Tips and digital tip jars
Buy Me a Coffee online, GigTag on the mic stand
At a gig the audience is in front of you for an hour, and what you need from them is simple: tell me what to play, come to the next one, book me if you can. GigTag gives you one printed code that does those three things. Buy Me a Coffee, which you were considering, is made for support from an online audience.
- No app for your audience
- Free to start
- One code that never changes
Why GigTag
GigTag for the gig, beside Buy Me a Coffee
Buy Me a Coffee collects support, memberships and shop sales from fans online. GigTag collects what a live room has to give: requests, a following for your next date, and booking enquiries. It opens from a tag on your mic stand with no app. It takes tips by card or Apple Pay too.
- 1
A page made for the set
Scan the tag and the things on offer are things to do right now: request a song, see the next gig, follow the act. Buy Me a Coffee is organised around a creator's ongoing work. GigTag is organised around the hour you are on stage and the gig after it.
- 2
Bookings, the income a room can give
The people in a wine bar or a restaurant have events of their own. The booking enquiry form lets them ask while they are listening. On Pro you send an invoice in your own design, paid online, and GigTag takes no commission on bookings.
- 3
Requests bring the audience in
A fan chooses a tune from your list, or types one if you open requests, and it arrives in the live queue on your phone. Playing it is a quick thank you that the whole room hears. Requests are part of Pro and work in every country.
- 4
Dates they can save on the spot
Every gig and weekly residency is on your page, free, and a listener can add any of them to their calendar. For a musician building a local audience from an online one, that gives one night the chance to become a habit.
- 5
A permanent code in your design
The QR code on your tag is permanent. It works at every venue, and if you rename the act old links still work. The tag is in your own design, and you can print it yourself from the free plan or order it printed.
In short
Buy Me a Coffee and GigTag, in four lines
- Buy Me a Coffee lets fans support a creator with one-off payments, memberships and purchases from a shop.
- GigTag is built for the set: requests in a live queue, your next gig, a booking enquiry form.
- One permanent GigTag code works at every venue and opens in the browser with no app.
- Our recommendation: use GigTag on stage for requests, bookings and tips, and link Buy Me a Coffee from it for online support.
Side by side
GigTag vs Buy Me a Coffee, topic by topic
What a fan can do
Request, save a date, follow, enquire
Request a song, see your next gig and residencies, add them to a calendar, follow your links, or send a booking enquiry.
Buy Me a CoffeeSend one-off support with a message, join a monthly or yearly membership, or buy something from the creator's own shop.
Using a QR code
One code on the mic stand
The QR code is on a custom tag for your mic stand. It never changes, and it opens your act's page in the browser.
Buy Me a CoffeeIts QR page suggests screens, posters, merch and live events, and describes the steps as scan, choose how to support, and send.
Keeping in touch
Links to follow and dates to save
Fans follow your socials, website and music links from the page, and add your next dates to their own calendar.
Buy Me a CoffeeCreators publish posts, some of them for members only, and the site says they can also email their supporters directly.
Regular income
Keep Buy Me a Coffee for memberships
GigTag has no memberships. Its regular side is your weekly residencies and the booking enquiries that come from playing them.
Buy Me a CoffeeMemberships bring in support every month or every year from fans who choose to join, in exchange for member benefits.
Paperwork for bookings
Invoices in your own design, on Pro
On Pro you send clients an invoice in your own design, and they pay it online. Enquiries arrive through the form on your page.
Buy Me a CoffeeSee its site for how it handles this.
The quick view
| GigTag | Buy Me a Coffee | |
|---|---|---|
| A QR code your audience scans | Yes, one that never changes | – |
| Song requests from the crowd | Yes, on Pro | – |
| Tips by card or Apple Pay | Yes, on Pro, into your own Ziina or Stripe. GigTag takes 0% | Yes |
| Booking enquiries | Yes, on the free plan | – |
| Your gigs and weekly residencies | Yes, on the free plan | – |
| Invoices for bookings | Yes, on Pro | – |
| A printed tag for your mic stand | Yes, in your own design | – |
| Works without an app for the audience | Yes, it opens in the browser | – |
A dash means we did not confirm it for Buy Me a Coffee, not that it is missing: see what Buy Me a Coffee offers above, or ask on its site.
