Patreon vs Paypal: Difference and Comparison

Patreon and Paypal are two popular platforms for bloggers, artists, gamers, and YouTubers for receiving donations, costs, and gifts from their audience.

These platforms are used by creators to receive incentives from their following as a sign of appreciation. Patreon and PayPal may offer a wide range of peculiarities for creators. 

Key Takeaways

  1. Patreon is a crowdfunding platform that allows creators to receive financial support from their fans, while PayPal is a digital payment service that enables online transactions.
  2. Patreon offers various membership tiers that provide exclusive content and rewards to supporters, while PayPal mainly focuses on facilitating payments between buyers and sellers.
  3. Patreon charges a fee for each transaction made on the platform, while PayPal’s fees depend on the type and amount of the transaction.

Patreon vs Paypal

Patreon is a platform designed for creators to earn recurring revenue from their supporters by offering exclusive content and perks in exchange for ongoing financial support. PayPal is a more general platform that allows users to send and receive money for various purposes.

Patreon vs Paypal

Patreon is a present-day outlook on traditional patronage. It is a membership approach for the creators to share their content with followers and admirers.

Patreon allows the creators to get finances from their supporters to continue their works. It offers financial assistance to the content creators and artists to have an additional income stream. 

Paypal is the prevailing computerized payments application. It has a large number of clients who utilize the application to get and send installments, gifts, and donations.

It is a safe, quick, and effective application to make the exchanges process stress-free by keeping the data safe and encrypted. It is wonderful to send cash to family, companions, and more.

Comparison Table

Parameters of ComparisonPatreonPaypal
Year of ReleaseIt was released in 2013.It was released in 1998.
Sign UpYou can utilize your email address or Facebook account to join on Patreon.You can join with an account on Paypal with a mobile number and approve enrollment with an OTP.
HeadquartersIt is located in San Francisco, California, United States.It is located in San Jose, California, United States.
Area of Usage Patreon is used for membership-related services.Paypal is an all-rounder application for payment processing that does not necessarily focus on subscription services.
Key AudienceThe key audience of Patreon is patrons, content creators, and artists. The key audience of Paypal is Merchants and professionals. 

What is Patreon? 

Patreon is a popular crowdfunding platform that includes users like YouTubers, writers, podcasters, musicians, and more.

Also Read:  FSSAI vs AGMARK: Difference and Comparison

The main focus of the application is to raise funds and endowments for already existing and published content on diverse platforms. 

Patreon was established to develop a sustainable source of development for the content originators and show gratitude towards the supporters called Patrons through exclusive and unique content and privileges unique to the patrons. 

It is divided into tiers of membership and is bifurcated into multiple levels of the subscription service. These levels are managed by the creator.

He can decide the subscription fees, tiers, and exclusive content that can be availed by the patrons at various levels.

 It is a flexible and responsive indulgence where the content creator devices the module of their membership. It can be based on a single-tier utility with central membership fees for providing, creating, and managing premium content. 

The other type can be a multi-tier membership program where content is decided by the levels of the service.

Patreon has a simple interface where artists and creators can use the interactive resources on the website to add artworks, texts, videos, and photos to attract patrons. 

What is Paypal?

Paypal is a web-based digital payments service used by people all across the globe. Paypal is a free application that does not charge money to make an account and to make online purchases.

It is a mediator platform and earns a small percentage on individual transactions. You can link your bank account for convenient transactions directly through your bank account. 

Paypal has a credit program called Paypal Credit where you can receive a virtual credit card. This virtual credit is multi-functional and constitutes similar functions to a traditional credit card.

Also Read:  Vrbo vs Vacasa: Difference and Comparison

The main limitation of the card is that you can create remittances on the sites that acknowledge Paypal. 

Paypal is a diverse platform and the fifth widely accepted payment choice for people. It is not only used by artists, creators but also merchants, fundraising charities, and more. 

It is a highly efficient platform that has in-built applications and plugins for a lot of social platforms and email services to enable people to obtain donations, gifts from their supporters. 

It has additional appealing services that administer people a place to complete to undertake all transaction-related functionalities on a single platform with ease and convenience. It can support platforms such as WordPress, Mailchimp, etc. 

paypal business

Main Differences Between Patreon and Paypal

  1. Patreon does not support one-time donations in the membership program. It only supports subscription-based transactions on the platform. Paypal supports both recurring and one-time payments.
  2. Patreon allows you to set up a unique content creator page where you can detail the membership plan for the followers. Paypal does not allow you to create a separate creator page to attract more people.
  3. Patreon is a crowdfunding service platform that may allow various payment employments. Whereas Paypal is a payment for various types of transactions but it is not a crowdfunding platform.
  4. Patreon is a complete solution for donations and funding and does not require third-party integrations. Paypal may require third-party integrations if you want to use it as a subscription service.
  5. Patreon is easier to learn due to its simple and interactive interface. On the other hand, Paypal may require support to understand the structure for convoluted areas.
Difference Between Patreon and PayPal
References
  1. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3341554
  2. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=u9phDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=patreon+vs+paypal%3B&ots=xqH1DwsIHZ&sig=_eFq_d-WkQisB9P7JNuT2EYRsfk

Last Updated : 17 July, 2023

dot 1
One request?

I’ve put so much effort writing this blog post to provide value to you. It’ll be very helpful for me, if you consider sharing it on social media or with your friends/family. SHARING IS ♥️

Leave a Comment

Want to save this article for later? Click the heart in the bottom right corner to save to your own articles box!