GitHub Sponsors
Hacker ApprovedRanked 3 of 5 donation platforms by recommenders
Lets people sponsor open source developers directly, with no fees for donors or recipients. Critics mainly cite heavy administrative overhead and fear Microsoft could raise its cut.
Lets people sponsor open source developers directly, with no fees for donors or recipients. Critics mainly cite heavy administrative overhead and fear Microsoft could raise its cut.
14 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 10
- criticize it
- 4
- approval share
- 71%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 10 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 7 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
No fees for donors or recipients
“github sponsorships don't charge anything extra than the costs it would have itself and you get chargeback protection”
Comment from 26 Mar 2026 in “The truth that haunts the Ramones: 'They sold more T-shirts than records'” “GitHub sponsorship as a method that currently charges no fees to either the donor or the recipient”
Comment from 4 Jun 2026 in “Gmail thinks I'm stupid, so I left” “GitHub won't take a cut (or pays for it from their own purse) for any credit card processing fees.”
Comment from 31 Dec 2025 in “A Vulnerability in Libsodium” - Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “Zig quits GitHub, says Microsoft's AI obsession has ruined the service”
Supports open source creators financially
“It's a nice way to support creators and a pretty good reason to stay on GitHub.”
Comment from 20 Mar 2026 in “Time to Dump Windows?” “The only success stories I see in the space are GitHub Sponsors and LiberaPay”
Comment from 19 Feb 2026 in “Micropayments as a reality check for news sites” “It's a nice way to for free and open source developers to earn some money.”
Comment from 17 Aug 2026 in “Ask HN: Alternatives to GitHub”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Heavy administrative overhead and friction
“GitHub actually offers something in that direction. Sponsoring is hard - it works differently for every project/foundation and the administrative overhead is huge.”
Comment from 14 Jan 2026 in “GitHub should charge everyone $1 more per month” “That's effort & friction and only simplifies the "begging" aspect”
Comment from 14 Jan 2026 in “GitHub should charge everyone $1 more per month” Microsoft could raise its cut
“how long before they start skimming OSS projects that are public but nonetheless have Github Sponsors income”
Comment from 16 Dec 2025 in “Pricing Changes for GitHub Actions” “GitHub Sponsors is a liability because Microsoft can increase their cut at any time”
Comment from 27 Nov 2025 in “Migrating the main Zig repository from GitHub to Codeberg”
Other donation platforms people recommend
The four most recommended other donation platforms, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Patreon | 55 | 37 | 60% | 12 | — | — |
| Watsi | 29 | 1 | 97% | 4 | 12 yrs4 owners | Approved |
| GitHub SponsorsThis page | 10 | 4 | 71% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Ko-fi | 8 | 1 | 89% | 5 | — | — |
| Buy Me a Coffee | 7 | 5 | 58% | 6 | — | — |
What people said
All 19 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“It's a nice way to for free and open source developers to earn some money.”
“GitHub sponsorship as a method that currently charges no fees to either the donor or the recipient”
“it is a power-law system and benefits the very early participants or already famous developers”
“Kickstarter, Patreon, Etsy, even GitHub Sponsors are steps in a positive direction”
“It still felt really nice that someone out there cared enough about my work to send me money.”
“they get to set the price and the minimum is at least $1”
“now i have proper channel to redirect such requests”
“github sponsorships don't charge anything extra than the costs it would have itself and you get chargeback protection”
“It's a nice way to support creators and a pretty good reason to stay on GitHub.”
“The only success stories I see in the space are GitHub Sponsors and LiberaPay”
“wouldn't https://github.com/sponsors/sudo-project achieve the same thing in this case?”
“That's effort & friction and only simplifies the "begging" aspect”
“GitHub actually offers something in that direction. Sponsoring is hard - it works differently for every project/foundation and the administrative overhead is huge.”
“GitHub won't take a cut (or pays for it from their own purse) for any credit card processing fees.”
“how long before they start skimming OSS projects that are public but nonetheless have Github Sponsors income”
“we do have other systems in place via Github sponsorships”
“We have the technology for this. Platforms like Kickstarter, Patreon, GitHub Sponsors all enable this.”
“They have zero fees for individuals too which is amazing.”
“GitHub Sponsors is a liability because Microsoft can increase their cut at any time”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.