On the heels of their controversial new terms of service policy, Patreon is launching new payment plans from May 6th, 2019 and will introduce three models —Patreon Lite, Patreon Pro and Patreon Pro that has one-on-one support. Users joining before May 6th, 2019, will be exempted from the new charges and can continue with the same commission rates with no hike.
Patreon charges 5% of your current earnings from your fans. Till now, it had only one mode of operation and in that, there were several features such as the option to link Patreon to Discord and Itch.io. However, users registering for Patreon from May 6th onwards have to pick between the following three models:
- Patreon Lite: 5% commission. Only a bare-bones Patreon account with no special perks such as backing tiers. You avail features such as a hosted creator page, Patreon communication tools, and Patreon workshops.
- Â Patreon Pro: 8% commission. Comes with all the features of Patreon Lite and also has features such as membership tiers, analytics, and insights, special promos and offers, creator-led workshops, unlimited app integrations, and a priority customer support.
- Patreon Premium: 12% commission and $300/mo minimum fee. Comes with all the features of Patreon Pro and has other features such as dedicated partner manager, merchandise for membership and team accounts.
While the above pricing models apply to new users, all the old users of Patreon who have signed up before 6th May will avail Patreon Pro at 5% commission and Patreon Premium at 9% commission. In such a case, it is highly practical to sign up for Patreon before 6th of May and enjoy the latest services without having to shell out more money.
This time, the payment processing fee is also being tweaked. Previously, the payment processing fee in 2017 was scrapped after extensive protests from its users. While Patreon is well aware that these new price changes will upset the users, providing Patreon Pro at previous commission rates for old users is one way of compensating for these changes.
The company said that enforcing these new commission rates will bring more profits. They plan on reinvesting these profits into the company for bringing bigger and better changes