A Buy Me a Coffee alternative
Where GigTag is different from Buy Me a Coffee
Supporting a creator, serving a set
Buy Me a Coffee is organised around supporting a creator's ongoing work. A GigTag page is organised around tonight's set and the next one. Scan the tag on the mic stand and you see the act, a way to request a song, the next gig and the weekly residencies with a button to add them to a calendar, and a form to enquire about booking.
A message with a coffee, a queued song
A supporter on Buy Me a Coffee can leave a message with their payment. On GigTag the fan's message is a song. They choose it from your list, or type anything if you open requests, and it appears in a live queue on your phone. You manage that queue from the website or the GigTag app during the set. Requests are part of Pro.
A support link and tips at the gig
This is the part to get right. GigTag tips are paid at the gig by card or Apple Pay into your own Stripe account, or your own Ziina account in the UAE, with 0% taken by GigTag. They are one-off tips from the room, not memberships or online support. A support page like Buy Me a Coffee covers that side, linked from your GigTag page with your other links.
A night with GigTag
A wine bar set for an online guitarist
Most of your audience has only ever seen you on a screen, and tonight you are playing a wine bar for forty minutes to people who have never heard of your channel. The GigTag tag is on the mic stand. A table by the door scans it. Your page opens in their browser and they find your music links, then your socials. One of them requests a tune from your list and it arrives in the live queue on your phone.
In the break the owner asks about a regular slot, and you agree the first Thursday of each month. You add it to your page that night, and the people who scan next time will see it and can put it in their calendar. Someone else has already sent a booking enquiry for a private tasting evening. Your Buy Me a Coffee page stays in your links for the online crowd, and anyone here who wants to tip can do it by card on the page.
About Buy Me a Coffee
What is Buy Me a Coffee?
Buy Me a Coffee is a way for creators and artists to take support from their fans. A supporter can make a one-off payment, the coffee of the name, and add a message. Creators can also run memberships, monthly or yearly, with benefits for members, and sell digital or physical things from a shop on the same page. Its site speaks to artists, podcasters, educators and other independent creators.
You publish posts, some for everyone and some for members only, and the site says you can email your supporters as well. For in-person moments it offers a personal QR code to put on screens, posters or merch: the supporter scans, chooses how to support you and sends it. Most of the time the page is shared as a link, wherever your audience follows you.
- Where
- Worldwide
- Website
- buymeacoffee.com
How Buy Me a Coffee works
- 1
Create your page. You sign up as a creator and set up a page that explains what you make. This is where every button, link and QR code will lead.
- 2
Share the link or code. You add the link under videos and in bios, or use the personal QR code the site provides, which it suggests for screens, posters and merch.
- 3
Fans send support. A fan picks an amount, can write a message and pays. That is the coffee. Its QR page sums the process up as scan, choose and send.
- 4
Build on it. From there you can add memberships, billed monthly or yearly, sell items from a shop, and publish posts for everyone or for members only, as you prefer.
Who Buy Me a Coffee is for
Independent creators. Its site addresses artists, podcasters, educators and other people who publish their own work. For them a support page is a simple way for an audience to give something back for work they enjoy and want to see continue.
Creators with regulars. Memberships are for creators whose supporters want to give every month or every year. The site describes benefits for members, such as posts only they can read, as the reason to join and to stay.
People selling a few things. The shop is for creators with something to sell from the same page, digital or physical. It sits next to one-off support and memberships, so a fan can choose between giving, joining and buying something.
The verdict
GigTag or Buy Me a Coffee: which should you choose?
The bottom line
If your music is played to rooms as well as screens, add GigTag. The strongest reason is that it is built for the gig: one scan lets a listener request a song, save your next date or send a booking enquiry, and nothing has to be installed. Buy Me a Coffee remains the right home for online support, memberships and a shop, which GigTag does not offer. A musician with both audiences should run both.
Yes. Use Buy Me a Coffee for supporters online and for memberships, which GigTag does not do. Use GigTag at gigs for requests, dates and booking enquiries. Link the first from the second, and one tag on your stand reaches both. If you never play live, you do not need GigTag. If you only play live, you may not need a membership page.
- Step 1
Keep the support page
Leave Buy Me a Coffee exactly where your online audience already finds it: under your videos, in your bios and on your own website as well.
- Step 2
Set up for the room
Make a GigTag page with your song list, your gigs and residencies and your links, and take the tag along to every live date you play.
