Which Membership Platform Is Better for You?

Premium Subscription websites like SubscribeStar and Patreon are an excellent way for creators or social media influencers to start receiving a passive income with support from their audience.

These services are perfect for all types of creators and artists running YouTube, Podcasts, and blogs. It provides them with a means to offer exclusive content, benefits, and interaction to their subscribers.

While Patreon is the more well-known choice for creators, they charge higher fees and have stricter rules on what type of content they allow to be posted on their platform, therefore someone may be looking for Patreon alternatives.

In this article, we will be comparing both subscription websites so that you can choose the one that is right for you and your community. But first, let's have a quick glance at the main difference between the two platforms.

SubscribeStar Vs. Patreon

Both SubscribeStar and Patreon are membership platforms designed to make it easier for creators to get paid for their content, such as videos or songs. The audience of your SubscribeStar or Patreon account pays a monthly subscription to see your creations, or they can pay to see each post.

This means that you can receive a monthly income or get paid for every individual creation you make. Only membership holders have access to your content which is different from websites like YouTube where content is posted to the public.

Where the two begin to differ are the type of content that is allowed to be posted to the website, the different tools, and integrations that are available to the creators, pricing plans, processing fees, and how you get paid. 

What Kind of Content Can You Create?

SubscribeStar and Patreon are both places where YouTubers often post videos that are not allowed to be monetized on YouTube. This allows those creators to still make money off of their work with less limitation to what they can make and post.

That being said, while they are not as strict as YouTube’s policies, these sites still do have their own rules and restrictions on what can and cannot be posted.

SubscribeStar

While this site is certainly less restrictive than most subscription sites on what can be posted, the site still has its own guidelines that users must follow to keep their accounts. For instance, users cannot post themselves breaking the law and they cannot share other people’s personal information.

Users cannot infringe on someone’s copyrights, nor can they impersonate someone else while on the website. SubscribeStar also prohibits its users from partaking in spam, spreading misinformation & hatred, or covering social events such as a protest.

Here is a quick overview of the platform’s policies:

Patreon

Patreon has its own list of things that are and are not allowed to be posted by its users. Nudity for example is allowed when the content is specifically marked as 18+ material and is posted in a patron-only area. Outright pornography, fringe sexual creations like incest, and glorifying violence are prohibited from being posted onto Patreon.

Doxxing and all other damaging and illegal activities cannot be posted and some people such as politicians, people, and organizations that have a dangerous past cannot even have an account on this site.

Here is a quick overview of what can and cannot be posted on Patreon:

Processing Fees and Pricing

While you do have a little more freedom of what type of content you can upload to these sites, this does come with a price. Subscribe Star and Patreon both offer their own plans that allow you certain functions and access to creator tools.

SubscribeStar

When signing up for SubscribeStar, simply select how many subscribers you expect to have and how much you will be charging each subscriber. This subscription site has just one plan and its fee structure goes as follows:

• 5% service fee: applies to all creators and is considered SubscribeStar’s cut.
• Payment processing fee for payments under $30: This is 2.9% + $0.30 and this cut goes toward the payment processor
• Payment processing fee for payments over $30: This is 3.5% + $0.30 per transaction

Patreon

If you use Patreon, you will be paying for both a portion of your monthly income as well as a processing fee for every payment that you receive. Here are the two payment processing schemes that Patreon has:

• Their standard rate is for all payments that are more than $3. This equates to 2.9% + the flat rate of $0.30.
• Their micropayment rate is for all payments that are less than $3. This is 5% + a flat rate of $0.10

Patreon also has service fees in addition to their payment processing fees. Your service fee amount will depend on the plan you choose. Here is an overview of all of Patreons plans:

• Lite: Patreon takes 5% of your monthly income. You are granted access to all of the site’s basic features like setting up your page, creating content, and communicating with your patrons.
• Pro: Patreon takes 8% of your monthly income. You will be able to set up different membership tiers as well as offer special offers and get unlimited app integrations.
• Premium: takes 12% of your monthly income. You will have a dedicated partner manager, access to the merch for memberships program and you can even set up Team Accounts. This plan is not for everyone though as it is meant for content creators who already have at least 100,000 subscribers on YouTube or another social media platform.

Integrations and Tools for Creators

Both of these subscription websites offer a variety of tools and integrations that help the creator build and connect with their community more effectively.

SubscribeStar

Subscribe Star provides its users an analytic section where you can see full breakdowns of your tiers, the amount collected per tier, income charts, income sources, pledges by countries, pledges per tier, and more. The site also provides a Google Analytics integration in addition to its own analytics.

While using this subscription site, you can set up monetary goals and encourage your subscribers to help you in achieving them. SubscribeStar also allows you to limit new subscribers from seeing certain content to prevent your content from spreading or copyright infringement.

Patreon

Creator tools that you are granted access to will depend on the plan that you chose when setting up your Patreon account. For instance, those who use the Lite plan can message patrons and attend the Patreon workshops but cannot access their analytics or use the Merch for memberships program.

When on the pro plan, you can attend the workshops, and access analytics but cannot use not merch for memberships. The premium plan grants you access to everything including the merch for memberships which is a program that lets you award your loyal patrons and give out monthly merch like stickers or seasonal merch.

Just like SubscribeStar, Patreon can be integrated with Discord so that you can set up a server for your subscribers to chat and hold discussions using both text and voice chat. When using Patreon, this Discord integration is only available for Pro and Premium members, not Lite. Patreon can also be integrated with Google Analytics.

Getting Paid

Who’s SubscribeStar Better Suited For?

SubscribeStar’s platform is better suited for newer creators looking for a cheaper alternative to Patreon that doesn't censor content as much. Since there is an adult section on the site, NSFW creators can post their content on SubscribeStar as well.

FreedomToons is an animator on SubscribeStar who uses the platform to post educational cartoons and satire that can be accessed for a monthly subscription. They offer various tiers ranging from just $2 to $100 per month that all offer something different. Currently, FreedomToons has over 200 subscribers.

Who’s Patreon Better Suited For?

Patreon is more well-known and provides a wider variety of more effective tools for creators, and allows you to get paid more often with a smaller amount required to withdraw.

This is Heather Mcdonald, she is the host of the Juicy Scoop podcast and uses her Patreon accounts to receive support from her audience and offers three different tiers including “Help Spread the Word” for $2, “Double Scoop” for $5 a month and her “Triple Scoop” for $10 a month. Heather promotes her Patreon often on the Juicy Scoop podcast as well as her social media pages.