DonationAlerts or Boosty: What Should a Streamer Choose in 2026

In short: DonationAlerts is for receiving one-off donations live during a stream, with an on-screen alert and a message from the viewer. Boosty is for selling a monthly subscription and closed content: recordings, posts, early access. Their fees are almost the same: DonationAlerts takes 12% (9% when donations exceed 1 million rubles a month), Boosty takes 11.7%, and both charge a separate withdrawal fee. A beginner is fine with DonationAlerts, and it makes sense to add Boosty once you have something to offer subscribers beyond a regular stream. Many people use both services at once, and that is a perfectly normal setup.

One-off donation vs subscription: what is the difference

A donation is an impulse. A viewer is watching, likes a moment, sends 200 rubles with a message and sees you read it out on stream. The income is uneven, but in return you do not have to promise anything except the stream itself.

A subscription is an agreement. A person pays a fixed amount every month and expects something specific for it: closed posts, ad-free recordings, early access to videos, a separate chat, a role on Discord. The income is predictable, but you have to earn it: if you post nothing for a month, subscribers start to leave.

That is the main difference between the services. DonationAlerts is built around the stream and OBS. Boosty is built around the creator page that holds paid content. You can accept one-off donations on Boosty too, but without the familiar streamer alerts.

What we compare	DonationAlerts	Boosty
Main model	One-off donations during a stream	Tiered paid subscription and paid posts
Service fee	12%; 9% if donations last month exceeded 1 million rubles. Always 12% in the first month after registration	11.7%, already including the payment systems
Withdrawal to a ruble card	1.9% + 20 rubles, minimum 150 rubles	2.2% + 20 rubles, from 150 to 100,000 rubles per transfer
Other withdrawal methods	YooMoney 2.5%, mobile account 2.2%, VK Pay 0%	YooMoney 2.8% (Russian residents only)
Payout frequency	The service tries to pay out daily but does not guarantee it	Daily, including weekends
OBS widgets	Alerts, goals, polls, viewer media	No ready-made widgets in the help center

An interesting detail: the footer of both sites names the same operator, Zaya Solutions Limited, and you can log in to DonationAlerts with a Boosty account. So they are not direct competitors but two tools of one ecosystem for different tasks.

Fees, withdrawals and timing

DonationAlerts

For users from the CIS, separate payment terms apply, last revised on March 3, 2026. The agent fee depends on how much you collected in the previous calendar month: up to 1 million rubles inclusive it is 12%, above that it is 9%. The rate is the same for card payments, YooMoney and VK Pay.

Then you need to transfer the money to yourself, and that carries a separate fee:

• ruble bank card: 1.9% + 20 rubles, minimum 150 rubles per transfer, no more than 2.5 million rubles a month;
• mobile account: 2.2%;
• YooMoney: 2.5%;
• VK Pay: 0%.

Example: a viewer donated 1,000 rubles. Subtract 12% (120 rubles) and then 1.9% + 20 rubles for the card withdrawal, and about 841 rubles will reach your card. If a donation arrives in a currency other than the one you chose as the main one, it is converted at the openexchangerates.org rate minus 10% of the rate. That is why it is best to set as the default currency the one most of your viewers donate in.

Timing: the terms say the service tries to transfer money every day, but there are no guarantees. During a fraud check a payout can be delayed, for up to 90 days at most. Additional features may carry their own service fee, which is shown in the interface.

Boosty

Since February 20, 2026, Boosty has moved to a single fee, which the team announced in its official blog. The platform FAQ gives the amount: 11.7%, and it already includes the payment system fees. Withdrawal is paid for separately and depends on the method.

Russian residents withdraw money to a Russian bank card in rubles or to YooMoney. According to the withdrawal settings on the Boosty site as of October 2026: card is 2.2% + 20 rubles, from 150 to 100,000 rubles per transfer, YooMoney is 2.8%. Non-residents withdraw to a foreign bank card in dollars or euros. Payouts run daily, including weekends, and you cannot choose your own schedule. If a transfer has not arrived after more than five business days, Boosty advises contacting support.

Two more points that people learn about too late. First: all creators go through identity verification, there are three levels, and the more you earn, the more data they ask for. Second: if a subscriber disputes a payment, the money can be frozen for 75 to 90 days.

Boosty payment terms on the site open only in a browser, and the full text of the CIS offer did not make it into this review. Check the minimum withdrawal amount and current limits in your dashboard, in the earnings section: the up-to-date figures are always there.

What it looks like on stream

Here DonationAlerts has no competition. The service provides a set of widgets that you add to OBS as a Browser source using the link from your dashboard:

• donation alerts with the name, amount and message, styled to match your channel design;
• new followers on screen;
• fundraising goals with a progress bar; you can create several, and the viewer chooses which goal to donate to;
• polls for viewers in real time;
• viewer media: a person sends a clip or a track along with a donation, and you decide whether to play it or not.

Step by step, with all the settings, this is covered in the article on how to set up donations via DonationAlerts in OBS.

Boosty works on a different logic. It is a creator page with subscription tiers, paid posts, goals by amount or number of subscribers, donations from 10 to 150,000 rubles, and Telegram and Discord bots that let subscribers into a closed chat or channel. The official Boosty help center has no ready-made alerts for OBS. On stream, Boosty is usually promoted differently: a link in the description, a bot command in chat, a banner in the channel design.

