As a content creator you need a place to hang out with your fans.
Twitter or Facebook pages can help you engage with your community, but they won’t help you monetize your passion.
Patreon used to be the preferred solution for many creators to receive recurring donations and payments from their followers.
But if you’re reading this article you probably:
- Don’t trust Patreon: The platform has increased its revenue cut in the past, and this can happen again in the future.
- You just don’t like it: You’re already using it and you’re looking for a better alternative with fewer limitations.
- You have your own WordPress website and you’d like to keep everything under the same roof.
Good news!
There are many Patreon alternatives that may better suit your needs.
In this article we’ll help you determine which platform is the right fit for your creative venture.
Afraid of Patreon increasing its fees again? Check out these alternatives!
Patreon Features You Need to Replicate
What features does Patreon offer creators? What features would you miss the most?
With that in mind, it’s time to consider what you need from this platform and what you don’t.
The quickest way to find this out is to take a look at the pricing page. Patreon offers different tools depending on the plan you choose.
You should know
You can use Patreon for free, but they will get a commission for each transaction. If you need more advanced tools you have to join a superior plan, and therefore pay even higher commissions (up to 12%!)
Patreon Lite Features
The Patreon Lite (free) plan will keep 5% of your monthly income.
In return you’ll have a creator page hosted on their domain.
- patreon.com/username
This page is very simple.
It shows:
- Information about the creator.
- Information about the different tiers.
- A button to become a patron.
- The private content and announcements for fans.
Besides that page, this plan includes:
- Patron communication tools: Via email, posts on your creator page and direct messages via the mobile app.
- Patreon workshops: Patreon-related training. Not really a platform feature.
That’s all.
Patreon Pro Features
In the Pro plan you’ll get access to some more tools, but the revenue cut will go up to 8%.
In addition to the creator page and the communication tools of the lowest plan, Pro includes:
- Membership tiers: To create different plans with different benefits and prices.
In the Lite plan you can only have 1 plan with one price. - Special offers promo tool: You can promote an additional benefit in any tier for a limited time in order to boost sales.
- Advanced analytics and insights: Data related to membership and publications.
- Unlimited app integrations: To create a private podcast RSS feed through Acast, offer access to a Discord chatroom as a benefit and similar examples.
- Creator-led workshops: Livestream workshops delivered by other creators. Not a platform feature itself.
- Priority customer support: Again, not a platform feature.
Patreon Premium Features
The Premium plan is not available to everyone. You may not be able to use it even if you want to, especially if you’re just starting out.
In addition to a revenue cut increase of 12%, this plan:
- Assigns you a dedicated partner manager.
- Enables team accounts so you can hire someone to help with membership management.
- Merch for memberships: Probably the most desired feature. You can design your own physical products from a limited catalog. Patreon will take care of manufacturing, shipping and customer support.
The Downside of Using Patreon
You’ve seen the main features that Patreon offers. You should also know its main disadvantages so you can accurately compare it to the competition.
- Revenue cut: The 5% to 12%+ processing fees might be a large chunk of your profit. This revenue cut lasts forever and may even increase in the future.
- Your business is listed along with your competitors. You’ll drive traffic to your Patreon profile, but potential fans may get distracted and support other creators instead.
- Limited file size: At the moment, Patreon can only handle files up to 199MB which isn’t great for podcasts or video.
- Limited design: Your creator page will look very similar to all the others.
- Limited marketing capabilities: Besides the tiers and the special offers promo tool, there is nothing remarkable to help you increase your income.
Best Patreon Alternatives
We have gathered the most important features of Patreon in the following table.
