What Is the Best Brillay Offer for Artists?

For most visual artists, Custom Work is the best Brillay offer for priced commission work, Tips fits no-strings support, and Goals fits funding a specific purchase like a kiln or a new tablet. Which one to lead with depends on whether a follower's ask is a defined deliverable, open appreciation, or a savings goal.

Brillay charges 8% when a follower pays for work and 5% on tips and goals (Brillay — Pricing, accessed September 2026).

If an artist routes every incoming DM — "can you draw this?", "do you take commissions?" — through a single flat commission price list, that setup works for priced artwork but breaks down in two directions. A flat commission price list has no good answer for a supporter who just wants to say thanks with $5, and no good answer for a group of followers who would rather chip in toward a new easel than commission one piece. Brillay separates these into distinct offers so each type of request gets its own format instead of one generic "support me" button (Brillay — How It Works, accessed September 2026).

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a median annual wage of $55,290 for craft and fine artists in May 2025, in the 2025–35 edition of its Occupational Outlook Handbook. The same Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook page reports that craft and fine artists held about 53,400 jobs in 2025 and that self-employed workers were the largest single employer group at 58%. Bureau of Labor Statistics wage and employment data describe measured jobs and payroll wages, not the commission, tip, or supporter-funding income an artist earns directly from an audience.

"Overall employment of craft and fine artists is projected to decline 1 percent from 2025 to 2035." — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook

Which Brillay offer fits commissioned artwork?

Custom Work lets you offer clearly scoped commissions and services: you set the price, the scope and the delivery time, and followers submit a brief and pay before you start. You set a fixed price and a delivery time of up to 5 days, and supporters can attach reference images or a written brief when ordering (Brillay — Custom Work, accessed September 2026).

Custom Work differs from Paid Questions because the supporter is buying a finished deliverable rather than a written answer. Illustrators handling repeated "can you draw my OC?" requests, calligraphers pricing custom lettering, and pet-portrait artists all use Custom Work with different scopes; Brillay's guide to paid OC commissions for character artists covers scope wording for that specific case.

When should artists use Tips instead of commissions?

Artists should use Tips when a supporter wants to support free work — sketches, process videos, a webcomic update — without ordering anything specific. Tips let followers send a one-time thank-you, with nothing for you to deliver and no membership for them to join.

Tips work alongside Custom Work rather than instead of it: a supporter who can't afford or doesn't want a full commission can still contribute, and a tip doesn't undercut commission pricing. The Pew Research Center found that 72% of U.S. adults say tipping is expected in more places today than it was five years ago, in its November 9, 2023 report Tipping Culture in America. The Pew Research Center survey measured tipping for in-person services in the United States, so it describes a familiar payment habit rather than any measured behavior on creator pages.

The choice between the two offers comes down to whether the supporter is paying for something specific (a commission, via Custom Work) or paying to support the artist with no piece expected back (a Tip). Merging Tips and Custom Work into one vague "support me" price list obscures both what a supporter is buying and what the artist owes in return.

How do artists fund a kiln, tablet, or studio upgrade?

A Goal is one named goal with a progress bar: followers make one-time contributions and every contribution is yours whether or not the goal is reached — no deadline unless you set one, and nothing to ship. The artist decides what the goal actually needs and buys it directly.

Goals fits when the ask is bigger than any single commission or tip and several supporters want to contribute toward the same thing. A ceramicist saving for a kiln, a painter funding new supplies, and a webcomic artist funding a print run can each use one named Goal; progress can appear as an exact amount, a percentage, or be hidden.

A dedicated crowdfunding platform prices the same job differently. Kickstarter's own US fees page lists a Kickstarter fee of 5% of total funds raised plus payment processing of 3% + $0.30 per pledge, collected only when a project is successfully funded. Brillay's wishlist vs. crowdfunding comparison covers how an always-on page-level goal differs from a time-boxed campaign platform — one named goal with a progress bar on the page your followers already visit.

Can artists get paid for quick questions, not just full pieces?

Yes. 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. Custom Work, by contrast, accepts attached reference files or a brief along with the order — Paid Questions stays text only, in both directions.

Typical Paid Question examples include a supporter asking which brush set to buy, how to price their own first commission, or which software an artist used for a specific effect. For Paid Questions, you set a fixed price and your reply time separately, so questions that used to become free DM advice can become one paid question with one written reply.

How much does Brillay cost artists?

Brillay costs artists $0 per month and charges an 8% platform fee when a follower pays for work and 5% on tips and goals, per the Brillay — Pricing page (accessed September 2026). Card processing is separate: Stripe charges its own rate on top, so an artist's take-home equals the listed price minus the 8% platform fee for work or 5% for tips and goals, minus Stripe's processing fee.

