Help keep NINA & Escargot going!

We need your donation to help fund hosting of services, but also largely to help fund development. It's a very large project and a time-consuming process so any amount of money certainly helps. And since we don't sell your information or bombard you with ads, we do not really have many income stream possibilities

Preferred methods

If you're interested in donating, please select an option below donate whatever you feel like.

Be sure to include your NINA/Escargot username in your donation message for faster response.

Accounting

This is the Q4 costs vs donations (updated 2026-10-13):

Donations: $220.33*
Hosting: Paid: $165.06
Unpaid: $72.22 (due date and amount pending
Domains: Paid: $23.19
--------------------------------
  QTD Spent: $188.25 (All covered by donations; no remainder paid by developers for now)
  Projected: ~$800**

* Total donations so far this quarter; based on net after payout, fees, and so forth from payment services.
** Projected amount is based upon previous quarters and the costs so far for the quarter. The amount may change if domain renewals or other requirements come up.

Previous Quarters
Quarter Total Spent Donations Paid by Devs
2026 Q3 $764.35 $421.61 $342.74

Rewards

A limited number of awards are available, and are subject to change over time. If you have reached a tier in the past no longer listed here, you are still at that tier, it just means we currently have no offerings available at said tier.

Note: All of our services are currently free and available and we don't serve ads at this point (i.e. everyone has an ad-free experience), so the table below is largely historical and likely to change. For now the most relevant parts are for extra perks such as 2 and 3 character names, lower rate limits, and other things to be announced. Projects will come into alpha/beta from time to time, so early access still applies to these.

Amount Tier Details
< $2 None We appreciate any donation amount, it helps fund services
$2+ Early Access Early Access to PowerTools (configureless file transfer, and more coming soon) **
$5+ Gamma Supporter Early Access to PowerTools (coming soon) **
$20+ Beta Supporter Access to WebEscargot 2.0
$50+ Alpha Supporter We currently do not have a reward for this level, check back later *
$100+ Retro Royalty All access *, ad-free service, optional 3 character name
$200+ Future Proof All access *, ad-free service, optional 3 character name
$300+ The Assembly All access to all future services forever, ad-free service, optional 2 or 3 character name, special chat room for new info, your ideas, feedback, and more.

Amounts changed 2026-10-07: Sustainer renamed to Retro Royalty, lowered to $100. Assembly changed from $250+ to $300+. If you donated any amount prior to the mentioned date you are not subject to any amount increases to obtain a given tier -- the original, lower tier amounts will always apply to you.

* Access only applies if you have a registered account with the given service, it does not include any pay-to-play services which we may have.

** Services mentioned at this level are subject to change as the services come closer to general availability. For example WebEscargot 2.0 is currently in beta, but will eventually be in gamma and then public.

If you want further details see the FAQ below or contact us.

FAQ

Why is $2 the minimum donation for access?
We used to provide early access for any donation, however we set a minimum after a rash of people were donating 50 cents, 25 cents, 9 cents, and even a few donating 1 cent and then rudely demanding access to everything. It's more insulting and suggestive that our work has no value than anything else.
How long does a donation last? If I donate now, do I keep the rewards forever?
There are no expirations on donations, once you've reached a reward tier (in table above), you remain there forever -- though this does not apply to services which are "pay to play", unless otherwise stated in the rewards table above.
If I donate $25 today and $25 in two years, does that count as a $50 donation?
Yes, you can donate more over time and join a new reward tier (in table above), however if long enough exists between donations you may need to let us know so we can total up all of your previous donations, this way you aren't missed.
What is an "ad-free experience"?
On services where we have ads, we will not display ads where possible. In some cases clients will show ads regardless because there's no way to tell which user is requesting the ad service.
Do you take hardware/VM/hosting donations?
No, and not under any circumstances -- we don't even want them for free.
Why don't you want my hardware/VM/hosting? It's great and I'm super trustworthy, I swear! You know me!
That doesn't matter, after 30 years of online experience with hosting, something always goes wrong: people don't keep their stuff up to date and it gets hacked, they don't pay their bills and it goes down disrupting service, they get mad at someone and force it down, they share data that's on it for no reason other than just because, they accidentally destroy the VM because they thought it was another one: I swear it won't happen again, they were on vacation when the server went down so it took them a month to get it back up,... and so on, and so on, and so on. We've heard it all, and don't ever want to hear it again. We'd just rather pay for it ourselves and keep the service up, than have it go down for a really ridiculous reason that you claimed was never going to happen.
My host is better, you should use this account or service.
We've priced everything out and we structure everything with care, we don't do fly-by-night switchovers to new servers nor would we subject users to that. Please stop suggesting it, either because the host is so cheap it's unreliable garbage, or it's more expensive than you think it is compared to other things -- remember bandwidth has costs as well, and we use a lot of it, it isn't just about a VM with a lot of RAM and CPU. We've managed to keep the service more stable than it was previously by not making decisions based on VM price alone.
If I donate or become a Patron, does that mean I still have to follow the rules and are expected to behave myself?
Yes, and to patrons who withdraw their patronage and donors who ask for refunds for being muted or banned for constant rule breaking on the forums are regarded by the community as petty and immature -- and very much unwelcome.

Patrons

(Grouped by tier, sorted alphabetically)

Get listed here by becoming a Patron or Boosty, and we will link to your web site, blog, YouTube channel, whatever you want!