This way you can easily see which alternatives have them and which don’t.
|
Feature |
Patreon |
SureMembers |
Buy me a coffee |
Ko-Fi |
Circle |
Podia |
Mighty Networks |
HyPage |
|
Personalized creator page |
No |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
No |
No |
|
Own domain |
No |
Yes |
No |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Premium posts |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Email communication |
Yes |
Integration with third-party tool needed |
Yes. Native |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Membership tiers |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Marketing tools |
Special offers promo tool |
Yes. Donations, bump orders and more. |
One-time donations |
One-time donations. Crowdfunding goals. |
Affiliate program. Upsells. |
Affiliates. Upsells. |
No |
No |
|
App integrations |
Many native. Zapier. |
Through SureTriggers or Zapier |
Few native and Zapier. |
Discord and Zapier. |
Zapier. Only in the Pro plan ($99/mo) |
Many native and Zapier. |
Zapier |
No |
|
Merch |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
|
Team accounts |
Yes (most expensive plan) |
Yes |
No |
No |
Yes. Only in the Pro plan ($99/mo) |
Yes. Only in the Earthquaker plan ($199/mo) |
Yes |
No |
|
Fees |
From 5% to 12% |
0% |
5% |
5% (free plan) 0% ($8/mo plan) |
4% |
8% (free plan) 0% ($39/mo plan) |
3% ($39/mo community plan) |
0% ($19/mo plan) |
SureMembers
SureMembers is a WordPress plugin that protects content on your website.
It enables you to provide different types of content and lock them behind a paywall for memberships or subscriptions.
That means that in order to use it you’ll need to have a website built with WordPress.
This can be done in less than 60 minutes with very little effort!
WordPress websites are simple to set up and require minimum maintenance. SureMembers integrates into WordPress to provide the features you need to engage with your fans.
Pros of Using SureMembers Instead of Patreon
Using SureMembers instead of Patreon offers so many benefits:
- You can have your own creator page and customize it as much as you want.
- You can stay in touch with your audience through any channel you want, not just through a single proprietary platform.
- You can create as many membership levels as you want and choose what each one unlocks in a very detailed way.
- You’ll get access to a large selection of marketing tools to sell more.
- WordPress is open source, and therefore you’ll have access to many more integrations than with a proprietary platform.
- You can include collaborators in your website from the first minute and without additional costs.
Customized and Owned Content Creator Page
Since you’ll use SureMembers on your website you can have a creator page:
- At any URL you want. e.g. yourdomain.com/patrons. Perfect for branding and no need to share the digital space with competitors.
- With the extra content you want. Not just an “about” page, but a contact form, a page where you promote your services, or whatever you need.
- With the design you want. At Starter Templates you’ll find dozens of professional templates to install with just a few clicks.
Endless Communication Channels
Talk to your audience through your favorite channels:
- You can communicate via email using the email service of your choice.
- Email service platforms can be easily integrated into any WordPress installation.
- You can have a list with all your followers and differentiate within it those who pay using tags or sublists.
- For example, Email Octopus is free for up to 2,500 subscribers.
- You can publish as many posts as you want on your website. Available for everyone or only to paid members.
Just create a simple rule to tell SureMembers what content it should lock for each membership tier (access group) that you create and you’re done!
Tag or categorize the publications as defined so that only certain users can access them.
Virtually Unlimited Tiers
With SureMembers you can create as many membership levels as your business needs. All, without having to sacrifice a percentage of your revenue in exchange.
Offering different plans is a basic feature of this type of platform that you should have available by default, as it helps you sell much more.
Marketing Toolbox
Speaking of selling, this is another area where SureMembers is much better than Patreon.
Selling your tiers is made possible with SureMembers’ sibling plugin SureCart.
SureCart is a free eCommerce solution that combines store functions and payment gateways.
You can set it up easily using this guide.
The benefits?
- There are no additional transaction fees.
- You can personalize your checkout so it converts better.
- SureCart can handle taxes for you.
- You’ll have more tools to sell more: One-time donations, payment recovery, order bumps, upsells, cart abandonment, and so on. Way more things than a simple special offers promo tool.
- Sell your own merch. If you can find someone to make your merch, you can sell it yourself without anyone taking a cut of profits.
Way More Integrations
SureMembers and SureCart can also integrate with automation tools like SureTriggers and Zapier or its alternatives.
You won’t have any problem expanding the capabilities of your platform and working with third-party tools.
Collaborators and Team Members
Having your own digital space with WordPress and SureMembers gives you the freedom to do whatever you want.
