Alternatives to Patreon to monetize your content

Let's say it clearly: 2024 is shaping up to be a great year for content creators of all genders.

While the challenges to achieve success remain the same as always, nowadays there are many tools and platforms that make the complex management tasks associated with this activity much easier.

So far, I haven't met any content creator who enjoys filling out spreadsheets, issuing invoices, or sending emails reminding about credit card due dates.

Beware! I'm not saying they don't exist. Just that I haven't come across anyone like that so far.

However, thanks to a wide variety of platforms, monetizing audiences and earning money with our content. has become much simpler."

Nevertheless, navigating through the different options and weighing the advantages and disadvantages of each one can be a tedious task that not everyone is willing to do.

And to assist you in that task as well, we have prepared this comparison so you can learn about the best options to monetize your audience and choose the one that best fits your creation method.

To conduct this analysis, we have differentiated platforms into two groups: membership platforms and crowdfunding platforms.

So, before we begin, let's see what differences exist between the two:

What are memberships and what are they used for?

Memberships are agreements in which an individual or entity pays a recurring or one-time fee to access certain benefits or services provided by an organization.

These benefits can range from exclusive access to content, discounts on products or services, special events, to personalized services based on the type of membership.

Memberships can be offered in various domains such as social clubs, online content platforms, gyms, streaming services, among others.

Financing through memberships relies on the loyalty of members and the continuous provision of value to maintain their support.

What is crowdfunding?

Crowdfunding is a method of collective funding in which individuals or companies raise funds for a project, initiative, or specific cause through the contributions of a large number of people."

There are various models of crowdfunding, including donations, rewards, loans, and equity. Each involves different levels of benefits or return on investment for contributors.

Crowdfunding projects can vary widely, from campaigns for the launch of new products or films to funding charitable causes or disaster relief.

The success of crowdfunding often depends on the promoter's ability to communicate their idea convincingly and mobilize an interested audience to contribute financially.

What is the difference between memberships and crowdfunding?

The main difference between membership and crowdfunding lies in the approach and funding structure.

While memberships entail an ongoing relationship between the service provider and the member, crowdfunding is based on the one-time collection of funds for a specific project.

In memberships, the benefits focus on continuous access to services or content, whereas in crowdfunding, benefits can range from tangible rewards to the satisfaction of contributing to a cause.

Additionally, crowdfunding usually involves an intensive marketing campaign to reach the funding goal, while memberships may require long-term customer retention strategies to maintain the member base.

Therefore, if you're looking for a constant monetization method for your content, you're likely to choose one of the membership platforms we present below.

Conversely, if you want to reach a certain sum before a deadline to launch content, you should select one of the crowdfunding platforms you'll find in the second part of the article.

Membership Platforms

Patreon

It's a platform that allows creators to share their exclusive work with their most passionate followers and earn money through memberships, online shops, and other avenues. 

Advantages of using Patreon:

• Community with your biggest fans: It provides you with a space to build a community with your most loyal followers. You can share exclusive content, interact with them in real-time, and establish deeper connections without ads or algorithms getting in the way.
• Complete creative control: You can create whatever excites you the most, whether it's polished content or work in progress. There are no restrictions on the format or size of your creations.
• Diverse sources of income: In addition to memberships, you can sell individual videos, podcast episodes, and other products in your online store. This allows you to build a sustainable business outside of the ad-based ecosystem.

Disadvantages of using Patreon:

• Processing fees: They charge fees for payment processing and transactions. Make sure to understand the fees before starting your project on the platform.
• Audience dependency: Your success is directly related to the quantity and loyalty of your followers. If you don't have a solid fan base, it can be difficult to generate significant income.
• Competition: There are many creators, which means you need to stand out to attract new followers. 
• Exclusivity: When sharing exclusive content, you should consider how it will affect your presence on other platforms. Some creators may feel restricted by exclusivity.

Thinkific

This platform is ideal for creating, marketing, and selling courses and membership sites. It offers a drag-and-drop builder for designing your courses and websites, which greatly simplifies the task. selling courses and membership sites. It offers a drag-and-drop builder to design your courses and websites, which greatly simplifies the task.

Moreover, you can customize the site theme and accept payments in multiple currencies.

Advantages of using Thinkific

• Ease of use: It offers an intuitive and easy-to-navigate interface. You can create and customize your courses without needing advanced technical knowledge.
• Personalization: Allows you to customize the design of your website and the appearance of your courses. You can add your logo, colors, and fonts to fit your brand.
• Marketing tools: Includes tools to promote your courses, such as coupons, discounts, and affiliate options. Customer support: Provides good customer support, with live chat and help resources.
• Customer support: Provides good customer support, with live chat and help resources.
• Flexible pricing options: You can choose from free and paid plans, making it easy to get started without a significant initial investment.

