Patreon Alternatives for Creators Who Want Memberships on Their Own Site

Published November 8, 2026 · Comparisons

The best Patreon alternative depends on what you want to stop paying for. Ko-fi has no monthly fee and takes 0% to 5%, Kajabi charges $179 a month, or $143 a month billed annually, with no revenue share and includes your own website and domain, and Stan and Beacons sell memberships from a link-in-bio store for $29 to $30 a month. If you want memberships next to courses, bookings and a store on a website of your own, a CloserAccess site does that, free to start, with a per-sale fee (rate not published).

CloserAccess wrote this post, and we're one of the options in it. Every price below comes from each company's own pricing or help pages, checked November 8, 2026.

What you pay: a share of every payment, or a monthly fee

There are two ways these platforms make money from you. Patreon and Ko-fi take a share of what fans pay. Kajabi, Stan and Beacons' higher plans charge a monthly fee and take 0%. Card processing comes on top either way.

Patreon. Its pricing page says Patreon is free to start and takes 10% of the income you earn, plus payment processing, currency conversion, payout fees and applicable taxes. Per its standard fee article, the 10% applies to anyone whose page was published after August 4, 2025. Per its creator fees overview, creators on older plans keep 5%, 8% or 11% as long as their page stays published, and unpublishing, even briefly, moves them to 10%. Card and Apple Pay processing on US-dollar payments is 2.9% + $0.30. Currency conversion is 2.5% when a fan pays in a different currency from your payout currency, and a US bank payout costs $0.25. If a fan joins through Patreon's iOS app, Apple takes 30%, which replaces Patreon's processing fee, according to its creator fees FAQ.

Ko-fi. Ko-fi's fee article says that in its free mode, one-time tips carry 0%, while memberships, monthly tips, commissions and shop sales carry 5%. Ko-fi Gold costs $12/mo, monthly only for new users, with a 0% service fee. Ko-fi's own Gold page now says you no longer need Gold, because every creator can use all of Ko-fi at a 0% to 5% fee. Your processor's usual fees apply on top, which Ko-fi puts at "typically around 3% + $0.30".

Kajabi. The Kajabi pricing page lists Basic at $179/mo, Growth at $249/mo and Pro at $499/mo, or $143, $199 and $399 a month billed annually. Kajabi takes no revenue share. Card processing through Kajabi Payments in the US is 2.9% + 30 cents on Basic, 2.8% + 30 cents on Growth and 2.7% + 30 cents on Pro, per its processing fees article. There's a 14-day free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Beacons. Memberships start on Creator Plus at $30/mo or $300/yr, with Creator Max at $100/mo or $1,000/yr. Its fees help article puts the seller fee at 0% on both of those plans. Processing comes on top: Stripe at 2.9% + $0.30, or PayPal at 3.49% plus a fixed fee.

Stan. Stan has no free plan, just a 14-day trial. Creator is $29/mo or $300/yr and includes memberships and a community. Creator Pro is $99/mo or $948/yr. Stan takes 0% of sales; US card processing is 2.9% + $0.30, plus 0.25% + $0.25 per payout.

CloserAccess. There are two ways in. You can build the site yourself for free: no monthly fee, no setup cost and no card to start. A platform fee applies only when a customer pays you, at a rate CloserAccess doesn't publish (ask before you start), and it shows as its own line on each transaction. The free site lives at yourname.closeraccess.com. Or you can have the CloserAccess team build it as a Starter Website, Premium Website or Digital Master, for a fixed price quoted before any work starts. Card payments run through your own Square account at Square's own rate, and we don't mark that up. The fees page has the details.

Say your members pay you $1,000 a month. Patreon's 10% is $100 before processing. Ko-fi's 5% is $50, or $12 if you pay for Gold. Stan Creator is $29 and Beacons Creator Plus is $30, flat. Kajabi Basic is $179, or $143 billed annually. We don't publish the CloserAccess rate, so ask for your quote before you put it next to these.

What's built in besides memberships

• Patreon's 10% covers a hosted creator page, monthly and annual memberships, one-time digital product sales, video hosting up to 100 hours a month if you have paying fans, chats, polls and comments, and audience insights. Posts can be audio, images, text, native video, livestreams or podcasts, and the pricing page lists email newsletters. One-time purchases carry their own fee of 5% to 12% depending on your plan. Patreon's merch guide says Merch for Memberships is only available to creators who already use it.
• Ko-fi has membership tiers with perks, a shop for physical and digital items with discount codes, commissions for custom art or services, posts with video and audio, and a gallery.
• Kajabi sells courses, coaching, memberships, digital downloads, podcasts and newsletters, with a private community and unlimited email sends on every plan. Basic is capped at 5 products, 2,500 contacts and 1 website, and shows a "Powered by Kajabi" footer.
• Beacons includes a website builder, digital products, a media kit for brand deals, and on Creator Plus, unlimited courses with video hosting and unlimited email sends.
• Stan sells courses, downloads, coaching calls with calendar booking through Google Calendar, Zoom or Meet, memberships, a community and webinars. Email broadcasts are on Creator Pro.
• CloserAccess puts memberships with tiers next to courses with enrollments, services with booking (time slots, requests for a quote, or deposits), booked video calls with an AI recap, events with tickets, an online store, tips, donations, a blog, a photo gallery with members-only albums, and email campaigns and automations.

If bookings are the main thing you sell, our Linktree alternative with booking post looks at that side in more detail.

Your own website and domain

This is where the options split the most.

