Patreon

Visit Patreon

What it does

Patreon runs a recurring membership between a creator and an audience: supporters pay monthly for tiers you define, and the platform handles billing, access control and the posts that only members can see. It is the most established option here and carries the largest existing habit among audiences, which is a real advantage when asking someone to commit monthly. The trade is that it takes a percentage and owns the relationship's plumbing, and moving a membership elsewhere later is genuinely hard. It suits ongoing work rather than one-off products.

Alternatives

Other tools we list for the monetize stage.

• Ko-fiTips, memberships, shop and commissions with no fee on tips.
• GumroadSells digital products with no monthly fee and a cut of each sale.