A subscription platform for a creator is a way they can build additional income streams from their content. Using a subscription platform, you can smoothly make a paid subscription for exclusive access to select members.
Some common ways creators do this are by creating courses, communities, and memberships and selling physical and digital products.
While plenty of good choices are available to build up your revenue, I came up with these 9 subscription platforms for creators with powerful features to help you monetize your online presence.
In this guide, you will also learn the benefits of a subscription platform, how to pick the right platform, and the effective ways to manage and maintain subscribers. (Don’t worry; I have considered all the important factors and gone through expert tips and research.)
Without revealing much, let me get straight into the subscription platforms I chose for you!
List of 9 Best Subscription Platforms For Creators
Here are some popular subscription platforms with their best features, the starting price for each platform, and whether they offer free access.
| Subscription Platform | Best For | Price | Free Trial/plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Patreon | Reliability | 8% and 10% of total income | No |
| SamCart | Powerful checkout solution | $59/mo | 7-day |
| Kajabi | All round solution | $119/mo | 14-day |
| Substack | Paid newsletter subscription | 10% of a transaction | Free plan available but cannot generate revenue |
| Uscreen | Video creator focus | $149/mo | 14-day |
| Podia | Affordability | $4/mo | Free forever plan |
| Circle | Creating a community | $49/mo | 14-day |
| Thinkific | Building and Selling a course | $36/mo | Free plan |
| Memberful | Creating memberships | $25/mo | Free Plan |
This table is only supposed to give you an overview; scroll further to learn further details about each.
What Is A Subscription Platform For Creators?
A subscription model is defined as a setup where a creator can generate and develop parallel ways of income along with a main source via recurring payments, and a subscription platform helps you build that.
One of the most sought-after ways to make money from the community is by offering them “exclusive memberships.” These exclusive memberships offer special access to the creator’s content and are shared at a price that is recurring.
Creators can utilize these subscription platforms to sell products (most often merchandise) and services. Subscription platforms allow creators new ways to earn money apart from their social media handles via live streams, courses, events, BTS footage, etc.
Moreover, these subscription platforms facilitate recurring billing plans, process payments, manage subscriptions, provide performance reports and analysis, and more.
Some of the services that these subscription platforms offer to the creators:
- Discounts and subscription building with multiple tiers.
- Membership and community builders.
- Online course builder.
- Landing page builder.
- Send marketing emails or newsletters.
- Seamless integrations with other tools.
- Resources/guides to learn from.
- World-class security and privacy for payments.
While these are common features a creator can expect from a subscription platform, let me show you how you can benefit from a subscription platform.
Great! You now have a brief idea of the requirements of a subscription platform and how they can help you increase the revenue you earn.
Next, I will break up the top 9 subscription platforms I have shortlisted for you. I graded each of them based on their pricing, if it offers a free trial, and the key features they offer for the price.
Note – I have added a “best for” parameter for each heading of the platform to categorize the platform, but that does not necessarily mean that the platform is good for that feature only or other platforms are unable to offer that feature.
1. Patreon – For Reliability
| Rating | 4.9 |
| Price | Works on a percentage basis |
| Free Trial | No |
| Transaction Fees | 2.9% + $0.30 to 6% + $0.10 |
Note – *the transaction fees vary as per the payment method and as per currency
Patreon is one of the most popular amongst creators across the creator industry to share their exclusive work with their top-tier fans. Starting off in 2013, when Jack Conte wanted to earn more from his content, Patreon was formed.
A decade later, after launching Patreon with Sam Yam, Patreon now has 8 million+ monthly active members and 250,000+ creators. Starting off with Patreon is free and easy, but it works differently than other subscription platforms on a percentage basis.
Setting up a Patreon account is a process of a few steps, and the crisp user interface and menu make it feel like a cakewalk. Inside the dashboard, you can easily access your audience, analytics, payment balances, community, and team.
Moreover, Patreon performs better overall with its potential to customize, scalability, build community, app integrations, and ability to cater – to video creators, podcasters, musicians, artists, and game devs all at once.
Key Features
- Add free trials and special offers.
- Manage community with DMs and chats.
- Manage a newsletter.
- Set up a shop to sell digital products.
- Failed payment recovery.
- 24×7 fraud monitoring.
- Audience management and analytics.
Pricing
There are no flat monthly charges to pay; instead, Patreon offers two subscription plans –
- Pro – charges 8% of the total income.