You won’t have to apply for a more expensive plan to unlock team accounts.
You’ll be able to add as many contributors to your website as you need from minute one at zero extra cost.
Cons of Using SureMembers Instead of Patreon
If you want to work with SureMembers instead of Patreon, there are just a couple of considerations to keep in mind.
- You have to create a WordPress website first if you don’t have one already.
- It can be done in less than 60 minutes.
- Having your own site will open up a whole world of possibilities. It’s the best decision you can take in the long run.
- You may need to outsource your merchandising. If merch is important, you can use an external print-on-demand service like Printful.
SureMembers Total Costs
SureMembers is a paid plugin. You can start using it for just $69/year, as you’ll only need one license.
- WordPress is free.
- SureCart is free.
- A good website template like Astra is free.
- Website hosting will cost you around ~$50/year.
- A domain will cost you around ~$12/year.
So we are talking about $130 to start up and maintain the system for a whole year.
A monthly income of $1,000 on Patreon’s Pro plan would cost you $80/ month!
Buy Me a Coffee
Buy Me a Coffee is a web service quite similar to Patreon. It was founded in 2017, and its main mission is to empower individuals to work for themselves helping them to build a direct and reliable relationship with their audience.
Buy me a coffee aims to be a simple platform. It’s focused on one-person creators and avoids offering a purely transactional appearance.
That’s why they decided to use that name.
Many of the features offered by this platform are exactly the same as the ones offered by Patreon.
With all the advantages and disadvantages that this entails.
- The design of your creator page is standard and will be identical to the rest of the other creators.
- You don’t have your own domain (buymeacoffee.com/username)
- You can send emails to your fans natively.
- You can publish content publicly or privately.
Pros of Using Buy Me a Coffee Instead of Patreon
Buy me a coffee doesn’t offer as many benefits as SureMembers, but there are still things that are an improvement over Patreon:
- The revenue cut remains fixed at 5%, unlike Patreon where it can go up to 12%.
- Thus, many features are cheaper to use, like membership levels, analytics or app integrations.
- The wishlist feature allows fans to reward your work, helping you get the items you want.
- You can sell extras. Like a digital download or some personalized work (e.g. A Simpsons-style caricature or t-shirt)
- You can promote your services in a custom tab.
- You can accept one-time donations.
Cons of Using Buy Me a Coffee Instead of Patreon
Focusing on individual creators and not businesses might be the reason why Buy me a coffee doesn’t offer team accounts.
There are also a couple of other cons compared to Patreon:
- There are fewer native integrations, although Zapier is supported.
- No merch outsourcing.
Buy Me a Coffee Total Costs
Getting started with Buy Me a Coffee is 100% free. There are no payment plans of any kind.
They’ll keep 5% of each transaction though.
This means they’ll take around $50 per month for every $1,000, about $600 per year in our earnings example.
Ko-fi
Ko-fi is another platform focused on helping creators make a living from their work thanks to the support of their fans.
It has evolved a lot during its 10 years of life. It has gone from being a simple place to buy a virtual coffee, to a suite of tools that even allows you to create a small online store.
It’s currently used by more than a million content creators. From podcasters and writers, to more specific passions such as cosplayers or developers.
So far Ko-fi creators have earned over $200,000,000. It’s an alternative that can perform very well if you know how to motivate your audience.
It has everything you would expect from such a tool.
- A creator page with limited design within their domain ko-fi.com/username
- Different membership tiers.
- One-time and recurring donations.
- An easy-to-use interface.
- The ability to offer exclusive content behind a paywall.
- Analytics.
Pros of Using Ko-fi Instead of Patreon
One of the great pros of Ko-Fi is that you get the full amount from your fans if you use its paid plan. This is something that can generate more profit, so is a valuable feature
Besides that Ko-fi offers you:
- One-time donations available (always 0% of cut revenue).
- You can open a Ko-fi shop for selling digital or physical items.
- Commissions: Your fans can request custom services or perks.
- You can set goals so your supporters know what their donations are contributing to.
