Patreon, reimagined — a better future for creators and fans (2024)

October 4, 2023

Product Featured

Today, we’re launching new features, an entirely redesigned mobile app, and an evolved brand identity, bringing us closer to a future where creators are in control and real community thrives.

Patreon started out a decade ago with one goal: get creators paid.

It was a time when anyone was a click away from sharing their greatest work on the internet, but very few people could actually earn money doing it. Being creators ourselves, we knew we could solve that problem by building a way to connect creative people with their biggest fans. And it worked. Over the past 10 years, creators have earned billions through paid membership.

Our next chapter is about giving creators even more. Patreon is no longer just a paid membership company. It’s where creators have the freedom to make what excites them and share it directly with the people who love it most.

Today, we're introducing a reimagined Patreon with community chats, Commerce, a completely redesigned mobile app, and a new brand identity. Here’s why:

1. Creators need their own worlds

Creators deserve more than just a copy-and-paste page on the internet. They deserve a space that’s all about them — one where they make the calls. Now, each creator’s Patreon is truly their own world. Creators can decide exactly how their Patreon is laid out, their colors, and how their posts show up.

Amanda Seales uses Patreon to build her community, run her membership business, and sell her political comedy doc directly to her fans.

We even reimagined the base of our platform so creators can use it however they want. Earlier this year, we expanded Patreon so creators could access our community insights, publishing, and commerce tools whether they want to run a paid membership or not.

Today, we’re making that option available to every single creator. Now fans can join a creator’s community for free, and creators can start deepening relationships with those fans in a way that’s not possible anywhere else on the internet.

Creators with early access have already welcomed over 160,000 new fans to their communities. In the past few months, Worlds Beyond Number has given thousands of free members access to livestreams, episode transcripts, and more while saving their exclusive Fireside podcast for paying members only.

On Patreon, KAMAUU welcomes fans to his community for free and shares exclusive work with paying members.

2. Creators have to be in control of their businesses

Between ad revenue, brand partnerships, and platform funds, creators have more ways than ever to get paid, but most of those income streams don’t come directly from fans.

We believe the best way to build a sustainable future for creators is to give them that direct line to the people who love their work. Paid membership has been successful for so many creators, but there are tons of other ways they can earn an income straight from their communities. That’s why we introduced Commerce back in July: a new way for creators to sell individual videos, audio, and downloadable files to anyone, whether they’re a member or not.

Emma DeMuth, host of The Royals of Malibu podcast, uses her Patreon shop to sell downloadable items.

We’re already seeing creators like Amanda Seales, Achewood, and Pretty Much It use their own shops to successfully premiere feature-length specials, publish zines, and share watch-along tracks. And over half of all digital product sales on Patreon have come from non-members, which means many creators are making new connections with fans. So today, we’re rolling Commerce out to every creator on Patreon.

3. Nobody should come between creators and their fans

Creators and fans need to have a place where they can build community together. Not the manufactured type of community that comes from fragmented conversations and ranked comments, but real community grown from meaningful connection and defined by the people who are actually a part of it.

With chats and member profiles, that’s finally possible. Now, creators and fans have dedicated spaces for group conversations outside of DMs and comments.

When podcast hosts Sophia and Cinzia launched a Patreon for The Girls Bathroom podcast, they wanted fans to feel like they were hanging out with their best friends, so it only made sense to call their community The Group Chat. Now their fans are spilling secrets, getting advice, and gossiping in the chat at all times.

Chelsea Devantez uses community chats to connect with her members and talk about the latest episodes of her podcast.

4. The biggest fans deserve the best

There are fans, and then there are the fans who stay up until midnight to get the latest drop. The fans who line up at 6 a.m. to get the best seat in the house, and whose wardrobes are entirely made up of merch. Those are the people who deserve experiences that just aren’t possible on the internet today.

When we sat down to make a new app, that’s exactly who we had in mind. Endless scrolls might be fine for casual consumers but they don’t work for the true fans. Those fans don’t want to be inundated by targeted ads and unsolicited suggestions. They want an easier way to access things they actually want to see. So that's where we started.

Instead of dropping into a content overload, members log in and instantly see everything they want at a glance. Their homepage is organized by creator, not by post, which means fans can see a creator's latest work next to their community conversations and anything else going on in their world. It’s creativity in context, the way creators intended.

Ross Tran runs a membership on Patreon where he shares exclusive process videos, images, and more with his biggest fans.

When members find something they love, they can scroll through, reply to, and drop comments on videos, podcasts, images, and more without ever leaving the post. They can also find all of their in-progress, downloaded, and new media in the play tab to keep record of everything they’ve been enjoying so far and queue up what they want to check out next.

5. Our brand should be as expressive as the creators it represents

Today we’re launching our reimagined brand, including a dynamic new logo and wordmark, and new approaches to typography, color, and photography. It’s a motion-first brand for a digital-first world, intended to challenge static, old-media brand-building conventions in favor of an identity that better reflects today's ever-evolving creative landscape. Most importantly, it’s a brand designed to adapt, so that any creator can make it their own… because creator ownership is at the very core of our vision for the future.

