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If Patreon is no longer working for you, these crowdfunding solutions offer similar products to help you manage donations and keep your fan base motivated and engaged.
Erica has been writing about small business finance and technology since 2008. She joined Merchant Maverick in 2018 and specializes in researching and reviewing business software, financial products, and other topics to help small businesses manage and grow their operations. Her expertise has been cited in MSN, Reader's Digest, Vox, U.S. News & World Report, and Real Simple. She is a Certified ProAdvisor for QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Payroll, a graduate of Limestone University, and currently resides in Greenville, South Carolina.
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Erica SeppalaErica has been writing about small business finance and technology since 2008. She joined Merchant Maverick in 2018 and specializes in researching and reviewing business software, financial products, and other topics to help small businesses manage and grow their operations. Her expertise has been cited in MSN, Reader's Digest, Vox, U.S. News & World Report, and Real Simple. She is a Certified ProAdvisor for QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Payroll, a graduate of Limestone University, and currently resides in Greenville, South Carolina.
Editor & Senior Staff Writer
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Chelsea Krause is a writer who specializes in accounting, payroll, and small business loans. She has been helping small business owners manage their finances since 2016. She is a QuickBooks Certified User and former eCommerce store owner. Her accounting expertise has been quoted in Forbes and her work appears in Startup Nation, Small Business Bonfire, and Women on Business. Chelsea graduated summa cum laude with a BA in English & Creative Writing from George Fox University and studied abroad at the University of Oxford as well.
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Chelsea KrauseChelsea Krause is a writer who specializes in accounting, payroll, and small business loans. She has been helping small business owners manage their finances since 2016. She is a QuickBooks Certified User and former eCommerce store owner. Her accounting expertise has been quoted in Forbes and her work appears in Startup Nation, Small Business Bonfire, and Women on Business. Chelsea graduated summa cum laude with a BA in English & Creative Writing from George Fox University and studied abroad at the University of Oxford as well.
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Our content reflects the editorial opinions of our experts. While our site makes money through referral partnerships, we only partner with companies that meet our standards for quality, as outlined in our independent rating and scoring system.
For podcasters, YouTubers, writers, journalists, artists, comedians, and other creatives, Patreon has provided a convenient way to monetize everything from physical products to podcasts and memberships.
While Patreon is one of the more popular crowdfunding platforms, it isn’t built for every creator. If you want lower fees, more funding options, faster funding, or better customer service, it’s time to seek an alternative platform. This post offers several Patreon alternatives that may fulfill your fundraising needs.
When comparing alternatives to Patreon, you’ll need to decide what factors are most important. Is it the option to continuously accept donations and raise funds? Or would you prefer low platform fees? Each of these Patreon alternatives offers something a bit different.
Podia: Best For Online Courses & Digital Downloads
Why We Chose Podia As The Best Patreon Alternative
Through Podia, you can create a free website, an email marketing campaign, or a custom blog. If you want to peddle your online courses or digital downloads, you're in luck because Podia offers these features, too.
You can create and sell your online courses all from the Podia platform. You can also pre-sell courses, create waiting lists, or create bundles. If you're selling digital downloads, Podia makes it possible to create your website, add your content, and start selling in just minutes.
Podia Features
Here’s a quick breakdown of everything you can expect from Podia. Note that some features are only available on select pricing plans.
Free website
Free blog
Coaching
Courses
Webinars
Product bundles
Email marketing add-on
Community plans
Podia Pricing
Podia has four pricing plans that range from $0 to $89/month.
The free plan offers a free website, free blog, coaching products, and other basic features. You can create courses, webinars, and product bundles at no cost, but you must upgrade to a higher tier in order to sell these products.
As you upgrade your plan, fees will get less expensive. Transaction fees start at 10% plus a Stripe processing fee of 2.9% + $0.30. The 10% fee is reduced to 8% and 5% on the next two plans and to zero on the highest tier Shaker plan.
Choose Podia If...
You want to sell online courses or digital content
You want an all-in-one platform to create, sell, and market your content
Why We Chose Kickstarter As The Best Patreon Alternative
Kickstarter crowdfunding campaigns do not operate on Patreon's recurring subscription-like model. However, if you're a creator whose focus is on putting out a few works per year -- as opposed to a continuous stream of content -- Kickstarter may work for you. You can always launch a new Kickstarter campaign after your old one runs its course.
Kickstarter vets crowdfunders fairly strenuously, so not everyone gets in. It's a more exclusive platform than most of its rewards crowdfunding peers, which is a factor to consider if you're a small-time creator. However, Kickstarter has competitive fees, makes it easy to launch a campaign, and is one of the most popular crowdfunding platforms -- upping the odds that your project will get seen.
Kickstarter Features
Kickstarter isn’t like many of the other platforms on this list, so you won’t find a ton of additional features and tools.
Kickstarter accepts projects from many categories, including:
Crafts
Art
Comics
Theater
Publishing
Photography
Food
Games
Technology
Kickstarter Pricing
For all successful fundraising campaigns, Kickstarter collects a 5% platform fee.
Kickstarter uses Stripe as a payment processor and additional processing fees apply. Kickstarter estimates these fees at 3% + $0.20 per pledge OR 5% + $0.05 per pledge under $10.
