Brillay vs. Beacons

Brillay costs $0 per month and charges an 8% platform fee when a follower pays for work and a 5% platform fee on tips and goals, while Beacons charges a 9% seller fee on its Free and $10/month Creator plans and 0% on its $30/month Creator Plus plan. Choose Brillay to sell access to you; choose Beacons to sell products from a link-in-bio storefront. Paid Questions let a follower pay upfront to ask one private question, and you send one written reply on your own time — no live call or scheduling. Nothing to build in advance and nothing identical: what sells is the answer, the commission or the video that one particular follower is asking for, made for them after they pay. No monthly bill before your first sale, and you can start today with no catalogue and no files. One fee that applies only when a follower pays, on no monthly plan at any volume, and what sells is custom work for one person rather than a catalogue you stock in advance.

How should you choose between Brillay and Beacons?

Choose Brillay when followers want paid questions, Personalized Videos, commissions, one-time support, project funding, or a clear way to ask about a brand deal. Choose Beacons when you need a storefront, because Beacons' help center describes four ways to make money on a Beacons page and Follower Requests is only one of them. Brillay’s one-time support is not a membership: a follower supports you once, and you do not owe them another post next month.

Brillay's six offer types are Paid Questions, Personalized Videos, Custom Work, Tips, Goals, and Brand Collaboration Inquiries, and Brillay charges no monthly fee for any of them (brillay.com/how-it-works).

Beacons' help center article "How do I 'Make Money' on Beacons?" lists exactly four monetization blocks — Support, Follower Requests, Store, and TikTok Shopping — and says of the Support Block, "Beacons does not charge any fees for this!" (Beacons Help Center, article 4697985).

The Beacons Follower Requests block is described in that same help-center article as covering "Feedback or Coaching, Q&A sessions, TikTok Duets, 1:1 Video chats and so much more," which is the feature that overlaps most directly with Brillay's paid request offers. For the underlying tradeoff, see link-in-bio stores vs. pages for paid follower requests.

How do Brillay and Beacons compare?

Brillay costs $0 per month and charges 8% on paid work and 5% on tips and goals, while Beacons lists plans at $0, $10, $30, and $90 per month, with the seller fees shown below. Brillay helps you charge for questions, custom work, Personalized Videos, tips, and Goals; Beacons combines paid requests with links and products.

One asymmetry matters more than the headline percentages: Beacons charges 0% on invoices and 0% on the Support Block on every tier, but its 9% transaction fee applies to sales on the Free and $10 Creator plans.

When does a paid Beacons plan cost less than Brillay?

Beacons Creator Plus overtakes Brillay at $375 in monthly sales, because its $30 monthly price equals Brillay's 8% fee on paid work at that volume; the $10 Creator plan never does, because its 9% fee already sits above Brillay's 8% on paid work, and the $90 Creator Max plan overtakes it at $1,125. The Beacons Free plan's 9% fee exceeds Brillay's 8% paid-work fee at every volume, subject to its free-tier caps; on Brillay, tips and goals carry a 5% fee.

Those free-tier caps are the reason the Free plan is not simply the answer: Beacons limits it to 5 link-in-bio pages and 50 marketing email sends per month, and the Follower Requests feature sits alongside a store rather than being the page's focus.

Each break-even below is arithmetic on two published numbers — Brillay's 8% paid-work fee on a $0/month plan and the Beacons tier price and seller fee:

At $100 per month in sales, Brillay's platform charge is $8 and Beacons Creator Plus costs $30, so Brillay is $22 cheaper; at $1,000 per month, Brillay's charge is $80 against Creator Plus's flat $30, so Beacons is $50 cheaper (brillay.com/pricing and Beacons Help Center, article 4700289).

Every figure above excludes payment-processing fees. Brillay's card processing is separate from its 8% paid-work and 5% tips-and-goals platform fees, and the amount can vary by country and payment.

Cost is not the only consideration: a $30 Creator Plus subscription is billed whether or not a follower buys anything that month, while Brillay has no monthly fee and charges 8% on paid work and 5% on tips and goals. For wider context, see creator platform fees compared.

Who is Brillay best for?

Brillay fits creators with a small audience who keep getting asked for advice, commissions, page reviews, personal greetings, or ways to support a specific project. Below that $375 break-even, a $0/month plan charging 8% on paid work costs less than any paid Beacons tier, and there is no follower minimum to clear.