Image from Ko-fi
Cons of Using Ko-fi Instead of Patreon
Ko-fi has some disadvantages compared to Patreon. Although the chance of reducing the revenue cut to 0% may offset them.
- You’ll have to join Ko-fi’s paid plan to unlock something as simple as member-only posts or analytics.
- Merch outsourcing is not supported.
- There is no option to add members to your team.
Ko-fi Total Costs
Ko-fi has a somewhat complex pricing system.
- You can use it for free, but you won’t have all the tools available. They will also take a 5% revenue cut from your income (except for one-time donations)
- You can join the Gold plan ($8/month) to unlock all the features and reduce the revenue cut to 0%.
Circle
Circle is a relatively young platform that focuses more on building a community where everyone collaborates in some way.
It moves away from the “one-person content creators and fans supporting their work” point of view, to become more of a tool for managing a private community.
That’s not to say that you can’t use it to monetize your work.
But Circle definitely looks more transactional, a place where you’re buying something and not supporting a person.
Their creator pages are much more eye-catching, but you’ll still be stuck with a standard layout similar to other Circle users.
Pros of Using Circle Instead of Patreon
Being a platform with a quite different purpose than Patreon, the pros of using it are considerable:
- You can use your own domain.
- All the content is organized in spaces so can be easily located.
- You can create events, courses or live streams.
- It has tools to engage the community such as group chat, member profiles and directories.
- You can enable an affiliate program for your content. Let your fans be your advertisers.
Cons of Using Circle Instead of Patreon
This tool has a great development effort on it in order to offer way more features than Patreon.
Most of its limitations are related to cost.
- It has a recurring cost and a revenue cut at the same time.
- Steeper learning curve.
- The cheapest plan is limited to 100 members.
- No merch feature.
Circle Total Costs
Circle is quite an expensive solution.
The cheapest plan starts at $49 per month and can go up to almost $400/month.
The bad news is the Basic plan:
- Is limited to 100 members.
- It has a revenue cut of 4%.
- Only allows a single admin user.
Podia
Podia is a platform that allows creators to build their own websites, manage email marketing and sell digital products such as downloads and courses.
Just by looking at the home page you can see that once again we are dealing with something much more business-oriented than something simpler geared towards monetizing a personal passion or skill.
However, the versatility of the platform will let you use it for that purpose if you want, paving the way ahead for possible future growth and expansion.
As you can create your own website, you can design a much more customized creator page.
Pros of Using Podia Instead of Patreon
It’s a bit unfair to compare the pros of this platform to Patreon as the approach is a bit different.
But if you decide to use it, these are some enhancements you’ll find:
- You can create your own website and use your own domain.
- You can sell coaching sessions.
- Many options for revenue growth: Such as selling courses and webinars, not just private publications.
- More marketing tools available, like coupons, upsells or affiliate programs.
Cons of Using Podia Instead of Patreon
The cons of Podia are very similar to those of Circle.
Once again we’re dealing with an all-round tool so affording it will probably be its only drawback.
- It has a recurring cost if you need advanced tools.
- Steeper learning curve.
- It doesn’t provide the option to sell merchandise.
Podia Total Costs
Podia has a fairly detailed pricing structure.
Everything is designed so you can naturally work your way up through their plans as your needs increase.
The free plan has a revenue cut of 8%.
It’s easy to calculate when you have to take the leap to the next $39/month level, once you get to $500 of monthly revenue.
Mighty Networks
Mighty Networks is a platform that allows people and brands to create their own communities and distribute all kinds of premium content.
If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to get fans to support your content through donations, Mighty Networks can be like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
But if you plan to create something bigger, especially where live stream content is relevant, this may be your ideal solution.
Its creator page is really similar to Circle’s.
It looks very professional, but the design can’t be freely modified like in WordPress.
Pros of Using Mighty Networks Instead of Patreon
The advantages of Mighty Networks are mainly related to the ability to create a community.
- You can use your own domain.
- Chat and direct messaging capabilities.
- Native live streaming.
- Course creation features.
