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The best platform for subscriptions & donations

"Best" depends on what you're charging for — and whether you also need to sell. A paid newsletter, a membership, recurring donations, and a subscribe-and-save product each point to a different tool. Here's every option with pros, cons, and real cost — including the honest cases where Foxy isn't the answer.

The options

Does all three

Foxy

Subscriptions + donations + a store, on your own site

The only option here that covers recurring billing, recurring donations, and product sales in one system on your own branded site — so it replaces two or three single-purpose tools.

Pros

  • Native subscriptions, recurring donations, and a full store
  • Your own site & payment gateways
  • 1% platform fee
  • Customer self-service portal

Cons

  • $35/mo floor (pricier than free tiers at very low volume)
  • More setup than a single-purpose tool
  • Not a merchant of record — you handle tax

From $35/mo (100 transactions included each month) (+$0.35 per additional transaction)

Substack

Paid newsletters

Built-in audience and discovery. The right fit only when the newsletter itself is the product.

Pros

  • Zero setup
  • Built-in audience & discovery
  • No monthly fee

Cons

  • ~10% of revenue + processing (13–16% all-in)
  • No donations or product sales
  • You live on Substack's platform

$0/mo · ~10% + processing

Memberful

Membership sites

Memberships layered onto your own site or WordPress, keeping your branding and member data.

Pros

  • Own branding & member data
  • WordPress-friendly
  • Solid member management

Cons

  • $49/mo + 4.9% + processing
  • Memberships only — no donations or product store
  • Hard to justify under ~$2k/mo

$49/mo + 4.9% + processing

Gumroad

Quick digital sales

The fastest way to start selling digital products and creator subscriptions. Marketplace-flavored, light on control.

Pros

  • Near-zero setup
  • Sells digital products
  • Some built-in discovery

Cons

  • 10% flat fee is high
  • No donations
  • Limited branding & checkout control
  • Hosted on Gumroad

~10% flat + processing

Shopify + subscription app

Product subscribe-and-save

The right call for an existing Shopify store adding recurring physical products.

Pros

  • Full product store
  • Subscribe-and-save via app
  • Large ecosystem

Cons

  • Needs Shopify + a subscriptions app (stacked cost)
  • Donations only via workaround
  • A replatform if you're not already on it, plus Shopify lock-in

$39+/mo + subscription app

Donorbox

Donations only

Purpose-built, simple donation forms for nonprofits — genuinely easy to start, but donations, events, and memberships are all it does.

Pros

  • Simple
  • Free to start
  • Strong donation/event/membership tooling

Cons

  • Can't sell products or merch
  • 2.95–3.95% platform fee (vs Foxy's 1%)
  • The lower-fee tier is $150/mo
  • Donor data lives in Donorbox

Free (2.95–3.95%) or $150/mo (1.75–2%)

Comparison table

Platform Best suited for Subscriptions Donations Product sales Price
Foxy Recurring revenue + donations + a store Native Native Yes $35+/mo
Substack Paid newsletters Native No No $0 + ~10%
Memberful Membership sites Native No No $49/mo + 4.9%
Gumroad Quick digital sales Native No Digital only ~10% flat
Shopify + app Product subscribe-and-save Via app Workaround Yes $39+/mo + app
Donorbox Nonprofit donations Recurring gifts Native No Free–$150/mo

Foxy is the only row that's "yes" across subscriptions, donations, and product sales. If you are planning on growth or other merch or product offerings, it's the only choice. On fees, its 1% is well under Substack/Gumroad (~10%), Memberful (4.9%), and Donorbox (2.95–3.95%) — the trade is the $35/mo floor, which the others' free tiers undercut only at low volume.

Bottom line

Foxy is the only option that does all three — recurring subscriptions, recurring donations, and a product store — on your own branded site with your own gateways. If your organization does more than one of those (a nonprofit that also sells merch, a creator with memberships and products), Foxy replaces two or three tools with one, at a lower percentage fee.

Where a single-purpose tool honestly wins its lane: a pure paid newsletter → Substack (the audience is the point); a standalone membership site → Memberful; a tiny nonprofit that only collects donations and wants the simplest free forms → Donorbox. The catch with that last one: Donorbox can't sell products, its platform fee runs 2.95–3.95% against Foxy's $0.35 (after 100 included transactions each month), and its lower-fee tier is $150/mo — so the moment a nonprofit also wants to sell, or scales past low volume, Foxy becomes the cheaper, single-system answer.

Frequently asked questions

For a small nonprofit that only takes donations, Donorbox is simple and free to start. But it can't sell products or merch, its platform fee runs 2.95–3.95% (against Foxy's 1%), and the lower-fee tier is $150/mo. If you also sell — merch, tickets, memberships — or you're past low volume, Foxy handles donations and a full store in one system on your own site.

Only Foxy does both natively — plus a product store — on your own site. Substack, Memberful, and Gumroad handle recurring billing but not donations; Donorbox handles donations but not product sales.

Yes — Memberful and Foxy both keep the experience on your site. Memberful is membership-specific; Foxy adds a full cart, subscriptions, and donations. Substack and Gumroad host the experience on their own platforms instead.

Substack gives you an audience and discovery in exchange for ~10%+ and living on their platform. Your own site (Foxy or Memberful) costs less at scale and keeps ownership — but you bring your own audience. If the audience is the product, Substack; if the brand and the stack are the product, your own site.

Taking subscriptions and donations — and maybe selling too?

That's the exact case Foxy is built for: recurring billing, recurring giving, and a store in one system, on your own site, with your own gateways.

See Foxy plans Explore subscriptions & donations

Fees and pricing gathered from each provider's published pricing as of August 2026.