Patreon Alternatives for Writers Compared by Fees and Payouts

The best Patreon alternatives for writers are Substack (for a paid newsletter), Ghost (for writers who want their own site and no revenue cut), Ko-fi and Buy Me a Coffee (for tips and simple tiers), Medium (for discovery) and FanBase (for serial fiction, early chapters and personal requests sold on one page). The right one depends on what readers actually pay you for, not on which platform has the lowest headline fee.

Patreon still works for many novelists, web serial authors and poets. Writers start shopping around when the shape of their income changes. A newsletter writer wants better email. A serial fiction author wants to sell a single bonus chapter without inventing a new tier. A romance writer with mature scenes keeps bumping into content rules. Someone else just wants to know exactly what lands in their account each week. This comparison is built around those jobs.

Patreon alternatives for writers at a glance

Fees below are the published or widely reported numbers as of October 2026. Platforms change pricing, so confirm in your own dashboard before you move readers.

The platforms, one by one

Substack

Substack is the default for writers whose product is a regular email. Every post goes to subscribers' inboxes, readers can find you through recommendations inside the Substack app, and you can export your email list if you leave. It takes 10 percent of paid subscriptions, and card processing is charged on top.

Best for essayists, journalists and analysts who publish on a schedule. It is a weaker fit for fiction writers who want tiers with different perks, because paid access is mostly all or nothing.

Ghost

Ghost is a publishing platform that runs on your own domain. It takes no percentage of paid subscriptions on its plans that support paid memberships, so you pay a monthly hosting fee instead. Independent price trackers put those plans at about $29 a month billed yearly for a small list, rising as your list grows. Stripe processing applies to every payment.

Best for established writers with a few hundred paying readers, where a flat fee beats a percentage. Below that point, the hosting fee can cost more than a 10 percent cut would.

Ko-fi

Ko-fi started as a tip jar and now offers memberships, a shop and commissions. Tips carry no platform fee on its free plan, memberships and shop sales carry 5 percent, and a paid Gold plan removes the fee. Money goes straight to your PayPal or Stripe account.

Best for writers who mostly receive tips and sell a few ebooks or zines. Our Ko-fi alternative page covers what changes when readers start paying for more than a coffee.

Buy Me a Coffee

Buy Me a Coffee works much like Ko-fi with a flat 5 percent fee on supporter payments and simple membership tiers. Setup is quick and readers do not need an account to tip.

Best for writers who want a low friction support link in a blog footer or book back matter.

Medium

Medium works differently. Readers pay Medium for a membership, and writers in its Partner Program earn based on how members engage with their stories. You do not set a price and you do not own a list of paying readers.

Best for discovery. Many writers publish some work on Medium to find readers, then point the most engaged ones to a paid page elsewhere.

FanBase

FanBase is a fan subscription platform with up to three monthly tiers between $4.99 and $49.99, 3, 6 and 12 month bundles, pay per view posts, paid messages and tips. Readers pay by card or crypto. You keep 80 percent, with processing included, and payouts go weekly to your bank account or crypto wallet once a cleared balance reaches $50.

Best for serial fiction and web novel authors who sell early chapters in tiers, bonus stories as single posts and personal requests (a named character, a short commission, feedback on a reader's draft) inside paid messages. Mature fiction writers can publish in a separate 18+ section after identity verification.

What a writer actually keeps

Here is a simple example: 150 readers on a $5 tier, so $750 a month in subscriptions.

• Patreon or Substack: a 10 percent fee is $75, and card processing at roughly 2.9 percent plus $0.30 per payment adds about $67. You keep around $608.
• Ghost: no revenue cut, so you pay the monthly hosting fee plus processing. At the $29 tier you keep around $654.
• FanBase: you keep 80 percent, which is $600, with processing already counted.

On subscriptions alone, FanBase is not the cheapest. The gap closes when readers pay for more than the tier. Twenty bonus chapters sold at $3 add $48 on FanBase, and five paid messages at $25 for a custom short scene add $100. Newsletter platforms have no slot for that income, so writers usually leave it on the table or take payment somewhere else.

Small $5 payments are also where per payment processing hurts most. The $0.30 fixed charge is 6 percent of a $5 subscription on its own, which is why a single all in fee is easier to plan around. Writers who track every platform deposit for taxes often keep receipts for hosting, cover art and editing in an expense tracker that reads receipts, since those costs come off the same income.

How to choose

1. If your work is a newsletter, pick Substack for discovery or Ghost for ownership and a flat fee.
2. If your work is serial fiction with tiers, compare Patreon and FanBase. Patreon has the larger existing audience. FanBase adds single chapter sales, paid messages and crypto checkout.
3. If readers mostly tip, Ko-fi or Buy Me a Coffee will cost you the least.
4. If you write mature fiction, rule out Ko-fi, Buy Me a Coffee and Medium, and read our NSFW Patreon alternative guide.
5. If you want to test demand first, keep your current page and open a second one for a single product, such as a bonus arc, before moving everyone.

Moving readers without losing them

Readers do not move on their own. Announce the date two weeks ahead, give existing patrons a discounted first period or a 3 month bundle, and keep the old page running for one billing cycle so nobody loses chapters they already paid for. Our guide to moving members to a new platform has a timeline and message templates, and the guide on pricing membership tiers helps you rebuild tiers while you are at it.

If FanBase looks like the right fit, the Patreon alternative page compares it with Patreon feature by feature, and the homepage estimate tool shows a preview of your page and your weekly payout before you create an account.