A better future for creators and fans

Over the next decade and beyond, we’ll continue bringing creators and fans even closer because we believe that’s how we build the best future possible. When creators can connect with their communities, they have the freedom to make art, not content, and find success on their own terms with the people who matter most.

Related Articles

We’re going all in on community by giving fans their own space to chat and conne... Introducing a new Patreon for a new era of creative control
Patreon, reimagined — a better future for creators and fans (2024)

FAQs

How much does the average Patreon creator earn? ›

While that segment is the easiest to monetize, it also tends to be the smallest part of any creator's following. That limitation might be why the average Patreon creator only earns between $315 and $1575 per month.

What is the highest earning Patreon account? ›

Who is the highest paid Patreon?
  • True Crime Obsessed.
  • Chapo Trap House.
  • DarkCookie – Summertime Saga.
  • Jeff Wittek.
  • You're Wrong About.
  • The Tim Dillon Show.
  • DankPods.
  • Flagrant 2.
Jun 24, 2024

Is OnlyFans or Patron better? ›

If you're driven by popularity and which platform has the most users, OnlyFans will be your first choice. Remember that OnlyFans takes 20% of your subscription profit, while Patreon only takes 8%-12% of the money you make off fans and subscribers. Want to read more about Patreon?

What percentage does Patreon take from creators? ›

If you sell products, Patreon will keep 5% of commerce earnings plus fees and applicable taxes. There's no cost to list products, and you only pay when you start earning. You can check our Commerce fees article for a breakdown of what fees to expect when selling products.

What is the best payout method for Patreon? ›

Payout options

We recommend that you use a checking account to transfer payouts. Using a non-standard bank account, like a savings account or virtual bank account, may result in a higher chance of payout failure.

How do you make a lot of money on Patreon? ›

Make a smart strategy for what to sell.

Digital products are a low-commitment way to earn from your fans, whether or not you offer paid membership options on your Patreon. Consider selling digital products that showcase what you do best, like podcast episodes, videos, or 3D print files.

Can you be successful on Patreon? ›

If you're just starting out on Patreon, it can be intimidating. You may look around at other creators and see people making a decent income off of the platform, and it's hard to believe you could get there. But if you work to grow your following and add value, you can definitely make Patreon one of your income streams.

Why Fansly instead of OnlyFans? ›

Whilst artists on OnlyFans have a limited range of $3 to $49.99 per month to select their membership pricing, Fansly has a much wider range of $5 to $499.99 per month, giving popular creators more leeway and the possibility of making more money.

What are the pros and cons of Patreon? ›

Patreon is fairly easy to use and allows creators an easy way of getting content out to those who are willing to support them. The fees that Patreon charges are the highest among their peers and aren't nearly as flexible as when it comes to customization.

Is Patreon still popular? ›

As of 2022, over 250,000 creators were actively posting on Patreon, and the platform boasted 8 million monthly active supporters, commonly referred to as Patrons.

What is the most paid Patreon? ›

Top Patreon earners:
#Creator
1the yard (Creating a podcast)
2Chapo Trap House (Creating Chapo Trap House Podcast)
3The Adam Friedland Show (Creating The Adam Friedland Show)
4TrueAnon Podcast (The ONLY Anti-Pedophile Podcast fighting the Sicko Elite)
46 more rows
Dec 20, 2023

Who actually pays for Patreon? ›

The member pays their higher membership amount on the 1st of the month. Members who upgrade a monthly (non-charge upfront) membership immediately access the higher membership. There's no charge to upgrade, and the member pays their higher membership amount on the 1st of the month.

Should you show how much you make on Patreon? ›

We know that not all creators want to display their monthly earnings, and we leave it up to you to decide what's best for your page. While publicly listing your earnings can be helpful to attract patrons when you're starting out, sometimes it's not right for your brand or creator image.

How much do podcasters make on Patreon? ›

And while we're proud that many podcasters are earning over $1M per year through Patreon, emerging creators are also generating significant income with over 40% of our payouts going to creators earning between $1,000-$10,000 a month on Patreon alone.

Can you make a lot on Patreon? ›

But if you work to grow your following and add value, you can definitely make Patreon one of your income streams. But it's important to be realistic about what Patreon will and won't do. Based on their numbers, Patreon estimates that a creator with a following of 30,000 people can make about $315-$1,575 a month.

How often should I post on Patreon? ›

80% said that in an ideal world, they would want content at least once a week. As an established creator, you probably have an untapped resource that can be a big driver of member retention: your past Patreon posts and your back catalog of episodes, videos, songs, blogs, or other content.

References

Top Articles
Latest Posts
Recommended Articles
Article information

Author: Kimberely Baumbach CPA

Last Updated:

Views: 6227

Rating: 4 / 5 (61 voted)

Reviews: 84% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Kimberely Baumbach CPA

Birthday: 1996-01-14

Address: 8381 Boyce Course, Imeldachester, ND 74681

Phone: +3571286597580

Job: Product Banking Analyst

Hobby: Cosplaying, Inline skating, Amateur radio, Baton twirling, Mountaineering, Flying, Archery

Introduction: My name is Kimberely Baumbach CPA, I am a gorgeous, bright, charming, encouraging, zealous, lively, good person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.