- Premium – charges 12% of the total income.
Additionally, there are taxes, processing fees, and currency conversion fees (if used) that add up to your bill.
If you are using Patreon to sell digital products, the commerce plan charges 5% of your monthly earnings.
Did you know? – Members who joined before 2019 and on the “Founders” plan enjoy only a 5% deduction.
2. SamCart – For A Powerful Checkout Solution
| Rating | 4.8 |
| Price | $59/mo. |
| Free Trial | 7 days |
| Transaction Fees | 0% |
SamCart is debated to be the #1 platform for digital creators, with over 75,000 creators onboard. This subscription platform makes boosting your conversions easy and is a good place to sell both physical and digital items.
To simplify, they have a “CheckoutOS” that is guaranteed to increase your current sales by 30% or more! This system allows you to embed a checkout anywhere with pre-design templates.
Furthermore, you can purchase a subscription at the checkout to scale your revenue easily. What’s more, the SamCart subscription builder can notify the members about outdated, stolen, or lost payments and ask them to resubscribe, also known as dunning.
Key Features
- Page creator with unlimited course, product, and membership creation.
- Drag and Drop builder.
- Free and paid trials.
- 0% processing fees.
- Customer management features.
- Sales performance tracking
- 99.9% uptime
- Email support with an option for premium support as an add-on.
Pricing
SamCart offers four subscription plans that you can purchase monthly or annually. The most affordable plan starts at $59/mo when paid annually.
- Launch – $59/mo.
- Grow – $119/mo.
The Other two plans – “Scale” and “VIP” with advanced features and strategies, are also available for a price decided after consultation.
Demandsage Bonus: Use these exclusive SamCart coupons to save 25% additional across plans.
SamCart-related reading:
3. Kajabi – For An All Round Solution
| Rating | 4.8 |
| Price | $119/mo |
| Free Trial | 14-day free trial |
| Transaction Fees | 0% |
Kajabi allows creators to monetize their content via online courses, coaching, podcasts, memberships, and communities. This platform provides all-round solutions with commerce tools, an AI creator hub, a beta-mode creator studio, etc.
You can build — Websites, pages, email marketing, sales funnels, and a mobile app with Kajabi. These features allow creators to make as much as $5 million daily on Kajabi. The AI assistance that Kajabi offers is useful and makes an outline, lesson, copy, social media content, and sales script creation easy.
Some popular tools you can integrate Kajabi with are MailChimp, Zapier, Google Analytics, and Paypal.
Key Features
- AI tools – course creator, copy assistant, creator studio.
- Powerful integration capabilities.
- Performance analytics.
- 0% transaction fees.
- 24×7 customer support.
- Valuable resources in the form of – webinars, blogs, playbooks, free guides, and a Kajabi University.
Pricing
The pricing is a hiccup for Kajabi; they are currently offering three-month access at $99. But the standard prices for Kajabi are quite high:
- Basic – $119/mo
- Growth – $199/mo
- Pro – $319/mo
4. Substack – For Paid Newsletter Subscription
| Rating | 4.6 |
| Price | 10% of a transaction |
| Free Trial | Yes |
| Transaction Fees | Depends on the payment method |
A different way to earn revenue from your consumers is by running paid newsletters. Substack offers both readers and writers across multiple fields a platform to read and write in one place.
Substack is a haven for writers, bloggers, journalists, comic creators, and authors. Substack provides no fancy features and tools, just a pure and direct platform for you to showcase your writing work.
Additionally, this subscription platform will allow you to start your media business, build a community, and kickstart revenue from writing. Substack is a good option for video content creators to pen down their content and use it to earn additional revenue.
Key Features
- Complete ownership of the content you write.
- Interact with readers via chat.
- Create podcasts from newsletters.
- Analytics and reporting integrated.
- Set up community
Pricing
Substack is one of the easiest ways for a creator to earn revenue via newsletters, as it does not require any cost or subscription to use. Instead, Subsctack charges 10% of the revenue you generate for development and customer support.
5. Uscreen – For Video Creators
| Rating | 4.6 |
| Price | $149/mo |
| Free Trial | 14-day free trial |
| Transaction Fees | $0.50 per active subscriber for recurring payments5% per transaction for one-time purchases |
Just as Substack is writer-focused, Uscreen focuses on video content creators and helps them monetize their videos as a Video On Demand platform. Uscreen is an all-in-one platform that takes care of everything, leaving you responsible only for content creation.
