11 Best Patreon Alternatives To Consider In 2023

To all the content creators, social media influencers, marketers, and writers out there who are in constant search for legitimate ways to make money from videos besides YouTube, you have come to the right spot!

And, my jawline wouldn’t drop if Patreon pops up every time in your head. But, what concerns me is whether Patreon by itself is a great platform for monetizing content, or is it unmatched as acclaimed by many?

Very quickly, it is No! As there are equivalent or better or free alternatives to this hosting platform and that jewel needs serious research. 

Because, a great person once said, “A moment’s insight is sometimes worth a life’s experience.” Who knows your search for the best platform may give you some amazing experiences. 

So, let’s start with our journey to finding the best one but before that let us take a glance at what Patreon is all about.

What is Patreon & How does it work?

“A space for creatives of all kinds”. True indeed! Patreon is one such membership platform that helps in converting the growing audience to paying subscribers. Here, creators are from diverse sectors, some are podcasters and musicians whereas a few others are vloggers and artists. 

Video content creators can easily sign up for the site and create the Patreon page in a hassle-free way. They can even write a snippet of their work to drive readers and ask them to subscribe for viewing the full piece. Something like this,

When you post such type of write-ups, you ought to grab a lot of attention from viewers and with an eager to know what really happened, they may turn out to be your subscribers. 

And, the subscribers in Patreon are called Patrons and they are required to pay a subscription fee for watching exclusive content from their favorite publishers.

To date or specifically as of last spring, Patreon had over 185k+ registered creators and over 3 million MAUs. Well, how did it grasp the attention of so many?

It’s pros that made this happen:

• Houses creators from different genres thereby leading to diversified content
• Email integrations to connect with audiences
• Assists crowdfunding
• Different payment models and reliable, all of which are reliable and secure

Just like there are trumps, Patreon also has a few noticeable weaknesses.

• Limited customer support
• Plenty of copyright and restriction policies
• Quite impossible to build communities on the platform

How is Patreon priced?

It is free to start but once you start acquiring subscribers, they charge a flat 5% fee, which trust me, not many video hosting sites do. In addition to these, they have three plans,

• Lite: A fee of 5% is applicable
• Pro: Flat 8% is charged
• Premium: 12% flat on video hostings.

Very obvious isn’t it? With the fees and shortcomings hovering around, many would think of taking an alternative. So, our next go-to topic is to get into full details about,

Why must one look for a Patreon Alternative?

We all understand that Patreon provides a niche platform for vloggers, musicians, podcasters, artists, and many new talents to generate a consistent income flow for their pursuit, but it has its flaws on its own.

• First and foremost is the additional fee of 5%, 8%, and 12% on your monthly income on top of the processing fee. This can be a turn-down for many new budding creators.

• Next is that it has got an issue with censorship making it difficult for political content creators to unveil their talents in front of a greater audience.

• And lastly, a newbie on Patreon would find it difficult to establish their portfolio as they have to compete with 6 million active users on the platform. Could be a little challenging to get discovered.

It’s because of these, many enthusiastic users are switching their ways to finding the best alternative to Patreon so that they get full control in aspects they deserve.

What are some of the best alternatives to Patreon?

What we saw till now was everything about Patreon and how it attracts a fanbase. But, the real part is below, “some of the free and top alternatives to Patreon”, that truly help creators like you in raising funds. 

1. GUDSHO

The first on our list is GUDSHO, a premium and most desired video monetization platform designed solely for content creators to post and monetize their videos in a seamless fashion. 

Considered as a better alternative to Patreon in terms of selling digies, they cater their services to four prime segments; Entertainment OTT, Alternative one, Fitness, and Film festival.

Plus, with adequate monetization, analytical, marketing, and security features, GUDSHO stands inevitable in taking videos to a greater level. Did you know with this hosting platform, you can launch premium videos under your domain name?

GUDSHO’s Best For:

GUDSHO stands best for artists, podcasters, musicians, vloggers, and many other creators with a thirst to prove their expertise. It is basically designed for creatives of all minds. And for all people who wish to experience platform-benefits at the lowest price. 

What are the highlights of this video monetization platform?

• Their ‘Adaptive Bitrate Streaming‘ feature allows streamers to make buffer-free videos for consumers.
• They have a high-quality 4k streaming video quality.
• Creators can benefit from the conjuncture of monetization models like SVOD, TVOD, AVOD, and more.
• Crafters can track their engagements and other strategies using the platform’s marketing tools. 

For others, check here!

Standouts of this platform

• Easy to set up a channel with drag and drop widgets.
• Facilitates bulk upload and is backed by CDNs
• Comes with extreme assistive features for creators, and the list goes on

What are its pitfalls?

