The Best Alternative to Patreon With No Transaction Fees

Last year, Patreon was once again in the spotlight, after many creators criticized the platform for its increase in fees.

Patreon has been a go-to option for creators for years, offering an easy way to monetize content through fan memberships.

However, recent developments, including a new requirement from Apple that forces Patreon to adopt its in-app purchase system, have left many creators looking for a better option.

The Problem With Patreon

The rise in fees for Patreon users started earlier last year, when Apple threatened Patreon to remove their app from the Apple App Store, fearing their use of third-party billion options instead of Apple's purchasing system.

That's because Apple charges a 30% fee for in-app purchases (such as Patreon's memberships). That's not including Patreon's already existing fees of 8% and 12%, depending on their pricing plans.

Patreon has been avoiding Apple's fees for a while by authorizing third-party billion options, but now, it seems that Apple has had enough and asked the platform to move all creators to Apple’s iOS in-app purchase system, which Patreon confirmed it will be done by November 2025.

So, what does this mean for creators using Patreon?

It means that all Patreon customers who are using the Patreon app on an Apple device will have to pay an extra 30% fee to Apple from each transaction they process through the app. For example, if you are using the Patreon iOS app to charge a membership fee to your subscribers, you will have to give away 30% of your revenue to Apple (plus the 8% or 12% of Patreon fees).

What was Patreon's response to Apple?

Essentially, Patreon advises creators to raise their prices for iOS app users to offset Apple's 30% fee.

Creators have two options:

Number 1: They can absorb the fee themselves, but that would cut into their earnings.

Number 2: They can pass this cost on to their supporters by raising their prices.

Needless to say, none of these options are ideal for both Patreon users and their subscribers. But there is another option for creators looking to monetize their expertise online: find a platform that doesn't charge any transaction fees (keep reading below for a solution)!

It is important to note that for existing memberships, nothing will change, and the 30% fee will only impact new subscriptions via the iOS app​.

That said, many Patreon creators are now struggling with the choice of either raising their prices by 30%, or having to pay that amount themselves.

That can be a hefty sum, especially if a creator is quite successful and sells many memberships every month.

This new policy only adds to creators' concerns about Patreon’s rising fees and limitations. With these changes, creators are now searching for more sustainable, cost-effective alternatives.

One such alternative is Heights Platform.

Heights Platform is the AI-powered course and community building software, and guess what? Heights Platform doesn't charge any extra fees!

That's because Heights Platform charges creators a flat monthly or annual subscription, so no matter how many sales you get, you only pay a fixed amount every month.

Patreon, as you know, takes a different approach: they offer a free plan in which creators are subject to an 8% (Pro Plan) or 12% (Premium Plan) transaction fee on earnings, excluding standard payment processing fees.

And now, creators using Patreon's iOS App, will also have to pay an extra 30% fee!

That comes up to 42% of your earnings if you are using their Premium Plan on an iOS App.

When you put it into perspective, you can see how expensive this can get:

For instance, if a creator earns $2000 a month on Patreon, they would have to pay at least $240 in fees every month if they are on their Premium plan. With the 30% Apple fee, that would be $840 every month.

That's almost half of your earnings!

As your audience grows, so does your financial burden on Patreon, making your business impossible to scale and unsustainable.

On Heights Platform, the Basic plan comes at only $39/month, while the Pro plan is $99/month. And that's all you will ever have to pay: no fees, no percentage of your earnings.

But that's not even the best part. Patreon is a relatively simple platform that allows creators to charge membership tiers to have their audience support them. That's pretty much all of their features.

Heights Platform not only does that, but offers so much more: the ability to sell online courses, build a community, create your own website, use AI to grow your business, and so much more.

Keep reading below, as today we’ll explore why Heights Platform offers a better solution for creators looking to build and grow their businesses without sacrificing a large portion of their revenue.

The Best Patreon Alternative With Zero Transaction Fees

Heights Platform is a powerful alternative to Patreon, offering a more creator-friendly experience with better financial incentives.

