It's free in the sense of being entirely free software. You can read the SQL code that calculates your balance. It's alternative in the sense that they don't ta

It's free in the sense of being entirely free software. You can read the SQL code that calculates your balance. It's alternative in the sense that they don't take a cut of your donations. (Sites like Patreon take a much bigger cut than any payment provider.) They suggest donating to Liberapay itself, but it's optional. But yes, it isn't alternative as in "truly micro". In fact they got kicked from of their previous provider, probably for generating too many small transactions. They changed the system, so now you usually pay for a few months in advance.