• Built completely for this gen creators, every feature is crafted with utmost care. But, they offer a plenitude of features that makes video streamers spend a fortune’s time analyzing those.

How’s GUDSHO priced?

The pricing on GUDSHO is classified into three types.

• A ‘Free’ plan for any new creators who wish to try the platform and see how it can make wonders.
• TVOD (Tansactional Video-on-Demand) model that lets you set your own price without any conditions on the content piece.
• SVOD model, a subscription method which will allow you to pay at once to use the platform and let you charge users for different content.

And, a mix of both too.

Up next on our list is,

2. Podia

Well, the next most-attention seeking platform is Podia. It is one such platform that helps the audience grow and sell products most quickly and strategically as possible. Their all-in-one marketing platform helps you sell unlimited courses online, digital products, memberships, and a lot more. 

With these, they also give an option to streamers to upsell their content using coupons and do not include any transaction fee on a successful sale. 

Podia’s Best For:

They are best for entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, start-ups, and people who are on a fixed budget for accessing online courses and other types of content. 

What are the highlights of this video monetization platform?

• Lets you host unlimited files and videos, online courses, and quizzes.
• Doesn’t apply transaction fees on any of their paid plans.
• Allows creators to nudge customers for buying coupons to watch videos.
• Supports third-party integrations to YouTube Live and Zoom.  

Standouts of this platform

• Have different marketing strategies into their platform like affiliate marketing, and built-in email marketing.
• Their pricings are far better than the other platforms.
• They do not pose any transaction fee on sales.

What are its pitfalls?

• Customizations are not up to the par, the email builders lack fields that are much required.
• You can be a member of Podia only upon opting for higher plans. 

How’s Podia priced?

Podia’s pricing is a little unique where they charge based on the location of streamers.

• Initially they offer a monthly plan for creators that start at $39 and $79.
• Then, an additional processing fee of 2.9% + $0.30 gets applicable.

Two down, still 8 more to go in our list.

3. Buy Me A Coffee

Does this mean ‘Get a Coffee and become a fan?’. Nope! Buy Me A Coffee is one of the alternatives of Patreon that accepts donations, lets creators start a membership, and sell anything they wish. It is no hard-fast rule that you see, instead, it is an easy platform to use and monetize your brand videos. 

A fact that makes it unique from the rest is the simple payment process and the audience can support your work with just simple taps. They need not create an account.

Plus, they give you 100% ownership of your supporters or fanbase. What more will a creator have in mind?

Buy Me Coffee is Best For:

This platform is best for artists, creators with wide knowledge on different genres, and anyone interested in getting tips from the audience.

What are the highlights of this video monetization platform?

• Options to cross sell products and memberships
• Easy to start with Buy Me A Coffee
• No monthly payment is required
• Supporters can make donations without creating accounts.

Standouts of this platform

• Supports donations whenever required
• Payments earned by you are not kept in their repositories and are transferred to your account instantly
• Allows selling digital products and exclusive content

What are its pitfalls?

• Not suitable for large-sized businesses or any creator who wishes to scale their portfolio. 

How’s Buy Me A Coffee priced?

• I wouldn’t say Buy Me A Coffee is completely free as they take a 5% platform fee from your donations.
• There are no paywall or monthly fees. But the transaction fee is on par with the PayPal lite plan. 

Gosh, that was a lot to take in, let us see what the other video monetization platform has in its hood.

4. Memberful

Unlike the rest, Memberful is a unique way to make money off your website. Though it is not a crowdfunding platform, you can still monetize video content by installing plugins to your WordPress sites.

It is said that in the year 2018, Patreon acquired Memberful because of the similarities in features and other aspects, but still turns out to be a standalone service to date. 

Memberful is Best For:

Memberful is best for large enterprises and big companies who frequently scale as their fan base grows. This is made possible with tools like MemberMouse and Restrict Content Pro.

What are the highlights of this video monetization platform?

• Email newsletters
• Coupons, free trials, and gifts
• Marketing tools and analytics
• Membership management programs

Standouts of this platform

• Offers an intuitive payment and account management experience for users.
• Dedicated customer support team to help you on any queries.
• Ability to manage membership accounts on your own.

What are its pitfalls?

• There are not many features like other video hosting platforms.
• There is a transaction fee.

How’s Memberful priced?

• A basic plan of $25 is applicable on a monthly basis along with a transaction fee of 4.9%
• Initially, there is a transaction fee of 10%.

Well, we’ll quickly snap the rest!

5. Ko-fi

Want donations, subscriptions, product selling, and a lot more to happen in a single platform? Ko-fi is your must-have solution.

