7 Best Patreon Alternatives in 2026, Ranked by What You Keep

Quick picks

• Lowest fees with courses, forums and Discord access: Whop
• Lowest fees for tips and simple supporter posts: Ko-fi Gold
• A free page with one flat 5% fee: Buy Me a Coffee
• Memberships on your own website and Stripe account: Memberful
• A community that already lives in Discord (US creators only): Discord Server Subscriptions
• A paid newsletter: Substack
• Downloads first, membership second: Gumroad

We list Whop first because it's one of the two cheapest options at every revenue level we tested (Ko-fi Gold is the other) and the only option here that puts courses, forums, chat and Discord roles in one product. We earn a commission from Whop and nothing from the other platforms on this list.

Patreon alternatives compared by fees

Two options cut Patreon's fees by more than half at every level we tested, and two cost more than Patreon at a $10 price. The table shows what each platform takes in a month, with Patreon's 10% Standard plan as the baseline.

Prices as of October 2026. Sources at the end of this page.

Every row assumes a $10 monthly membership paid by US card, so 100, 1,000 and 5,000 payments a month, with each platform's monthly price included. There are no payout fees, currency conversion, taxes or add-ons, and totals are rounded to whole dollars. Ko-fi, Buy Me a Coffee, Memberful and Substack take card payments through Stripe, so we used Stripe's standard US rate of 2.9% + $0.30. Ko-fi describes processor fees as usually around 3% + $0.30, and PayPal rates differ. Substack's row includes Stripe's 0.7% recurring billing fee, which Substack lists. This compares published fees and isn't financial or tax advice.

Three footnotes change the order for some creators:

• Whop's fee page also lists Radar fraud screening at $0.07 per transaction. Including it puts Whop at $69, $690 and $3,450, and Ko-fi Gold becomes cheaper from about $1,200 a month instead of about $4,000.
• Gumroad's help center describes a lower rate of 5% + $0.50 on direct sales after $20,000 in a calendar month, which Gumroad is still rolling out. If it applies to your account, the $50,000 figure drops to about $8,950.
• Discord's figures cover web and desktop purchases. Subscriptions started in Discord's iOS app pay Apple 30% instead of the 6% processing fee (15% for retained subscriptions).

Run your own tier price, member count and international share through the fee calculator.

Why creators look for Patreon alternatives

Most creators start looking after a fee change or an Apple bill, and Patreon has had both since 2024. Here are the reasons that come up most, each with its source.

• The 10% Standard plan. Pages first published after August 4, 2025 pay a 10% platform fee plus processing. Older pages keep 5%, 8% or 11%, but only as long as they're never unpublished (Patreon help center).
• The real cut is bigger than the headline. With 2.9% + $0.30 processing, a $5 payment loses 18.9% on the Standard plan, and a 2.5% conversion fee applies when a fan pays in a different currency from yours. Creators on r/patreon describe total deductions of about 15% to 23%.
• Apple's in-app fee. Memberships bought in Patreon's iOS app by fans outside the US pay Apple 30%, or 15% after a year, and those earnings stay pending for up to 75 days.
• Forced billing changes. Creators still on per-creation or first-of-the-month billing must move to subscription billing by November 1, 2026, and r/patreon threads show creators worried about losing patrons in the switch.

Every Patreon charge, with worked examples, is in our guide to Patreon's fees.

How we chose and ranked these alternatives

We included platforms that sell recurring memberships with supporter-only content, publish their fees on their own site, and that a Patreon creator could realistically move to. We left out platforms whose current fees we couldn't verify on their own pages.

We ranked on four criteria, weighted in this order:

1. Total fees at $1,000, $10,000 and $50,000 a month on a $10 membership, from the table above.
2. Features Patreon creators already use: tiers, supporter-only posts, community and Discord access.
3. Payout terms and who handles sales tax and VAT.
4. Effort to switch from Patreon. On every platform here, patrons re-subscribe, because Patreon holds their payment methods.

All figures come from each company's own pricing and help pages, checked October 2 and 3, 2026. We didn't open paid accounts on these platforms, so nothing here is a hands-on test.

1. Whop: best for low fees plus courses, forums and Discord

Whop is a pay-as-you-go platform for selling memberships, courses, communities and digital products, with its own payments and a Discover marketplace. It's the strongest fit for a Patreon creator whose membership is more than a feed of posts.

Pricing: $0 a month. Whop charges 2.7% + $0.30 per US card payment, plus 0.5% billing on subscription charges, 1.5% more for international cards and 1% when currency conversion applies (docs.whop.com/fees, checked October 3, 2026). A $10 monthly payment costs $0.62.

