Growing an audience
Running the business
Both cover memberships & subscriptions. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
| Patreon | Substack | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free | Free |
| Pricing model | Free | Free |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Usage-based | Usage-based |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Yes | Not stated |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | 10% of what you earn | 10% of what you earn |
| Runs on | Not stated | Not stated |
| Covers | Memberships & Subscriptions, Community Platforms, Monetization & Payments | Newsletter & Email, Memberships & Subscriptions |
| Works with | YouTube, Podcast, Discord | Substack |
| Founded | Not listed | Not listed |
| Reader rating | No reviews yet | No reviews yet |
| Live deals | None right now | None right now |
Membership tiers and posts for paying supporters
Patreon is still where most audiences expect to pay a creator monthly, and that familiarity is worth something. Tiers, member-only posts, and now paid courses and shops. The platform fee is 10 percent of what you earn, before payment processing.
Our note
Patreon costs more than Ko-fi and more than running memberships yourself, and what you buy with the difference is recognition: a listener who hears the word already knows what to do. Once an audience would follow you anywhere, that premium stops earning its keep.
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Paid subscriptions with a reader network attached
Substack takes 10 percent of subscription revenue and gives you distribution in return, through Notes and recommendations from other writers. That trade is good early and expensive later. Exporting your list is easy, which makes it a reasonable place to start.
Our note
Start here if you have no list and no evidence anybody will pay for your writing. Move the year that 10 percent passes what beehiiv or Kit would charge you flat, and take the list with you, because that crossover arrives sooner than most writers plan for.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.
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