Accepting bitcoin donations is a great way to open doors to supporters who want to chip in for your cause.
In this article we will be looking at 5 easy ways to accept bitcoin donations on any website. Let's get started.
Bitcoin is a fantastic way to send value over the internet, with just one click and without the need of a bank account.
Traditional financial services like BuyMeACoffee, Patreon, PayPal and others, require access to banking for both the sender and receiver. An unnecessary barrier that makes sending donations complicated and slow.
Bitcoin on the other hand is instant, global and "permissionless".
Bitcoin vs Lightning
If you’d like to receive bitcoin donations on bitcoin's main layer, the blockchain (“on-chain”) all you need is a bitcoin wallet. You simply display your bitcoin address on your site and that’s it. You're ready to receive donations.
It looks like this: 1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa
Instead of showing the actual bitcoin address, you can also turn it into a QR code.
However, this is not an ideal solution. Using static on-chain addresses is bad for two reasons. It lowers privacy for you as well as the people who donate to the address. Secondly, it can cause issues in the future because many small incoming transactions could become hard to consolidate or send to another address.
Bitcoin's blockchain is not really made for daily payments, small donations or micro-payments.
For donations and small transactions, the Lightning Network is the better option. Lightning allows for instantaneous payments at very low cost.
Similar to bitcoin, you have the choice between non-custodial and custodial wallets. This means, either you have full control over your money or the wallet provider manages the wallet for you.
Here is an overview:
Option 1: Lightning Address
With the lightning address feature, you an easily receive donations to an email like address.
It looks like this: yourname@wallet.com
Many wallets support lightning addresses and make it easy to create one. Then, you simply add the address to your donation page or website and you’re ready to receive tips.
You can also add it as a link. Like this: lightning:yourname@wallet.com. With that, compatible lightning wallets and browser wallets will detect the address and open the right app to start the donation.
Option 2: TwentyUno Donation Widget
If you like to take it a step further, you can also create a more enhanced donation checkout flow.
Surely, you could program something yourself, there are many open source libraries you can build upon. If you want a simple plug-and-play solution, the TwentyUno payment widget is a very good option.
Option 3: Payment Widgets With Flash
Flash is a payment service built on bitcoin and Lightning. Users can build online shops, invoice clients, create payment links, paywalls and widgets. The widgets are a great way to add a donation option to any website. It doesn't require coding experience and only needs an email to register. Payments go directly to your wallet for a 1.5% fee.
Setup Steps:
- Sign up at PayWithFlash.com
- Customize your widget in the dashboard
- Embed the code on your site
- Test to confirm functionality
Benefits:
- Minimal technical skills required
- Supports one-time or recurring donations
- Direct fund transfer, no intermediaries
Option 4: BTCPay Server
BTCPay is a very powerful, open-source, self-hosted processor for Bitcoin and Lightning. It can be hosted on any server with the minimum performance requirements. While BTCPay requires more technical experience, a supportive community and turnkey hosting providers can help you.
Here's an explainer video:
Similar options are SatSale (GitHub) and OpenNode.
SatSaleLightweight, self-hosted bitcoin/lightning payment processor. It's ideal for developers comfortable with server management. Simple to deploy, supports both on-chain and Lightning, and integrates with WooCommerce.
OpenNode is a custodial bitcoin and lightning payment processor. It requires full KYC but offers a variety of features including donation links and buttons.
Option 5: Geyser Fund
Geyser Fund is mainly a bitcoin crowdfunding platform. Over the years it has become a central platform for creators, initiatives, NGOs and other projects that work with bitcoin. It connects to your wallet, and only requires email registration. Geyser also has features for memberships, referrals and hosts regular grants and hackathons.
Summary
- Fast, low-code setup: Use Pay With Flash or Geyser Fund.
- Privacy and control: Choose SatSale or BTCPay Server (requires technical skills).
- Managed, compliant solutions: The Giving Block or OpenNode.
Choose based on your technical comfort, privacy needs, and project scale.
I hope this article helped you. If you added bitcoin donations, share your link in the comments and perhaps you’ll receive a first Lightning tip soon.