What's good:

• The lowest total in our table at $1,000 a month, and within $140 of the cheapest at $50,000.
• Courses, Forums, Chat, Events and Discord role access attach to the same product, so one checkout covers everything.
• Whop sells subscriptions through web checkout, so Apple's in-app fee doesn't apply to memberships. Apple only handles one-time purchases under $700 inside Whop's iOS app.
• Instant payouts arrive in minutes for 4% + $1.

What to weigh:

• There's no built-in newsletter. Whop's messaging covers automated welcome and goodbye messages by DM or email.
• New accounts can have part of each sale held back as a reserve. Whop's own example is 10% for 90 days, and r/whop has 2026 complaints about holds and slow support.
• If you want Whop to collect sales tax and VAT the way Patreon does, Whop Tax Service costs 2% per transaction.

Switching from Patreon: patrons re-subscribe. Our free migration tool turns your tiers into Whop plans, imports your Relationship Manager CSV and gives each paying patron a free trial covering what they've already paid for.

Choose it if you're on Patreon's 10% plan, a share of your patrons pay through Apple, or you sell courses or a Discord alongside the membership. The head-to-head Whop vs Patreon comparison covers payouts, discovery and taxes.

2. Ko-fi: best for tips and simple supporter memberships

Ko-fi is a supporter page for one-time tips, memberships, shop items and commissions, with money going straight into your own PayPal or Stripe account (Ko-fi help center). Its Gold plan makes it one of the two cheapest options on this list for a simple membership.

Pricing comes in three modes:

• Ko-fi Free: $0 a month, 0% on one-time tips and 5% on memberships, monthly tips, shop sales and commissions.
• Standard: $0 a month and 5% on everything, including one-time tips. It adds supporter-only content, scheduled posts and custom branding.
• Ko-fi Gold: $12 a month for new users, with 0% service fees on all payment options. Annual Gold plans are no longer available to new creators.

PayPal or Stripe processing comes on top in every mode. A $10 membership payment costs $1.09 on the free modes and $0.59 on Gold, so Gold pays for itself once memberships pass about $240 a month.

What to weigh: supporter-only posts, the closest match to a Patreon feed, need Standard mode or Gold. Memberships that began before you subscribed to Gold keep paying 5% until they cancel, so if you move to Ko-fi, start Gold before patrons rejoin.

Choose it if your supporters mostly tip or pay a small monthly amount for posts, and you'll pay for Gold from day one.

3. Buy Me a Coffee: best for a free page with one flat fee

Buy Me a Coffee is a supporter page for one-time support and memberships, with posts and emails built in. Its FAQ says there's no monthly fee, publishing and emails are free, and it charges a 5% transaction fee, so creators keep 95% before processing.

Processing runs through Stripe, typically 2.9% + $0.30, and Buy Me a Coffee lets you either absorb it or pass it to supporters (Buy Me a Coffee blog, January 2026). If you absorb it, a $10 membership payment costs $1.09, the same as Ko-fi's free modes. Payouts go directly to your bank account and are available to creators in 44 countries.

What to weigh: 5% is the only plan, so there's nothing like Ko-fi Gold to cut the fee as you grow, and at $50,000 a month you'd pay $2,488 more than on Ko-fi Gold. Check that your country is among the 44 before you announce a move.

Choose it if you want zero monthly cost, a simple setup, and supporters who are happy to cover processing.

4. Memberful: best for memberships on your own site and Stripe account

Memberful is membership billing that runs on your own Stripe account, with a deep WordPress integration. It has been part of Patreon since 2018 (Memberful blog), so this is the one alternative on the list that Patreon owns.

Pricing: the Standard plan costs $49 a month plus a 4.9% transaction fee, with unlimited members and Discord, podcast and newsletter integrations included. Stripe's processing fee is charged on top and varies by country (Memberful docs). A $10 membership payment costs $1.08 plus the monthly fee, which makes Memberful about even with Patreon's Standard plan at $1,000 a month ($157 against $159) and $461 a month cheaper at $10,000.

What's good: payments land in your own Stripe account, which deposits to your bank, and your member and subscription data stays exportable.

What to weigh:

• $49 a month before you sell anything.
• Memberful isn't a merchant of record. It can calculate and collect tax in supported regions, but you file and remit it.
• It has no built-in community or course hosting. Memberful points creators to WordPress plugins for courses and to Discord or other tools for community.
• Owning the Stripe account doesn't make a later move automatic. Memberful runs the billing schedule itself, so a future switch, including to Whop, still means members re-subscribe.

Choose it if you run your own website, want payments in your own Stripe account, and earn enough that $49 a month is a rounding error.

