For over 16 years, we have published numerous articles that assist users in collecting donations and earning money online.
To simplify the process further, we researched and tested several popular tip jar plugins on actual websites. These tools enable users to contribute donations if they appreciate your content or wish to support your non-profit organization.
Through extensive testing, we discovered that each tip jar plugin has unique features and is tailored for specific niches.
In this article, we will present our curated list of the top tip jar plugins for WordPress, including their advantages and disadvantages.
If you’re short on time, feel free to glance at our expert recommendations to help you make a quick decision.
| # | Plugins | Best For | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🥇 | Charitable | The best overall donation plugin | $69/year + Free |
| 🥈 | WPForms | Providing incentives for tips/donations | $49.50/year + Free |
| 🥉 | WP Simple Pay | Easily creating tip and donation forms | $49.50/year + Free |
| 4 | WP Payment Pal | Accepting donations via PayPal | $49.50/year + Free |
| 5 | GiveWP | Building fundraising campaigns | $149/year + Free |
| 6 | Tip Jar WP | Create tip jars with an option for recurring payments | Free |
| 7 | Buy Me a Coffee | Add a tip jar widget to your site | Free |
Why Should You Use a Tip Jar on Your Website?
A virtual tip jar functions similarly to a physical tip jar, allowing your audience to contribute money as a token of appreciation for your work.
There are several reasons to consider using a tip jar. For example:
- You are a musician, artist, or writer who shares your work online for free but would appreciate additional financial support.
- You develop free software and want to give users the opportunity to support your ongoing efforts to keep it available at no cost.
- You conduct an online class that is free of charge, and donations could help sustain it.
- You wish to explore the potential of a tip jar as a means of generating income from your blog.
Tip jars are small donation forms typically placed in the sidebar of a website for easy visibility.
Keep your tip jar as straightforward as possible to encourage more people to contribute.
Choosing the right tip jar plugin is crucial, as some plugins offer additional features tailored to your specific needs.
Note:Some tip jar plugins require an SSL certificate for secure transactions. We highly recommend obtaining one, even if it’s not mandatory. If you don’t have an SSL certificate yet, our guide on acquiring a free SSL certificate will walk you through the steps.
How We Evaluate and Review WordPress Tip Jar Plugins
To assist our readers, we evaluated the most popular tip jar plugins on actual websites, focusing on several key criteria.
User-Friendliness:We selected tip jar plugins that are easy for beginners to use and come with comprehensive documentation.
Key Features:In this review, we prioritized plugins that offer essential features such as donation options, payment gateway integration, recurring payments, receipts, and more.
Dependability:We only included plugins that we have personally tested on real websites to ensure reliability.
Why You Can Trust CanadaCreate:
CanadaCreate is backed by a team of experts with extensive experience in WordPress, SEO, online marketing, and web hosting. We rigorously test and thoroughly review each plugin to provide you with the best recommendations.
For more information, please refer to our editorial process.
Now, let’s explore the top tip jar plugins available for WordPress.
1. Charitable
Charitable is a robust fundraising and donation plugin for WordPress, utilized by over 10,000 non-profit organizations to generate online contributions.
However, it’s not limited to non-profits; you can also use Charitable as a tip jar to collect donations for your personal projects or causes.
✅Advantages of Charitable
Charitable is user-friendly, allowing you to launch your first fundraising campaign in under 5 minutes.
You can design custom donation forms tailored to your specific requirements and set up as many fundraising campaigns as you wish. If you have multiple campaigns, you can showcase them as a collection on any page or post of your WordPress site.
You can begin accepting donations immediately through PayPal or connect to premium payment processors like Stripe, Authorize.net, Braintree, Windcave, and more.
❌Disadvantages of Charitable
While you can accept donations with the basic plan, setting up recurring donations requires the Charitable Plus plan.
The Charitable Plus plan includes advanced features such as anonymous donations, but it is limited to a single WordPress site. If you manage multiple websites, you’ll need to upgrade to the Elite plan, which can be somewhat pricey.
⭐Reasons to Choose Charitable
Charitable is a widely-used WordPress donation plugin, trusted by thousands to facilitate online donations.
The Charitable plugin integrates effortlessly with Easy Digital Downloads, allowing you to sell digital products like eBooks to support your cause.
Premium add-ons are also available, offering features like recurring donations, peer-to-peer fundraising, crowdfunding, anonymous donations, and more.