From managing crowdfunding campaigns to selling products to receiving donations to hosting video content, do everything at the price of a cup of coffee. 

They let you set commissions and donations to receive you on a monthly or one-time basis. Plus, Ko-fi‘s features let you easily connect with fans and followers. 

Ko-fi is Best For:

Much similar in work to Flattr, this video hosting platform is best for cosplayers, artists, writers, podcasters, musicians, and ..

What are the highlights of this video monetization platform?

• Creating discount codes or coupons
• Post, memberships, and donations
• Ability to upload GIFs and consists of an API or webhook
• Includes buil-tin Google Analytics. 

Standouts of this platform

• Easy-to-use platform with best user experience
• Supporters or fans need not create an account with the portal
• Can avail personalized commissions

What are its pitfalls?

• The platform doesn’t include any built-in marketing tools.
• Requires a minimum donation of $3.

How’sKo-fi priced?

• There are two pricing plans in which Ko-fi is wrapped upon. 
• The standard plan takes 0% of your donations, so you get your chance of your cake.

Whereas the paid premium plan is around $6 per month.

We have crossed half-way through the sea, still five more to go!

6. SubscribeStar

A very unique yet gluing membership platform in this era is SubscribeStar which lets stars, also called video content creators to create, monetize, and prosper their pursuit in the best way possible. 

This independent membership platform has a lot to offer to its fans. Additionally, they are known for their exclusive features that are out-of-the-box which we will quickly see below. 

It is also known that a star makes an average of $150k per month on SubscribeStar.

SubscribeStar is Best For:

This platform is best for celebrities, podcasters, coachers, entertainers, vloggers, teachers, gamers, clerks, and people with diverse genres. 

What are the highlights of this video monetization platform?

• Completely safe to use as content and data are well protected
• Comes in full compliance with industry standards
• Detailed analytics and studies on user engagement and retention
• Very transparent and no micromanagement

Standouts of this platform

• Anti-scraping and anti-skimming techniques to protect data
• Supports third-party integrations
• Built-in statistics tools
• Any legal content is allowed 

What are its pitfalls?

• Payment option is quite difficult and there is no PayPal or Stripe.
• They pose a restriction on payment withdrawals
• Though they are liberal on content policies, the platform is somewhere into extremist ideologies.

How’s SubscribeStar priced?

• SubscribeStar is a highly priced platform with fees on every pledge (5%) and successful payment (2.9% + $0.30).
• Even for payout they charge you a minimum of 3$ and the price can vary based on the frequency of payouts.

Next up on our list is a bit similar to Patreon, they are,

7. Kickstarter

Give life to your videos with Kickstarter. They help you breathe life into your video content projects by legitimating your work and reaching out to a larger audience. But what draws them back from the creator’s view is their one-time endeavors that are not recurring in nature like Patreon.

But, if you are a creator who would focus on just a project or two for the year, then this platform can be your soul buddy. 

Kickstarter is Best For:

Artists, musicians, developers, designers, writers, poets, painters, robot-builders, and a lot more.  

What are the highlights of this video monetization platform?

• Over 6 billion users have pledged to use Kickstarter
• Possess over 200k+ funded projects so far
• Crowdfunding, memberships, and integrations
• Can embed live streams, online videos, or host any file type and ask pledges from fan followings

Standouts of this platform

• All projects are neatly scrutinized or studied before publication.
• Can make use of Google Analytics to assess growth and monitor traffic
• Get paid after 14 days of your project completion

What are its pitfalls?

• Competition is intense with difficulty in getting noticed. 
• Best suited for small-time creators
• Heavily priced or to be specific, priced on all factors

How’s Kickstarter priced?

• One benefit with Kickstarter pricing is you need not pay if your project doesn’t meet their goals. 
• Elsewhere, you will be charged a 5% fee in addition to the processing fee of 3 to 5%, and $0.05 to $0.20 per pledge.

Seven down, still three more to go, let us see what’s in store for you.

8. Tribe

Did we come across any cloud-based platform till now? Guess, Tribe’s the first of this kind. This community platform lets creators like you engage and connect with followers.

With this premium monetization platform, one can harness the power of social connections, establish a strong customer base, retain users for a very long time, and finally boost conversions. 

Tribe is Best For:

Any marketer and marketing agency who wishes to build communities on the WordPress platform and use Google Analytics to track results. 

What are the highlights of this video monetization platform?

• Complete customizations and fully cloud-based
• Supports Google Analytics integrations

Standouts of this platform

• Helps to build community and user base quickly
• Can make a note of marketing campaigns and traffic
• Tendency to email analytic reports to clients

What are its pitfalls?

• The absence of mobile app makes it difficult to watch videos
• Also, the fans and streamers have reported few bugs

How’s Tribe priced?