Disadvantages of using Thinkific

• Cost: Although it has a free plan, more advanced features require a monthly subscription. The price may be high for some users.
• Limitations in the free plan: The free plan has restrictions on features and customization.
• Lack of some advanced features: Some advanced features (such as automated quizzes) may not be available.

Buy Me a Coffee

It's a platform that allows content creators to receive support from your audience in the form of one-time donations or recurring subscriptions.

Setting up is easy and free, and you can create your page in minutes.

Advantages of using Buy Me a Coffee:

• Easy to use: The registration and usage process is straightforward.
• Various payment options: You can receive payments through PayPal, credit cards, and Google Pay.
• Gratitude expression: Followers can show appreciation to creators by buying them a "cup of coffee." Commission-free: It doesn't charge fees for donations.
• Commission-free: It doesn't charge fees for donations.
• Flexibility: You can use it alongside other platforms without strict commitments.

Disadvantages of using Buy Me a Coffee:

• Limited for blogs: Although it allows content publishing, it's not as robust as other platforms for blogs.
• Some features aren't free: Certain characteristics may require an additional fee.

Podia 

It's an all-in-one marketing platform designed for creators and businesses. 

It stands out for its intuitive design and direct customer attention, ensuring a smooth user experience.

Advantages of using Podia:

• Intuitive design: Facilitates navigation and management of the online business.
• Excellent customer service: Provides direct support for inquiries and issues. Community building: Includes features to interact with the audience.
• Community building: Includes features to interact with the audience.
• Transaction fees: Higher-tier plans have no transaction fees, allowing for more earnings retention.

Disadvantages of using Podia

• Customization limitations: Customization options for landing pages and product offerings are somewhat restricted.
• Lack of advanced marketing tools: It doesn't offer advanced marketing tools or detailed segmentation.

Ko-Fi

It's a platform that allows content creators to receive support from their audience in the form of one-time donations or recurring subscriptions . Here's a brief description along with a list of advantages and disadvantages:

Although it's not a content creation site, you can post limited content on your Ko-fi page.

Advantages of using Ko-Fi

• Easy to use: Setting up donations, commissions, or a shop on Ko-fi is quick and straightforward.
• Payment diversity: You can receive payments through PayPal, credit cards, and Google Pay.
• Commission-free: Ko-fi doesn't charge fees for donations.
• Flexibility: You're not obligated to publish content regularly.
• Comisiones: You can offer exclusive content to your followers through commissions.

Disadvantages of using Ko-Fi

• Limited for blogs: It's not as robust as other platforms for blogs.
• Some features aren't free: Certain characteristics may require an additional fee.

Kartra

It's an all-in-one marketing platform designed for creators and businesses..

It offers a variety of integrated tools to help you boost your sales, engage with your audience, and monetize your content.

Advantages of using Kartra

• Content monetization: Allows you to monetize your content, whether through memberships, digital products, or services.
• Automation: You can automate marketing, sales, and product delivery tasks, saving time and effort.
• Customized pages: It offers hundreds of page and campaign templates that you can customize according to your needs.
• No transaction fees : Unlike some platforms, it doesn't charge transaction fees, meaning you keep everything you earn.

Disadvantages of using Kartra

• Learning curve: To fully take advantage of it, it may require time to learn all its functions and settings.
• Cost: Although it offers a free trial, it can be expensive compared to some more basic alternatives.
• Limited customization: Although there are many templates, full customization can be challenging for some users.

Mumbler

Of course, we wouldn't miss the opportunity to talk about our own platform: Mumbler.

Over the past few years, we have earned a place in the hearts and content of creators worldwide by developing a great tool for monetizing audiences..

At Mumbler, we offer a variety of features ranging from a platform to host podcasts and sell audio content to marketing and communication tools to build a community of listeners and followers.

Advantages of Mumbler

• Global reach: Podcasts hosted on Mumbler can be accessed anytime and anywhere, and from any podcast player, making them available outside the platform and from any part of the world.
• Marketing tools: You have your own creator page to centralize your content; you can carry out email communications, send segmented emails, and more.
• Flexibility of format and content: You can publish audio in any format. From recurring podcasts to audio dramas, audio series, and limited audio courses.
• Variety of monetization: You can sell single audio files, recurring payment subscriptions, or receive occasional donations.
• Opportunity to earn money with modest audiences: It's designed for you to monetize your audience regardless of its size. You can create exclusive private episodes for subscribers and offer public content to attract new listeners.

