Patreon vs Substack in 2026: both take 10%
Both charge 10%. Substack publishes every fee under it, Patreon does not. Which fits your work, and where a paid Telegram channel comes in.
Start earning from your channel
Connect a channelTL;DR. The fee is a tie. Patreon charges 10% of the income you earn on Patreon; Substack charges 10% of each transaction. Everything else differs. Substack publishes the whole stack — Stripe’s 2.9% + $0.30 and a 0.7% recurring billing fee, so a $10 subscription returns about $8.34 — and sells writing that arrives in an inbox. Patreon publishes no processing rate on its pricing page, and sells membership: tiers, native video and livestreaming, podcasts, free trials, monthly or annual billing. Both are free until money moves. A paid Telegram channel is a third shape, and the expensive one — it earns its place only for an audience already living inside Telegram.
Almost everyone arrives holding a calculator, and the calculator answers nothing: both charge the same headline percentage. What the 10% buys is not the same product, and that is the whole decision.
What the 10% is not telling you
Substack shows its working. The help centre puts the platform cut at 10% of each transaction and then names the rest: Stripe’s credit card fee of 2.9% + $0.30, plus a 0.7% billing fee on recurring subscriptions, in place since July 2024. On a $10 monthly subscription that is $1.00, then $0.59, then $0.07 — about $8.34 reaches the writer. At Substack’s own floor of $5 a month the flat 30 cents does real damage: about $4.02 survives, closer to 80 cents on the dollar than 83.
Patreon states the 10% and then “payment processing, currency conversion, and payout fees, and applicable taxes” — with no rate attached to any of the three. Its support centre refused our request as this page was written, so no Patreon processing figure appears here. What can be said is the shape: $10 becomes $9.00 after the platform cut, and processing, conversion and payout fees come off that. Any comparison that stops at “10% versus 10%” is finished on Substack’s side and unfinished on Patreon’s.
Publishing is free on both: Substack at any subscriber count, Patreon until you start earning.
Who each one is built for
Patreon is built for a creator whose supporters pay for access and proximity. Its pricing page sells membership tiers, monthly and annual subscriptions, one-time payments, native video and livestreaming, email newsletters, chats, DMs and comments, member analytics, free trials, discounts and sales, and creator-first discovery. Podcasters get importing and syncing, multiple shows, Spotify integration and RSS. Supporters can pay from PayPal and Apple Pay to Venmo and Sofort, and Patreon states 16+ currencies on payouts and pay-ins. If what you make is video, audio, art or a community — and if different people should get different things — this is the shape.
Substack is built for someone whose product is published work on a rhythm. Its own summary is “no platform fees, no tiers, no contracts”, and its pages claim 90% for the writer — its figure, not ours; the sum above lands at 83%. The pitch is not just the editor but the network attached: recommendations, Notes, trending topics, leaderboards, an app where it claims more than a million posts a day reach potential subscribers, and — the number worth weighing — 30%+ of paid subscriptions coming from within Substack’s own network, with more than half of new subscribers arriving the same way. Podcasts and live video are hosted natively through the Recording Studio, and Substack Defender adds legal support for publishers.
The split is cleaner than the feature lists suggest. Patreon sells a relationship with your existing audience. Substack sells that, plus a chance at an audience you do not have yet.
Side by side
| Patreon | Substack | |
|---|---|---|
| Platform fee | 10% of the income you earn on Patreon | 10% of each transaction |
| The rest of the stack | Processing, conversion, payout fees, taxes — no rates published on the pricing page | Stripe 2.9% + $0.30, plus 0.7% on recurring payments |
| Kept on a $10 subscriber | $9.00 after the cut, less unpublished fees | about $8.34 |
| Price floor | Not published on the pricing page | $5/month, $30/year on US-dollar Stripe accounts |
| What a reader can buy | Membership tiers, monthly and annual, one-time payments | Monthly, yearly and founding member; no yearly-only option |
| Where the work lands | Your Patreon page, plus email newsletters | The inbox, the app, and the publication’s own archive |
| Media hosted | Native video and livestreaming, podcast import, RSS, Spotify | Recording Studio podcasts, live video, subscriber chat |
| Discovery | Creator-first discovery and automated growth tools | Recommendations, Notes, leaderboards; 30%+ of paid subs from the network |
| Email list | Exportable email lists | Export from the Subscribers page at any time |
| Reader payment methods | PayPal and Apple Pay to Venmo and Sofort; 16+ currencies | Major cards; iDEAL, Bancontact, Sofort and SEPA in Europe |
Where Patreon wins
- Tiers that actually gate things. One audience, several prices, different content behind each. Substack’s structure is monthly, yearly and founding member on one publication.
- The machinery around the media. Both host video and live streams — Patreon natively, Substack in its Recording Studio — so that row ties. Patreon adds import and syncing for a show you already run, multiple shows, and RSS.
- Free trials, discounts and sales are listed features, which matters if your funnel lets people in before they pay.
- One-time payments alongside the recurring ones, for supporters who will pay once and never subscribe.
Where Substack wins
- Fee transparency. Every number in the stack is published, so you can price a subscription knowing what lands. On Patreon you price the 10% and estimate the rest.
- It brings readers. More than 30% of paid subscriptions come from inside its network. Nothing on Patreon’s page claims a share like that, and for a writer starting cold that beats any percentage point.
- The inbox. Email delivery means your work turns up whether or not the reader opens an app that day.
- The writing surface and the archive. A CMS built for longform, scheduling, media embeds and a back catalogue that works after publication day.
- Legal cover. Substack Defender is an unusual thing for a platform to fund, and it matters if you publish about people who employ lawyers.
