of them, the word "free" describes the link page, not the checkout. Linktree, Beacons, and Ko-fi each let a creator build and publish a page at $0/month, and each then takes a percentage of most sales made through it; Stan Store has no free tier. Linktree's help center puts the free-plan fee on digital products and courses at 12%, with Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30 charged per purchase on every plan (Linktree Help Center, verified September 2, 2026). A two-layer structure — platform cut plus processor cut — is what a homepage price of $0 leaves out.

How does Linktree actually charge for payments?

Linktree charges a transaction fee on digital-product and course sales that varies by plan: 12% on Free, 9% on Starter, 9% on Pro, and 0% on Premium, with Stripe's processing fee of 2.9% + $0.30 per purchase applying on all four plans, per Linktree's help-center article on transaction and processing fees.

Linktree's US plan prices are $0/month for Free, $8/month for Starter, $15/month for Pro, and $35/month for Premium, discounted to $6, $12, and $30 per month respectively when billed annually, per Linktree's pricing page (Linktree, verified September 2, 2026). The monthly figure varies by billing cycle rather than by feature set: the annual rate is the same plan paid up front.

Linktree's own worked example prices a course at $34.99 and shows the seller receiving $29.48 on the Free plan versus $33.68 on Premium — a $4.20 platform cut on a single sale. Linktree states the processor cost is unavoidable in the same article: "Processing fees are charged regardless of your Linktree plan."

"We may apply a transaction fee on your Earnings from the Monetization Programs. These fees vary based on your chosen plan and are outlined on our website." — Linktree Terms of Service

Linktree's transaction fee is disclosed, but it does not appear in the headline plan price. Linktree's pricing page carries the fee as a footnote reading "Transaction and processing fees may apply. See here for more details." and as an FAQ entry titled "Does Linktree charge transaction fees?", while the per-plan percentages themselves live in the help-center article rather than on the plan cards.

What does Beacons charge on its free plan?

Beacons charges a 9% transaction fee on sales for creators on the Free plan and on the $10/month Creator plan, and 0% for creators on the $30/month Creator Plus plan or the $90/month Creator Max plan, per Beacons' help-center article on product transaction fees (Beacons Help Center, verified September 2, 2026). Beacons' pricing page labels the free tier's cut "9% seller fees."

"The 9% fee applies to users on the free plan or the $10/month Creator plan. If you're on the $30/month Creator Plus plan or the $90/month Creator Max plan, there are no transaction fees." — Beacons Help Center, "Beacons Products Transaction Fees"

Beacons discounts those same plans to $8.33, $25, and $75 per month when billed annually — $100, $300, and $900 charged up front — so a Beacons plan's monthly price varies with billing cycle, not with which features are included (Beacons, verified September 2, 2026). Beacons lists processor costs separately from its own cut: Stripe at 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction and PayPal at 3.49% plus a fixed fee based on the transaction currency.

The practical consequence for a Beacons creator: moving from the free plan to the $10/month Creator plan buys extra features, not a lower transaction fee, because Beacons' 9% cut is identical on both tiers. Only the $30/month Creator Plus tier and above removes Beacons' percentage entirely.

Does Stan Store really have zero transaction fees?

Stan Store charges a 0% platform transaction fee on both of its plans, but Stan publishes no free tier: Creator costs $29/month or $300/year and Creator Pro costs $99/month or $948/year, per Stan's help-center comparison of the two plans (Stan Store Help Center, verified September 2, 2026). The "0%" describes Stan's own cut, not the total cost of taking a payment.

Stan does not operate its own payment rails, and Stan's help center says so directly.

"Stan supports two payment processors, Stripe and PayPal." — Stan Store Help Center, "How to Connect Stan with Stripe"

Stan's own fee article documents what those processors charge a US creator: a Stan transaction fee of 0%, a Stripe standard purchase fee of 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, a PayPal fee of 3.49% plus a fixed fee based on the currency received, an added 1.5% on international customers, and a Stripe payout fee of 0.25% + $0.25 per payout with a $1 minimum. Those rates match the 2.9% + 30¢ that Stripe publishes for US domestic cards on its own pricing page (Stripe, verified September 2, 2026), so a Stan sale carries the same processor cost as a Linktree or Beacons sale.

Stan's catch is a fixed floor rather than a revenue share: $29 leaves a creator's account in a month with zero sales, whereas a 9% or 12% percentage fee costs nothing at all in that same zero-sale month.

What does Ko-fi charge if tips are free there?