Here are some key reasons why Heights Platform is a better option for creators:

• Get everything you need to create and grow your own online courses, membership communities, and coaching business with your own branding.
• No transaction fees
• Unlimited video hosting
• AI tools to help you create content, manage tasks, and provide personalized business growth advice
• Build a community where you can engage with customers, offer paid access, sell channels, or keep some exclusive content private. You can also send private messages to customers.
• Offer unlimited courses, downloads, challenges, and more. Accept one-time payments, installments, subscriptions, or donations using a "Pay What You Want" option.
• Customizable course structures, gamification features, flexible payment options, and more.
• Design unlimited web pages with a drag-and-drop builder and fully customize your branding.
• Additional features include email marketing tools, affiliate program, blogs, landing pages, and more.

Related articles:

• How to Build a Brand Community That Thrives
• How to Choose The Best Membership Site Platform for Your Online Knowledge Business
• How to Teach Online Classes and Make Money Online

No Fees

As we previously mentioned, Heights Platform has a different pricing structure.

While Patreon charges up to 12% in platform fees (plus an additional 30% for iOS transactions), Heights Platform offers a more cost-effective model.

Heights’ payment structure is transparent, with creators keeping all of their earnings, which translates to more income without raising membership prices.

Heights Platform does not take any percentage of your earnings. Instead, it operates on a subscription model.

After a 30-day free trial, creators can choose between monthly or annual subscription plans.

This pricing strategy is especially beneficial for creators with a large customer base, as it provides predictability and cost stability, regardless of earnings, especially at a time when creators are facing increased pressure to cover hefty platform fees on Patreon.

Full Ownership and Flexibility

Heights Platform goes beyond a simple membership tiers model by giving creators full ownership of their audience and content.

On Patreon, your subscriber base is tied to the platform, meaning you don’t have direct access to your audience outside of Patreon’s ecosystem.

Heights, on the other hand, provides tools for email list management, content hosting, and engagement, allowing creators to build deeper relationships with their community.

This level of ownership ensures that creators have control over their audience, even if they decide to move to another platform in the future.

Powerful AI Tools

Another reason why creators love Heights Platform is Heights AI, a suite of artificial intelligence tools that are available on platforms specifically designed for creators.

Heights AI is a tool powered by artificial intelligence that is designed for online course creators, community builders, and online coaches.

Here's a list of the AI tools available for Heights creators:

• AI Product Generator: Easily create an entire offer with AI. You simply describe what you want to create in your own words, and AI generates courses, community channels, bundles and more in seconds, turning your vision into reality, while giving you helpful feedback on your idea.
• Heights AI Chat: Get help with creating and promoting your online courses with Heights Platform AI assistant. You can also give text command to Heights AI and have it edit products on your behalf!

• Heights AI Coach: Receive a personalized action plan with weekly tasks to assist you in reaching your business objectives. Each week, you will have a coaching session with this AI tool, which will then create an action plan containing marketing ideas tailored to your business's specific needs.
• AI Website Generator: Heights AI can generate a web page to promote your offer in seconds! Heights AI will automatically understand the details of your product to help create any web page you need. Optionally provide the text you want to be included and describe your preferred style, and it will generate a web page complete with text and images that are linked up to your product's checkout page and ready to go.
• AI Lesson Review: get recommendations on how to improve your course lessons in one click. Heights AI can watch your videos and take into consideration the topic of your whole course. It also generates action items for your students to complete!
• AI SEO Checker: This AI can help you optimize your website pages (you can build a website with unlimited pages inside Heights) for better SEO and higher Google rankings!

A Better Monetization Model

Whereas Patreon is limited to membership-based monetization, Heights offers a wider range of options for creators to generate income.

Heights allows creators to sell courses, digital products, and memberships, creating multiple streams of income. This model is ideal for creators who want to diversify their revenue and not rely solely on fan subscriptions.

Customizable Branding & Website Building

Heights Platform allows creators to fully customize their program branding, add their logo, design entire website pages, and get their own custom domain.

Patreon, while easy to use, lacks flexibility when it comes to customization.

Heights Platform provides more control over the design and structure of creator pages, which is perfect for creators who want their brands to stand out and build a platform that is truly their own.

For example, on Heights Platform, you can create your own website with unlimited pages using an easy drag-and-drop page builder.