Who should pick what

Beginner, up to 20 viewers online

Take DonationAlerts. A subscription requires regular exclusive content, and at the start all your energy goes into the streams themselves. A donation with an alert, on the other hand, works right away: even a first 50-ruble donation read out loud livens up the chat and shows everyone that supporting you is possible. Set up one fundraising goal, for example for a microphone.

Mid-size channel with a regular core

When the same people keep coming to your streams, you can offer them more than a donation. Here DonationAlerts stays on the stream, and Boosty is added on top with one or two inexpensive tiers: a closed Discord, stream recordings without cuts, a vote on which game to play next week. Two clear tiers sell better than ten.

Creator with exclusive content

If you make guides, breakdowns, builds, training courses, edit videos or write music for streams, Boosty becomes your main income. Paid posts and subscriptions pay for work that cannot be shown for free on a live stream. DonationAlerts stays for the live reaction during streams. There is a separate article on how to build the page and come up with tiers: how to set up Patreon or Boosty for your fans.

Can you use both

You can, and it is the most common setup among Russian-speaking streamers. Split the roles: DonationAlerts handles the stream (alerts, goals, media), Boosty handles what happens between streams. Two mistakes to avoid: do not sell on Boosty the same thing viewers already see for free, and do not ask on stream for a donation, a Boosty subscription and a channel subscription all at once. One ask at a time works better than three.

If you stream on Twitch and want more chat activity around supporting the channel, take a look at our bits, Prime and paid subscriptions for Twitch.

Taxes in brief

Neither DonationAlerts nor Boosty pays tax for you. The Boosty FAQ states directly that the platform is not a tax agent and the creator is responsible for the return. The DonationAlerts terms include a clause that the service may withhold taxes if the law obliges it to, and may request tax details.

For a streamer from Russia, one of two options is most often chosen. Self-employment (the professional income tax): 4% on income from individuals and 6% from companies and sole proprietors, a limit of 2.4 million rubles a year, no reporting, and the receipt is generated in the Moy Nalog app. A sole proprietor on the simplified system: usually 6% of income plus insurance contributions, suitable when your income exceeds the self-employed limit or you need to work with advertisers under contracts. Whether donations count as a gift or as income is a separate question: the positions of the services and tax advisers differ. Subscription fees and paid posts are definitely income. For more detail, taking into account that both services work through a foreign company, see the article on taxes on donations from abroad.

Alternatives: donations on Rutube and VK

Rutube. Built-in donations are available both under videos and on streams. The wallet is connected in Studio through Gosuslugi, and only individuals who are Russian citizens can accept donations. The payment partner fee is 10% of a donation, and you can withdraw from 51 rubles, up to 60,000 rubles at a time and up to 200,000 rubles a month. For a card up to 3000 rubles they charge 50 rubles, for larger amounts and to a phone there is no fee.

VK Video and VK Video Live. VK Video Live has donations and paid subscriptions, but VK does not publish the platform share: under the partner program rules, the reward is calculated under the company internal policies. For VK Video there is VK Donut with a service fee of 10%. Built-in donations are convenient but live only inside one platform. If you stream to several platforms at once, DonationAlerts collects donations in one place.

Common mistakes

• Starting Boosty without content. A page with a single “just support” tier barely sells. First decide what a subscriber gets, then open the subscription.
• Abandoning your DonationAlerts account. If you do not use the account for more than three months or do not choose a withdrawal method, it becomes inactive. After that, 100 rubles a day is charged for maintenance, and the agreement with the streamer may be terminated. Withdraw your money and do not leave a balance in an old account.
• The wrong default currency. Every donation in another currency loses 10% on conversion in DonationAlerts.
• An empty screen without a goal. An alert without a fundraising goal works worse: it is easier for a viewer to donate when they see what for and how much is left.
• Putting off your tax status. Once income becomes regular, register as self-employed or as a sole proprietor, rather than sorting things out with the tax office retroactively.
• Waiting for donations on an empty stream. People donate where there is a live chat and at least a small audience. If the channel is just starting, you can gather the first viewers in the viewer management panel, and then keep people with content and conversation.

Frequently asked questions

Which has the better fee: DonationAlerts or Boosty?

Almost the same. From 1,000 rubles, after the service fee and withdrawal to a ruble card, you keep roughly 840 rubles in both services. DonationAlerts becomes more profitable at over 1 million rubles collected a month, when the rate drops to 9%.

Can I withdraw money from DonationAlerts and Boosty to a Russian card?

Yes. DonationAlerts withdraws to ruble cards, YooMoney, a mobile account and VK Pay. Boosty withdraws for Russian residents to a Russian bank card in rubles or to YooMoney.

Can I show Boosty donations in OBS?

The official Boosty help center has no ready-made alert widgets. For on-stream notifications people use DonationAlerts, and Boosty is promoted with a link in the description and a bot command in chat.

How long do I wait for a payout?

Boosty pays out daily, including weekends; if a transfer has not arrived within five business days, write to support. DonationAlerts tries to pay out daily, but during a check it can delay a payout for up to 90 days.

Do I need to be self-employed to accept donations?

No status is required to register on DonationAlerts and Boosty; Boosty only asks you to pass identity verification. But you do have to pay tax on the income, and self-employment is the simplest way to do it legally.

What is best for a small channel?

DonationAlerts. It works from the very first stream and does not require separate content. Boosty makes sense once you have a regular audience and something to give it for a subscription.