European Alternatives to Patreon
Looking for a European alternative to Patreon? The Patreon terms of use state that "we" refers to Patreon, Inc., headquartered at 600 Townsend Street, San Francisco, and most disputes are resolved in San Francisco under California law. Patreon lists 10% of the income you earn plus payment processing, currency conversion and payout fees.
The European tools below run from Germany, France, the UK, Poland, the Netherlands and Lithuania, publish their fees in euros or local currency where stated, and range from paid tiers and newsletters to pure recurring donations.
How we rank these tools — 4-step process
-
1
European ownership, verified
The company is headquartered and incorporated in the EU, EEA, the UK, Switzerland or Israel, and processes customer data in Europe or Israel. A US parent company disqualifies a tool from this page regardless of where its servers are.
-
2
Category fit and hands-on review
What the tool actually does, who it suits, and where it falls short — checked against the vendor’s own documentation, changelog and pricing page rather than its marketing copy.
-
3
Compliance and pricing check
GDPR posture, hosting location and the prices quoted on this page are verified against the vendor’s public pricing before publication, and re-checked when we revisit the category.
-
4
Position on this page
Placement on this page can be paid, and that can affect which tools appear here and the order they appear in. It never buys a good review: a tool that fails the checks above is not here at any price, and payment does not change the shortcomings we write about. A vendor can ask us to correct a factual error — not to remove a criticism.
Vendors can pay for visibility on this page. It never changes what an entry says about a product, including the criticism, and we earn nothing when you click through to a vendor. Vendors can pay for more visibility, higher up on the review pages; it never affects which tools are listed. Editorial policy
11 European Alternatives to Patreon
Steady
Berlin membership and paid newsletter platform with SEPA
Ko-fi
UK creator page for tips, memberships and shop sales
Ghost
Open source publishing platform with native paid memberships
Liberapay
French non-profit for recurring donations, no platform cut
Patronite
Warsaw patronage platform for Polish-language creators
Writizzy
French blog and newsletter platform with zero commission
Petje.af
Dutch fan memberships for podcasters and makers
Donably
Donation pages with no transaction or monthly fee
Sellfy
Lithuanian store for digital products with 0% transaction fees
Contribee
Kaunas platform for creator support and fundraisers
Payhip
London store for downloads with a free plan at 5%
Key takeaways
- Patreon, Inc. is based in San Francisco, and its terms send most disputes to San Francisco courts under California law.
- Patreon's pricing page lists 10% of earned income, with processing, currency conversion and payout fees charged separately.
- Liberapay, a French non-profit, takes no cut of payments, but its FAQ says gifts cannot be tied to a contract, so tiers and locked posts are impossible.
- Ghost is the only tool on this page that is MIT-licensed and self-hostable, and it charges no revenue share on subscriptions.
- Steady in Berlin offers SEPA direct debit for paid memberships, and it works on top of an existing website.
Why people leave Patreon
Patreon is a membership platform where fans pay creators a monthly amount for posts, perks and community access. The company behind it is Patreon, Inc., and its terms of use, last updated on 27 May 2026, put its address at 600 Townsend Street in San Francisco. Podcasters, video makers, musicians, artists and game developers are the groups its own site addresses first.
The contract is the part many European creators only read after they have built an audience. Patreon's terms say most disputes are settled in San Francisco under California law. Payments for purchases are handled by Patreon Ireland Limited, or by Patreon DLC Limited for United Kingdom buyers, and the same terms say Patreon may have to report information to jurisdictions outside the United States.
That is the legal picture, but the reasons creators leave are usually practical. Patreon lists 10% of the income you earn, with payment processing, currency conversion and payout fees on top. A creator who earns in euros from European fans looks at that stack of fees, at a contract written for California, and starts asking what a European platform would do differently.