Pricing Information
Charitable offers a free version with basic features. Paid plans begin at $69 per year, providing unlimited campaigns, unlimited donors, and no transaction fees.
2. WPForms
WPForms is the leading WordPress forms plugin, utilized by over 6 million website owners. It allows you to create a customizable tip jar form that aligns with your brand.
As one of the most popular WordPress plugins, WPForms includes thousands of pre-designed templates, enabling you to create any type of form in just one click, such as contact forms, survey forms, registration forms, donation forms, and more.
✅ Advantages of WPForms
The WPForms plugin features an easy-to-use interface, and you can quickly set up your tip jar using the WPForms Donation Form template.
This plugin supports major payment processors like Stripe, PayPal, Square, and Authorize.net, allowing you to easily accept both one-time and recurring donations on your website.
You can place the WPForms tip jar anywhere on your website, including on standalone pages, in sidebars, the footer, and more.
❌ Drawbacks of WPForms
The option for recurring donations is only available with the WPForms Pro and Elite plans, meaning you’ll need to invest in the Pro plan to integrate a tip jar on your WordPress site.
Although it may seem pricey, the WPForms Pro plan offers a variety of payment options, advanced add-ons, and additional features, making it a worthwhile investment.
⭐ Why We Recommend WPForms
WPForms is user-friendly and designed for beginners, making it ideal for anyone looking to add forms to their WordPress site.
With WPForms, managing donations and tip jars is straightforward, allowing you to provide incentives in exchange for contributions.
For instance, if you are a musician, you could offer an exclusive recording not available to the public. Alternatively, if you are a software developer, you might provide users with access to the beta version of your latest software.
This approach can significantly boost your donations and quickly fill your tip jar.
To provide your freebie, you can connect your donation form to your email marketing service. This allows you to set up an autoresponder to express gratitude to donors and deliver their freebie.
Additionally, WPForms is not limited to tip jars. It offers a versatile approach, user-friendly interface, and budget-friendly pricing plans.
Pricing
WPForms Pro is available for $199.50 per year with our exclusive WPForms coupon, allowing you to accept both one-time and recurring donations without any extra transaction fees.
If you are a non-profit organization, you can benefit from an additional discount through the WPForms Care program, which provides special pricing on WordPress forms tailored for non-profits.
There is also a limited free version that enables you to accept donations via Stripe, though it incurs a 3% transaction fee.
3. WP Simple Pay
WP Simple Pay is the top WordPress Stripe payment plugin that can function as a tip jar plugin. It offers various donation options, including recurring donations, customizable donation amounts, and more.
It also features a donation form template that you can easily integrate into your site. The template is simple to customize using WP Simple Pay’s advanced form builder.
This plugin allows you to add donation options through dropdown menus, radio buttons, and custom fields for donation amounts. With various payment integrations available, collecting donations online is straightforward.
✅ Advantages of WP Simple Pay
During our evaluation of the plugin, we found it incredibly easy to create payment and donation forms within just a few clicks. The intuitive drag-and-drop form builder is ideal for beginners.
Additionally, it offers a collection of over 70 form templates, allowing you to quickly set up payment acceptance.
WP Simple Pay supports more than 13 payment methods, including credit and debit cards, Afterpay, Klarna, Apple Pay, Cash App, and others.
We were also impressed by the plugin’s ability to manage both one-time and recurring tips. You can easily configure suggested donation amounts or allow visitors to enter their own, which is excellent for encouraging greater contributions.
❌ Disadvantages of WP Simple Pay
The free version of WP Simple Pay imposes a 3% transaction fee in addition to Stripe’s processing fees. To eliminate this transaction fee, you must upgrade to a premium plan.
Moreover, certain features such as recurring payments, custom branding, and additional payment methods are only accessible through paid plans.
⭐ Reasons to Recommend WP Simple Pay
WP Simple Pay is an outstanding option for creators who want to easily integrate a tip or donation form into their WordPress site.
With its straightforward setup, customizable forms, and flexible donation options, this plugin allows you to start receiving contributions quickly and professionally.
The free version is ideal for launching basic tip jars, and you can upgrade to the premium version later for more advanced features.
Pricing
WP Simple Pay offers a free version with a 3% transaction fee. Premium plans begin at $49.50 per year with no transaction fees.
💡 Alternative:If you’re interested in a simple form that accepts tips via Square instead of Stripe, we recommend MyPayKit. It’s the top Square payment form plugin for WordPress, and it includes a free version to help you get started.
