🆚 Patreon vs. Substack

Compare technologies based on real-world usage data *

📈 Patreon is slightly more popular than Substack.
🌎 Patreon is more popular in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany.
🌎 Substack is more popular in Italy, Spain, and Brazil.

Patreon

Substack

Type

Donation tool

Social media platform

About

Patreon is a membership platform that allows creators to run a subscription-based service for their content and sell digital products directly to their most dedicated fans.

It lets creators set up multiple membership tiers or one-time purchases, publish exclusive posts, videos or audio, manage payments and payouts, host media, and offer community tools like chats and polls.

Substack is a social media platform for writers and journalists that supports subscription newsletters and monetization.

Headquarters

San Francisco, California, United States

Website

patreon.com #47

substack.com #321

Pricing

Standard platform fee10%

Legacy platform feesPro8%
Premium12%

Payment processingUSD2.9%-3.9% + $0.30
EUR3.4% + €0.35
GBP3.4% + £0.35

For writersPlatform fee10%
Payment processingBilling fee0.7%
Credit card fee2.9% + $0.30 per transaction fee

For readersFree version ✔️
Set by writers

Popularity

Determined by the number of sites using each technology.

The Patreon donation tool is 1.2 times more popular than Substack.

Total websites

Market share

Subscriptions

Popularity by country

Determined by the number of sites detected from each country.

Patreon is more popular in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany, while Substack is more popular in Italy, Spain, and Brazil.

United States

United Kingdom

Germany

Canada

France

Netherlands

Italy

Spain

Australia

Russia

Awards

🥇 Most popular in the United States in the Donations category.
🥇 Most popular in Canada in the Donations category.
🥇 Most popular in the Netherlands in the Donations category.
🥇 Most popular in Ukraine in the Donations category.
🥇 Most popular in Sweden in the Donations category.

🥉 Third most popular in Italy in the Subscriptions category.
⭐ 4th most popular in the United States in the Subscriptions category.
⭐ 4th most popular in Canada in the Subscriptions category.
⭐ 4th most popular in France in the Subscriptions category.
⭐ 4th most popular in Spain in the Subscriptions category.

Popularity by domain category

Determined by the number of sites in each category.

Patreon is more popular among sites focused on entertainment, games, and software and hardware, while Substack is more commonly used on blogs and wiki, marketing and merchandising, and business sites.

Blogs/Wiki

Entertainment

Games

Marketing/Merchandising

Business

Education/Reference

General News

Sports

Software/Hardware

Politics/Opinion