- The platform fee is a percentage of everything you earn Patreon's pricing page lists 10% of the income you earn. Processing, currency conversion and payout fees are charged separately. A percentage grows with your success, so the same creator pays Patreon twice as much when income doubles. Ghost, Writizzy and Sellfy charge a flat subscription instead, and Liberapay takes no cut at all, so the comparison is worth running with your own monthly income.
- Disputes go to San Francisco Under Patreon's terms, most disagreements between you and the company are resolved in the courts of San Francisco under California law. A Dutch, French or Lithuanian creator would face a court in a different country and legal system. The European alternatives name courts at home: Petje.af points to Dutch law, Contribee to Lithuanian law and Patronite is a registered Polish company.
- Currency conversion is a separate cost Patreon lists currency conversion as its own fee line. A creator who prices tiers in euros and has fans in several countries meets that line often. Steady sells to German-speaking readers with SEPA direct debit, and Patronite takes BLIK and Polish bank transfers, so the payment method matches the fan's habit and no card conversion step is needed.
- Your audience lives inside one company's walls A Patreon page keeps your members, their payment relationship and your post history in Patreon's system. Ghost lets you connect your own Stripe account and self-host under the MIT licence, and Writizzy states that content can be exported and imported. Moving an audience is the hard part of any switch, so choose the destination before the fan base grows further.
What you have to replace, not just match
Patreon bundles several jobs that European tools mostly split apart. It hosts the creator page, runs the recurring payments, gates the posts by tier and sends updates to members. On its website it also lists newsletters, digital product sales, a mobile app and an integrations directory, with a Find a Creator search that lets fans discover pages.
Tiers and gated posts need a home first. Steady, Ghost, Writizzy, Petje.af and Ko-fi all support some form of paid membership, while Liberapay and Donably handle recurring gifts without locked content. Decide whether your fans buy access or simply give, because that choice removes half the list.
Discovery cannot be copied. None of the European tools on this page runs a marketplace comparable to Patreon's creator search, and Steady and Ghost both state that every member has to be found by you. Plan to bring your existing fans along through your own newsletter, website and social channels rather than expecting a new platform to supply them.
The alternatives compared
| Position | Tool | Headquarters | Pricing | Jurisdiction |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Steady | Berlin, Germany | Revenue share on membership income; no monthly fee | EU (Germany) |
| #2 | Ko-fi | Letchworth Garden City, United Kingdom | The terms we read give no fee rates; check the website | United Kingdom, covered by an adequacy decision but outside the EEA |
| #3 | Ghost | London, United Kingdom | Free self-hosted / Ghost(Pro) from about $9/month, no revenue share | United Kingdom (adequacy decision, outside the EEA) |
| #4 | Liberapay | Querrien, France | No cut of payments; payment processor fees apply (the FAQ reports average fees of about 3% for Stripe and 5% for PayPal) | EU (France) |
| #5 | Patronite | Warsaw, Poland | Service fee of 6.5% of support received plus VAT, plus payment operator fees (Tpay 0.8%, PayPal 2.9% + 1.35 PLN, Imoje 1% for recurring cards); fee table read in the Polish terms | EU (Poland) |
| #6 | Writizzy | Champagne-au-Mont-d'Or, France | Free EUR 0 (100 subscribers); Starter EUR 9 a month; Premium from EUR 20 a month; no commission on earnings | EU (France) |
| #7 | Petje.af | Wageningen, Netherlands | Creator fees not stated on the pages we read; creators connect their own payment provider | EU (Netherlands) |
| #8 | Donably | Preston, United Kingdom | Donably states no transaction fees, no monthly fees and no VAT; the payment provider's costs still apply | United Kingdom (adequacy decision, outside the EEA) |
| #9 | Sellfy | Vilnius, Lithuania | Starter at $29 monthly (or $22 when paid yearly), Business at $79 ($59 yearly), Premium at $159 ($119 yearly). Transaction fees are 0% and a 14-day free trial is offered | EU member state Lithuania |
| #10 | Contribee | Kaunas, Lithuania | not shown on the pages we read | EU (Lithuania) |
| #11 | Payhip | London, United Kingdom | Three tiers: a Free Forever plan at $0 a month with 5% taken per sale, Plus at $29 a month with 2% per sale, and Pro at $99 a month with no transaction fee. PayPal and Stripe bill their own processing rates in addition | United Kingdom, covered by an adequacy decision but outside the EEA |
How each alternative compares to Patreon
Best for: Journalists, podcasters and small publications in German-speaking Europe with their own website
Steady is operated by Steady Media GmbH in Berlin and has handled memberships for independent media since 2016. Against Patreon, its main difference is the payment mix. SEPA direct debit and other methods German and Austrian readers expect sit next to cards, whereas a card-first checkout loses some of those readers before they pay.
