Comparison
CoFunders vs Patreon
Patreon funds a person continuously; CoFunders funds one thing once. If you want monthly income from an audience that already follows you, Patreon is the right product and this page will not talk you out of it.
Fees, side by side
- Patreon
- 10% of what you earn, plus payment processing, currency conversion and payout fees
- CoFunders
- 1.5% + $0.99 per pledge on the free plan (2.49% on a $100 pledge), down to 0.5% on the top plan
Their published rate, read on 2026-09-05. Check it yourself
What they do better
- Recurring revenue. A membership that renews every month is a fundamentally better living than a campaign that ends, and nothing here replaces it.
- It suits continuous output — a podcast, a comic, a stream, an artist who ships something every week rather than one finished object.
- The relationship is the product. Tiers, posts and direct access to an audience are what people pay for, and we have none of that.
- An audience that already understands the model, and a creator base large enough that being on it is unremarkable.
What we do differently
- A defined thing with a defined price. Some projects are not a subscription: they are one object that costs a known amount to make, and asking for a monthly pledge towards it is the wrong shape.
- Money is protected until the goal is met. A Patreon that never reaches a useful size still charges patrons every month; a campaign here that misses its goal returns everything.
- It works without an existing audience. A reward gives a stranger a reason to back you, where a membership mostly converts people who already follow you.
- Fees are not comparable line by line, but ours are charged once on money raised rather than every month on everything you earn.
Where we are the worse choice
- We are not a membership platform. There is no recurring pledge, no patron tier and no ongoing relationship, and if that is what you need then we do not do it at any price.
- For continuous creative work, a campaign with a deadline is the wrong instrument. You would be running a new one every few months, which is exhausting and gets worse each time.
- Our flat $0.99 means small pledges cost proportionally more here. At the $10 minimum a backer pays 11.4% — worse than Kickstarter's roughly 5.5% on a pledge that size. We become cheaper at around $30 and much cheaper above $100, where we take 2.49% against their 8–10%.
- Their audience and discovery are far ahead of ours.
Which to pick
Pick Patreon if people are paying for you — your ongoing work, your access, your presence. Pick CoFunders if people are paying for a thing: it has a cost, a deadline and a finished state, and everyone should get their money back if it does not get made.