Kickstarter uses the all-or-nothing model, meaning that you must meet your goal in order to get paid. You will not be charged fees if your fundraising goal isn’t met. Campaigns can run for a maximum of 60 days.
Choose Kickstarter If...
You want to raise funds for a one-time project
You have a creative project in an area like art, food, comics, or crafts
Why We Chose Indiegogo As The Best Patreon Alternative
Like Kickstarter, Indiegogo crowdfunding campaigns are not continuous and have concrete start dates and end dates. Unlike Kickstarter, however, Indiegogo gives you the option of launching a Patreon-like continuous crowdfunding campaign after succeeding with your initial campaign. This service is called Indiegogo InDemand, and you can use it if you've already run a successful crowdfunding campaign with any platform -- not just Indiegogo.
Indiegogo doesn't prescreen the campaigners who sign up to crowdfund, making it a less exclusive platform for creatives. Indiegogo also gives you the choice of whether you want your campaign to be all-or-nothing or keep-whatever-you-raise in its structure. With the latter, you won't be left empty-handed if your campaign fails to reach its funding goal.
Indiegogo Features
Indiegogo has a few tools available to help you launch a successful fundraising campaign. Notable features include:
Customizable landing pages
Pre-launch reservations
Campaign customization tools
Dedicated campaign strategists
InDemand for extending campaigns
Targeted promotions for new supporters
IndieShop for selling ready-to-ship products
Indiegogo Pricing
Indiegogo charges a 5% platform fee for successful campaigns. Payment processing is 2.9% + $0.30 per pledge.
If you sign up for InDemand, you’ll pay 5% to 8% of funds raised, plus processing fees.
Selling on the IndieShop will cost you 10% of your product sales.
For campaigns, Indiegogo allows you to select from the all-or-nothing or keep-it-all models, so you don’t have to reach your fundraising goal to cash out. Campaigns can run for a maximum of 60 days.
Choose Indiegogo If...
You want to run an ongoing campaign after hitting your initial goal
You don’t want to go through a lengthy prescreening process to start fundraising
We spend hours researching and evaluating each crowdfunding platform that we review at Merchant Maverick, placing emphasis on key characteristics to generate our product ratings.
Weighted Rating Breakdown
Terms & Fees 25%
Project Qualifications 25%
Application Process 25%
Sales & Advertising Transparency 10%
Customer Service 10%
User Reviews 5%
When rating crowdfunding platforms, we use a rubric that looks at terms and fees, project qualifications, application process, sales and advertising transparency, customer service, and user reviews. We weigh each section differently to calculate the total star rating.
Terms & Fees: 25% of the total star rating
Project Qualifications: 25% of the total star rating
Application Process: 25% of the total star rating
Sales & Advertising Transparency: 10% of the total star rating
Customer Service: 10% of the total star rating
User Reviews: 5% of the total star rating
Each section is further broken down into granular, weighted subsections, in which we look at specific attributes, such as campaign durations, supported project types, time to funding, application processing times, and platform fees. Learn more about how we rate crowdfunding platforms.
Bonus Option: Add A Donation Button To Your Website
Here’s a crowdfunding solution that ensures you won’t have to pay a platform fee to anybody. You can just directly solicit donations from those who enjoy your work.
No 5% platform fee, just payment processing fees
A simple way to solicit funds from those who enjoy your work
Adding a donation button to your website is an easy, hassle-free way to raise funds. If you opt to go this route, there are a number of options available, including:
These payment providers allow people to make recurring payments, so your fans can sign up to support you on a continuing basis (just as with Patreon). You won’t be getting any of the extra crowdfunding services you’d get with Patreon (reward distribution, patron management, analytics, etc.), so this funding solution will require more of your time and energy than Patreon does.
Then again, you’ll get more of every pledge made to you. If you have an existing fanbase motivated to pay up for your content and the ability to manage everything manually, this may be a crowdfunding route worth exploring.
Final Thoughts On Patreon Alternatives
Monetizing your work online has long been challenging. Thankfully, platforms such as Patreon and its various competitors have arisen to plug this market gap and help creators make money from the very people who consume and enjoy their content.
No Patreon alternative is right for everybody, so check out these platforms (check out other ones too if you want!) to determine which funding model makes sense for your particular needs.
Erica has been writing about small business finance and technology since 2008. She joined Merchant Maverick in 2018 and specializes in researching and reviewing business software, financial products, and other topics to help small businesses manage and grow their operations. Her expertise has been cited in MSN, Reader's Digest, Vox, U.S. News & World Report, and Real Simple. She is a Certified ProAdvisor for QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Payroll, a graduate of Limestone University, and currently resides in Greenville, South Carolina.
View Erica Seppala's professional experience on LinkedIn.
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The vendors that appear on this list were chosen by subject matter experts on the basis of product quality, wide usage and availability, and positive reputation.
Merchant Maverick’s ratings are editorial in nature, and are not aggregated from user reviews. Each staff reviewer at Merchant Maverick is a subject matter expert with experience researching, testing, and evaluating small business software and services. The rating of this company or service is based on the author’s expert opinion and analysis of the product, and assessed and seconded by another subject matter expert on staff before publication. Merchant Maverick’s ratings are not influenced by affiliate partnerships.
Our unbiased reviews and content are supported in part by affiliate partnerships, and we adhere to strict guidelines to preserve editorial integrity. The editorial content on this page is not provided by any of the companies mentioned and has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone.
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