Patreon vs Onlyfans: Which is the Best Platform for Content Creators

OnlyFans and Patreon are the two content creator platforms that have been dominating the creator space for the last couple of years. We sent out a quick survey asking creators which platform they would choose/like the most – OnlyFans or Patreon.

The results were,

• 25% of the creators stated they’d choose either one of the platforms without thinking much. Both seemed okay to them.
• 55% of the creators said they were confused – more like a state of Patreon vs OnlyFans
• The remaining 20% said they would look for something unique with more potential and control.

So, we thought why not come up with an in-depth article that tells the difference between OnlyFans and Patreon. Put short, an article that’s about Patreon vs OnlyFans. 

 

In this article, we’ll be talking about,

• What Is Patreon? And What Is OnlyFans?
• The pros and cons of the two social media subscription platforms
• Difference between OnlyFans vs Patreon
• Which platform is the best – OnlyFans or Patreon
• A better alternative to Patreon and OnlyFans

Remember the last 20% of the creators who wanted something unique? They totally loved the alternative solution we provided! 💯

Anyways, we’ll take a look at that in the later sections of this read. Let’s now get started with Patreon and OnlyFans.

What Is Patreon?

Patreon is a popular social media subscription platform that was found in the year 2013. The sole aim of the platform is to help content creators have a platform where they can share their creative content and monetize them.

Here are a couple of Patreon-related statistics,

• By the year 2020, Patreon had more than 6 million platform users.
• As of date, Patreon has more than 210,000 creators. 
• During the year 2020, the overall earnings of Patreon creators combined were more than 2 billion.
• Patreon, since its launch, has acquired more than $400 million in funding.

👉Know more Patreon statistics in this article.

The platform supports all kinds of categories like podcasts, music, games, writing, adult photography and more. However, Patreon doesn’t support explicit adult content.

You can know more about Patreon and how it works here.

👉What Is Patreon? How Does Patreon Work?

What Is OnlyFans?

Like Patreon, OnlyFans is also a social-media subscription platform. OnlyFans was found in the year 2016 by Tim Stokely. Since then, OnlyFans has been steadily increasing its subscriber and creator base. And the sole reason behind this is that OnlyFans supports explicit adult content whereas Patreon doesn’t.

This made OnlyFans an ideal platform for adult creators. Here are a couple of OnlyFans-related statistics,

• By September 2021, OnlyFans had an approximate 1.5 million creators.
• Top OnlyFans creators are known to make around $100,000 a month.
• Statistics say that approximately 500,000 new users join OnlyFans on a daily basis.
• OnlyFans has more than 170 million registered accounts by September 2021.
• To date, OnlyFans has paid more than $2 billion to its creators. 

You can know more about OnlyFans here.

Now that you know have a quick overview of Patreon and OnlyFans, let’s start looking at the differences.

Patreon vs OnlyFans: Differences Between the Two Subscription Platforms

In this section, we’ll be looking at the key differences between the two great social media subscription platforms.

1. Platform Popularity & Usage

OnlyFans

The adult-social media subscription platform was launched in the year 2016 but managed to gain a huge creator and user base in a very short span of time. 

OnlyFans has more than two million creators and 170 million platform users. 

Patreon

Even though Patreon was launched in the year 2013, the subscriber and user base of Patreon is less when compared to OnlyFans. 

Patreon has more than 200,000 creators and six million platform users. 

2. Contents Allowed on the Platform

Patreon

The platform allows most of the categories and has all kinds of creators on the platforms – music, video, podcasts, gaming, photography, etc. 

Patreon allows adult content but the same has to be clearly mentioned while posting the content. 

OnlyFans

Though OnlyFans allows all kinds of content, it is exclusively known for explicit adult content, making it an ideal platform for adult content creators.

OnlyFans is popularly recognized for its adult content category.

3. Payout Percentage

Patreon

The platform charges very little when compared to OnlyFans. Patreon is free to use, meaning creators don’t have to pay anything upfront to register and create a profile on the platform. 

Patreon charges 5%, 8% & 12% and is based on which plan the creator chooses on the platform – Basic, Pro, and Premium. 

OnlyFans

Adult creator profiles are the most popular profiles found on this platform. OnlyFans charges a standard 20% on all creator earnings. And the remaining 80% is completely for creators.

4. Revenue Earning Streams

Patreon

This is one of the areas where OnlyFans gains the upper hand. Patreon has only a subscription membership model as a revenue-earning stream.

OnlyFans

Creators can leverage a wide range of revenue earning streams like pay-per-view, DMs, viewer tips, etc.

5. Creator Promotion

Patreon

Since Patreon creators are mostly from the general niche, they can easily promote their content on all kinds of social media platforms with ease.

OnlyFans

Adult creators cannot post their content like creators on Patreon do. The probable reason is they might get reported or banned. Platforms like Instagram and Twitter ban accounts if they find explicit adult content being promoted.

6. Payment Options

Patreon

There are multiple payment options when it comes to Patreon. Creators can get their payments on Paypal, Stripe, Payoneer, etc.

OnlyFans

In most cases, creators on OnlyFans get their earnings credited to their bank accounts. But OnlyFans says that the payout method is based on the location of the creator. 

7. Payment Frequency

Patreon

Payments are processed on the 1st of every month. 

OnlyFans

Payments are processed every day and credited to the creator’s account within 3 – 5 business days. 

8. Customer Support

Patreon

When it comes to Patreon vs Onlyfans in terms of support, Patreon is a bit on the downside because the platform only supports live chat support.

OnlyFans

The platform provides its creators with a wide range of support modes – text, emails and phone calls.

Those are the major differences between OnlyFans and Patreon.