The Web Page Builder offers various pre-designed templates for you to choose from. You can customize these templates by dragging and dropping building blocks or by starting from scratch.

Patreon's lack of integrated branding features and marketing tools means creators often have to rely on external services to meet their needs. This can potentially complicate their workflow and increase costs.

Sell Online Courses

If you’re a creator who sells educational content, Heights is a better fit than Patreon.

The platform includes a robust course-building tool that allows creators to easily set up, manage, and sell their courses, providing an all-in-one solution for creators in the education space.

Unlike other platforms, Heights Platform is built for educational entrepreneurs, offering powerful tools to create, market, and sell online courses.

This helps creators diversify their income and earn scalable revenue from their exclusive content.

Here’s what you can create and sell using Heights Platform:

• Self-paced courses: structured programs with lessons and modules.
• Membership sites: offer access to a membership site through monthly or yearly subscriptions.
• Online challenges: time-based courses with lessons released on a schedule.
• Digital downloads: PDFs, worksheets, live streams, coaching, etc.
• Online communities: spaces for members to interact and engage.
• Product bundles: package multiple items together for exclusive deals.

Heights Platform also offers unique features like scheduling multiple launch dates, pre-selling programs, locking lessons until previous ones are done, creating assignments, awarding certificates, and more.

Community Building Features

Both Patreon and Heights Platforms have community features and let creators sell membership access.

On Patreon, community members can comment on posts, join real-time community group chats, and connect directly over DM.

However, patreon only allows community access for paid members, so you can't offer a free community platform. Plus, it limits creators to 10 chat spaces, and community access is only available through the Patreon mobile app - which, you guessed it: it now comes with a 30% added fee for Apple users.

In contrast, Heights Platform lets creators offer both free or paid community access and create unlimited channels and groups (like chat spaces), accessible from any device.

You can also sell channels separately or hide them from certain members.

The community feature in Heights is linked to your courses and products, so members can discuss content, ask questions, get feedback, and connect with each other and the creator.

One-Off Payments and Donations

With Heights, you can easily sell digital products and courses, grant community access, and even accept donations (ex: buy me a coffee), using multiple payment options.

You can charge one-time payments, set up installment plans, offer recurring payments through monthly or yearly subscriptions, charge a pay-what-you-want fee, or even offer multiple membership tiers, giving you multiple ways to meet your customers’ needs.

Patreon creators do not have the option of charging one-time payments, as the platform chooses not to offer it, stating that it doesn't fit with their philosophy.

At Heights Platform, we take a different approach, recognizing the importance of flexibility for creators.

We believe that offering multiple payment options gives creators more control over how they sell their products and services.

How Patreon Creators Can Avoid High Fees

If you are a Patreon creator looking for a cheaper alternative, or you are considering starting your own Patreon account, but are not thrilled about all of these fees, then Heights Platform can be the solution for you.

Heights Platform offers creators a better solution while also avoiding Apple’s steep App Store fee: it does not require transactions to go through the App Store.

This means that Heights users can sell memberships, courses, and digital products directly to their audience without worrying about a 12% fee from Patreon, and a 30% cut going to Apple.

Heights doesn't charge any transaction fees, which means that everything you earn is 100% yours to keep.

Moreover, Heights offers more flexibility with payment processing. Creators can manage their transactions directly through Stripe or PayPal.

This ensures that creators retain more control over their pricing and profit margins, which is increasingly important as platforms like Patreon become more costly.

In 2025, creators need to think carefully about the platforms they use to build and monetize their audiences.

While Patreon has served the creator community well over the years, the combination of rising fees and Apple's new in-app purchase requirement makes it a less appealing option for many creators.

For creators who want to keep all of their earnings, have more control over their exclusive content, and access more features to scale their business, Heights Platform is a better alternative to Patreon.

Heights not only offers a better financial deal, but it also provides the tools creators need to grow their businesses, build deeper connections with their audience, and diversify their income streams.

Whether you’re a course creator, an artist, or a content creator of any kind, Heights Platform provides a more sustainable way to monetize your expertise without the high transaction fees, helping you keep more of what you earn.