Best alternatives to Patreon

Patreon Alternatives - StreamBee

Do you have an idea for your own dream business but don’t have enough money to make it happen? This “digital” era has made raising funds for your business idea, nonprofit cause, or personal needs easier with the use of online crowdfunding and membership platforms and the power of online communities. And honestly, there are plenty of them nowadays. But which one is the best for you and your online business? What are the cons and pros of these platforms? Let’s find out. 

What is Patreon?

What is Patreon - StreamBee

Patreon is a membership crowdfunding platform that makes it easy for any content creator to get paid while using social networks to drive their fans. Their fans support them financially for creating things that they are already creating on regular basis. It’s often used by YouTube videographers, webcomic artists, writers, podcasters, musicians, adult content creators, and other categories of creators who post regularly online. The creator can set up tiers – different levels of support – so there would be different amounts of money each fan can choose to pay monthly or per creation and become an active participant, and each tier has different rewards or levels of exclusive content and community access. So this platform is based on long-term support and membership business.  

Another benefit of this platform compared to others is that Patreon has multiple subscription plans for creators, so you can choose from three categories which cost from 5 to 25 dollars per month. As a creator, you get paid on regular basis and your account is connected to your bank or PayPal for easy funds transfer. 

StreamBee Analytics Data2 - StreamBee

But Patreon has a few cons which have to be mentioned because many users left this platform last year. Credit card processing fees can be up to 5%, which is higher than on other platforms. It also takes a percentage from the artist’s funds and some creators report issues while attempting to collect these funds. The creators also complain about how slow and full of bugs the platform is and about bad customer service for the last year of use. They have no power over how their page looks because administrators keep on changing the creator’s landing page and if creators want to change something is necessary to send a request and wait for a long time. 

List of Patreon alternatives

List of patreon alternatives - StreamBee
e

Buy Me a Coffee

Buy me a Coffee is an American donations platform for creators that they may use to receive tips and donations to support their work. While the title is “Buy me a coffee,” your subscribers are donating money to you and there is no actual coffee. It is essentially adding a donate button to your website or content, but with a little more subtlety. Creators can change “coffee” to whatever they want, like soda or beer. 

Pros

  • long-term support from monthly to yearly but also allows one-off donations 
  • more payment methods accepted like google and apple pay 
  • a simple platform where supporters don’t have to create an account 

Cons

  • only offers basic features and functionality
  • not suitable for larger businesses or anyone looking to scale up, it’s best for side-hustles and passions. 
  • users must create a separate account, using a separate e-mail, for every donation page

Pricing 

The platform charges a 5% transaction fee and standard PayPal and Stripe payment processing fees but does not charge a monthly subscription fee.

Coindrop

Coindrop is a platform where users can accept zero-fee one-time donations, don’t require paywalled content, or want to manage many donation pages under one account. You can post or share the link with your audience and sell merch, educational materials or get support for your work. 

Pros

  • zero fees 
  • many payment method options 
  • users can create unlimited Coindrop pages under a single account so it’s possible to sell more different products

Cons

  • many advertisements, offers, and affiliate links to cover the costs of functioning of the site

Pricing

  • The platform has zero payment fees. Payment fees depend on the payment method which donors choose so for example if one of your donors chooses PayPal, it will be charged on PayPal’s fees 

We're on Discord

Join one of the biggest Discord servers for content creators.

ConvertKit

ConvertKit Commerce is the latest alternative for Patreon and is very unique since it combines a strong email marketing tool for creators with a new membership solution. ConvertKit has been a leading email marketing tool for creators to communicate with their fans, subscribers, and customers. It’s best for creators who sell digital products like courses, ebooks, paid newsletters, coaching, and more. 