Ko-fi charges 0% on one-time tips only on its Free setup, and 5% on everything else there. Ko-fi runs three fee setups: Free takes 0% on one-time tips and 5% on shop items, memberships, monthly tips, and commissions; Standard takes a flat 5% on every payment type including tips; and Ko-fi Gold costs $12/month and takes 0% across all of them (Ko-fi Help Center, verified September 2, 2026).

The distinction matters because Standard, not Free, is what a creator signing up today lands on. Ko-fi's help center describes the setup in one line.

"Standard - No monthly cost, but a flat 5% fee applies to one-time tips, shop, commissions, monthly tips and memberships too." — Ko-fi Help Center, "Does Ko-fi take a fee?"

What Standard buys for that 5% on tips is feature access: Ko-fi's pricing page describes Standard as a "5% service fee on all payment types (tips, memberships, commissions and shop sales)" that unlocks extra tools including supporter-only content and scheduled posts. Ko-fi Gold removes the service fee entirely for $12/month, billed monthly only, with annual Gold no longer offered to new signups. Payment-processor fees apply on top of all three Ko-fi setups: Ko-fi's help center states that "PayPal and Stripe take their normal card processing fees" (Ko-fi Help Center, verified September 2, 2026), which Stripe publishes as 2.9% + 30¢ per successful US domestic-card transaction and PayPal publishes as a standard 3.49% + fixed fee for receiving domestic commercial transactions (PayPal, verified September 2, 2026).

So "Ko-fi has no fees" is accurate only for one-time tips, and only on the Free setup that charges 0% on them — a separate question from whether accepting tips changes how brands perceive a creator, which has nothing to do with which fee setup is active.

Which free link-in-bio tool costs the least on a sale?

Among the tools with a free tier, Ko-fi's Free setup takes the smallest cut on a sale: 0% on one-time tips and 5% on commerce, against 9% on Beacons' free plan and 12% on Linktree's free plan. Stan Store's platform fee is lower still at 0%, but Stan publishes no free tier and bills $29/month before a single sale (Ko-fi · Beacons · Linktree · Stan, verified September 2, 2026). No single tool wins on every payment type. Each figure below links to its source.

Every figure in the table was checked against the linked page on September 2, 2026, and card-processing fees apply on top of every row — Stripe publishes 2.9% + 30¢ per successful US domestic-card transaction on its pricing page.

Why do these tools structure fees this way instead of just charging a flat price?

Percentage-of-sales pricing on a free tier removes the upfront cost for a creator who has not sold anything yet, because the platform earns only when a sale happens. Linktree, Beacons, and Ko-fi each use that structure on an entry tier, and each sells exactly one tier that swaps the percentage for a fixed monthly price at 0%: Linktree Premium at $35/month, Beacons Creator Plus at $30/month, and Ko-fi Gold at $12/month (Linktree, Beacons, and Ko-fi pricing pages, verified September 2, 2026). Paying more does not automatically remove the cut — Linktree Starter at $8/month and Pro at $15/month still charge 9%, and Beacons' $10/month Creator plan still charges 9%, per each platform's own fee article (Linktree Help Center · Beacons Help Center, verified September 2, 2026).

The tradeoff appears at volume. A percentage fee scales with revenue, so a creator selling steadily through a free plan can pay more in absolute dollars than the flat monthly plan would cost. A Linktree Free seller doing $1,000 in monthly digital-product sales pays $120 in Linktree fees at the published 12% rate, against $35/month for Linktree Premium at 0%.

Is a lower percentage fee always the better deal?

No. A 0%-fee monthly plan is cheaper only above a break-even volume equal to the plan's monthly price divided by the percentage fee you would otherwise pay. Beacons Creator Plus at $30/month beats Beacons' 9% free-plan fee only above roughly $334 in monthly sales, and Linktree Premium at $35/month beats Linktree's 12% free-plan fee only above roughly $292 (calculated from each platform's published rates, verified September 2, 2026). Below those volumes, the free tier's percentage costs less.

Run the same arithmetic on your own numbers before switching plans:

• Low, inconsistent sales: a percentage fee on a free plan usually costs less than a monthly subscription with no matching revenue to offset it.
• High, consistent sales: a flat monthly plan at 0% usually costs less once a typical month's sales exceed the plan price divided by the percentage fee you would otherwise pay.
• No sales in a given month: a percentage-based free plan costs $0 that month, while Stan Store's Creator plan still charges $29 and Linktree Premium still charges $35.

Publisher disclosure: how does FanBell's fee structure compare?

