
Level Up Your Business Today
Join the thousands of people like you already growing their businesses and knowledge with our team of experts. We deliver timely updates, interesting insights, and exclusive promos to your inbox.
Join For Free💳 Save money on credit card processing with one of our top 5 picks for 2025
Both of these services make it possible for content creators to accept recurring donations, but PayPal and Patreon differ in a few very important ways.
Whether you’re looking to solicit donations, get people to pay for access to your content, or both, we’re here to help you choose between two powerhouse platforms: Patreon and PayPal.
Let’s take a closer look at these two payment platforms that, despite their considerable differences, can be used by artists, gamers, podcasters, writers, and video streamers to draw an income.
Table of Contents
Patreon | PayPal | |
---|---|---|
Crowdfunding Type | Subscription/recurring & one-time payments | Subscription/recurring & one-time payments |
Platform Fee | 8% (Pro) or 12% (Premium) | N/A |
Payment Processing Fee | 2.9% + $0.30 for donations over $3 OR 5% + $0.10 for donations of $3 or less | Varies |
Funding Duration | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Funding Model | Keep It All | Keep It All |
Prescreening |
If you’re still on the fence about which platform to use, understanding the different pricing structures of Patreon and PayPal may make it easier to make a decision.
While we cover pricing in this section, make sure to check out our PayPal pricing article for a complete breakdown of PayPal’s complex fee structure. For more details on Patreon’s subscription plans and fees, see our Patreon review.
With Patreon, your platform fee is a percentage of the contributions you earn, and the rate depends on your subscription level. Platform fees range from 8% (Pro) or 12% (Premium).
With a Patreon Pro subscription, the fee is 8%, and with Patreon Premium, it’s 12%. Of course, you’ll get more advanced features and support with pricier subscriptions.
In addition to your platform fee, you’ll also need to pay processing fees of 2.9% + $0.30 for donations over $3 OR 5% + $0.10 for donations of $3 or less.
US creators receiving a payout via direct deposit pay $0.25 per payout. If you’re receiving a payout via PayPal, you’ll pay 1% of the amount transferred with a minimum of $0.25, capped at $20. You have the option of accepting PayPal payments and receiving payouts via PayPal when using Patreon, though your processing rates and payout fees will be different than they would be if you were using PayPal directly.
Patreon also charges creators a 2.5% currency conversion fee on all payments made in a currency other than the creator’s payout currency.
With PayPal, there are no platform fees if you have a standard business account. These accounts allow you to accept one-time contributions, but if you want to be able to take recurring payments, you’ll need to sign up for either a Virtual Terminal or the Payments Pro plan (which includes the Virtual Terminal and other features, but which also charges a slightly higher processing rate than an account using the Virtual Terminal on a standalone basis).
Either of these options costs $30/month, with recurring billing itself costing an additional $10/month, meaning you’ll be paying $40/month to accept recurring payments with PayPal.
Processing fees with PayPal can be complex. If you have a standard business account, you’ll pay $3.49 + $0.49 per transaction. If you receive lots of small donations and you’re approved for the Micropayments plan, the rate becomes 4.99% + $0.09 per transaction. These options are for one-time donations or payments.
To accept recurring payments, you’ll need to either:
Furthermore, when receiving payments in a currency other than your own, you’ll pay an additional merchant fee (separate from the 3% – 4% currency conversion fees).
When it’s time to get paid, receiving a payout will cost you 2% of the total transaction amount, capped at $1 for US transactions and $20 for international transactions. However, this changes if you take payouts through the Payouts API, in which case you’ll pay a flat $0.25 per payout.
Signing up for Patreon is easy. Simply input some basic personal information, connect your social media accounts, and set up your payment method to get started. Unlike other platforms, there is no lengthy prescreening process, and while there are some limitations (such as illegal activities or spam), a variety of content and products can be posted on Patreon.
Because Patreon is designed for subscriptions/recurring content, there are no funding duration limits like other platforms.
Signing up for PayPal is also easy. For a basic Business account, simply provide personal information, information about your business, and ag
If you’re looking to fund your creative business or project by accepting donations or offering subscriptions, Patreon and PayPal can both be used to facilitate earning an income. Here’s the bottom line on the best use cases for each.
You may find that neither option is the right fit. If Patreon sounds close to what you’re looking for but doesn’t get it quite right, check out the best Patreon competitors. And if PayPal is close to what you want, but you’d like to explore competitors, check out the best PayPal alternatives.
Find Funding for Any Credit Level
BusinessLoans.com ![]() |
---|
Explore a wide range of business loan options at BusinessLoans.com. With no minimum credit score requirement, find the perfect funding solution for your needs. Get Started.
Find Funding for Any Credit Level
BusinessLoans.com ![]() |
---|
Explore a wide range of business loan options at BusinessLoans.com. With no minimum credit score requirement, find the perfect funding solution for your needs. Get Started.
Let us know how well the content on this page solved your problem today. All feedback, positive or negative, helps us to improve the way we help small businesses.
Give Feedback
Want to help shape the future of the Merchant Maverick website? Join our testing and survey community!
By providing feedback on how we can improve, you can earn gift cards and get early access to new features.
Help us to improve by providing some feedback on your experience today.
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.
"*" indicates required fields