Patreon vs Whop
We give Patreon a 3.0 GPA and Whop a 3.4, out of 4.0. Whop grades higher on value for money. They get the same grade on the free plan, features, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Patreon
Paid memberships, a shop and community for creators and their fans
Free
How we grade them
| 3.0GPAPatreonVery good | 3.4GPAWhopVery good | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | DGraded against its own alternatives, fan-support platforms. Patreon keeps 10% of what you earn, so $1,000 a month costs $100, with processing and payout fees on top (not counted). That's double Ko-fi's and Buy Me a Coffee's 5%, and in this category's dearest tenth. | BNo monthly fee: 2.7% + 30¢ a domestic card sale, so $1,000 costs $27 plus 30¢ a sale, and that is the card processing, with nothing on top. Cheaper than anything else here at this size, but not an A: tax handling adds 2% and faster payouts cost extra. |
| Free plan and trial | AStarting a Patreon is free, with no monthly fee and nothing held back. You only pay a share once you earn, and the value grade counts that. | ANothing to pay until you sell, with no monthly fee and no plan to upgrade to. Each sale's card fee is the only charge, and the value grade counts that. |
| Features | BAgainst its alternatives it does the most: member tiers, free trials, a shop for downloads, native video, livestreams, podcasts with Spotify, newsletters and group chats. Not an A, because buyers need a Patreon account to purchase anything. | BStorefront and checkout in 195 countries, plus chat, courses with quizzes, forums, paid events, files and bookings for each product, license keys, a marketplace and affiliates. It covers the whole job. |
| Ease of use | A4.9 from about 580,000 App Store ratings, the best here. Getting started is free, and Patreon takes care of payments, chargebacks and most taxes for you. | A4.82 from about 58,000 App Store ratings, among the best here. Building a product means picking apps such as chat or courses to add to it, rather than designing pages. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb, iPhone and Android, with Discord, Spotify, YouTube, Vimeo, Zapier, ConvertKit, WordPress and Crowdcast. No desktop app, which an A needs. | BWeb and iPhone, with Klarna, Afterpay, Splitit, SeQura and Venmo, an embeddable checkout and SDKs in TypeScript, Python and Ruby. No Android or desktop app is listed. |
| Best for | memberships funded by fans | selling access to paid communities |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Patreon and Whop. How we grade
Price against what you get
Patreon has no paid plan and scores 3.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Whop has no paid plan and scores 3.3.
On this chart the two sit in the same place: the same score for the same starting price. Of the other tools for selling digital products on the chart, none scores higher than Patreon for less, and none scores higher than Whop for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Patreon is free. Whop is free.
- Only Patreon lists an Android app.
- Patreon also covers paid newsletters.
- Whop also covers online courses and affiliate tracking.
In commonFree planWebiOSCommunityDigital downloads
At a glance
| Patreon | Whop | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| Starts at | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Starting a Patreon is free. Patreon keeps 10% of the income creators earn, plus payment processing, currency conversion and payout fees and applicable taxes. | No monthly fee is listed. Whop charges 2.7% + $0.30 per domestic card sale, plus 1.5% for international cards and 1% for currency conversion. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | Patreon | Whop |
| Price read from | patreon.com | docs.whop.com |
| Checked | Oct 18, 2026 | Oct 18, 2026 |
Who each one suits
Patreon
- Podcasters, video makers and artists funded by monthly members
- Creators who want payments, fraud and tax handled for them
- Creators selling extra digital products to the same fans
Whop
- Creators selling paid community access with courses and chat
- Sellers who want marketplace exposure through affiliates
- Developers embedding checkout and payouts in their own app
Worth knowing
Patreon
- Patreon keeps 10% of creator income, and payment processing, currency conversion and payout fees come on top.
- Buyers need a Patreon account to purchase products, so fans pay inside Patreon rather than on your own site.
- The pricing page lists a single rate, 10% of earnings, with no monthly plan that lowers it.
Whop
- Optional extras stack on the 2.7% + $0.30 card fee: payment routing 0.8%, billing 0.5%, tax collection 2%, or 6% + $0.30 with all on.
- Products listed on Discover are promoted by affiliates at a default 30% commission unless you change the rate.
- Purchases under $700 made in Whop's iOS app go through Apple, which takes 30%; subscriptions and web checkout avoid that fee.
- Fast payouts cost extra: instant bank deposit 4% + $2.50, crypto 5% + $1 and Venmo 5% + $2.50 per payout.
Key features
Patreon
- Memberships
- Membership tiers billed monthly or annually, one-time payments, free trials, discounts and sales, with member analytics.
- Shop for digital products
- Sell video, audio, images, downloadable files and collections one at a time, with no listing fee, or make them free for members.
- Posts, video and newsletters
- Publish audio, images and rich text, host video natively, livestream, and send posts as email newsletters.
- Podcasts
- Import and sync podcasts, run several shows, distribute episodes by RSS, and use the Spotify integration with synced feeds.
- Community
- Group chats, direct messages and comments for members, with exportable email lists and Discord integration.
- Payments handled by Patreon
- Patreon processes payments, handles chargebacks, disputes and fraud, collects and remits most taxes, and supports 16+ currencies.
Whop
- Apps for each product
- Add chat, courses with quizzes, forums, events with paid tickets, file sharing, rich content pages and calendar bookings to what you sell.
- Checkout and payment methods
- Checkout in 195 countries and 135+ currencies with 100+ payment methods, ACH debit, and Klarna or Afterpay financing.
- Discover marketplace and affiliates
- List products on Whop's marketplace, where global affiliates can promote them for a default 30% commission; custom affiliates are also supported.
- Payouts
- Withdraw by next-day ACH, instant bank deposit, crypto, Venmo, wire or local bank transfer, each with its own fee.
- Tax options
- Whop handles tax on Discover sales; for direct sales it can collect tax for you, or collect and remit it in the US, EU and UK, for 2%.
- Developer tools
- Embeddable checkout, wallet and chat components, license keys for downloadable software, and SDKs in TypeScript, Python and Ruby.
Plans
Patreon
Patreon$0
No monthly fee. Patreon keeps 10% of what creators earn from memberships and shop sales, plus processing, currency conversion and payout fees.
Whop
Payments$0
Per-sale pricing: 2.7% + $0.30 for domestic cards, +1.5% international, +1% currency conversion; ACH 1.5% up to $5; financing 15%.
