If you're weighing a known donor or a sperm bank, you've probably noticed that most of what you can read online is written by one side or the other. This is my attempt at a fair comparison. I'm a known sperm donor in Florida, so I have a side too, but I'd rather you choose with the whole picture than choose me by accident.
Two routes to the same goal
A sperm bank sells frozen samples from screened donors you will most likely never meet. You browse a catalog, pick a donor by his profile, order vials, and they are shipped frozen to your fertility program or, in some cases, to your home.
A known donor is a specific person. You talk to him first, you see his screening yourself, and the sample is fresh: handed over locally or shipped overnight in a kit.
Both routes can lead to a healthy child. The real sperm bank vs known donor question is about what you know, what you control, and what your child will be able to know later.
What a sperm bank does well
Fairness first. A bank has a frozen inventory, so a sample is available the day you need it, and from the same donor again two years later if you want a sibling. Samples from anonymous donors are quarantined for six months and the donor is retested before release, which is a real safeguard. The legal side is standardized: the donor is a stranger with no path to your door. And if anonymity is what you want, a bank is the only place that offers it.
What you give up with a bank
The donor is a profile, not a person. You read what the bank chose to publish: a few photos, an essay, maybe a voice clip and a staff impression. You can't ask him a follow-up question, and your child can't either. Open-ID programs promise contact at 18, through the bank, if the bank still exists by then and the donor is still reachable.
The same donor is shared with many families. Banks set their own family limits and rely on recipients to report births, so the real number is often higher than the policy. For your child, that can mean dozens of half-siblings they learn about from a DNA test rather than from you.
The samples are frozen, and the bill adds up. Freezing and thawing costs motility, which is one reason banks sell by the vial and chances per attempt with frozen sperm are usually quoted at 10 to 20%. One attempt with a bank means the vial ($1,200 to $2,200), shipping and storage ($200 to $400), and the clinic's fees for monitoring and the insemination itself ($1,200 to $2,350), so roughly $2,500 to $5,000 each time. Most families need several tries, and the total often lands between $10,000 and $20,000 before anyone has said the word IVF. Known donors are often free or close to it, and a fresh sample generally gives you better odds per attempt.
The paperwork is the relationship. You get a donor number and a lab summary. Everything about the man behind them comes to you filtered through the bank.
What a known donor gives you
Someone you have actually met, even if only on video. You hear how he answers hard questions, and you can ask the next one.
The original documents. Not a summary with a checkmark, but the infectious-disease panel, the genetic carrier screening and the semen analysis, with the lab's name and the dates on them. You can take them to your own doctor, or simply go through them with ChatGPT.
A fresh sample, timed to your cycle. In South Florida that means in person; anywhere else in the US it means an overnight kit timed to ovulation, not to a courier's calendar.
A door that stays open. Your child doesn't wait until 18 to know where they come from. They can know from the start, in your words, and contact can be as little or as much as your family wants, at any age.
Honesty about who else he helps. A known donor can tell you how he chooses families, and you can ask him about it; a catalog can't. I'm selective about who I help.
Siblings across families, if you want them. Your child can have half-brothers and half-sisters in other families who know each other, grow up as friends and help each other through life, and you can be friends with those families too. That works best when the donor is selective, so the families around your child are stable, healthy and good to know.
What a known donor asks of you
It isn't harder than a bank, but it is different. Timing follows your cycle, so around ovulation you're messaging a person rather than placing an order, and in practice that's often quicker: you talk, you meet, you get the sample. The legal side isn't standardized the way it is with a bank; it depends on your state and on how you set things up. What matters most is choosing a responsible donor you can trust, one you're sure won't later try to claim parental rights to your child. And you're trusting your own judgment of a person rather than an institution's checklist. For some families that's exactly the point. For others, an institution is what lets them sleep, and that's a fair answer too.
How to decide
Two questions usually settle it. Do you want your child to be able to know the donor as a person, and when? And how much do you want to verify yourself rather than take on trust from a company?
If your answers lean toward knowing, verifying and openness, a known donor is the better fit. If they lean toward distance and a system that runs without you, a bank is, and there is nothing wrong with that.
Where I fit
I'm a known sperm donor based in Miami. I'm open from day one, I send my original lab reports as soon as you write, and I work with families across the US by overnight shipping. If you've been searching for an alternative to a sperm bank in Florida or anywhere else in the country, the FAQ answers most of what people ask me first; the rest I'll answer on the call.