Patreon vs Onlyfans: The Comparison Table

We’ve come up with a Patreon vs OnlyFans comparison table so as to make sure that you don’t miss out on any differences.

Factors & Metrics	Patreon	OnlyFans
No of Platform Users	6 million+	170 million+
No of Creators Onboard	210,000+	2 million+
Contents Allowed on Platform	All categories allowed except for explicit adult content	Support all niches including explicit adult content
Payout Percentage	5%, 8%, 12% – Basic, Pro and Premium Plans	Charges flat 20% for all earnings
Revenue Earning Streams	Subscription membership model	Viewer tip, pay-per-session, subscription membership and merchandise selling
Payment Options	PayPal, Stripe, Payoneer, etc	Bank account and PayPal (depending on the region)
Payment Processing Frequency	Payment processing on the 1st of every month	Payments are processed every day and gets credited within 3 – 5 business days
Customer Support	Only Live Chat Support	Text, Email and Phone Call

There, the comparison table between OnlyFans and Patreons. Now that you know the major differences between OnlyFans and Patreon, let’s look at the pros and cons of both platforms.

Pros and Cons of Patreon

Pros

1. Lower Processing Fees: Patreon has a relatively lower processing fee when compared with OnlyFans. The processing fee varies from 5% to 12% depending on the plan the creator chooses. Also, there’s a 3% additional processing fee.
2. The Patreon Brand Value: Patreon has been in the industry for a long time now and is well recognized among writers, creators and like-minded people. When someone comes across the name Patreon, they immediately think that it’s a creative space.
3. Integration & Promotion: Patreon can easily be integrated with sites like Discord, MailChimp, WordPress, Streamlabs, etc making it easy for spreading awareness and suitable for the growth factor. Also, Patreon creators can easily promote their content on social media platforms.

Cons

1. Revenue Earning Streams: The only way to earn on Patreon is via the subscription-membership model. Patreon doesn’t have any other lucrative income streams.
2. High Scrutiny Over Creator Content: Though Patreon supports adult content, it does not allow explicit adult content. Even moderate adult content should be appropriately tagged as adult.

Pros and Cons of OnlyFans

Pros

1. Supports Explicit Adult Content: Adult creators have long needed a platform like Patreon and OnlyFans came as the perfect solution. OnlyFans supports explicit adult content on the platform without any restrictions.
2. Multiple Ways to Earn Revenue: The platform gives its creators multiple ways to make money like Subscription memberships, viewer tips, pay-per-session and more. 
3. Great Platform User Size: Though OnlyFans supports other categories, the platform is exclusively known for adult content and has an audience base of over 170 million giving high potential to the creators.

Cons

1. Higher Revenue Share: When compared with Patreon, OnlyFans takes a higher commission cut from creators. OnlyFans charges a flat 20% on all creator earnings. 
2. Hard to Promote: OnlyFans is recognized as an adult creator platform and that’s the first thing that comes to mind when someone says OnlyFans (most of the time, at least). As for promotion, it is quite hard to promote adult content on social media platforms as there exists the risk of being banned. 

 

Patreon vs OnlyFans: Which Is Better?

Well, the answer to this question depends on what kind of a creator you are. 

OnlyFans and Patreon are two popular social media subscription platforms that are unique in its own ways. Patreon provides huge growth space for creators who are into categories like music, dance, podcast, gaming, etc. Whereas OnlyFans supports and provides a huge platform for adult creators.

Both platforms win a fair share of checkboxes making both subscription platforms the best. So, like we said already, it all comes down to what type of creator you are. 

If you’re someone who is into music, gaming, or any other creative activity, you should go for Patreon because of its brand value, the lower commission percentage and the platform features. 

But if you’re an adult creator, you should go for OnlyFans because of its multiple revenue earning streams, a huge base of like-minded audience, no content restriction approach and the popularity it has gained over the time. 

So, that’s the verdict from our side for Patreon vs OnlyFans. If you think we’re going to wrap this article, you’re totally wrong.

Remember where we told about the 20% of creators totally loving an alternative solution we provided? It’s time we took a look at that!

The Best Alternative to Patreon and OnlyFans

No. The best alternative to Patreon and OnlyFans is not going to be another similar platform – it’s more than that.

The answer is creating your own OnlyFans/Patreon website using a subscription-based creator community platform script – Fanso.

Fanso

Fanso is a subscription-based creator community platform script that lets you create your own community marketplaces like Patreon OnlyFans and Cameo. The best thing about Fanso is you get 100% access to the source code meaning highly customizable, and you don’t have to pay any commission cut from your earnings. 

Here are a couple of highlight features of Fanso, 

• • 100% whitelabel solution – customize the platform, add your brand name, logo and you’re all good to go.
  • One-time payment platform – You don’t have to pay monthly platform usage fees or any commission cut from the earnings. It’s only a one-time fee.

• Multiple Earning Revenue Methods – Live streaming, eCommerce store to sell digital & physical products, custom tokens and more.

• Mobile Responsive – Make your subscription-based social creator platform mobile-ready. Fanso is mobile-responsive and works on screens of all sizes.
• Robust & Cutting Edge Tech – Fanso uses state-of-the-art technology – NodeJS, Next, React, Redux and more making the platform seamless and feature-powered. 

👉You can know more about Fanso feature here.

With Fanso, you can create your own social media subscription platform and start making revenue on the go – it’s hassle-free, you get full control of your earnings, and it is completely scalable.

Conclusion

So, that’s pretty much it about Patreon vs OnlyFans. We’ve covered the major differences between OnlyFans and Patreon based on features, payout percentage, creator & user base and more. 

👉Best OnlyFans Alternatives

👉How to Create a Website Like OnlyFans

👉How does Patreon Work?

That said, kickstart your creator profile now! Cheers!