Pros

  • the platform lets you manage all your subscribers in one admin. 
  • you can also tag your different subscribers and add them into different segments which will help you send relevant emails to different types of subscribers for example to increase the open rate 
  • you can see a distribution of the engagement levels of your subscribers so you can tag all your users who are not active at all and ask them if they still want to be subscribed

Cons

  • tech support can respond long or not respond at all
  • the forms aren’t always mobile-friendly so while using you have to use your computer, laptop, etc
  • some apps like Grammarly don’t work well with the editor of this platform

Pricing

  • They have a free plan, but it’s relatively limited because the pricing changes depending on the number of your subscribers. The free plan is for a max of 300 subscribers, if you have more than 300 subscribers you have to choose between Creator for $9 per month or Creator Pro plans for $25 per month. Each plan offers different options while using. You can also choose between monthly or yearly pricing plans. 

Fangage

Fangage launches fan platforms for top artists, influencers, and brands where artists can always reach 100% of their fans all the time. It’s a fully functional system that allows you to host exclusive content and fan experiences, sell content and subscriptions, get access to fan data, and build on your website complete with all the powerful functionality just mentioned.

Pros

  • paid content and subscriptions department allows you to develop an online membership where your fans can pay to unlock additional content, whether it’s songs, pictures, Q&As, or otherwise
  • a fully brandable website, fan data ownership, email and SMS marketing, follow-to-unlock gated content, and fan submissions
  • you can integrate other tools like Shopify, WooCommerce, Bandsintown, VIRPP, GUTS, Songstats, CM.com, and Fanfiber for additional functionality

Cons

  • need to build traffic to your website because it doesn’t make social media moot so you’ll still be using social media to drive traffic to your Fangage website

Pricing

Fangage offers three plans. The first plan is free with 10% processing fees on earnings and offers unlimited fan profiles and selling exclusive content & subscriptions. The second plan is the Star plan which costs $59 per month + 7% processing fees on earnings and – a 5% discount on email & SMS campaigns. This plan offers all previous rewards plus linking your own domain, hosting of free or private content, etc. The last one is the Legend plan which costs $79 per month with 5% with processing fees and – 10% discount on campaigns. Offers all previous rewards plus access to all integrations, dedicated partner manager, and custom CSS. 

Buzz

Buzz is a monetization tool for streamers by StreamBee. Our platform works so that streamers from Twitch can write with their fans either for money, free, or both according to the settings. 

Pros

  • allows only your subscribers to message you
  • harassment-free environment
  • automatically blocks anyone banned on Twitch

Cons

  • first payment after reaching at least 100€ balance in their Buzz account
  • pay attention to the expiration date of your answer for DM, when you pass 14 days you will not be eligible for receiving the Buzz credits. 

Pricing

Creators keep 80% of all their earnings with Buzz. StremBee takes 20%, which also includes payment processing fees of Stripe which is 0.25% + 0.31€ per payout sent + 2€ per monthly active Stripe Connect Express account.

Flattr

Flattr is a micro-donation provider that lets people set a monthly budget to pay web content producers for their work.

Pros

  • Easy to support web content creators
  • A simple and easy-to-use plugin
  • The platform allows fans to support creators with small donations without resulting in a huge percentage of fees and creator always gets 90%

Cons

  • Flattr receives a commission on all favorited content
  • Unable to prioritize and donate more to content you prefer
  • Only one payment method is possible 

Pricing

All that this platform charges is a 5% transaction fee and a 5% payment fee for the payment processor.

DPD

DPD is easy to use digital publishing platform helping creators sell downloads and deliver content like ebooks, software, themes, music, graphics, and more. 

Pros

  • shopping cart demo 
  • you can create your membership area and sell access to your content
  • works on phones and tablets and supports both Android and IOS

Cons

  • does not support windows

Pricing

Pricing is based on the number and size of your products. You can choose between three plans from $10 to $30 per month from 1 to 6GB of space for your products. DPD supports the most popular processors including Paypal Stripe and Authorize.net. DPD doesn’t charge any per-sale fees, processing fees, or commissions.

Zipsell

Zipsell is a free, open-source, and self-hosted platform for selling digital downloads such as ebooks, music, videos, source code, etc

Pros

  • offers demo version
  • direct payments, no paying commissions

Cons

  • only supports windows
  • only one payment provider 
  • does not work on a mobile device

Pricing

Zipsell is free and handles payment processing via Stripe and sends customers to secure expiring Amazon S3 links to the files they have purchased. Two other plan options are coming soon. 

