The 10 best Patreon alternatives in 2026

1. 1.ByteSellOur pick

   Built for the creator who has decided the membership should be a business they own. Pledges settle into your own Stripe, PayPal or wallet the moment they clear, community access opens and closes with the subscription, and the member list is yours. Nobody here will bring you an audience, which is the honest trade.

   Pros

   • Nothing taken from a pledge on any plan, including the free one
   • Members pay your own Stripe, PayPal or crypto wallet with no monthly payout run
   • Discord and Telegram roles are granted at payment and withdrawn when a subscription ends
   • Member email addresses sit in a list you hold, on your own domain from Pro

   Cons

   • A custom domain and branding removal both begin at the $29 Pro plan
   • The free plan holds 500 MB in total and refuses any file over 50 MB
   • Patreon arrives with patrons attached; ByteSell has no marketplace, so every member comes from your own audience
   • You stay the merchant, so sales tax and VAT are your filing rather than the platform’s

   Patreon would take, in a year

   $4,050and ByteSell would take none of it

   On a $50 product selling 50 times a month, at 10% + 2.9% + $0.30. ByteSell is 0% on every plan including the free one, and the buyer pays your own Stripe, PayPal or wallet, so nothing is held in the middle.

   Free plan, no card, keep every cent of every sale.

   Get started

2. 2.Ko-fi

   The closest thing on this list to the feeling of a Patreon page: monthly support, one-off tips and a small shop on one address, with nothing owed monthly and money moving straight into your own account. Selling anything, memberships very much included, costs 5%, and new accounts start with tips charged too.

   Pros

   • Nothing owed monthly, so a quiet month costs you nothing at all
   • Funds transfer immediately into your own PayPal or Stripe with no minimum balance
   • Memberships, commissions, monthly support and a shop share a single page
   • The supporter email list downloads whenever you ask for it

   Cons

   • Memberships cost 5% on both free tiers, the same as shop sales and commissions
   • New creators begin in Contributor mode, which puts that 5% on one-off tips too
   • Ko-fi Gold at $12 clears the fee, and its own Gold page says you no longer need it
   • Memberships taken through Stripe keep whatever rate applied when they started

   Ko-fi fee calculatorKo-fi alternatives

3. 3.Payhip

   Better suited to a creator whose membership is really a catalogue with recurring access attached. Nothing is held back from the free plan, so subscriptions and the full storefront are there from the start, and Payhip settles US sales tax and EU VAT the way Patreon does. Each sale gives up 5%.

   Pros

   • The free tier carries every feature, subscriptions and storefront included
   • US sales tax is collected and remitted by Payhip as a marketplace facilitator
   • EU VAT is handled for European buyers without the creator filing anything
   • Money reaches your own connected processor at once, with no payout schedule to wait on

   Cons

   • Five percent of every sale on the free plan, and two percent at $29 a month
   • Getting to no fee at all costs $99 a month
   • In most cases a seller connects PayPal plus one other processor, not all thirteen
   • Payhip publishes no annual price, so paying ahead buys no discount

   Payhip fee calculatorPayhip alternatives

4. 4.Podia

   A membership with a curriculum behind it, since courses, a members’ area and email marketing arrive under one subscription rather than three tools. The trial is thirty days and asks for no card. The entry plan is $49 a month and still deducts 5%, and PayPal is not offered on it.

   Pros

   • Courses, a members’ community and email marketing arrive in one subscription
   • Thirty days of trial with no card asked for, the longest here
   • Shaker at $99 and Earthquaker at $179 take nothing per sale
   • Payments run through the processor you connect, so Podia holds no funds

   Cons

   • Mover costs $49 a month and still takes 5%, on annual billing as well
   • That 5% leaves each sale before payout, so it never shows on a Podia invoice
   • Email contacts past the first hundred are billed on top, with 10,000 adding $70 monthly
   • Podia cannot collect its fee through Stripe for accounts in five listed countries

   Podia fee calculatorPodia alternatives

5. 5.Stan Store

   For a creator whose supporters arrive from Instagram or TikTok and expect a single link. Recurring subscriptions and community are on the $29 Creator plan and Stan keeps nothing from a pledge. The absence of a free tier means the monthly charge starts before the first member does.

   Pros

   • Recurring subscriptions and community both sit on the entry $29 Creator plan
   • Nothing taken per pledge on either plan, so growth does not raise the rate
   • Money settles into a connected Stripe or PayPal rather than a Stan balance
   • Annual billing brings Creator to $25 and Creator Pro to $79 a month

   Cons

   • There is no free plan, only fourteen days of trial before the charge begins
   • Affiliate management, email marketing and funnels all wait for the $99 tier
   • The store cannot be embedded in a website of your own
   • The default Stripe route creates a Custom account Stan manages, not one you already hold

   Stan Store alternatives

6. 6.Beacons

   A creator page with memberships available, priced the other way round from Patreon: you pay monthly and it stops taking a percentage. Read the tier line first, because recurring memberships exist only from the $30 Creator Plus plan up, and below that Beacons keeps 9% of a sale.

