A Patreon alternative built around your video library
Checked 4 September 2026. Compare a Patreon membership with a branded video library: viewing experience, total fees and what moving means for your patrons.
- ✓ For video-first creators
- ✓ Propel is pre-launch and open for early access.
Verdict by use case
- Stay with Patreon if the membership is the relationship
- Posts, comments, DMs, tiers of closeness, discovery that occasionally brings a stranger to your page — Patreon is a membership and community product, and good at it. If patrons pay for proximity to you rather than for a catalog, stay.
- Consider Propel if patrons really pay for the videos
- If your page has quietly become a video service — patrons join, watch the back catalog, wait for the next upload — the feed is the wrong container. Propel is a branded streaming service: your library, your apps on web, iOS, Android, Apple TV and Android TV, and a subscriber relationship that stays with you.
- Choose neither if discovery is your growth engine
- Propel provides no discovery, no recommendations, and no marketplace traffic — none. If new patrons genuinely find you through the platform, an owned service cuts that off. Build your own channel first, then revisit.
Model fees alongside the audience you could lose by leaving Patreon's discovery surface.
Patreon's model vs an owned video service
Patreon's shape is a membership page on a marketplace: tiers of support, a feed of posts, comments and messages, all inside Patreon's product and brand. The economics match the shape — the platform takes a share of what you earn, so it costs little when you are small and more as you grow. For a creator monetising closeness, that container fits.
An owned video service centres on your branded library and subscription access to your videos. Compare the full fee structure: Propel combines a monthly plan with a fee on turnover.
Propel vs Patreon: like for like
Compare product structure below. Patreon's documented fee components appear without unverified rates.
| Dimension | Propel | Patreon |
|---|---|---|
| Primary job | A branded subscription video service: library, playback, paywall. | A membership platform: creator pages with posts, tiers and community on a shared marketplace. |
| Discovery | None. Your subscribers come from your own channels. | A marketplace surface with creator-first discovery — a genuine advantage if it feeds you. |
| Video experience | A catalog built for browsing, series and resume across screens. | Video posts in a feed — right for updates, strained as a library grows. |
| Web, mobile, TV | Supported screens: Web, iOS, Android, Apple TV, Android TV. Own-brand web on Studio; own mobile and TV apps on Brand. | Patreon's apps are Patreon's, carrying its brand; your page lives inside them. |
| Fee structure | Published: Studio €199/mo, Brand €599/mo plus a one-time €3,500 app launch, excl. VAT. No revenue share — Propel takes no percentage of your sales. See /pricing. | A share of earnings plus processing, payout and tax components, as Patreon documents them; no rate is verified for this page. |
| Brand ownership | Your name on the app, your artwork, your domain of experience. | Your page, Patreon's product: members join you on Patreon, and know it. |
| Subscriber relationship | Your subscribers stay yours. The relationship is between you and your subscriber. | Patrons hold Patreon accounts; what you can take with you is defined by Patreon's terms and export tools. |
| Maturity | Propel is pre-launch and open for early access. | An established platform trusted by a very large creator base. |
What Patreon costs creators today
As of 4 September 2026, this page prints no Patreon rate: no figure has been verified against Patreon's own pricing and fee documentation for it. Patreon documents its fee components itself — platform share, payment processing, currency conversion, payout fees and applicable taxes — so read those pages, linked below, on the day you decide.
No Patreon figure is printed on this page.
Current Patreon pricing and limits have not yet been verified against Patreon's own published pricing for this page — so it states no plan price, no fee, no percentage and no cap, not even as a range. A figure appears here only after it has been read on Patreon's own site, dated, and quoted as the source states it.
Until then, the only source worth your trust is Patreon's own pricing page — read it directly on the day you decide, because published pricing changes without notice.
Two notes on reading those sources. The fee that applies depends on when you joined — Patreon published a dated notice of a standard platform fee for creators joining after 4 August 2025 — so an old-timer's quoted rate may not be yours. And the "total take" figure that circulates in creator forums is perception, not a documented rate: the real number is the sum of the components above.
A worked revenue scenario
One worked example — your numbers will differ.
Take a creator with 200 members paying 10 a month, in whatever currency they charge in: 2,000 a month gross. Now run the two fee models over it, using illustrative rates that belong to neither vendor — the percentage below is not Patreon's rate, and the flat figure is not a Propel price; Propel's published plans are on the pricing page.
Under a percentage model at an illustrative 10%, the platform keeps 200 a month. Grow to 400 members and the platform's share grows with you to 400 a month — the cost is a permanent percentage of your growth. Under a flat model at an illustrative 300 a month, the platform costs more than the percentage at 200 members, the same at 300, and less from there on — the cost shrinks as a share of revenue as you grow.
Assumptions, printed: every member pays the same amount monthly; no cancellations, refunds, trials or discounts; payment processing, taxes and app-store commissions apply under both models and are excluded from both sides. Neither model represents Propel: its published pricing combines a monthly fee and a percentage of turnover. Use those rates and Patreon's dated sources for your actual comparison.
Brand, apps, and the subscriber relationship
- Propel supports web, ios, android, apple tv, android tv; check branded apps for web, mobile and TV for screen and plan details.
- Hosted in the EU. Your subscribers stay yours.
- App-store rules govern in-app purchases; payment rules govern payment data.
- Store-account, app-build and data-export ownership terms are still being finalised. Confirm them in writing with both vendors.
- No transfer of existing patrons or payment details is promised beyond confirmed terms and applicable payment rules.
What Propel does not do
If patrons pay for these social features, stay on Patreon or keep a separate community.
- No discovery or recommendations
Nobody finds you through Propel. Growth is your own channel's job.
- No social feed or comments
No posts, likes or reply threads.
- No community tools
No DMs, chats or member spaces.
- No tipping or one-off pledges
Monetization is subscriptions, one-time purchase and free previews — not tips.
- Migration is a paid add-on on Studio
Done-for-you migration is €490 on Studio and included on Brand; recurring billing does not transfer from Patreon by itself, so some members will need to re-subscribe.
Sources and dates
These dated sources govern the fee comparison. If a source has changed since its checked date, the source wins.
FAQ
What fees does Patreon charge? +
Patreon documents a platform share, payment processing, currency conversion, payout fees and applicable taxes. No rate is verified here. Read its pricing page and creator-fees overview, linked above with checked dates.
Does Propel have apps like Patreon's? +
Patreon's apps carry its brand, with your page inside. Propel supports web, iOS, Android, Apple TV and Android TV; check its published plans for branded-app availability. No other screen is confirmed.
Would I lose Patreon's discovery by moving? +
Yes. Propel provides no discovery or recommendation surface, so any new-patron flow from Patreon stops. Measure that flow before deciding to leave.
Can I move my existing patrons to Propel? +
No automatic transfer is promised. Patreon's terms govern exports, billing does not transfer automatically, and Propel's import scope is still being finalized. Confirm it in writing before moving; budget for members making a new payment decision.
How mature is Propel? +
Propel is pre-launch and open for early access; Patreon is long established. Compare the video-first product and direct team contact against that maturity gap.