New Patreon Fees & Alternatives
UPDATE: Due to mass rebel, Patreon has scrapped the new fee system and will stick with the old one.
Original post below.
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Patreon recently announced a major change to their fee structure, and will start charging you more than what you pledged to pay.
Before this change, the Patreon fee and transaction processing fees (from PayPal and credit card companies) were deducted from your pledge before it was sent to me. This meant if you pledged $1, you would be charged $1 and I would receive about $0.85.
The new fee structure adds a flat fee on top of your pledge ($0.35) as well as charging you the transaction fee (2.9%). This means if you pledge $1, you will be charged $1.38, and I will receive $0.95.
Here's a chart that visualizes the change nicely:
With pledges greater than $1 the difference is less dramatic, but still I do not like this idea of charging you for the privilege of supporting me, and I especially do not like that none of this is mentioned when signing up to make the pledge: you would only find out about it at the end of the month when you are charged more than you expect.
Already a number of patrons have cancelled their pledges due to this change. I completely understand and am considering the same action for the creators that I personally support.
Solution? Alternative?
Currently there is no exact alternative to Patreon, so I have no immediate plans to jump ship.
For the time being, I have joined Liberapay, which works similarly to Patreon but without any fees (other than for payment processing), and all donations are anonymous.
I'm not asking everyone to boycott Patreon. Only if this new fee system bothers you, consider switching to support me on Liberapay instead.
In terms of progress towards the Patreon goals, I will simply add the donations from Liberapay to the current amount on Patreon manually to determine if a goal has been met. I'll investigate if there is a more automatic way to show this sum on hdrihaven.com as well.
If anyone has any ideas for how to handle this in the coming months, if there is a good alternative, please let me know in the comments.
If you'd prefer to make a once-off donation, there are now various options available too.
Thanks for your continued support and understanding :)
-Greg
Comments (13)
Couldn't stay away if I tried, Greg. ;-)
Well, they finally came to their senses so I renewed my pledge. I was tempted to just wash my hands of those greedy hypocritical bastards, but the fact is Patreon is an easy & convenient way to support artists. But I'll be keeping suspicious, jaundiced eye on them in the future.
Agreed, they've lost some of my trust with all this, but the fact remains there is no true and easy-to-switch-to alternative. Thanks for coming back :)
For what it's worth, I just pulled my $10/mo patronage, and from now on will continue to support you, at the same rate, using Liberapay. Why bother when the total cost to me will remain the same? Because then I won't have to deal with Patreon's sleaze factor: trying to make what's obviously a money grab look like a GOOD THING for creators like you.
Hi! Can you make picture for 10usd to compare?
It's late, math brain is asleep but I think... $10 used to be: You're charged $10, I get $8.50. New fees will mean: You're charged $10.64, I get $9.50
There's a more direct but less automated solution: Paypal.
A Paypal transaction is 2.9% plus $0.30 USD, I believe
Im alright, but its poor form on the part of patreon. KICKSTARTER'S Patreon clone is called drip but thats in beta. Keep up the good work Greg!
Kickstarter is only available in a few countries (not mine), so I suspect it'll be the same for Drip.
There is a fee chart on Liberapay that says for US dollar, adding money is: 2.925% + $0.35 (in About-FAQ-Fees), and Patreons new payment is: 2.9% + $0.35...so is it just that they are now equal? I also am fine with this. Thanks for the great work!
I didn't look into that, but I guess that makes sense. The difference is that Liberapay is up-front about you paying the transaction fees, whereas it seems on Patreon you'll be surprised by it when the payment is made at the end of the month. They will hopefully fix this when the change is actually implemented on the 18th. Edit: Also, Liberapay works by adding money to a wallet once, and then feeding that to the creator periodically, meaning you only pay the transaction fee once for several months' worth of payments.
Thanks, Greg. Personally, I have no problem with paying a bit more to support you. You’re doing great work.