Steady does not host your content. It attaches memberships and a paywall to a site you already run, including WordPress and Ghost. Patreon, by contrast, wants the creator page to be the home of the posts. The price model is a revenue share on membership income with no monthly fee.
What Steady does better than Patreon
- SEPA direct debit for recurring payments in the German market
- Memberships on top of your own website instead of a Patreon page
- German company with EU data location
- No monthly fee to start
Where Steady is a step down from Patreon
- Revenue share costs more as income grows
- No publishing tools of its own and no audience discovery
- Reach and brand recognition concentrated in German-speaking Europe
Standout against Patreon. Steady is the one tool here designed around how German-speaking readers prefer to pay.
Best for: Artists and writers who mix tips, a few memberships and occasional product sales
Ko-fi is run by Ko-fi Labs Limited, incorporated in England on 29 November 2017. Its terms list four income types: tips, memberships, commissions and shop sales. A Patreon page is organised around the monthly membership, so Ko-fi suits artists whose income arrives in smaller, mixed pieces rather than one recurring pledge.
The fee side is unclear. Ko-fi's terms say service fees are deducted by a third-party payment provider at rates listed on the site, and we could not read those rates. Compare the net amount on a real transaction before moving. The terms give the English courts exclusive jurisdiction, and the United Kingdom sits outside the EU.
What Ko-fi does better than Patreon
- Tips, memberships, commissions and shop on a single page
- A simple setup for an individual creator
- English law instead of California law
Where Ko-fi is a step down from Patreon
- Fee rates were not readable in the terms we checked
- UK company, outside the EU, with data location not stated
- Memberships are one feature among several, not the whole product
Standout against Patreon. Ko-fi lets a creator take a commission order and a monthly membership through the same page.
Best for: Writers and publishers who want a full website with paid tiers and no revenue share
Ghost is a publishing system owned by the Ghost Foundation, a non-profit in London, and released under the MIT licence. Free and paid tiers, member-only posts and email newsletters are part of the core software. You connect your own Stripe account, so subscription money goes to you minus Stripe's fees and your hosting bill.
Compared with Patreon, that changes who owns the relationship with each paying reader. Ghost(Pro) starts at about $9 a month, and a self-hosted install is free. Ghost also supports ActivityPub, so a publication can reach the fediverse. What it lacks is a creator search: every reader arrives through your own efforts.
What Ghost does better than Patreon
- No revenue share on subscriptions
- MIT licence and self-hosting if the company ever changes direction
- A real website with themes and a content API
- Non-profit foundation ownership
Where Ghost is a step down from Patreon
- No recommendation network or discovery for new readers
- Smaller theme and plugin ecosystem than a general CMS
- Meant for written and emailed content, not fan perks or chat
Standout against Patreon. Ghost is the only option here where the software, the site and the subscriber list can all move to your own server.
Best for: Open source maintainers and creators whose supporters give without receiving perks
Liberapay is run by Association Liberapay, a non-profit at Querrien in France, and passes recurring gifts to the recipient's own Stripe or PayPal account. Donors give weekly amounts between EUR 0.01 and EUR 100.00. The association states that it takes no cut of payments and funds itself through donations to its own account.
