Patreon was founded in May 2013, when musician Jack Conte and developer Sam Yam came together to build a platform that allows creators to earn recurring income from fans. It was created to be an alternative to ad-revenue-generating platforms like YouTube. The platform was intended to be a way for patrons to pay artists for their work.
What is Patreon?
Patreon is a platform that lets creators build paid communities with their fans. Creators will be able to display their work, get to know their fans, attract new fans, and accept payments on the platform. Patreon has over 60 million free memberships. Free memberships can be converted to paid memberships if the patron chooses to do so.
How does Patreon work?
Patreon works as a membership platform for creators like musicians, social media influencers, podcasters, and more to accept recurring payments from their fans, also known as patrons.
Creators can promote their Patreon to their fans on social media or through an email newsletter to get them on the platform. From there, fans can choose to sign up for either a free or paid membership to that creator.
Unfortunately, Patreon is mostly made up of free memberships. Only a small percentage of fans upgrade to a paid membership, which can lead to a lot of work with little financial gain.
What you need to know about selling on Patreon
Patreon doesn’t charge creators a monthly subscription fee. Instead, they take a 10% cut of every sale. While it is a free platform for creators has its upsides, the 10% transaction fee is quite steep. Considering that most creators who have fans bring their fans onto the platform, they’re doing the marketing work while paying a platform that simply enables the transaction. There are Patreon alternatives that let you create membership sites for your fans with a 5% transaction fee, like Payhip.
Patreon doesn’t allow you to sell physical products; you can only sell digital items like audio files, images, videos, and livestreams. This can be frustrating for singers who can’t sell CDs or vinyl to customers on the platform. It can also be hard for authors to sell their physical books, let alone signed copies, to their top fans. Considering hardcore fans often buy physical copies of their idol’s work to collect or keep, it limits the potential sales revenue for creators.
Patreon only hosts your community. You’ll still need a third-party website builder to build your site. There are platforms where you can build your creator site and sell products like ebooks, courses, memberships, physical products, coaching, and even software. Having a membership site on Patreon and building your own website on another platform can be a lot of work to manage, and it costs more to keep them separate. Patreon also offers limited customization options for your fan space, helping it truly feel like one with your brand.
Creators often experience burnout on Patreon. Since fans pay monthly subscriptions for unique content, artists often feel they need to produce a lot of content to keep them subscribed. The pace of content creation can be overwhelming for creators who still need to focus on the quality of their craft while serving their fans. Other platforms let you build a membership site without feeling that you need to constantly produce content for patrons.
Is Patreon the best platform for membership sites?
No, Patreon isn’t the best platform for membership sites; Payhip is. On Payhip, you only pay a 5% transaction fee per sale, compared to Patreon’s 10%. Plus, you can sell more than just memberships to your fans; you can also sell digital downloads, ebooks, courses, and video content, as well as physical products. Overall, it’s a more well-rounded platform for building your creator website, with the added ability to sell memberships to fans for exclusive content. To start building your membership site, sign up now.