4. WP Payment Pal
WP Payment Pal is the premier PayPal payment plugin that provides greater control over your tip jar compared to a standard PayPal donate button. You can suggest tip amounts like $3, $5, or $10, while still allowing supporters to enter their own amount, which is how a tip jar should function.
Easily integrate the donation form into your posts, sidebar, or footer using a block or shortcode, or set it up as a popup, all from your WordPress dashboard.
✅ Advantages of WP Payment Pal
Supporters can make tips using PayPal, credit or debit cards, or Venmo. Offering these three options ensures that more readers can contribute without being limited by their preferred payment method.
The checkout process remains on your website, eliminating the need to redirect to an external PayPal page during the transaction, which enhances speed and provides a smoother experience for the reader.
You can also set up recurring tips, allowing supporters to contribute a fixed amount each month without needing to return each time. For creators who publish regularly, this consistent support can accumulate significantly.
❌ Disadvantages of WP Payment Pal
The free version of WP Payment Pal has limitations, only allowing one-time payments and basic subscription options.
To access advanced features such as subscriptions with free trials, transaction management, refunds, and abandoned cart emails, you must upgrade to a premium plan.
⭐ Reasons to Recommend WP Payment Pal
WP Payment Pal bridges the gap between a basic PayPal donate button and a comprehensive payment solution. If you’re already using PayPal and need a tip jar that manages suggested amounts, various payment options, and recurring donations, this plugin consolidates everything in one convenient location.
What we appreciate about it is the straightforward setup process. You can create your form, set your pricing, and monitor your transaction history all within WordPress — no need for an external platform or switching between tabs.
Pricing
WP Payment Pal offers a free version, with premium plans starting at $49.50 per year.
💡 Alternative:PayPal Donations is another straightforward and free plugin for accepting PayPal contributions.
5. GiveWP
GiveWP, commonly referred to as Give, is an excellent, fully-featured donation plugin for WordPress.
While it’s one of the top choices for nonprofits, it can also be utilized for personal or for-profit ventures.
✅ Advantages of GiveWP
GiveWP offers a wide range of options. For instance, you can enable donors to contribute in their preferred currency and accept recurring donations.
You can set fundraising goals to reach a specific target, which can be effective if you plan to reward your audience with something new once you achieve your goal.
For example, if you’re a nonfiction author, you could offer a free chapter of your upcoming book once you reach $1,000 in donations.
GiveWP integrates with a wide variety of payment gateways, including Stripe, Authorize.net, PayPal, 2Checkout, Braintree, Mollie, Paytm, PayFast, Square, AmeriCloud, Paymill, and many others.
❌ Drawbacks of GiveWP
With GiveWP, you can add various addons for enhanced features. However, the Basic plan only includes basic addons, and you will need to upgrade to the GiveWP Plus or Pro plan to access premium addons.
The recurring donation feature is only available with the GiveWP Plus plan and higher. Compared to WPForms and Charitable, the GiveWP Plus plan is pricier and may lack some features offered by other tip jar plugins on our list.
⭐ Reasons to Choose GiveWP
Getting started with GiveWP is straightforward. Once you install and activate the plugin, you’ll be guided through a quick start tutorial.
GiveWP allows you to customize your donation forms. However, if complete control over your donation form is essential, WPForms may be a more suitable option.
Pricing
GiveWP offers a limited free version, with paid plans starting at $149 per year. The Plus version provides access to all add-ons for $349 per year.
6. Tip Jar WP
Tip Jar WP is a relatively new plugin, launched in July 2019, and has since enabled users to generate over $1 million in donations through their WordPress sites.
While it may not offer the extensive features of premium plugins like WPForms or GiveWP, Tip Jar WP remains an excellent choice for setting up tip jars on your WordPress website.
✅ Advantages of Tip Jar WP
Tip Jar WP is designed to streamline the donation process for your supporters. Its user-friendly setup guide makes it easy to get started.
The default form is well-designed and user-friendly, allowing you to place it anywhere on your site, including the sidebar or footer.
You can easily add the form to a page or post using WordPress’s block editor, or insert it into your sidebar with a shortcode.
❌ Disadvantages of Tip Jar WP
Despite its many features, the Tip Jar WP plugin does not support PayPal integration, which is a widely used payment option.
While your users may be comfortable making payments via credit card or other supported mobile methods, they might prefer having the option to pay through PayPal.
One downside is that the plugin takes a 1% fee from your transactions, even for donations.
