Best Patreon Alternative for Writers in 2026

For writers in 2026, the best Patreon alternative depends on the product: use Substack for a paid newsletter, Gumroad for one-time ebooks or templates, and Brillay for one-off paid reader requests such as manuscript feedback, recommendations, or Personalized Videos. Ko-fi is the strongest fit when a low-fee tip jar is the priority. Custom Work lets you offer clearly scoped commissions and services: you set the price, the scope and the delivery time, and followers submit a brief and pay before you start.

Platforms change pricing and features, so confirm current numbers on each tool’s pricing page before deciding. Brillay’s current terms are available on Brillay’s pricing page.

• Best for a paid newsletter: Substack takes 10% of paid subscription revenue and enforces a minimum subscription price of $5 per month and $30 per year, according to Substack's cost explainer and paid-publication setup guide.
• Best for a one-time product: Gumroad charges 10% + $0.50 per direct sale, 30% on a sale sourced through Gumroad Discover, and $0 per month, according to Gumroad's pricing page.
• Best for one-off paid reader requests: Brillay charges 8% when a follower pays for work and 5% on tips and goals, with no monthly fee and no follower minimum, according to Brillay's pricing page.
• Best simple tip jar: Ko-fi's Standard plan costs $0 per month with a 5% service fee, and Ko-fi Gold costs $12 per month with a 0% service fee on all payment types, according to Ko-fi's pricing page.

What are writers actually replacing when they leave Patreon?

Writers leaving Patreon are usually replacing one of four jobs: a recurring paid content feed, a one-time product sale, an individual reader request, or a voluntary tip. Patreon's standard platform fee is 10% of earnings on creator pages published after August 4, 2025, while legacy pages may remain on 5%, 8%, or 11% plans. A follower pays once for one question, one commission or one video, and nothing is owed afterwards — so the people who were never going to subscribe can still pay you, beside the Patreon you already run.

Patreon's 10% standard platform fee, and the legacy 5%, 8%, and 11% plans some older creator pages remain on, are both published on Patreon's creator fees overview and in Patreon's notice that a standard platform fee applies to creators who started after August 4, 2025. Patreon can support recurring memberships, tiered benefits, posts, messaging, and one-time purchases, according to Patreon's own tiers and benefits guide.

Three further Patreon figures matter to a writer costing out a move:

• Patreon charges USD creators a flat payment-processing rate of 2.9% + $0.30 per commerce transaction on top of the platform fee, according to Patreon's how payments reach you help article.
• A Patreon creator who started selling digital products before May 26, 2025 may still pay a 5% fee on one-time purchases, while creators who started after that date pay the standard rate, according to Patreon's creator fees FAQ.
• A one-time purchase a reader makes inside Patreon's iOS app using Apple in-app payment is subject to Apple's 30% App Store fee, according to Patreon's iOS in-app payment guide for one-time purchases.

The practical question is which writer job needs replacing:

• A recurring paid content feed: serialized fiction, early chapters, or a subscriber-only column.
• A one-time product sale: an ebook, short-story collection, query-letter template, or course.
• A one-off reader request: manuscript feedback, a personalized recommendation, or a book-club shoutout.
• Tips: Tips let followers send a one-time thank-you, with nothing for you to deliver and no membership for them to join.

Patreon can accommodate parts of all four through tiers, posts, one-time Shop purchases, and messages, and Patreon charges no fee to list a product for sale, applying fees only to successfully processed payments, per Patreon's one-time purchases guide. Patreon’s published plans do not describe a built-in way to set a fixed price and clear scope for requests such as chapter feedback or a book-club shoutout. Writers may be able to construct workarounds, but that is different from using a purpose-built paid-request format. A Patreon Shop buyer must create or use a Patreon account; on Brillay, the reader pays by card as a guest, with no Brillay signup between deciding and paying.