5. Discord Server Subscriptions: best when your community already lives in Discord

Discord Server Subscriptions let members pay inside Discord for roles and paid channels in your server. If your patrons already spend their time in your server, this keeps payment and access in one app.

Pricing: no monthly fee. Discord's Monetization Terms set a 6% payment processing fee on desktop and browser purchases, then a 10% platform fee on what's left. A $10 subscription leaves you $8.46, about 15.4% in fees, slightly less than Patreon's Standard plan takes. Subscriptions started in Discord's iOS app pay Apple 30% instead of the 6%.

What to weigh:

• Server Subscriptions are only available to US creators, who must give Stripe US banking details and ID (Discord Creator Revenue FAQ).
• Payouts are monthly and arrive within 45 days after the month ends, once your balance reaches $100 for the first payout and $25 after that (Monetization Terms).
• Everything lives inside your server, so a library of lessons or long posts has to work as Discord channels.

Choose it if you're in the US, your community is your server, and simplicity matters more to you than fees. To compare it with gating your server through Whop instead, see Whop vs Discord Server Subscriptions or our guide to running a paid Discord with Whop.

6. Substack: best for a paid newsletter

Substack is a newsletter platform where paid subscribers get your posts by email. Publishing is free, and fees apply only once you turn on paid subscriptions.

Pricing: Substack keeps 10% of subscription revenue, and Stripe charges 2.9% + $0.30 per US card payment plus 0.7% for recurring billing (Substack support, checked October 3, 2026). A $10 monthly payment costs $1.66, a little more than Patreon's $1.59. For iOS in-app purchases, Substack lets you choose whether to raise in-app prices to cover Apple's fee or keep them the same. A custom domain is a one-time $50.

What to weigh: if fees are your reason for leaving Patreon, Substack doesn't help. Its strength is the format, since everything is built around a newsletter.

Choose it if your Patreon is mainly long-form writing or audio that patrons read in their inbox.

7. Gumroad: best when downloads come first

Gumroad is a pay-per-sale storefront for downloads, memberships, courses and calls, and it's the merchant of record, so it collects and remits sales tax and VAT worldwide (Gumroad llms.txt).

Pricing: no monthly fee. Direct sales cost 10% + $0.50 per transaction, plus card processing of 2.9% + $0.30 on top (Gumroad help center), and sales that come through Gumroad's Discover marketplace cost a flat 30%. A $10 membership payment costs $2.09, the most on this list, because two fixed fees land on every renewal.

What to weigh: Gumroad raised its minimum payout balance from $10 to $100 in March 2026, and payouts include a hold of at least 7 days. The lower 5% + $0.50 rate after $20,000 a month is still rolling out.

Choose it if most of your revenue is one-time downloads and a membership is a side product. Our Gumroad alternatives roundup and Whop vs Gumroad comparison cover Gumroad sellers in more depth.

Should you leave Patreon at all?

Not always. Staying is the right call if your fee rate is low, Patreon keeps bringing you new patrons, or losing the patrons who won't re-subscribe would cost more than you'd save.

• Legacy Founders creators pay 5% + 1.6% + $0.30, or $0.96 on a $10 payment. Only Whop and Ko-fi Gold beat that in our table.
• Legacy Pro creators pay $1.39 on a $10 payment, which already beats Discord, Substack and Gumroad.
• If new patrons find you through Patreon's Explore tab and recommendations, leaving means replacing that source of sign-ups yourself.
• Patreon collects and remits VAT and sales tax on fan payments where it's required to, at no extra fee. Gumroad and Discord also handle transaction taxes, Whop does it for a 2% fee, and Memberful leaves filing to you.
• Don't unpublish your Patreon page to test another platform. Unpublishing moves legacy pages to the 10% plan if you ever republish and cancels iOS in-app memberships without automatic refunds.

How to move off Patreon

Whichever platform you choose, the order is the same: export your members, rebuild your tiers, give patrons a date and a reason to re-subscribe, and close Patreon last.

1. Export everyone from Patreon's Relationship Manager with the filters cleared, using the CSV button.
2. Clean the file with the member CSV converter if you need a de-duplicated list.
3. Set up your tiers on the new platform and, where it allows, give paying patrons a free trial or discount that covers what they've already paid Patreon for.
4. Keep Patreon published, and pause billing rather than unpublishing, until the switching window ends.

If you're moving to Whop, the Patreon to Whop guide covers the timeline, Discord roles and an announcement email.

Spotted something out of date? Email hello@movetowhop.com and we'll fix verified errors within 7 days.

What changed

• October 3, 2026: First published. Fees checked October 2 and 3, 2026.