The limitation is built in. Liberapay's FAQ says transactions must not be linked to a contract, which rules out paid tiers, locked posts, chats and newsletters. A Patreon creator who sells access has nothing to move there. A creator whose fans simply support the work gets the lowest fee stack on this page.
What Liberapay does better than Patreon
- No cut of payments, only the processor's fees
- Non-profit association with a published address and identifier
- Payouts go straight to your own Stripe or PayPal account
- Code published on GitHub
Where Liberapay is a step down from Patreon
- No tiers, rewards or exclusive content
- Donor cap of EUR 100.00 per week
- Hosting location and licence not stated on the pages we read
Standout against Patreon. Liberapay is a non-profit that does one job, recurring gifts, and charges nothing of its own for it.
Best for: Polish-speaking creators with a Polish audience who pay by BLIK or bank transfer
Patronite is operated by Crowd8 sp. z o.o. in Warsaw, and its terms name KRS 0000548195 and NIP 5242777491. The company is also listed as a small payment institution supervised by the Polish financial supervision authority, register entry MIP39/2019. Authors set thresholds that patrons can pick, and can run one-off collections as well.
The fee table is published in the Polish terms: a service fee of 6.5% of the support plus VAT, with payment operators adding their own fees, for example Tpay at 0.8% and PayPal at 2.9% plus PLN 1.35. That table has several layers, so the net payout needs a calculation per payment method.
What Patronite does better than Patreon
- BLIK, Polish bank transfers and card payments for a Polish audience
- Fee table published in the terms
- Supervised payment institution status stated
- One-off collections next to monthly support
Where Patronite is a step down from Patreon
- Terms, help pages and most of the site are in Polish
- Service fee plus operator fees plus VAT stacks up
- Hosting location not stated on the pages we read
Standout against Patreon. Patronite is the only tool here that names a financial supervisor's register entry in its terms.
Best for: Individual writers who want a blog on their own domain and no commission
Writizzy is a blog and newsletter platform run by Hugo Lassiege as a French micro-entreprise near Lyon. It publishes on your own domain, sends posts by email and lets readers pay through Stripe. Plans are Free at EUR 0 with 100 subscribers, Starter at EUR 9 a month and Premium from EUR 20 a month.
The legal notice names Hetzner in Germany for application and database hosting, Scaleway in France for backups and BunnyWay in Slovenia for the CDN. Writizzy also lists Mistral AI for spam moderation and Sentry for error monitoring. It is a two-person business, so continuity depends on a very small team.
What Writizzy does better than Patreon
- Flat monthly fee with no commission on earnings
- Free plan without a time limit
- Hosting providers named in the legal notice
- Content export and import stated as a value
Where Writizzy is a step down from Patreon
- No fan chat, perk tiers or mobile app on the pages we read
- Reader payments depend on your own Stripe account
- Operated by one person with a team of two
Standout against Patreon. Writizzy names its German, French and Slovenian infrastructure suppliers one by one in a public legal notice.
Best for: Dutch-speaking podcasters and makers with a mostly Dutch audience
Petje.af is operated by Petje.af B.V., listed with a KVK number and Dutch VAT number on its company details page. A creator opens a page where fans donate once or take a membership, which the terms define as a monthly donation. The makers page lists 800+ creators, many of them Dutch podcasters.
The creator terms are governed by Dutch law and name the court of Arrondissement Den Haag, seat Gouda. The creator links their own payment provider, which is extra setup work. We could not read a creator fee or a hosting location, and two pages name different towns for the company.
What Petje.af does better than Patreon
- Dutch company, Dutch law and a Dutch court in the creator terms
- Memberships and one-off donations on one page
- You choose the payment provider
Where Petje.af is a step down from Patreon
- Site and terms in Dutch only
- Creator fees and hosting not stated on the pages we read
- Connecting a payment provider is your job
Standout against Patreon. Petje.af is the Dutch option with a published list of more than 800 creators.