Gumroad

Gumroad is an e-commerce tool for creators for selling digital content like books, courses, music, and film to their audience. Among its many features, it also enables running a membership program. 

Pros

  • free starter plan
  • users can set Gumroad on your website
  • works well for both digital and physical products

Cons

  • doesn’t support ApplePay
  • limited help center 
  • email support only

Pricing 

  • Free starter plan and a paid creator plan for $10 monthly. Standard transaction fees of 3.5% or 5% + $0.30 per charge apply. If you go for the paid plan, you won’t be charged with the 5%. Instead, the more you sell the less you will pay on Gumroad fees. 

Join it

Join It is a cloud-based membership management solution built for small and midsize businesses. It allows users to build a centralized membership database, search contacts, create web pages, and more. Organizations can create custom membership plans offering different benefits at different prices. 

Pros

  • free trial 
  • their payment provider offers discounts to NPO 
  • offers different memberships option to choose

Cons

  • only one payment method is possible 

Pricing

Join it offers five packages from $0 to $249 per month adjusted to users’ needs. The higher package you choose the less you will pay on the monthly Service fee which goes from 1,5% to 4%. The number of members of your database and admin seats also depends on your plan. Each package offers different services but all previous rewards. There is also a Payment processing fee from their payment provider Stripe. 

maintenacne bee - StreamBee

Explore our products

StreamBee offers business intelligence software and DM monetisation tool for streamers.

Ko-fi

Ko-Fi is an All-in-one platform for managing crowdfunding campaigns and selling memberships or products. This platform for donations allows creators to share their work with fans who can support them for the price of a cup of coffee, or more if they wish. Creators can set up donations or commissions on a one-time basis or in monthly income. It’s best for artists, writers, cosplayers, podcasters, etc. It’s a good Patreon alternative for creators. 

Pros

  • ability to offer memberships, paywall content, and personalized commissions
  • no supporter sign-up required
  • you can create a funding goal and share your progress with your audience

Cons

  • a minimum donation is required
  • no built-in marketing tools

Pricing

  • Ko-fi is free. Premium features like Subscriptions, Ko-fi Shop, and Commissions can either be paid for via a small subscription to Ko-fi Gold or a low 5% transaction fee. Ko-fi uses Paypal and Stripe to manage payment transactions and their payment processing fees are 2.9% + $0.30. Creators get paid with every donation immediately.

Lemon Squeezy

Lemon Squeezy is a platform focused on helping creators sell their digital products — everything from digital downloads (eBooks, PDFs, design assets, photos, audio, and videos), subscriptions, and software licenses. 

Pros

  • unlimited products 
  • unlimited file storage
  • control access to software and charge customers a regular fee to continue accessing the product 

Cons

  • no sales reports are available 
  • the third plan for the bigger business is not available yet 

Pricing

This platform offers two plans depending on the creator’s needs. There is also an option to pay monthly or yearly. It takes a platform fee to cover the costs of credit card transaction fees, currency conversion fees, etc. and the net sales will be paid out to the creator’s bank account or PayPal account. The platform fee is calculated on the total order value and collected when the order is placed. If the order is from an international card (outside of the US) or PayPal they add 1% to the platform fee to cover processing fees. On the Basic plan, the platform fee is 3.5% + 30c.

Luma

Luma is an alternative community platform where you can create an alternative to Facebook groups. It’s best for streamers who are looking for an alternative to Facebook to create space for their communities and for hosting members on Zoom events. 

Pros

  • integrates with Zapier and Zoom 
  • users can test their platform without signing up 
  • mobile app available for Android and IOS 

Cons

  • limited themes
  • the invitation email did not include any reference to who sent the email, it shows that mail came from support mail and goes to spam so many people may be afraid to click on the link in the mail 
  • from an SEO perspective, Google sees the blog and the website as two different domains because the blog is hosted on a sub-domain

Pricing

You can choose between the Free forever plan, where your only payment will be a 5% platform fee or Luma plus plan for $39 per month for annual payment or $49 per month for a monthly payment with more options and no platform fee. You also pay a Stripe credit card transaction fee which is typically 2.9% + 30 cents. 