Release schedules also vary by writer. If you publish every week, recurring billing may fit naturally. If you spend months querying, editing, or working between releases, a subscription can require benefits during periods when there is little new public work. That is a planning consideration, not a universal claim about how writers publish or how readers behave. Musicians face a similar gap between albums or tours; the best Patreon alternative for musicians walks through how that release-to-release lull affects the same subscription-versus-one-off choice.

The most useful comparison therefore separates the jobs: Substack for newsletters, Gumroad for product sales, Brillay for paid requests designed for writers, and Ko-fi for tips.

This guide compares those five because each maps to one of the four jobs above. Ghost and Memberful run subscription publishing similar to Substack, Buy Me a Coffee overlaps with Ko-fi’s tip-and-membership model, and Kickstarter fits a one-time crowdfunded project rather than an ongoing storefront; writers considering those should check pricing directly on each platform’s own site, since terms fall outside this comparison’s scope.

How do the fees compare across writer platforms?

Across the five platforms a writer is most likely to compare, the headline platform fees are 10% of earnings on a standard Patreon page, 10% of subscription revenue on Substack, 10% + $0.50 per direct sale on Gumroad, 5% on Ko-fi's free Standard plan, and 8% on Brillay when a follower pays for work and 5% on tips and goals.

Two figures in that table are easy to misread. Gumroad's 30% Discover rate is triple the 10% part of its 10% + $0.50 direct rate, so a writer who sells mainly through their own newsletter link keeps materially more per book. And Ko-fi Gold's $12 per month only pays for itself once a writer's monthly Ko-fi volume exceeds $240, because 5% of $240 is exactly $12.

Brillay's own process for pricing, accepting, and delivering a single paid request from a follower is set out in how Brillay works.

Is Substack the right choice for serialized writing?

Substack is the right choice when readers pay for a continuing stream of prose — serialized fiction, a weekly essay, early chapters, or a subscriber-only column. It takes 10% of paid subscription revenue, requires a minimum price of $5 per month or $30 per year, and adds Stripe's card processing on top.

Substack charges 10% of paid subscription revenue, while Stripe charges 2.9% + $0.30 for card processing and 0.7% for recurring billing, according to Substack's cost explainer. The minimum subscription price on Substack is $5 per month and $30 per year for US-dollar Stripe accounts, so a writer cannot open a $1 or $2 monthly tier, according to Substack's paid-publication setup guide.

Applying those published rates to Substack's own $5 monthly floor: the 10% Substack fee is $0.50, Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30 is $0.445, and the 0.7% recurring-billing fee is $0.035, leaving the writer about $4.02 of a $5 subscription — roughly 80% — before any taxes. At Substack's $30 annual minimum the same published rates take about $4.38 in total ($3.00 platform, $1.17 Stripe, $0.21 billing), leaving roughly $25.62, because the flat $0.30 is charged once a year rather than twelve times.

The key distinction is its subscription-centered model. A writer who wants to charge for ongoing access to a newsletter is using Substack as intended. A writer who wants to quote and fulfill a personalized critique, recommendation, or shoutout may prefer a separate paid-request workflow instead of turning that request into an ongoing subscription.

For a direct comparison, see Patreon vs. Substack. For revenue scenarios at different subscriber counts, see how much Substack writers actually make.

When does selling a book on Gumroad make more sense?

Selling on Gumroad makes more sense than a subscription whenever the writer has a finished thing to hand over: an ebook, a short-story collection, a query-letter template, a self-editing checklist, or a course. Gumroad charges 10% + $0.50 on a direct sale, 30% on a Gumroad Discover sale, and $0 per month. Brillay starts before that finished thing exists: the writer publishes the scope, price, and delivery time for a request, then can accept the paid order before creating the result.

Gumroad charges 10% + $0.50 on a direct sale from the writer's own link and 30% on a sale that comes through the Gumroad Discover marketplace, with no monthly plan fee, according to Gumroad's pricing page. Gumroad also holds earnings until the account reaches a minimum balance of $100 USD, and sellers choose a daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly payout timing, according to Gumroad's getting paid help article — a threshold worth knowing before a writer counts on ebook income arriving in a given month.