Best for: Small creators who need a support page and accept the payment provider's costs
Donably is run by Donably UK Ltd, registered at Companies House under number 12875465 with an address in Preston. It says it has no transaction fees, no monthly fees and no VAT. Payments and electronic invoices go through Barion Payment Zrt, and Donably says it does not handle card details itself.
Donably replaces only the payment side of Patreon. The pages we read describe no tiers, gated content or newsletters. The terms name courts in Budapest and Szekesfehervar, which a creator should read before signing up. The site comes in six languages: English, Hungarian, German, French, Italian and Spanish.
What Donably does better than Patreon
- No transaction or monthly fee stated
- Donations go directly to the creator's account
- Six site languages
Where Donably is a step down from Patreon
- No tiers, locked posts or member area described
- UK company with terms that refer to Hungarian courts
- Payment provider costs still apply
Standout against Patreon. Donably combines a UK registered company with a Hungarian licensed payment provider, which is unusual among the tools here.
Best for: Creators who sell downloads regularly and prefer a monthly price to a percentage
Sellfy is an online store from Sellfy UAB in Vilnius, governed by Lithuanian law. It charges $29, $79 or $159 a month with 0% transaction fees. Each plan has a yearly sales cap, $10,000 on Starter, $50,000 on Business and $200,000 on Premium, and a 2% overage fee may apply above the cap.
For a Patreon creator, Sellfy covers the shop part only. It has email credits, from 2,000 on Starter to 50,000 on Premium, and file sizes up to 20 GB on the top plan. There is a 14-day trial and no free plan, and prices are in US dollars.
What Sellfy does better than Patreon
- 0% transaction fees on every plan
- EU contracting entity under Lithuanian law
- Large files and included email credits
Where Sellfy is a step down from Patreon
- No free plan, only a 14-day trial
- Yearly sales caps with a possible 2% overage fee
- Not a membership platform with tiers
Standout against Patreon. Sellfy swaps a percentage fee for a monthly price, but ties each plan to a yearly sales cap.
Best for: Creators in the Baltics and neighbouring markets who want a local-language page
Contribee is operated by UAB Contribee in Kaunas, and its terms are governed by Lithuanian law with disputes going to Lithuanian courts. The site is offered in Estonian, Spanish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Romanian and Ukrainian. Each creator gets a page where fans can pledge support, and the site also lists fundraisers.
The weak point is information. The site renders in the browser and our text covered only the legal pages and the navigation, so fees, payout rules and hosting were not readable. Ask Contribee for the current fee before moving a paying audience from Patreon.
What Contribee does better than Patreon
- Baltic and Southern European languages Patreon does not localise
- Lithuanian company and law in the terms
- Fundraiser pages next to creator support
Where Contribee is a step down from Patreon
- No fee table found on the pages we read
- Feature list not readable without scripts
Standout against Patreon. Contribee is the only tool here offering Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian interfaces next to Ukrainian.
Best for: Solo creators who sell downloads and courses and want to start for nothing
Payhip is run by Payhip Limited, incorporated in England and Wales with registration number 08386910. The Free Forever plan costs $0 a month plus 5% per sale, Plus costs $29 a month plus 2%, and Pro costs $99 a month with no transaction fee. PayPal and Stripe charge their own rates on top.
All features and unlimited products come with every plan, so the plan only changes the fee. Like Sellfy, Payhip covers sales rather than recurring fan memberships. The company is British, so a seller who needs an EU contracting entity should note that, and prices are in US dollars.
What Payhip does better than Patreon
- Free plan with a clear fee ladder
- All features on every plan
- Unlimited products and revenue on every plan
Where Payhip is a step down from Patreon
- 5% sale fee on the free plan
- UK company, outside the EU, with data location not stated
- Sells products rather than running tiered memberships
Standout against Patreon. Payhip publishes three fee levels, 5%, 2% and 0%, so the break-even plan can be calculated from your sales.