Stripe's published US pricing is 2.9% + 30¢ per successful card transaction, per Stripe's pricing page. Stripe's same US pricing page lists an additional 1.5% for international cards and an additional 1% when currency conversion is required. Any price example on an artist's page should be treated as illustrative rather than a guaranteed take-home number, because the Stripe component varies with the card the supporter uses.

How does a Brillay page compare to selling on Etsy or a commission marketplace?

A Brillay page charges no listing fee and charges 8% when a follower pays for work and 5% on tips and goals, while Etsy charges a $0.20 USD listing fee for each item listed plus a 6.5% transaction fee on each sale, per the Etsy Fees & Payments Policy. Etsy's listing fee is charged whether or not the item ever sells — on Brillay, it's one custom order at a time on your own page, with the scope and the delivery window written down and no listing to renew.

"When you make a sale through Etsy.com, you will be charged a transaction fee of 6.5% of the price you display for each listing plus the amount you charge for shipping." — Etsy Fees & Payments Policy

Neither Brillay nor Etsy is universally cheaper, because a marketplace brings its own shopper traffic and a bio-link page does not. Etsy reported 5.6 million active sellers and 86.5 million active buyers on the Etsy marketplace in its fourth quarter and full year 2025 results, published February 19, 2026. The relevant question for an artist who already has an audience is whether to route that audience through listing fees and a browsing marketplace, or straight to a single priced page.

Checkout friction is measured separately from fees. Baymard Institute's cart abandonment statistics page puts the average documented online shopping cart abandonment rate at 70.22% across 50 studies. The same Baymard Institute page reports that 17% of US online shoppers have abandoned an order because of a "too long / complicated checkout process". Baymard Institute studies ecommerce checkouts, not bio-link pages, so its figures do not predict Brillay's conversion rate against Etsy's; what can be stated about Brillay is narrower: a follower ready to order a portrait can pay by card as a guest without creating a buyer account first. The price and scope for that commission were already fixed on the listing before the click, so the guest checkout is finishing an order that was already defined rather than opening a negotiation.

Should an artist combine commissions, Tips, and a Goal on one page?

Yes — most artist pages work better with two or three Brillay offers running together than with one. A common setup is Custom Work for priced commission work, Tips left on for casual support, and Goals switched on only while a specific goal is active. Custom Work, Tips, and Goals can all be active on the same Brillay page at the same time.

Running a Goal without a specific target can make the ask feel like a general donation request, so name the purchase or project and use Tips for casual one-time support. Turning a goal on for a specific purchase, closing it once funded, and pointing casual supporters to Tips the rest of the time keeps each offer legible to supporters. Sequencing a goal that way is editorial advice from the Brillay team rather than a rule Brillay enforces in the product.

Related reading: Brillay's commissions vs. tips guide for artists and makers covers the deliverable-versus-open-support decision in more depth for makers.

What should an artist's Brillay page actually include?

An artist's Brillay page should make the offer type obvious before a supporter clicks: commission pricing and a stated delivery time for Custom Work, a suggested amount for Tips, and a named goal with a running total for Goals. Vague labels such as "support me" force a supporter to guess what they are paying for and what, if anything, arrives in return.

Start with one clearly scoped custom request if you're new to commission pricing, keep Tips available for one-time support, and add a Goal when you are saving for a specific purchase. Turning repeated DM requests into a paid offer is generally easier when there's one clear tier to point people to rather than five options at once.

Frequently asked questions

Common questions about Brillay for artists cover four things: whether a follower minimum applies, whether Goals and paid commissions can run at the same time, what happens when a request exceeds the quoted scope, and how long a commission delivery time can be. Answers below cite Brillay's own product pages, accessed September 2026.

Do I need a large following to sell commissions on Brillay?

No. Brillay has no follower minimum or application, supporters can pay without creating an account, and creators in 41 payout countries can offer Custom Work, Tips, or Goals from one link.

Can I run a Goal and take paid commissions at the same time?

Yes. Goals and Custom Work are separate Brillay offers that can both be active on the same page — a goal for equipment doesn't replace priced commission listings, and supporters can use either depending on what they want to pay for.

What happens if a commission request is bigger than what I quoted?

Brillay doesn't include a scope-change or revision process: if a request grows past what you quoted, deciding how to handle it — a new priced custom request for the extra work, or declining it — is up to you as the seller, the same as it would be for any independent commission.

How long can a commission delivery time be on Brillay?

For Custom Work, you set a delivery time of up to five days. Splitting a bigger piece into stages that each fit inside that window is an artist's own workaround rather than a documented Brillay feature: an artist who needs more than five days can split the piece into separately priced stages that each fit inside a 5-day window, or agree the longer timeline with the supporter outside the paid delivery time.

Does Brillay take a cut of Tips and Goal contributions too?

Yes. The Brillay — Pricing page states an 8% platform fee when a follower pays for work and a 5% platform fee on Tips and Goal contributions (accessed September 2026). There is no separate fee schedule per offer type.

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