- Step 3
Connect the two
Add your support page to the links on your GigTag page. A listener who finds you at a gig can then become a supporter online later.
Choose GigTag if
You earn your living from gigs and want the room to request songs, follow you to the next date and send booking enquiries.
Start freeBuy Me a Coffee may still suit you if
You make things for an online audience and want one-off support, memberships and a small shop on one page.
GigTag FreeYour page, your tag design, every gig and residency, a booking form. One act.
GigTag ProSong requests, tips, invoices, more than one act. AED 30, £11.99 or $15.99 a month.
GigTag Printed tagFrom AED 100 in the UAE, £24.99 in the UK or €28.99 in the EU, delivered free, with a large size for more; $32.99 elsewhere, plus postage from the UK. Or print your own, anywhere, for free.
Questions
Buy Me a Coffee and GigTag: what people ask
Something else? Ask us. A person reads every message.
Is GigTag better than Buy Me a Coffee for live musicians?
At the gig, GigTag is the better fit, because it was made for a live act. The tag on your mic stand opens a page with song requests, your gigs and residencies, your links and a booking enquiry form. Online, Buy Me a Coffee does a job GigTag does not: memberships and a shop. GigTag tips are for the room, with 0% taken.
Why put a GigTag code on stage instead of my Buy Me a Coffee code?
Because the GigTag code gives the audience more to do, and your support page can sit inside it. One scan offers a request, your next gig, your links and a booking enquiry form. Add Buy Me a Coffee to those links and nothing is lost. You show one code, and the room chooses what it wants.
What is Buy Me a Coffee?
Buy Me a Coffee is a platform where fans support creators and artists. A fan can send a one-off payment with a message, or join a monthly or yearly membership, and creators can sell items from a shop on the same page. See its site for prices and for the countries it supports.
Can I use a Buy Me a Coffee QR code at a gig?
Its site offers a personal QR code for posters, screens and merch, so it can be shown at a gig. If you want the same scan to cover song requests, your next gig and booking enquiries, use a GigTag tag and add your Buy Me a Coffee page to the links on it.
Does GigTag offer memberships like Buy Me a Coffee?
No. GigTag is not a membership platform or a store. It is a page for a live act, opened from one QR code on the mic stand: song requests, gigs and residencies, links, booking enquiries, and invoices for clients on Pro. For memberships, keep a platform made for them.
If I move tips from Buy Me a Coffee to GigTag, does GigTag take a percentage?
GigTag takes 0% of tips. They go by card or Apple Pay into your own Stripe account, or your own Ziina account in the UAE, in every country. Moving tips at the gig to GigTag makes sense. For memberships and online support, keep your existing page and link it from GigTag.
Can I use the same QR code at every gig?
With GigTag, yes. The code on your tag is permanent. It does not change from venue to venue, and if you rename the act the old links still work. You print the tag once, or order it printed, and it goes on the mic stand wherever you play.
What should go on a musician's page for a live audience?
Things a person can use while you are still playing. On a GigTag page that means a way to request a song, your next gig and weekly residencies with an add to calendar option, your socials and music links, and a booking enquiry form. A support page such as Buy Me a Coffee can be linked from it.
Does Buy Me a Coffee have a QR code?
Yes. Its site has a page about a personal QR code for each creator, meant for screens, posters, merch and live events. A supporter scans it, chooses how to support and sends it. A GigTag code is different in purpose: it opens a page for requests, gig dates and booking enquiries.
Can I add a regular monthly gig to my GigTag page?
Yes. Every gig you add appears on your page, and weekly residencies have their own listing. A monthly date can be added as gigs. Fans who scan the tag can put any of them in their calendar. All gigs and residencies are on the free plan.
Looking for Buy Me a Coffee itself?
This page is GigTag's. Buy Me a Coffee's sign-in, prices, reviews and support are on its own site.
Apps like Buy Me a Coffee: more tips and digital tip jars compared
See all comparisonsBuy Me a Coffee is the name of its owner's product; GigTag is not connected with it. What is said about Buy Me a Coffee here comes from its own public website, checked on 7 October 2026. Products change: if something here is out of date, tell us and we will correct it.
For musicians
One code on your stand. Requests, tips and the next gig behind it.
No app for your audience, nothing to download. Free to start.