What actually breaks when you switch
Subscriptions do not move. Fans pay Patreon under their own payment agreement, so every member has to sign up again on the new platform. Announce the move early, keep the Patreon page live for a few weeks and tell members where to go. Expect some members to lapse during the switch.
Content moves only partly. Check what each tool lets you export and import, since Writizzy states export as a value and Ghost is open source. Tier structure, perks and post history have to be rebuilt by hand. Taxes and VAT also need attention, because Patreon's terms say its fees may carry VAT and reverse charge rules, and each European tool handles that differently.
Can I move my Patreon members to a European platform without losing them?
Not automatically. A fan's subscription is a payment agreement between the fan and Patreon, and none of the European tools on this page can take it over. Members have to subscribe again on the new platform, which means a card or SEPA mandate entry for every one of them.
The practical route is to announce the move through your Patreon posts, your newsletter and your social accounts, and to run both pages side by side for a few weeks. Expect some drop-off. Tools that connect to your own Stripe account, such as Ghost and Writizzy, let you keep the payment relationship yourself once members have made the move.
Is a European platform cheaper than Patreon?
It depends on income and on the fee model. Patreon lists 10% of income plus processing, currency conversion and payout fees. Writizzy charges EUR 0, EUR 9 or from EUR 20 a month and no commission on earnings, Ghost(Pro) starts at about $9 a month, and Liberapay takes no cut. Patronite states 6.5% plus VAT plus operator fees.
For a small creator, a percentage fee costs less than a monthly plan. For a creator with growing income, a flat plan or a zero-cut donation tool costs less. Work out the net of one real month on each platform before moving, because the processor fees apply on every one of them.
Which one to pick
If your fans pay for posts and access, Steady fits German-speaking media with an existing site, and Ghost fits writers who want to own the site and avoid a revenue share. Writizzy is the smaller, cheaper variant for a single writer, and Ko-fi suits artists who mix tips, commissions and a shop.
If your fans simply give, Liberapay and Donably state no platform fee. If your audience is Polish or Dutch, test Patronite or Petje.af first. Keep Patreon where discovery drives your income, because none of the European tools here replaces its creator search.
Frequently Asked Questions
There is no single answer, because it depends on what your fans pay for. Steady in Germany and Ghost in the United Kingdom handle paid tiers and gated posts. Liberapay in France handles plain recurring gifts. Writizzy in France suits writers, and Patronite and Petje.af serve Polish and Dutch audiences. Pick by the kind of support your fans give.
Patreon, Inc. is a United States company, and its terms name Patreon Ireland Limited as the entity that processes payments for purchases, with a German branch listed in its impressum. This page does not assess legal compliance. It records where each company is based and which law governs the contract, so you can judge the risk for your own audience.
Liberapay states that it takes no cut of payments, and Donably states no transaction fees and no monthly fees. Ghost takes no revenue share, and Writizzy states no commission on earnings. Payment processor costs still apply on all of them. Liberapay's FAQ gives average processor fees of about 3% for Stripe and 5% for PayPal.
Yes, with a different tool. Sellfy and Payhip are built for digital products, and Ko-fi puts a shop next to tips and memberships. Sellfy charges a flat monthly price with 0% transaction fees. Payhip offers a free plan with a 5% sale fee. Neither is a membership platform in the Patreon sense, so many creators combine one with Steady or Ghost.
Patronite works in Polish, Petje.af in Dutch and Steady mainly in German. Contribee lists seven languages including Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian, and Donably lists six site languages. Ko-fi, Ghost, Sellfy and Payhip work in English. Check the language of the fan-facing pages, because that is what your supporters see at checkout.
Related comparisons
About the author
Explore More European Alternatives
Discover privacy-focused European alternatives to other popular US tech services.