Cons of Using Mighty Networks Instead of Patreon
You’ll find the typical downsides of this type of platform:
- It has recurring costs and takes a revenue cut at the same time.
- Steep learning curve.
- No merch selling available.
Mighty Networks Total Costs
Mighty Networks is also a platform that you’ll have to pay to use.
- The community plan costs $39/month and Mighty takes a 3% fee from sales.
- The business plan costs $119/month and Mighty takes a 2% fee from sales.
- This plan unlocks online course creation features and increases the limitations of live streams.
Hypage
Hypage defines itself as the bio-page for creators.
That is, it’s a tool to create the typical link that is usually added to your profile on social networks to redirect traffic to other platforms.
Only in this case, it also offers monetization features.
Its goal is to bring together all the features creators need for monetization.
Here is an example of what a HyPage creator page might look like.
Pros of Using Hypage Instead of Patreon
Hypage is a platform without very high aspirations.
It doe surpass Patreon in some aspects though:
- You can use your own domain.
- Donation support.
- You can take requests from fans.
- No revenue-cut (but you’ll have to join a paid plan)
Cons of Using Hypage Instead of Patreon
Being a fairly simple alternative, you’ll also find quite a few shortcomings if you decide to use it instead of Patreon.
- The design is quite old-fashioned. It can be modified a bit but it will look very similar to other “link in bio” tools.
- It doesn’t have many tools to interact with your audience.
- It doesn’t have marketing features to help you sell more.
- There is no merchandising sales option.
Hypage Total Costs
Hypage offers two plans at $19 and $39 per month respectively.
Only the second plan unlocks the option to create subscriptions and memberships.
Alternatives like Podia offer more for the same price so the Enterprise plan is not really worth it.
Patreon Alternatives for Specific Content Creators
There are some alternatives to Patreon that are geared towards a specific type of content creator.
It wouldn’t be fair to list them as complete alternatives as they would lose out in many areas.
But if you’re looking for a simple way to monetize specific areas of your work, they might be the solution you need:
- Ghost: If you know that what you want to monetize are private articles on your blog, this platform will make it very easy.
- Substack: If you want to sell a private newsletter, Substack will allow you to create one in exchange for a 10% cut.
- Transistor: If you want to sell access to a private podcast, this tool will provide the necessary tools for $19/month.
What’s the Best Patreon Alternative For You?
There is a fine line between a membership business model and monetization supported by fans.
In our opinion, one of the basic features that a patronage community should have is the ability to receive one-time and recurring donations.
Even Patreon itself doesn’t offer this, and that’s why we believe there are better alternatives:
- If you want to keep everything under the same roof and have full control of all the data and branding of your business, SureMembers is the best choice: Easy to use, affordable and with a lot of growth potential.
- If you’d like your fans to contribute to an item wishlist, Buy Me a Coffee is the platform to use.
- Ko-fi is great for raising money for specific causes thanks to its goals feature.
- Circle is ideal if you want fans to interact with each other as well as with you and your content.
- Podia is very similar to Circle but will allow you to design your website with more freedom. You can also start using it for free, great for tight budgets.
- Mighty Networks will give you access to live streaming features on a cheaper plan than Circle. Plus it has tools to create polls and ask questions to your community.
- We only recommend Hypage if receiving donations without a cut on your own domain is your main goal.
In the long run it’s better to use WordPress and SureMembers for this purpose. - Don’t forget to check Ghost, Substack and Transistor if you are thinking about monetizing specific content like a newsletter or a podcast.
Remember that these are not truly real alternatives to Patreon!
We could say it is only worth using Patreon if the merchandising option is pivotal, since no other alternative offers it.
There are external companies that can do it so giving up 12% of your income to get this feature might not be worth it.
WordPress and SureMembers combination is the only alternative where you’ll have full control over your creative business.
The rest of the solutions are third-party platforms that you can’t control. So you’re exposed to a potential change in their pricing structure and commissions.
Keep that in mind when making a decision.
Which platform do you choose? Do you know of a better Patreon alternative?
Let us know in the comments below!