This does not limit you to tiered subscriptions but also offers a rent, pay-per-view, and a one-time purchase option that you can add to your content.
You can build effective landing pages, manage marketing with tested tools, and craft subscription plans that are web and app-ready. With Uscreen, you can launch your mobile and TV apps without coding, organize a community, and stream everything live in one place.
Key Features
- Seamless video monetization.
- Fastest Full HD video playback.
- Complete ownership of your content.
- 99.99% uptime
- SSL security and PA-DSS PCI transactions
- Built-in marketing and analytics tools
Pricing
If you are a beginner, Uscreen can be a heavy hit on your wallet. Here’s how this subscription platform is priced:
- Growth – $149/mo if paid annually
- Pro – $499/mo if paid annually
- Uscreen Plus – Custom pricing
That’s not all; for every subscriber that joins, you have to pay a $1.99/mo fee and another $0.50 as a transaction fee for recurring payments for every subscriber.
Similarly, a 5% transaction fee is charged on all of the one-time purchases.
6. Podia – For Affordability And A Free Plan
| Rating | 4.7 |
| Price | $4/mo |
| Free Trial | Free forever plan offered |
| Transaction Fees | 0% to 10% |
Podia is one of the most affordable subscription platforms for creators to scale up their revenue generation model. This platform takes care of website building, email marketing, selling online courses and products, community, and express checkouts.
The platform covers pretty much everything that any content creator would need, especially for creating courses. Building a course with Podia is simple, can be built in 10 minutes, and can be interactive with quizzes, coupons, embeds, and more.
What sets this subscription platform apart is that it offers a free plan for you to test before making an investment. Very few in this list offer this feature, making this a free subscription platform for a creator.
Key Features
- Unlimited Community topics and members
- Option to choose a custom domain.
- 24×7 support for all plans.
- Free email marketing for less than 100 subscribers.
- Budget and beginner-friendly pricing plans.
- Resources and guides for help across a wide range of topics.
Pricing
Podia offers a total of 4 pricing plans, starting with a free subscription:
- Free – $0/mo with 10% transaction fees.
- Starter – $4/mo with 8% transaction fees.
- Mover – $33/mo with 5% transaction fees.
- Shaker – $59/mo with 0% transaction fees.
7. Circle – For Creating A Community
| Rating | 4.5 |
| Price | $49/mo |
| Free Trial | 14-day free trial |
| Transaction Fees | 0.5% to 4% |
Circle is an all-in-one solution for community, course, and event building for your audience. This subscription platform allows you to start, engage, monetize, and scale a community irrespective of the field that you are from.
You can seamlessly add live Q&As, 1 to 1 connections, direct messages, cohort groups, and drip lessons to make your lessons more immersive and interactive.
Churn in more revenue to your account with the flexibility of adding subscriptions, one-time payments, and other periods. With Circle, you get to take the matter into your own hands as you are responsible for launching a course, designing and posting content, engaging the community, and monetizing.
Lastly, Circle is also well equipped with a number of integration options and single sign-on for a smooth customer experience.
Key Features
- Community insights and analytics.
- Educational workshops are conducted weekly.
- Checklists, guides, and templates to learn from.
- Community AI is used to understand trends, get transcripts, and generate ideas.
- Access to a community of 8500= community builders.
Pricing
Circle offers its robust community-building subscriptions with five different plans priced annually as
- Basic – 49/mo with 4% transaction fees
- Professional – 89/mo with 4% transaction fees
- Business – 199/mo with 4% transaction fees
- Enterprise – 360/mo with 4% transaction fees
- Circle Plus – Custom pricing
8. Thinkific – For Building And Selling A Course
| Rating | 4.6 |
| Price | $36/mo |
| Free Trial | Free plan available |
| Transaction Fees | 0% transaction fees |
Thinkific is one of the best online course platforms that even lets you build a course for free with their free plan. With this platform, you can create courses using custom web design, carry out live sessions and events, and eventually build a community space for your course.
While using Thinkific, you can customize every part of your project with pricing, product data, the way the text and images look, and everything! There’s also no limit to the number of students that enroll and the courses you create using Thinkific.
Thinkific also runs an exclusive TCommerce suite that is equipped with payment methods, automatic tax solutions, managed payments, and a single-page checkout.
Key Features
- Accelerator program to sell a course faster.
- 0% transaction fees.
- White-labeled mobile app.
