5 Patreon Alternatives for Monetizing Your Community

Having a community around your brand is one of the most powerful tools a company can use today. An online community is an online space created by an organization or a brand, where members, customers, and fans alike can get together, ask questions, discuss interests surrounding the brand, and make social connections. 

Communities can both humanize a brand and make customers feel valued through experiences or direct communication. They help you interact with each other interested in a particular product of a brand and share their personal experiences with the products. Making sure your online platforms feel safe and enjoyable for all your participants should be the essential long-term goal for your online community. 

Communities create a link between customers and real people at the organization. Users with questions can tag fellow members in a discussion or post a question and expect a response from someone in the community. People in the community can feel connected to the brand and each other. 

Building online communities come with a lot of benefits plus you can also monetize your community. When you monetize your data, you can figure out the understanding of the customers. You can now use these insights into how best to improve products and services. Moving ahead enhances the customer journey and makes the customer stick to your product. 

What is Patreon? (FEATURES AND PRICING)

Patreon is a way to get paid for creating the things you're already creating like webcomics, creating online communities, videos, and songs. Fans pay a few bucks per month or per post you release, and then you get paid every month, or every time you release something new. Most Patreon creators have multiple tiers that supporters can join, with each tier corresponding to a certain monetary amount.

FEATURES

• Flexible pay-outs: Pay yourself whenever you want, or receive monthly auto pay-outs from your creator balance via direct deposit via PayPal.
• Business tools: Track patron payments, lifetime value, and notes to help manage relationships with them directly.
• Direct relationships: Develop relationships with your patrons through patron-only posts, messages, or directly via email. 

PRICING 

Lite provides you with simple tools to set up recurring support from your fans and run a membership business.

Pro is for creators who want to build a robust, thriving membership business. 

Premium is for established creators and creative businesses looking for a higher level of service and advanced features. 

Top 5 Patreon Alternatives

1. SubscribeStar

SubscribeStar is a digital content monetization platform that provides content creators with a means of getting a steady income. SubscribeStar makes it easy for your subscribers to message you. It allows creators to upload exclusive content and sell memberships for access

FEATURES

• Independent: Flexible and attentive to your needs. No micromanagement, overreactions, or judgments.
• Safe to use: All your content and data are protected. 
• Transparent: Comprehensive statistics and analysis. Easy to understand the fee structure and pricing policies.

PRICING 

SubscribeStar only offers a single plan. SubscribeStar is one of the best alternatives to Patreon, as all creators get access to all features for one price.

2. Ko-fi

The perk point about Ko-fi is that it doesn’t take a cut of your donations and we don’t charge supporters extra either. Over 51,396 creators earned money on Ko-fi last month!

FEATURES

• Easy messaging: Creators and Supporters can now send messages to each other directly on Ko-fi.
• Upgrade your membership tiers: You can now automatically upgrade existing monthly supporters to a tier of membership.
• Get payment alerts: Get messages in your Stream Chat whenever you receive a payment on Ko-fi!

PRICING 

Ko-fi is a friendly way to earn an income. Start with a free tip jar for what you’re already creating and offer supporters more whenever you like!

3. Buy me a coffee

This platform is for online content creators to receive tips and donations to support their work. Buy Me A Coffee focuses on offering a simple way for supporters to donate or make a purchase with less commitment, unlike Patreon. 

Buy me a coffee does not provide membership tiers but works more like a standard donation box than a membership subscription.

Each coffee received is not actual coffee! But is the money obviously 💰. Each coffee received can only be $3, $4, or $5.

4. Memberful 

Memberful was founded in 2013. Memberful helps independent publishers, educators, and creators sell memberships to their audience and build sustainable businesses.

FEATURES 

PRICING 

Memberful charges a flat transaction fee of 10% on the Starter plan and 4.9% on the Pro and Premium plans. You own your content, your website, and your brand. Memberful keeps your customers on your site, providing an integrated checkout and account management experience. 

5. Bountysource

Bountysource is the funding platform for open-source software and is a Crowdfunding service in the development category. Users can improve the open-source projects they love by creating/collecting bounties and pledging to fundraisers.

PRICING

Bountysource charges a 10% fee on all withdrawals from your Bountysource account. This includes any money earned from Bounties, Fundraisers, or Donations.

Conclusion 

All these platforms are unique in their ways. Patreon and others charge creators a platform fee, typically 5–12% of the funds received by the creator. Whereas, some platforms do not charge you any fee. 

You can always create a funding goal and share your progress with your audience, fill your Gallery with your best work and write posts to update your fans. 

Good luck! 📈

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