• Patreon lets you connect a custom domain to its new creator page with DNS records, one domain at a time. You need to own the domain already.
• Kajabi includes your own website and custom domain on every plan.
• Beacons includes a free custom domain from its $10/mo Creator plan, free for the first year per its plans help article. Memberships still need Creator Plus.
• Stan offers a custom domain only on Creator Max, a $299/mo plan its help center describes as new and not yet released to all creators.
• CloserAccess sites start at yourname.closeraccess.com, and team-built sites come with your own domain. It's a full website with its own pages for services, events, courses and a blog, and our pricing page says it plainly: "Your domain stays yours. Your content stays yours."

Who handles payments, tax and your member list

• Patreon runs payments for you. Its pricing page says there's no need to set up Stripe, that it handles chargebacks, disputes and fraud, and that it covers most applicable tax collection and remittance. You can download a CSV of your members' contacts, filtered by paid, free, active or canceled.
• Ko-fi sends money straight to your own PayPal or Stripe account, and you're the merchant of record. You can download your supporter information from My Supporters.
• Kajabi uses Kajabi Payments. Its pricing page lists an extra 2% on Basic, 1% on Growth or 0.5% on Pro if you use an outside processor other than PayPal, in countries where Kajabi Payments is offered. You can export your contacts as a CSV.
• Stan connects payments through a Stripe Custom account managed by Stan, or PayPal. You can't connect a Stripe account you already have.
• CloserAccess runs payments through your own Square account. Money settles to you on Square's schedule, and our fee comes off as a line you can see.

Be clear about our limits here. CloserAccess checkout is in US dollars only, runs on Square with no PayPal, and calculates sales tax as a single flat-rate estimate, not through a tax engine. If you have members in many countries and want the platform to carry tax and currency for you, Patreon does more of that work.

Who builds it, and how fans find it

With CloserAccess you choose. On the free route you pick a template, set your colors and launch the same day. On the done-for-you route, the team builds it: Starter sites can launch in a few days, and Premium and Digital Master usually take one to three weeks. After launch you change pages, prices, posts and products from one dashboard. There's no drag-and-drop page builder: you edit each page through form fields with a live preview, and bigger design changes are done by the team.

For getting found, a website gives you a page per course and service, plus a blog, each one something a new fan can land on. Every done-for-you package also includes free promotion in the CloserAccess discovery directory. If you're still deciding whether you need a site at all, read Linktree vs a real website.

When Patreon is the better choice

Patreon is the better pick in several cases:

• Your members already pay you there. Moving means asking each of them to join again somewhere new. That's real friction, and some won't follow.
• You're on a legacy 5% or 8% plan. Those rates beat Patreon's current 10%. Keep the page published, because unpublishing moves you to the standard rate.
• You want someone else to carry payments. Patreon handles chargebacks, disputes, fraud and most tax collection, which matters if you'd rather not think about any of it.
• Your fans pay in other currencies. Patreon processes payments in other currencies; CloserAccess charges in US dollars only.
• You publish a lot of video or audio. Video hosting up to 100 hours a month and podcast hosting are part of Patreon's 10%.

The others have clear cases too. Ko-fi has the lowest published fees here, and it suits supporters who like paying with PayPal. Kajabi fits a course business that wants unlimited email sends and automations and can carry the monthly fee. Stan suits coaching calls and downloads sold from a bio link for one flat price.

CloserAccess sites that sell memberships, courses and bookings

• The Star Quality Project runs tarot and astrology readings, live video sessions, a three-session package for $222, courses that start free and step up from $1 to $22, and membership plans, all on The Star Quality Project's website. Read the Star Quality Project story.
• NCLEX Buddy includes its NCLEX-RN core review with a Study Plan subscription, and gives away a course on how the exam works plus 44 practice exams with a written rationale on every question. All of it is on NCLEX Buddy's own website. Read the NCLEX Buddy story.
• Peace Foundation TT, a grassroots group working against gun violence in Trinidad and Tobago, takes donations from $2 to $25 or a custom amount, invites people to join for $1 a month, and signs up volunteers through Peace Foundation TT's site. Read Peace Foundation TT's story.

You can start a free site the same day, or ask the team for a quote.

Frequently asked questions

How much does Patreon take?

10% of what you earn if your page was published after August 4, 2025, plus processing (2.9% + $0.30 on US-dollar card payments), currency conversion and payout fees. Older plans charge 5%, 8% or 11%.

What is the cheapest Patreon alternative?

Of the platforms here that publish their rates, Ko-fi, on fees alone: no monthly fee, 0% on one-time tips in its free mode and 5% on memberships, or 0% with Gold at $12/mo. Processing still applies.

Can I use my own domain with Patreon?

Yes, on Patreon's new creator page, if you already own the domain. You connect it with DNS records, one domain at a time.

Does Kajabi take a cut of sales?

No. Kajabi takes no revenue share and charges a monthly fee instead, from $179/mo or $143/mo billed annually, plus card processing.

Can I move my Patreon members to another platform?

Patreon lets you download a CSV of your members' contacts from its relationship manager. You'd then invite them to join on the new platform.

Can a CloserAccess site run memberships and courses together?

Yes. Memberships with tiers, courses, bookings, a store and a blog all run on one site. NCLEX Buddy, for example, includes its RN core review course with a Study Plan subscription.

Prices checked November 8, 2026, on each company's own pricing or help pages. Plans and fees change, so check the linked pages before you decide.

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