The direct-sale fee should not be described as lower than Patreon’s 10% platform fee before processing. At common price points:

• On a $10 direct Gumroad sale, the 10% + $0.50 fee is $1.50, leaving $8.50.
• On a $20 direct Gumroad sale, the 10% + $0.50 fee is $2.50, leaving $17.50.
• Patreon’s 10% standard platform fee would be $1 on $10 or $2 on $20, leaving $9 or $18 before Patreon’s separate payment-processing and other applicable fees.

Those examples are not a final all-in comparison because Patreon’s processing charges vary by transaction and plan. They do show why “10% + $0.50 is below 10%” is mathematically incorrect.

Gumroad also supports recurring products, so it should not be characterized as having no membership tooling. The narrower distinction is that Gumroad is being recommended here for storefront checkout and product delivery; a bespoke request such as “please review my first chapter” may still require the writer to define and manage the intake, scope, and response process separately.

Where does Brillay fit for a working writer?

Brillay fits the one-off paid requests followers already send by direct message: a chapter critique, a reading recommendation, a book-club shoutout, a question about querying. You set the price and delivery time. Followers pay upfront; you can decline a request. No monthly fee, you only pay a small platform fee when you get paid. 8% platform fee when a follower pays for work, 5% platform fee on tips and goals. Card processing is separate.

Those are requests readers or fellow writers might otherwise send through direct messages, priced individually by the writer and paid once rather than folded into a recurring tier:

• “Will you give feedback on my opening pages?”
• “What should I read after this book?”
• “Can you record a shoutout for our book club?”
• “How did you approach querying or finding an agent?”

If you are thinking, “Will my readers actually pay for this?”, test one book-club Personalized Video or one clearly priced question before building a membership.

Brillay has no creator follower minimum and nothing for a writer to apply for. Five practical details decide whether Brillay suits a working writer:

• Followers pay by card as guests, with no Brillay account or app needed. For Personalized Videos and other paid requests, followers pay before you do the work; you deliver on your own time.
• You set the delivery time: send one written answer, deliver one video through Personalized Videos, or complete one Custom Work order — no live call, no scheduling.
• A writer can decline any request they do not want to take on.
• Brillay uses Stripe to process payments, but writers manage money going to their bank inside Brillay rather than through a separate Stripe dashboard; creator payouts are supported in 41 countries.
• Because the 8% fee for work and 5% fee for tips and goals attach only to paid orders, a Brillay page costs a writer $0 during the months they are drafting or querying and selling nothing.

Clear scope helps prevent scope creep: Paid Questions include one typed question and one written reply, Personalized Videos include one video, and Custom Work includes one defined deliverable. Readers pay upfront, so you do not have to chase an invoice before delivery; payment disputes can still happen.

Applied to a real price point, Brillay's published 8% fee on paid work takes $3.20 from a $40 chapter critique and leaves the writer $36.80 before payment processing, and takes $1.20 from a $15 book-club shoutout and leaves $13.80 before payment processing.

This is a different pricing model from Patreon, not automatically a cheaper version of Patreon. Patreon’s standard 10% platform fee (pricing) is higher than Brillay’s 8% fee for work and 5% fee on tips and goals; Patreon creators on legacy 5% plans pay the same as Brillay’s tips-and-goals rate, while those on legacy 8% plans pay the same as Brillay’s work rate. Brillay’s distinction is that the charge is attached to a single paid interaction rather than recurring access to a membership feed.

Writers can use Paid Questions for individualized questions such as “how did you land your agent?” and Personalized Videos for book-club messages or release-day dedications. The guide to how writers and BookTok creators make money explains which request types map to each offer.

A writer can keep Substack for a newsletter and Gumroad for an ebook, while putting Personalized Videos, Tips, and other Brillay offers behind one Brillay link. Visual creators weighing the same three-way split can see how it plays out in the best Patreon alternative for artists.

Which platforms are free for writers to keep open?

