Six things worth checking before you let any tool take money on your behalf. Ten minutes now saves the migration you would otherwise do in six months.
Every paid-entry tool shows you the same screenshot: a price, a button, a member joining. The differences that matter are not in that screenshot. They show up on the day a payment fails, the day someone demands a refund, or the day you want to leave — and by then you have members, revenue and no easy exit.
These are the questions to ask. They work for any tool, including this one.
This is the one to settle first, because everything else is recoverable and this is not. Ask plainly: when a member pays, where does that money sit until it reaches you? If the answer is «with us, and we pay out on a schedule», you have taken on the risk of someone else's business — their solvency, their policy changes, their decision about whether your group is acceptable. If the answer is «directly in a bot you own», the platform never has the ability to hold your revenue, because it never touches it.
A single percentage is easy to compare; almost nothing is a single percentage. Check for a monthly subscription on top of the cut, a minimum fee per transaction that quietly dominates small prices, and how fractions are rounded — down in your favour, or up in theirs. Then ask the question that actually decides it: what does the member's receipt total? A fee that is added to your price and a fee that is taken out of it feel identical in a table and are not the same deal.
Every payment method excludes somebody. Card-based checkout excludes people without cards, which in many countries is most of your audience, and sends everyone else out to a bank app in the middle of deciding. Telegram Stars can be funded from store balance — local e-wallets, convenience stores, mobile credit — or from TON, and the payment never leaves the chat. Ask what happens to a member in the countries you actually sell to.
The weak point of most homemade setups is a single invite link passed around. Ask whether each buyer gets their own link, whether it expires, and whether it dies after one use. Then ask the harder half: when a subscription lapses, does the tool remove the member, and how soon? If removal is manual, you have bought a payment button and kept the unpleasant job for yourself.
Ordinary cases all look the same. Ask about the awkward ones. A member pays and leaves the group by mistake — can they get back in without paying twice? Someone you removed for cause tries to return — are they blocked, or do they just buy another key? A renewal fails because a balance ran dry — do you find out, and is there anything you can do about it? These are the situations that generate complaints, and the tool either handles them or hands them to you.
Assume you will want out one day. If the payment bot belongs to the platform, leaving means your members' payment relationship leaves with it. If the bot is yours, you keep it. Ask what happens to your group, your members and your payment history on the day you stop paying attention — and whether switching costs you anything more than a token.
Six questions, and what a reassuring answer sounds like.
| What to check | Ask | A good answer sounds like |
|---|---|---|
| Custody | Where does the money sit before it reaches me? | «It never sits anywhere — it goes straight to a bot you own.» |
| Total cost | Percentage, subscription, minimum, rounding — all of it? | One number, no monthly bill, fractions rounded in your favour. |
| Payment method | Who in my audience cannot pay this way? | «No card needed — store balance or TON, inside Telegram.» |
| Access control | One link per buyer? Does it expire? Who removes lapsed members? | Single-use, short-lived links; removal is automatic. |
| Edge cases | Re-entry, removed members, failed renewals? | Free re-entry for paid members; removed stay removed; failures surfaced. |
| Exit | What do I keep if I stop using this? | «The bot is yours. Take it with you.» |
Hold us to the same list.
Entry fees are paid directly to a bot you created in BotFather. We never receive, hold or transfer your revenue. Telegram's own 21-day hold before withdrawal still applies — that part is not ours to change.
0% on the Free plan, with no subscription and no setup cost. Pro is 5% per transaction and still not a subscription. The minimum fee and rounding apply only when a fee applies at all.
Telegram Stars, funded by store balance or TON. No card required, and the member never leaves Telegram to pay.
Each buyer gets their own invite link, good for one person and 24 hours. Lapsed subscribers are removed automatically — after a three-day grace period on Free, immediately on Pro.
A member who paid and left rejoins free while their access is valid; members you removed stay blocked. Payments are final and non-refundable, which we state plainly in the terms.
The bot is yours and stays yours. Stop using us and it keeps working as your bot — there is no switching cost beyond a token.
TCamp Pass answers all six above, and the Free plan takes a 0% fee.