Pay here

PayHere is a simple subscription payments platform for startups and indie hackers, saving you lots of development time that you can better spend on your product features. Users simply have to share a link to their payment forms without the need to code or have a website. 

Pros

  • one-off payments 
  • you can create coupons and offer your customers discounts on your payment links 
  • offers many payment types

Cons

  • only one payment provider is possible

Pricing

 Pricing is only 3% per transaction plus Stripe fees. 

Per Diem

Per Diem is a platform that offers online subscriptions to local businesses. The software offers tools to customize your subscription model to build loyalty and start expanding your customer base.

Pros

  • offers free trial

Cons

  • only one payment provider is possible

Pricing

You can choose between a monthly pricing model for $29 per month or a yearly pricing model for $20.75 per month. Per Diem uses Stripe to process payments securely. Stripe’s credit card transaction fee is 2.9% + $.30 per charge.

SamCart

The platform for selling digital products online. SamCart is perfect for anyone who sells stuff online. From physical products to digital products like courses, events, books, and seminars. You can even use it to sell services, such as consulting services on your website. 

 Pros

  • user-friendly platform for selling both physical and digital products online
  • flexible payment models, including payment plans, subscriptions, and trials
  • has a reporting dashboard that provides you with useful insights from your data

Cons

  • isn’t well-suited for selling services
  • few payment processors like PayPal and Stripe
  • the pricing is still a bit high for small business owners and individual marketers compared with ThriveCart

Pricing

SamCart has four different plans for monthly payments in a yearly pricing model with an annual discount or monthly pricing model. The Launch for $39/$49 per month offers 1 admin user, standard integrations, etc. In Grow plan for $79/$99 per month, you’ll get all previous rewards plus 3 admin users, enhanced integrations, etc. Scale plan offers for $159/$199 per month all previous rewards plus 10 admin users, priority email support, etc. It also offers the Enterprise plan and you can get more information about the plan or pricing after contacting the platform’s sales. If you elect to go with an annual plan, you’ll save 20% on all of these prices. There are also payment processing fees of PayPal and Stripe.

SendOwl

SendOwl is an all-in-one solution designed to help creators successfully sell and deliver audiobooks, e-books, photography, software, memberships, event tickets, online courses, and much more. 

Pros

  • suitable for bloggers who want to sell premium content
  • flexible payment models and subscriptions are available
  • no transaction fees

Cons

  • no emergency customer support
  • no real A/B testing for templates
  • limited design customization for marketers

Pricing

SendOwl has four different pricing options. The first one is the Standard plan which starts for $15 per month and offers 30 products with 3 GB of storage, the Premium plan for $24 per month with 100 products and 5GB storage, and the Business plan for $39 per month with 250 products, 15 GB of storage, 3 subscriptions, etc. 

Sellfy

Sellfy is an e-commerce platform designed specifically for selling digital products, such as music, illustrations, photos, books, or videos in digital files. It’s best for creators and digital product businesses that want a comprehensive online store solution that is quick and easy to create and manage. 

Pros

  • offers free trial
  • easy and fast it is to create a store
  • no restrictions for storage or amount of products

 Cons

  • does not support mobile apps for android or apple and windows
  • only one storefront template
  • more expensive than other e-commerce platforms 

Pricing

Sellfy has three plan options: Starter, Business, and Premium. Pricing options depend on which of the three plans you choose. The Starter plan costs $29 per month or $19 per month if you pay for an annual subscription and offers unlimited products and 2000 email credits. The Business plan, on the other hand, costs $59 per month or $39 per month for the annual plan and offers product upselling, 10 000 email credits, etc. The Premium plan costs either $129 per month or $89 per month for the annual option with priority support and 50 000 credits. For their payment providers Stripe or PayPal, you’ll be paying 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction. Sellfy does not charge an additional transaction fee for payment processing on any of its plans. 