- Email and live chat support.
- Custom domain option.
- Complete ownership of content and data.
- eCommerce suite for effective selling
Pricing
Thinkific offers four subscription plans for creators to choose from.
- Free Forever plan – $0/mo.
- Basic – $36/mo.
- Start – $74/mo.
- Grow – $149/mo.
Apart from these, each paid subscription plan gets access to an “Accelerator Program” priced at $499 to speed up the selling of your course. Finally, you can also get a Thinkific+ subscription aimed at large corporations.
9. Memberful – For Creating Memberships
| Rating | 4.7 |
| Price | $25/mo |
| Free Trial | Free Plan available |
| Transaction Fees | 4.9% to 10% |
Memberful offers a bunch of options for the creator to crank up their income via podcasts, newsletters, and communities. Part of the Patreon group, Memberful has been into building memberships and knows the ins and outs of it.
There are two ways that you can use Memberful. First, you can integrate it into your website using their features. You can implement a variety of payment periods for your membership with options to add – monthly, quarterly, yearly, any fixed number of times, one-time payments, and even group subscriptions.
Memberful takes it a step further and enables you to customize the brand colors and logo, email personalization, and much more!
Key Features
- Option to use a custom domain.
- Complete data ownership.
- Option to offer referral discounts for members.
- Conduct private podcasts for members.
- Sell digital and physical goods.
- Build communities and courses.
- Publish newsletters and content.
Pricing
Memberful offers subscription plans in three ways.
- Free – $0/mo with 10% transaction fees.
- Pro – $25/mo with 4.9% transaction fees.
- Premium – $100/mo with 4.9% transaction fees.
However, you can try any plan for free using their “test mode” if you have not turned on live payments.
ow Will A Subscription Platform Help You?
If you’re a new creator, you must have definitely seen other creators giving away membership access to select users. This practice has been helping many creators give their customers more and get more from them in return.
The prime benefits of implementing a subscription model and using a platform are:
- Provide a predictable recurring revenue stream.
- Expanding revenue channels with minimal work.
- Creates a feeling of exclusivity for the consumers.
- Increases the overall revenue per consumer against a one-off payment.
- Improve the loyalty of the consumers for you.
Depending on your creator type, there are still some downsides to adopting a subscription model.
The most common difficulty you may face is offering fresh and exclusive content that justifies your subscription price. The subscription platforms mostly handle other things; you need to keep it running!
How To Select The Right Subscription Platform?
When it comes to selecting the right subscription platform, you need to start filtering out the options in terms of the type of creator you are and the content you produce. Depending on this analysis, you can then further go for any of the above options that tick the most boxes.
Other critical parameters to keep in mind while selecting a subscription platform are:
- Transaction and subscriber fees are charged.
- Number of products/courses/memberships that can be created.
- Integration ability with other tools.
- Types of discounts, memberships, and coupons that can be added.
- Checkout security and payment methods.
- Price charged and free access option.
Evaluating a subscription platform with the above points shall help you find the best subscription platform for creators and you!
Ways To Manage Your Subscriptions And Audience
While generating exclusive gated access for members is sorted with a subscription platform, as a creator, you also need to stay on top of your work to manage and retain them.
Remember, the whole motive of running a subscription with a platform is for you to earn recurring payments and not settle for one-off payments. While on-time payments might be beneficial in some cases, recurring payments provide much more income comparatively.
To manage and maintain your subscribers:
- Use analytics and marketing tools included in subscription platforms.
- Make good use of the learning resources provided by the platform.
- Access communities of subscription platforms for added guidance.
- Get a booster plan for quick visibility (offered by some platforms).
- Hire an expert to maintain the memberships, community, courses, etc, for you.
The Best Subscription Platform For Creators in 2024 – My Verdict
Each subscription platform I have included can improve your revenue via different channels and is an expert in a specific section. Hence, choosing one amongst 9 would not be fair.
Yet, these three platforms shine brighter than the rest:
- Patreon – Popular and reliable option for creators.
- Kajabi – An all-round subscription solution.
- Podia – The most affordable yet very useful subscription platform.
That being said, your choice may differ depending on the type of content you make and the channel you wish to choose to drive in the extra income. The above are my choices, and yours can definitely be different!
Make full use of all the features a subscription plan offers, and add another pillar to support your ways of earning with your content!
Drop in the comments below with the type of content you create and the subscription platform that fits your needs perfectly!