FanBell publishes this article, so treat this section as a disclosure about the publisher's own product rather than as an independent review of it. FanBell has one live plan at $0/month with a 12% platform fee charged only when a fan pays, so there is no tier to climb out of. At 12%, FanBell's cut is higher than Ko-fi's 5% and Beacons' 9% and equal to Linktree's 12% free-plan rate.

FanBell's pricing page states the mechanics directly: "The fan pays only the displayed price. FanBell charges a 12% platform fee, and payment-processing fees are deducted separately from creator earnings," and gives the arithmetic as "Creator earnings = fan payment − platform fee − processing fee". The same page lists a Pro tier at $29/month with an 8% platform fee as "Coming soon," states that "Pro is not available yet — everyone is on Free during the beta," and notes the 12% rate "is configurable and may change as the product evolves."

Stripe processing applies on top of FanBell's fee at 2.9% + 30¢ per successful domestic-card transaction in the US, per Stripe's pricing page — the identical processor cost that Linktree, Beacons, Stan Store, and Ko-fi each pass through to their own sellers.

The comparison above is not strictly like-for-like, because FanBell sells paid fan interaction — Paid Private Questions, shoutouts, tips, and creator services — rather than a digital-product storefront (FanBell how it works, verified September 2, 2026). That paid-Q&A model is also how a creator might convert free advice posted on Reddit into a paid Q&A link rather than a course sale, and it's the same category as a paid AMA, which only pencils out above a minimum audience size. A creator selling course files at volume will usually do better on a 0% storefront tier; see the best link-in-bio tools that accept payments for that comparison, or link-in-bio store vs. paid fan interaction page for the distinction between the two models.

What should you actually check before picking a tool?

Check four numbers before committing to any free link-in-bio tool that also takes payments: the transaction-fee percentage on the plan you will actually be on, whether that percentage applies to every payment type or only to some, the monthly price of the cheapest 0%-fee tier, and the card-processing rate charged on top regardless of platform.

Those four numbers, not the word "free" on a homepage, determine what a sale nets you. Compare the four against your own typical order size and monthly volume rather than the platform's most-favorable example, since published comparisons — this one included — use each tool's stated rates rather than your specific numbers.

Frequently asked questions

Short answers for the four tools on this page. Linktree's free plan takes 12% of digital-product sales, Beacons takes 9%, Ko-fi takes 5% on commerce and 0% or 5% on tips depending on setup, and Stan Store takes 0% but has no free plan, per each platform's own help center (verified September 2, 2026). Card-processing fees apply on top.

Is Linktree actually free?

The Linktree link page itself is free to build and share at $0/month. Selling digital products or courses through Linktree carries a 12% transaction fee on the Free plan, 9% on Starter and Pro, and 0% on Premium, with Stripe charging 2.9% + $0.30 per purchase on every plan.

Does Ko-fi charge a fee on everything, or just some payment types?

It depends on the Ko-fi setup. Ko-fi's Free setup charges 0% on one-time tips and a flat 5% on shop items, memberships, monthly tips, and commissions, while Standard applies the 5% fee to every payment type including one-time tips, and Ko-fi Gold at $12/month charges 0% on all of them.

Why does Stan Store not have a free plan at all?

Stan Store's two plans, Creator at $29/month ($300/year) and Creator Pro at $99/month ($948/year), both carry a 0% platform transaction fee, and Stan publishes no free tier. Stan's model is a flat subscription cost from day one rather than a percentage-of-sales tradeoff.

Does Stan Store's 0% mean a sale costs nothing?

No. Stan's own fee article lists a 0% Stan transaction fee alongside a Stripe standard purchase fee of 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction and a PayPal fee of 3.49% plus a fixed currency-based fee, because Stan runs payments through Stripe and PayPal rather than its own rails.

How does FanBell's fee compare to this category?

FanBell publishes this page; the figures below come from its own pricing page. FanBell is $0/month with a single 12% platform fee charged only when a fan pays, and payment-processing fees deducted separately from creator earnings. At 12%, FanBell's percentage is higher than Ko-fi's 5% and Beacons' 9%, and Stripe processing at 2.9% + 30¢ per US domestic-card transaction applies on top, as it does for every tool compared here.

Should I switch to a paid plan to avoid transaction fees?

Only above the break-even volume, which equals the plan's monthly price divided by the percentage fee you would otherwise pay. Beacons Creator Plus at $30/month against a 9% fee breaks even near $334 in monthly sales, and Linktree Premium at $35/month against a 12% fee breaks even near $292; below those figures, a percentage fee on a free plan usually costs less.

Disclosure: FanBell publishes this article. The line below is promotional and sits outside the sourced comparison above.

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