SUBS

SUBS is a social platform and an alternative for platforms like Instagram, where users can post their photos, videos, or text and share it with a community of people. They can use posts for subscribers or stories for 24 hours, which can see also people who don’t subscribe yet. 

Pros

  • no ads
  • they use technology to certify digital media as the original created by the artist, as well as proof of ownership secured by a non-fungible token (NFT) 

Cons

  • it takes a few weeks to verify Creator status
  • only a few users at this time 

Pricing

This platform is completely free.

SubscribeStar

SubscribeStar is a membership platform adapted for musicians, visual artists, and educators. This platform describes itself as “an online content marketplace that operates on a subscription basis.” This makes this more exclusive platform one of the best Patreon alternatives.

Pros

  • allows creators to upload exclusive content and sell memberships for access
  • able to integrate with other platforms like Google Analytics
  • built-in stats and analytics tools

Cons

  • restrictions on payment withdrawals – option for withdrawal only every two weeks 
  • no PayPal or Stripe
  • free content policies mean the platform has an association with extremist ideologies

 Pricing

This independent platform operates on a monthly subscription. Monthly earnings depend on the number of subscribers that the creator has on his Star page and the monthly subscription price. The platform also charges a 5% service fee and a 2,9 % transaction processing fee for the payment provider.

Supercast

Supercast is a crowdfunding platform for podcasters. It allows creators to turn their loyal listeners into paying members. Creators can offer paying subscribers ad-free versions of their podcasts and give them access to exclusive content.

Pros

  • creators also get access to analytics inside the platform
  • one-time payments option for the creator to charge his listeners 
  • creators can reward premium members with early access to new content

Cons

  • does not offer free trials for start 
  • only one payment method is possible 

Pricing

Supercast uses Stripe to process payments which charges a transaction fee of 2.9% + $0.30 on each subscriber payment the creator receives.

SuperPay

SuperPay is a cloud-based payment processing software, which helps businesses set up collection dates and regulate one-time and recurring transactions. Features include multi-factor authentication, payment requests management, bulk data upload, automated email notifications, and customizable branding. 

 Pros

  • no technical knowledge required
  • start accepting payments within 5 minutes
  • connects & syncs with your existing Stripe account

Cons

  • customers in SuperPay cannot change a subscription on their own. They have to cancel an existing subscription. 
  • only one payment method 

Pricing

This platform offers two plans – Standard and Enterprise. In the Standard plan, users pay 1% per transaction. An Enterprise plan is available for businesses with large payment volumes and it’s possible after contacting support. There are also processing fees to their payment partners which are 2,9% + 30 cents. 

ThriveCart

Thrivecart is an online shopping cart solution that lets creators create high-converting checkout pages and collect payments on the website. It’s best for selling physical and digital products, including ebooks and digital courses. It also supports subscription plans and categorizes customers based on their membership plans.

Pros

  • thrivecart is available for a one-time fee, which gives users lifetime access to the tool 
  • allows you to sell periodic membership plans to customers and even helps classify them by plan 
  • no monthly fees 

Cons

  • creators can only sell one product or service at a time
  • some customers reported cart issues for physical products
  • not suitable for one-time projects

Pricing

The platform offers one-time payment for lifetime access in two plans, standard, and pro. Standard Plan is a one-time payment plan that allows users to create an unlimited number of stores without any monthly fees. This plan costs $495 which is a one-time fee. Pro plan is a special plan for users who want to use the advanced features of ThriveCart.The Pro Plan is a lifetime subscription plan and it costs $690.

Conclusion

For a wide array of podcasters, YouTubers, writers, journalists, artists, comedians, and other creatives, Patreon has provided a convenient means as a source of income that was previously unavailable. Patreon’s conception of crowdfunding, based as it is on ongoing donations from patrons in exchange for premium content, is well-suited to those who produce work that people enjoy but who previously had no means by which to get compensated for their toil. However, it has its drawbacks and flaws, which is why users and creators alike are constantly on the lookout for Patreon alternatives. 

Frequently asked questions

?> ?> ?>