# Patreon > Paid memberships, a shop and community for creators and their fans Patreon lets creators run paid memberships with tiers, monthly or annual billing and members-only posts, video, livestreams, podcasts and newsletters, plus a shop for one-off digital products. Patreon handles the payments itself, including chargebacks, fraud and most sales tax, and it takes a share of what creators earn instead of a monthly fee. - **Category:** Selling Digital Products - **Made by:** Patreon - **Website:** https://www.patreon.com - **Runs on:** Web, iOS, Android - **Facts last checked:** Oct 18, 2026 ## Pricing Patreon is free to use. - **Pricing model:** 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. - **Free trial:** None listed. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | Patreon | $0 | No monthly fee. Patreon keeps 10% of what creators earn from memberships and shop sales, plus processing, currency conversion and payout fees. | Read from https://www.patreon.com/pricing on Oct 18, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Patreon before buying. ## Key features - **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. ## Good for - 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 ## Worth knowing - 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. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 3.0 out of 4**, graded Oct 18, 2026. Patreon is where fans pay creators every month: member tiers, posts, native video, livestreams, podcasts and newsletters, plus a shop for one-off downloads. It handles payments, fraud and most sales tax, and it's free to start. The cost is 10% of what you earn, double what Ko-fi and Buy Me a Coffee take, with no plan that lowers it. - **Value for money: D.** Graded 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. - **Free plan and trial: A.** Starting 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. - **Features: B.** Against 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. - **Ease of use: A.** 4.9 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. - **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web, iPhone and Android, with Discord, Spotify, YouTube, Vimeo, Zapier, ConvertKit, WordPress and Crowdcast. No desktop app, which an A needs. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Patreon's own pages on 18 October 2026, and its App Store rating. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among tools for selling digital products - Patreon's GPA of 3.0 is higher than 13 of the 14 other tools for selling digital products we grade. - It stands best on ease of use (A, above 13 of 14) and worst on value for money (D, above 0). - Patreon has no paid plan. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 3.3 out of 4, and no tool on the category's chart scores higher without costing more. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/digital-products ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** Patreon is free, so making your own would save you nothing. And it is not the kind of software a weekend replaces. It is one of the better ones too: its GPA of 3.0 is higher than 13 of the 14 other tools for selling digital products we grade. - You could make: Paid newsletters and digital downloads: an app builder makes these well. - You could not: A members' space with posts, chat and events that people keep coming back to. - You could not: A real app for iOS and Android. Something home-made would be a web page. - You could not: It plugs into other products, Discord, Spotify and YouTube among them. - You could not: The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. ## What people say - **App Store rating of the iPhone and iPad app:** 4.9 out of 5 from 579,795 ratings in the United States, read Oct 18, 2026. This is the store's rating of the app, not a score from ToolGPA. Source: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id1044456188 ## Works with Discord, Spotify, YouTube, Vimeo, Zapier, ConvertKit, WordPress, Crowdcast **Tags:** Community, Paid newsletters, Digital downloads ## Alternatives - [Ko-fi](https://toolgpa.com/tools/ko-fi): Creator page for tips, memberships, a shop and paid commissions. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/ko-fi-vs-patreon) - [Buy Me a Coffee](https://toolgpa.com/tools/buy-me-a-coffee): Creator page for tips, memberships and a simple shop. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/buy-me-a-coffee-vs-patreon) - [Memberful](https://toolgpa.com/tools/memberful): Membership platform for paid newsletters, podcasts and communities. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/memberful-vs-patreon) - [Whop](https://toolgpa.com/tools/whop): Storefront, checkout and payouts for paid communities and products. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/patreon-vs-whop) - [Gumroad](https://toolgpa.com/tools/gumroad): Sell downloads, memberships and courses for a cut of each sale. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/gumroad-vs-patreon) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 18, 2026: - https://www.patreon.com/pricing - https://www.patreon.com/product/digital-products - https://www.patreon.com/apps Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/patreon Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).