   Pros

   • A free plan exists, so a page can be published before anything is charged
   • Your own Stripe and PayPal both connect, and funds transfer to them directly
   • The seller fee falls to zero at $30 a month and stays there above it
   • Email sends become unlimited on that same $30 plan

   Cons

   • Recurring memberships are restricted to the $30 Creator Plus plan and above
   • The free and $10 plans each keep 9% of a sale
   • Taking the Beacons logo off your pages also needs the $30 tier
   • Bank payouts route through PayPal every seven to fourteen days after the payment

   Beacons fee calculatorBeacons alternatives

7. 7.SellApp

   An unusual entry here and a close mechanical match, because paid access to Discord, Telegram, Slack and WhatsApp is native and includes recurring membership. Buyers pay your own gateway directly and the 3% is invoiced to you at the start of the next month rather than skimmed.

   Pros

   • Gated access to Discord, Telegram, Slack and WhatsApp is native, recurring included
   • Buyers pay into your own connected gateway, so SellApp never holds a balance
   • The 3% is tallied and invoiced monthly in arrears rather than skimmed from each sale
   • License keys and automated delivery are built in with webhook fulfilment

   Cons

   • Three percent of every sale on the free Standard plan
   • Removing that fee means the Advanced plan at $199.99 a month
   • SellApp’s own fees are non-refundable under its terms
   • Those terms also reserve the right to terminate an account with or without cause

   SellApp fee calculatorSellApp alternatives

8. 8.Whop

   The one platform below with buyers of its own browsing, which is the half of Patreon that a storefront cannot copy. Access to a paid community is exactly what it sells. It also holds the money, and its seller terms allow reserves of up to the whole balance for six months.

   Pros

   • A marketplace with its own traffic, which is the piece Patreon leavers miss first
   • Selling access to a paid community is the product rather than a side feature
   • Nothing monthly to commit to, since every charge is taken per transaction
   • Turn on the 2% tax mode and Whop collects and remits on your behalf

   Cons

   • Fourteen separate charges appear across Whop’s fee documentation
   • A single card sale carries billing, 3D Secure and fraud screening fees beyond the card rate
   • Payouts are priced individually, reaching 5% plus a dollar in crypto and $23 by wire
   • Reserves of up to the full account balance are permitted for as long as 180 days

   Whop fee calculatorWhop alternatives

9. 9.Gumroad

   Memberships and one-off products sell from the same page, and Gumroad is merchant of record, so the tax work stays where you are used to it being. A marketplace sits behind it too. Every order gives up a tenth plus fifty cents, and the balance waits seven days before it can move.

   Pros

   • Recurring memberships and single purchases run from the same storefront
   • Gumroad is merchant of record, so tax is calculated and remitted for you
   • No subscription to carry, which suits a membership that is still small
   • Buyer emails are visible in the dashboard and downloadable as a CSV

   Cons

   • Ten percent plus fifty cents of every payment, unchanged at any size
   • Money sits in the Gumroad balance seven days before it becomes payable
   • Payouts do not run until the balance passes $100
   • A sale that comes through Gumroad’s marketplace costs 30% instead

   Gumroad fee calculatorGumroad alternatives

10. 10.Lemon Squeezy

    The outlier, and worth a look only if what you call a membership is really a software subscription. It is merchant of record everywhere, so tax and VAT stay somebody else’s problem, and its licence API activates and deactivates keys properly. Stripe now steers new signups toward its own products.

    Pros

    • Merchant of record worldwide, so tax and VAT are handled the way Patreon handles them
    • Recurring billing is native, and there is no monthly platform charge
    • A real licence API with activate, validate and deactivate endpoints
    • Half of Patreon’s platform rate at 5% plus fifty cents on an ordinary payment

    Cons

    • Subscription payments carry an extra 0.5% on top of that base rate
    • The fee is calculated on the order total including tax, not on the price alone
    • Payouts run twice monthly after a thirteen day hold, with a $50 minimum
    • Buyers in eighteen listed countries cannot pay at all

    Lemon Squeezy fee calculatorLemon Squeezy alternatives

Every price above is computed from that platform's own published rates on its entry plan, which is the plan almost everyone is actually on. Where a charge applies only in certain cases, an international card or a payout, the row says so rather than adding it to the headline rate. To put your own prices through Patreon's full stack, use the Patreon fee calculator.

Compare	ByteSell	Patreon
Platform fee on each sale	Yes.0% on every plan	No.10%, plus its payment, conversion and payout fees
Your own branded storefront	Yes.Free storefront, your own domain from Pro	Partial.A membership page at patreon.com/name
Use your own Stripe or PayPal	Yes.Included	No.Patreon is the processor, no way to connect your own
Your money is never held	Yes.Non-custodial	No.Custodial, holds your balance and pays out monthly
You stay the merchant of record	Yes.You stay the seller	No.Patreon is the seller of record
Subscriptions and recurring billing	Yes.Included	Yes.Recurring memberships are the core product
Paid Discord and Telegram access	Yes.Included, auto-revoke on lapse	Partial.Native Discord roles on payment
Accept crypto payments	Yes.To your own wallet	No.Not built in
Coupons and discounts	Yes.Included	No.Not built in
Upsells and order add-ons	Yes.Included	No.Not built in
Full built-in analytics	Yes.Included	No.A basic dashboard only
PDF stamping and watermarking	Yes.Included	No.Not built in
Fee to pay you out	Yes.None, the money is already yours	No.Direct deposit $0.25, PayPal 1% capped at $20, Payoneer $0.50
Fixed, predictable cost	Yes.Free, or a flat monthly price	No.A percentage, not a flat fee
Sales tax handled for you	No.You stay the merchant of record	Yes.Sales tax and VAT, as merchant of record

Every Patreon figure and limit is quoted from its own pages, linked in the fee breakdown above.