The third option: doing it inside Telegram
If the audience you would be sending to either platform already reads you in a Telegram channel, there is a third door: sell access to the channel itself. You need a channel and a bot that is an administrator in it; the bot creates a subscription invite link priced in Stars, and Telegram then bills, renews every 30 days, handles cancellation and removes anyone who stops paying. Nothing on your side watches expiry dates. Alongside it, a single post can be unlocked with one payment, and a donation goal carries a target, running total and custom button label.
We take 0% of your sales, and the free plan runs a channel indefinitely. That number is honest and incomplete: the Stars rail keeps the rest. A buyer pays $19.99 per 1,000 Stars as a store pack or $14.10 at Telegram’s sell rate, and Telegram’s developer terms put the payout at $13.00 per 1,000 — about 65 cents on the dollar through a store pack (92 at Telegram’s own rate), against roughly 83 on Substack. The withdrawal floor of 1,000 Stars and the 21-day hold are in what withdrawing Stars actually pays.
Who should not choose it: anyone whose readers arrive by email or search, anyone who needs annual billing or tiers, anyone who has to own an exportable list, and anyone whose audience is not already in Telegram. This rail has no inbox, no web archive, no recommendation network, and no card option — Telegram policy puts digital delivery on Stars exclusively. It buys one thing: the reader pays without leaving the app they were already reading in.
If… then…
| If… | Then… |
|---|---|
| Your work is video, livestream or a tiered community | Patreon for the tiers — both host video and live, so only the gate at several prices is Patreon’s |
| You want to know the exact fee before you set a price | Substack publishes the whole stack; Patreon publishes the 10% |
| You are starting without an audience | Substack — over 30% of paid subscriptions come from its own network |
| Readers should get different things at different prices | Patreon; Substack runs one publication with monthly, yearly and founding tiers |
| You need annual revenue collected up front | Either platform. Not a Telegram channel — 30 days is the only period |
| The email list has to outlive the platform | Either — both export. A channel has no list to export |
| Your readers already live in your Telegram channel | The channel removes the trip, at about 65 cents on a store-pack dollar |
| Supporters will not or cannot buy Stars | That settles it — there is no card option for digital access to switch on |
Where to start
Pick on the shape of the work first and the fee second — the fee is a tie until you count what Patreon does not publish. If you write and want to be found, Substack. If you make things people watch and want tiers around them, Patreon. Run the Telegram version as an addition, never a migration: put a 30-day subscription in the $4–25 band behind your free channel’s pinned message and compare both doors after one cycle, net of everything.
The full ledger against each platform on its own is in Patreon alternatives and Substack alternatives. The tip-jar-sized version of the same trade is Buy Me a Coffee and Ko-fi alternatives, and the head-to-head between those two is Ko-fi vs Patreon. The mechanics of the third option are in how to create a paid Telegram channel; to run one, start at the channel page. The Telegram Stars calculator puts a $10 subscription on both sides of that spread.
Patreon fees, earning methods, formats, currencies and the free-to-start policy: patreon.com/pricing, checked September 2026. Patreon’s support centre returned HTTP 403 to our requests, so no processing, conversion or payout rate is printed here. Substack’s 10%, Stripe’s 2.9% + $0.30 and the 0.7% recurring billing fee, plus the free-to-publish policy and European payment methods: How much does Substack cost, checked September 2026. Subscription minimums, yearly and founding member plans: How do I set up a paid publication, checked September 2026. Network share, the 90% figure, hosted media and Substack Defender: substack.com/about and substack.com/going-paid, checked September 2026. Star payout rate: Telegram’s terms for bot developers, section 6.2.4.
What people usually ask
- Do Patreon and Substack charge the same fee?
- The headline is identical. Patreon's pricing page says 10% of the income you earn on Patreon. Substack's help centre says 10% of each transaction. The difference sits under the headline: Substack names Stripe's 2.9% plus 30 cents and the 0.7% recurring billing fee, while Patreon's pricing page lists payment processing, currency conversion and payout fees without publishing any rate for them.
- Which one leaves more of a 10 dollar monthly subscription?
- On Substack the sum is public: 1 dollar to Substack, 29 cents plus a flat 30 cents to Stripe, and 7 cents of billing fee, so about 8.34 dollars reaches the writer. On Patreon the 10% leaves 9 dollars and processing, conversion and payout come off after that. Patreon does not publish those rates on its pricing page, so the final number is not one you can work out before signing up.
- Can I bill supporters annually on either platform?
- Yes, on both. Patreon lists monthly and annual subscriptions among its earning methods. Substack asks you to set a monthly, a yearly and a founding member price, and says it does not offer a yearly-only plan. Annual billing is also the one thing a paid Telegram channel cannot copy, because Telegram fixes the subscription period at 30 days.
- Do I own the email list on Patreon or Substack?
- On both. Patreon lists exportable email lists as a feature, and Substack lets you export your email list from the Subscribers page whenever you want. A paid Telegram channel gives you neither. Subscribers there are Telegram accounts, and there is no file to download and carry to another platform.
- Which is better for video and podcasts?
- Patreon advertises native video and livestreaming, podcast importing and syncing, Spotify integration and RSS distribution. Substack hosts podcasts in its own Recording Studio, supports live video and a subscriber chat, and publishes episodes to Apple, Spotify and YouTube with premium episodes for paid subscribers. Both host. Choose on where your audience already watches and listens, not on the longer feature list.
- Is a paid Telegram channel cheaper than either of them?
- No. Our cut is 0%, but the Stars rail keeps about 35% of a store-pack dollar: a buyer pays 19.99 dollars per 1,000 Stars as a store pack or 14.10 at Telegram's sell rate and Telegram's developer terms put the payout at 0.013, so around 65 cents of every dollar spent through a store pack reaches you (92 cents at Telegram's own rate). Patreon and Substack both leave you more. A channel wins on the checkout, never on the fee.