All five platforms are free to open: Patreon, Substack, Gumroad, and Brillay each cost $0 per month and charge only when money moves, and Ko-fi's Standard plan is $0 per month as well. The single fixed cost in this comparison is Ko-fi Gold, at $12 per month.

Ko-fi's Standard plan costs $0 per month and applies a flat 5% service fee across one-time tips, monthly tips, shop sales, commissions, and memberships, while Ko-fi Gold costs $12 per month and removes the service fee on all payment types, according to Ko-fi's does Ko-fi take a fee? help article and Ko-fi's pricing page.

A writer could offer first-chapter feedback through Ko-fi Commissions, which is free to set up and carries the same 5% fee on commission payments, with no service fee for Ko-fi Gold creators, according to Ko-fi's what are Ko-fi Commissions? help article. That approach uses a general commission tool rather than a writer-specific critique or shoutout format.

Brillay, Substack, and Gumroad each cost $0 per month to open, per Brillay’s pricing page, Substack’s cost explainer, and Gumroad’s pricing page. Their transaction-based charges apply when a reader pays, a subscriber joins, or a product sells. Brillay specifically charges no monthly creator fee and applies an 8% platform fee when a follower pays for work and a 5% platform fee on tips and goals.

Frequently asked questions

Should a serialized-fiction writer choose Substack or Brillay?

Choose Substack when readers are paying to receive the fiction itself on a recurring basis. Substack charges 10% of subscription revenue, plus Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30 processing fee and a 0.7% recurring-billing fee, according to Substack's cost explainer, and its minimum paid-subscription price is $5 per month or $30 per year, according to Substack's paid-publication setup guide.

Choose Brillay for separate, one-off requests generated by that readership, such as feedback on another writer's draft or a personalized book-club shoutout; Brillay charges 8% when a follower pays for work, 5% on tips and goals, and no monthly fee, according to Brillay's pricing page. Writers can run both at once, because a Substack subscription and a single paid request are separate transactions.

What does it cost to sell a query-letter template or writing course?

Gumroad charges 10% + $0.50 for a direct sale from the writer’s own link and 30% when the buyer comes through Gumroad Discover, according to Gumroad’s pricing page.

At a $10 direct-sale price, the fee is $1.50 and the writer receives $8.50. At a $20 direct-sale price, the fee is $2.50 and the writer receives $17.50. Gumroad then holds those earnings until the account balance reaches $100 USD, with the seller choosing a daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly payout timing, according to Gumroad's getting paid help article.

Do writers need a following to use Brillay?

No. Brillay has no creator follower or subscriber minimum and no monthly fee, and its platform fee is 8% when a follower pays for work and 5% on tips and goals. Followers pay as guests, with no Brillay account or app needed, so a writer with a small mailing list can be paid by someone who has never heard of the platform.

Is Brillay cheaper than Patreon for writers?

Not automatically. Patreon's standard platform fee is 10% of earnings (creator fees overview), while Brillay's platform fee is 8% for work and 5% on tips and goals; legacy Patreon creators on 5% plans match Brillay's tips-and-goals rate, and those on 8% plans match Brillay's work rate. Neither figure is the all-in cost: Patreon adds a flat USD payment-processing rate of 2.9% + $0.30 per commerce transaction on top of its platform fee (how payments reach you). Brillay is for a different transaction: a single paid request from a follower rather than recurring access to a membership feed.

What should writers read next?

For a direct comparison, see Brillay vs. Patreon. For options beyond writing, see Best Patreon Alternatives for Creators in 2026. For newsletter revenue scenarios, see How Much Do Substack Writers Actually Make?.

Brillay’s model stays the same regardless of audience size: the platform fee is 8% when a follower pays for work and 5% on tips and goals, and nothing is owed while a page sits idle between releases.

For a writer whose readers want a single paid interaction rather than a monthly subscription — feedback on a chapter, a recommendation, a Personalized Video for their book club — Brillay is the platform built around that specific job. Create your free Brillay page.