OnlyFans vs Patreon

The creator economy is taking over the internet, and if you have some creative and technical skills, there is no better place for you to make more money.

OnlyFans and Patreon are popular content subscription platforms that allow creators of all kinds, be it musicians, writers, artists, models, fitness enthusiasts and adult performers, to build their brand, sell their content, and build a dedicated fan base.

OnlyFans and platforms are different platforms with different guidelines and features. But they do have a common feature between them.

That is the ability for fans to sign up and pay for their favorite creator's photos or videos.

If you want to get started as a content creator and make money online as an influencer or performer, then both OnlyFans and Patreon are excellent platforms for you.

Understanding the key points of OnlyFans Vs Patreon is essential for choosing an option amongst them.

What is OnlyFans- An overview

OnlyFans doesn't need an introduction, but for the ones who aren't familiar, OnlyFans is a social platform or a creator subscription platform, to be precise, that allows models to upload videos and garner subscribers to their content.

Yes, they can build a community of fans who pay monthly fees to view their content, buy their pay-per-view (PPV content), give donations, or pay for their live streams.

Pros

Financial freedom: OnlyFans is a creator platform for all types of creators to earn substantial revenue and achieve financial freedom by making content directly from their fans.

Content variety: OnlyFans caters to a wide range of diverse content, allowing creators from different fields like art, music, fitness, and not-safe-for-work (NSFW) content.

Support for passion projects: OnlyFans allows content creators to pursue their passion projects by raising funds through crowdfunding, freeing them from the constraints of seeking funding from other external sources.

Perceived stigma: OnlyFans and Patreon are stigmatized due to their association with adult content. This can negatively impact the social acceptance of creators.

Cons

Lack of employment benefits: Being an independent content creator is a lucrative opportunity, but creators lose out on employee benefits like healthcare and retirement plans.

Limited control: Creators on OnlyFans are subjected to policies and terms and conditions of OnlyFans, which could include changes in banning certain content, fee structure, or even potential closure of the platform.

What is Patreon- An overview

Patreon is a membership platform for creators to run a subscription service for their content. Instead of launching their own website, Patreon allows creators to launch a customized Patreon page in simple steps quickly.

On Patreon, paying subscribers are referred to as Patrons. Each Patron pays a fee for receiving exclusive content from creators.

Pros

Ease of use and set up: Creators find Patreon is easy to set up with a straightforward process of entering details and choosing membership tiers.

Recurring income: Patreon allows creators to enjoy a stable and recurring income through monthly or annual subscriptions.

Multiple subscription plans: One of the advantages of Patreon is that it allows creators to build three levels of subscriptions: Lite, Pro, and Premium. As a result, creators can offer different types of subscriptions and use different pricing.

Communication and analytical tools: Patreon comes with its own analytics tools, and the platform also allows creators to integrate Google Analytics into their Patreon page to track statistics like profile visits, demographics, referrals, and so on.

Flexibility of services: Patreon allows creators to sell exclusive artwork, stems of your songs, tips and tricks, and more. Artists can offer exclusive access to live shows, early access to their new work, demo tracks, and a lot more.

The platform also has scope for different types of creators, whether you are a podcaster, musician, blogger, gamer, adult creator, sportsperson, educator, etc.

Cons

High Commission: When it comes to the commission charged by Patreon, it ranges from 5% to 12% and an additional 2.9% payment processing fee along with a $0.10-$0.30 of fixed amount per pledge. The commission is quite a lot, and Patreon charges every time a payment is made, which is hefty on the creator's side.

Once the subscription is canceled, it is done: Now, this is one of the major downsides of the platform: users lose access to the content once they cancel the subscription. Yes, even if the user paid 2 hours ago, the access is denied once the subscription is canceled.

Low payouts: Small creators with a small fan base find it hard to raise funds using the platform. The majority of creators on the platform have no Patreon, and they find it hard to make money.

Lack of marketing tools: Subscription platforms always need more promotion tools so that creators can reach out to as many people as possible where they can find their potential patrons who would pay for them.

Bad customer reviews: Patreon is a legitimate platform, but there are complaints from creators that they don't receive the correct amount, unexpectedly get banned from the platform, Patreon complained about not receiving the content they were promised, losing accounts randomly, and customer services not responding.

Factors to consider when choosing between OnlyFans vs Patreon

When making the decision of OnlyFans Vs Patreon, several factors can decide whether OnlyFans or Patreon is the right fit for you. The factors include content type, your target audience and niche, revenue strategies, earning potential, etc.

Let's get started.

Content type and audience niche

Patreon is for artists, models, musicians, photographers, writers, or anyone who creates content.

The platform might not be the best place to find fans. Instead, it's a place for the fans you have to support you financially; you have to build your fan base and then promote your Patreon to those people.

OnlyFans is a popular adult creator subscription platform, while Patreon caters to a wide range of creators who are artists as well. If you are into selling NSFW content, OnlyFans will be your better choice.

Revenue goals and earning potential

Another significant factor to consider when choosing between OnlyFans Vs Patreon is your revenue goals and the payouts of the platforms. OnlyFans pays 80% of its revenue to creators as the commission rate is 20% and is fixed, but Patron's payout rate is comparatively less.

The commission rate of Patreon is 5% for the basics version, 8% for the pro version, and 12% for the premium.

Patreon allows creators to set up membership tiers that look like this.

For example, an artist who creates watercolor tutorials on YouTube:

● $2 per month- Extra videos every month as new videos are released every first weekend of the month and weekly goodies.

● $5 per month- Ad-free videos, extra tutorials, weekly goodies.

● $10 per month- Live art workshops, ad-free videos, extra tutorials, weekly goodies.

Whereas OnlyFans doesn't allow users to offer membership tiers, creators can offer monthly, quarterly and annual subscriptions, sell DM's, sell premium live sessions, accept donations etc.

Customer support and supporting resources

When selecting OnlyFans Vs Patreon, you must also consider the customer support and available supporting resources.

OnlyFans has an exclusive help page where most general, fan and creator's questions are answered.

OnlyFans also resources user queries through email, and the response is good. There have been a lot of complaints about Patreon's customer service, which needs to be better.

Should You Start an OnlyFans or Patreon?

If you are a content creator, you can start an OnlyFans or Patreon if you want an additional recurring income stream.

Before starting a Patreon account, the most important question is whether you have time to engage a group of fans who support you by giving them exclusive content, insights, or behind-the-scenes.

If you want to sell exclusive content or art forms and offer different perks to fans for different price packages, you must choose Patreon instead of OnlyFans.

If you are an entrepreneur or you want to build a business of your own, you can also consider building a subscription-based content creator platform; choose an OnlyFans clone script like Fanso to build your own business in your own branding.

With Fanso, you can build a customized subscription platform for content creators where you can allow creators to sell their exclusive content while you make money from the commissions.

Conclusion

The choice is yours now that you have all the points on OnlyFans Vs Patreon. If you believe in no restrictions with no questions asked, then OnlyFans is your go-to platform.

Whereas, if you want to build a genuine connection with your fans and get support from them in different ways and want to offer different pricing tiers, Patreon is the better choice.