⭐ Reasons to Choose Tip Jar WP
Tip Jar WP is compatible with all WordPress page builders and features a responsive design that ensures it looks great on mobile devices.
With Tip Jar WP, you can set up recurring donations, such as weekly or monthly contributions. It supports multiple currencies, allowing donors to use their preferred currency.
You can accept payments via credit card. The tip jar form can detect if your user’s device supports Apple Pay, Google Pay, or Microsoft Pay, and will display the appropriate option if available.
Pricing Information
Tip Jar WP is a free plugin, but it charges a 1% transaction fee on donations. If you receive a large volume of donations, you might want to consider a different plugin for better cost efficiency.
7. Buy Me a Coffee
The Buy Me a Coffee plugin is offered by the Buy Me a Coffee platform. A free account is required to use it.
Donors can contribute using PayPal, credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and other payment methods.
✅ Advantages of Buy Me a Coffee
Buy Me a Coffee is a free tip jar plugin that features a straightforward WordPress widget, which becomes visible on your site immediately after installation.
Important Note:Interestingly, the ‘widget’ referred to by Buy Me a Coffee is not a traditional WordPress widget that you can place in your sidebar. Instead, once activated, it will show up as a small coffee cup icon in the bottom right corner of every page on your website, expanding when clicked.
However, you can also add a button to your sidebar by using the Buy Me a Coffee WordPress widget found inAppearance » Widgets.
This plugin allows you to accept both one-time and recurring donations. Additionally, you can use it to provide exclusive content to donors or even sell digital products.
❌ Disadvantages of Buy Me a Coffee
One downside is the limited documentation available for the WordPress plugin compared to the online platform. Furthermore, some users have experienced challenges in reaching customer support.
Another drawback is the 5% commission fee on all transactions, which can add up significantly if you receive multiple donations.
⭐ Reasons to Recommend Buy Me a Coffee
The Buy Me a Coffee plugin features a visually appealing widget that is ready to use right after installation.
Customizing your tip jar is simple; you can change its color with just one click in your WordPress dashboard, and you can also modify the text easily.
However, you cannot change the donation amounts. Supporters can only contribute in increments of $3.
Pricing Information
Buy Me a Coffee is free to use, but it charges a 5% transaction fee on all donations. This may be worthwhile if you want access to all the platform’s features.
Bonus Feature: Formidable Forms
Formidable Forms is another excellent choice for setting up a tip jar on your WordPress site.
While Formidable Forms is a powerful form plugin, it may not be as user-friendly for beginners as WPForms. It is better suited for developers and experienced WordPress users.
✅ Advantages of Formidable Forms
You can utilize Formidable Forms for your tip jar. The simplest method is to use the ‘PayPal Donation’ template, which is a customizable pre-built form.
If you’re looking to implement something complex or unique with your tip jar, Formidable Forms may be the ideal choice for you.
It provides significant power and flexibility. Similar to WPForms, it can also be used to create various other types of forms.
❌ Disadvantages of Formidable Forms
Formidable Forms is a powerful plugin designed for developers and advanced users.
The basic plan is affordable, but you’ll need to upgrade to a higher plan to access payment options like PayPal.
⭐ Reasons to Choose Formidable Forms
Formidable Forms is an excellent WordPress plugin for integrating a tip jar on your website. It features recurring payment options, popular payment methods, customizable form templates, and seamless third-party integrations.
This plugin is ideal for developers looking to create intricate forms. It provides smart conditional logic and styling options to tailor your tip jar form to align with your brand identity.
Pricing Information
Formidable Forms offers a basic plan priced at $39.50 per year. However, to utilize PayPal, you will need a Business license, which costs $199.50 per year. They also provide a 14-day money-back guarantee.
A limited free version is available on the WordPress.org repository.
Which WordPress Tip Jar Plugin is the Best?
Any of these plugins could serve as a fantastic option for your tip jar. The best choice for you will depend on your specific requirements.
WPForms is an excellent choice for creating a versatile donation form that can be easily placed anywhere on your website. Additionally, it allows you to build contact forms and include surveys and polls.
For those seeking advanced functionalities such as donor management and communication, WP Charitable is a dependable solution tailored for non-profit organizations and charitable causes.
We hope this article has provided valuable insights into the top tip jar plugins for WordPress. Be sure to explore our other WordPress guides designed to enhance your donation efforts.
Top WordPress Guides to Boost Your Donations
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- Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Peer-to-Peer Fundraising in WordPress
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