• Tribe offers a free plan for streamers to stream video content.
• Their pricing starts from $85 to $249 per month for larger enterprises.

Let us see the next alternative to Patreon for creators to make a note of. 

9. Indiegogo

Indiegogo is a game changer in the world of video content creators and is acclaimed to be the future of portable power stations. It is on this platform where adopters and innovation creators find ways to mainstream tech-related concepts before anyone else hits.

Additionally, they support any newcomers to business in bringing their dreams to life with both crowdfunding and charitable options. 

Indiegogo is Best For:

This platform is for all entrepreneurs, start-ups, or any new business who is into charity funding . 

What are the highlights of this video monetization platform?

• Rewards
• Charity crowdfunding
• Campaigns are not screened prior to publishing so there is a greater chance to gain in prospects
• Equity crowdfunding

Standouts of this platform

• You can opt to keep the hard-earned money all to yourself
• All charity campaigns are free

What are its pitfalls?

• There is no recurring income as like other hosting platforms
• The communication between campaigners and backers is very limited
• Creators using this platform is little less recognized than the rest

How’s Indiegogo priced?

• Indiegogo doesn’t charge any fee on a monthly basis but places a tag of 5% to 8% across crowdfunding campaigns.
• And a transaction fee of 2.9% +$0.30 on those campaigns.

A little close to finals! We are two steps ahead of the last alternative to Patreon.

10. Sellfy

Considered to be a better and much easier alternative to Patreon, Sellfy by all means help content creators to upsell their digital products. This eCommerce platform helps creators, musicians, artists, and anyone who is looking for various options to monetize their work. 

From selling digital downloads to subscriptions to physical goods to every on-demand product, one can easily sell anything and raise the income bar for projects.

Sellfy is Best For:

It is an excellent alternative to Patreon if you are a blogger, artist, digital marketer, or a creator looking for ways to monetize and sell your digital content. 

What are the highlights of this video monetization platform?

• PayPal and Stripe integrations for receiving payments from global audience
• Email marketing
• Discount codes
• Upselling, cart abandonment
• And pay-what-you-want pricing model

Standouts of this platform

• It is easy to use and you can build your account in 10 mins
• Offers a much better user experience than Patreon
• Freebies have an option to list different products at different prices

What are its pitfalls?

• The starter or the basic plan doesn’t have an option to send emails
• The Sellfy branding element exist in the basic plan and to remove, you must upgrade to higher plans
• The platform lacks additional features or functionality

How’s Sellfy priced?

• They do not charge any transaction fees unlike Patreon, but they have three plans.
• Starter plan for $22/month, a business plan for $59, and pro for $119/month.

There’s just one more ground to dig up, and that is,

11. GoFundMe

The very first of its kind is GoFundMe that lets creators or campaign creators raise funds for events rather than post videos and drive income for their portfolio. Unique indeed!

I won’t say it is similar in features to Patreon because this is entirely a donation-based crowdfunding program much similar to Kickstarter. Further, they give you the option to include rewards in your donations. 

GoFundMe is Best For:

GoFundMe is more like a charitable organization that lets you raise funds for any event or mishaps, be it for emergencies, personal emergencies, or charity.

What are the highlights of this video monetization platform?

• Manage donations
• Share texts and emails on social media
• Allows to set fundraising goals by creators
• The reach and trust is unmatched

Standouts of this platform

• You can raise funds for any cause, be it small or big
• There is no need to rely on donations or charity organizations
• It’s quite easy to set up crowdfunding campaigns
• It is completely safe and secure

What are its pitfalls?

• There is a privacy issue with SSN
• Does not support all countries as they pose some restrictions
• There is not success guarantee on using this portal
• The withdrawal restrictions are heavy and campaign organizers must meet those

How’s GoFundMe priced?

• A very unique membership platform that does not impose any mandatory contribution or take fee for creating a fundraiser. 
• But, for every donation, an amount of 2.9% +$0.30 is deducted from the creator’s income. 

And yes, we have come to the end of analyzing different alternatives, it’s the moment to pack up and shut it down!

Time To Bid Goodbye!

There you go- with the list of some of the best alternatives to Patreon for showcasing your forte. Though Patreon can be an efficient portal for some creators, but if you look at scaling the monetization and business prospects, you can have an eye on other hosting platforms. 

Like, GUDSHO can reckon a more viable and excellent option as you get,

• Complete control over your content
• To keep your hard-earned money to self
• Different monetization models that are just one-time
• Hordes of analytical and marketing tools to keep your engagements on track. 

Maybe, these are what you look into, right? So, what are you waiting for? Head straight to our registration page and become one of our GUDShytes!