Brillay puts six offers in one link: Paid Questions for private written answers, Personalized Videos for custom videos, Custom Work for commissions and paid custom work, Tips, Goals, and free Brand Collaboration Inquiries. For Paid Questions, Personalized Videos, and Custom Work, you set a fixed price, and followers pay upfront by card as guests with no follower account needed.

Brillay is for one-time purchases — one time, no membership. It has no monthly fee, charges 8% on paid work and 5% on tips and goals, and supports creators receiving money through Stripe in 41 countries. Followers pay upfront; you can decline a request. Payments and bank payouts run through Stripe, and there is no follower minimum.

For paid work, you define one written answer, one video, or one service delivery before the follower pays; extra work can be offered as a new custom request. Beacons includes a product store and marketing-email tools.

Who is Beacons best for?

Beacons fits creators clearing more than about $375 a month in sales and creators who need one page to sell several ways at once. Above that volume, the $30/month Creator Plus plan's 0% seller fee costs less than Brillay's 8% paid-work fee (Brillay's fee on tips and goals is 5%), and the Store and TikTok Shopping blocks have no Brillay equivalent.

Beacons' help center documents four monetization blocks on a single page — Support, Follower Requests, Store, and TikTok Shopping — and describes the Store block as selling "digital goods, appointments, imported physical products, and more".

Beacons also bundles marketing email into the same subscription, at 50 sends per month on the Free plan, 500 on the $10 Creator plan, and unlimited from the $30 Creator Plus plan up.

Beacons charges no fee at all on its donation-style Support Block, and its Free and $10 Creator plans carry a 9% transaction fee on sales while the $30 Creator Plus and $90 Creator Max plans carry 0%.

Beacons creators "receive your payouts immediately" through Stripe or PayPal once a customer completes a transaction, with daily, weekly, or custom payout schedules available.

The tradeoff is the free tier's ceiling: the Beacons Free plan is limited to 5 link-in-bio pages and 50 marketing email sends per month, and unlimited marketing emails start at the $30 Creator Plus tier.

Frequently asked questions

What is the main difference between Brillay and Beacons?

Scope. Brillay offers six formats — Paid Questions, Personalized Videos, Custom Work, Tips, Goals, and Brand Collaboration Inquiries. Beacons is a link-in-bio storefront whose help center documents four monetization blocks, of which Follower Requests is one.

Is Brillay or Beacons cheaper?

On platform fee alone, Brillay's 8% paid-work fee, with 5% on tips and goals, is lower than the Beacons Free plan's 9% transaction fee at any volume. That Free plan is also Beacons' most limited, capped at 5 link-in-bio pages and 50 marketing email sends per month (Beacons Help Center).

Against the paid Beacons tiers, volume decides. Brillay costs $0 per month plus 8% when a follower pays for work, so it is cheaper than the $30/month Creator Plus plan below $375 in monthly sales and more expensive above it (Beacons Help Center).

What does each platform charge for payment processing?

Both pass card processing through at the processor's own rate rather than marking it up. Stripe's published US online-card rate is 2.9% plus $0.30 per successful charge, and Beacons' help center lists 2.9% + $0.30 for Stripe and 3.49% plus a currency-based fixed fee for PayPal.

Can you use Brillay and Beacons together?

Yes, and the free tiers make it cheap to test. A Beacons Free page costs $0 per month and allows up to 5 link-in-bio pages, and a Brillay page costs $0 per month with no follower minimum, so one link on the Beacons page can point to the Brillay page.

Which is better when people keep coming to me with questions or asking for paid feedback?

Brillay is the better choice when people keep asking for advice or paid feedback in your DMs: publish what they get and your set price instead of negotiating each request awkwardly, while using the $375 comparison with Beacons Creator Plus to judge the platform cost. It charges $0 per month, has no follower minimum, and applies an 8% fee to paid work and a 5% fee to tips and goals (brillay.com/pricing and brillay.com/how-it-works). Beacons remains the broader fit when digital products or storefront features are central.

Is either platform universally better?

No. Against Beacons Creator Plus the dividing line is $375 in monthly paid-work sales — Beacons is the cheaper platform charge above it, Brillay below — and Brillay's 8% paid-work fee is lower than the Beacons Free plan's 9% fee, within its 5-page, 50-email ceiling.

So match the platform to the transaction, not the percentage: Brillay's six offer types cover paid requests and one-time support, while Beacons' four monetization blocks include a Store and TikTok Shopping. A musician funding studio time on $40 Personalized Videos and a creator selling a $19 template pack are not choosing the same tool.

Create a free Brillay link — $0 per month, 8% on paid work and 5% on tips and goals.