Disadvantages of Mumbler:

• Need for a pre-existing audience: To monetize, you must have a pre-existing audience. However, you have all the necessary marketing tools to build your own community from scratch.
• Audio centralization: It is a podcasting platform, so audience monetization is conditioned to creating content in that format.

Crowdfunding platforms

Kickstarter 

It's an online platform that helps creators finance their creative projects. Projects can range from music, film, and art to technology, design, and games.

Founded in 2009, Kickstarter has backed over 200,000 projects worldwide.

Advantages of using Kickstarter

• Risk-free funding: Projects are only funded if they reach their fundraising goal. This means sponsors don't risk losing their money on a project that doesn't materialize, and creators don't risk having to refund the money if they can't fulfill their project.
• Engaged community: It's not just a funding platform; it's also a community. Sponsors can interact with creators through updates and messages, allowing for building lasting relationships with the audience.
• Project awareness: It's an excellent way to raise awareness. Projects are featured on the homepage and promoted throughout the site. 
• Feedback and improvements: Interaction with sponsors can also be an opportunity to gather valuable feedback and make improvements to the project.
• Open and democratic platform: Anyone can submit a project, and any user can sponsor it.

Disadvantages of using Kickstarter

• All or nothing: If you don't reach your fundraising goal, you won't receive any funds. This can be a risk for creators if they can't mobilize enough support.
• Commission and fees: It charges a commission on funds raised (usually around 5%), and there are additional fees for payment processing and other services.
• Intense competition: There's a lot of competition among projects. Standing out from the crowd can be challenging.
• Responsibility to fulfill rewards: Creators must fulfill the rewards promised to sponsors. This can be complicated and costly.
• Dependence on personal promotion: Although Kickstarter promotes projects, much of the promotion responsibility falls on the creators themselves.

Ulule

It's defined as an empowering platform for creators and entrepreneurs. Its mission is to help creators turn their projects into successes, not only from a financial standpoint but also by supporting them throughout the entire process.

To date, its community exceeds 2.5 million people and has brought more than 30,000 projects to life.

Advantages of using Ulule:

• Excellent support: Provides support and guidance to creators. Its team is committed to helping projects succeed.
• High success rate: In 2023, the success rate of projects on Ulule was around 79%, surpassing platforms like Verkami.
• Global visibility: Being a global platform, projects on Ulule can reach backers from all over the world.
• Diversity of projects: Ulule covers a wide variety of projects, from creativity and culture to sustainability and innovation.
• B Corp certification: Ulule is B Corp certified, meaning it has had a positive impact on society and the environment.

Disadvantages of using Ulule:

• Success-based fees: It charges fees only if the project is successful. If the expected funding is not reached, there are no costs for the creator, but they also won't receive any funds.
• Limited time frame: Projects have a maximum of 90 days to reach their funding goal.
• Community dependency: Success largely depends on the community and active promotion of the project by the creator.
• Focus on rewards: It's a reward-based crowdfunding platform, meaning backers expect to receive rewards for their support.

Lánzanos

It's a reward-based crowdfunding platform founded in Spain in 2010. 

As the first crowdfunding platform created in the country, its aim is to connect creators and artists from various fields with backers who support their projects.

Advantages of using Lánzanos:

• Global reach: It has a broad and diverse audience, exposing your project to people you may not reach through traditional funding methods.
• Alternative funding: It offers a different option to banking for obtaining funds, allowing backers to contribute in exchange for rewards.
• Variety of categories: It covers a wide range of areas, from music and film to technology and the environment.
• Simplicity for donors: The donation process is straightforward, and backers can choose from different reward levels based on their contribution.
• Solid track record: With over 700 successfully completed charitable projects, Lánzanos has a proven track record.

Disadvantages of using Lánzanos:

• Approval time: The approval process can take up to 72 hours, which could delay the launch of your campaign.
• Community dependency: The success of your project depends on the response from the community.
• Funding goals: Setting realistic and achievable goals is crucial; otherwise, you may not receive enough funds.

This is the best time to monetize your content

These are just a few examples of platforms used to monetize audiences..

Now, it's your time to analyze each of them and select the one that best fits your content creation.

But don't overthink it. Make a decision as soon as possible and take action. Start making money with your content and keep creating.

Undoubtedly, your audience will be very grateful.