Last January I had 847 supporters on Tpylo. Made around $4,800/month. Felt great until I calculated the fees.

Last January I had 847 supporters on Tpylo. Made around $4,800/month. Felt great until I calculated the fees.

Here's what I was actually paying:

Patreon: 8-12% platform fee

Stripe: ~3% payment processing

Total: Losing $500-600 every single month

That's a used car every year. Gone.

So I spent 3 days researching every creator platform:

Ko-fi (still 5% on memberships)

Buy Me a Coffee (5% too)

Gumroad (10% 💀)

Then found something different. A platform taking only 5% total. Not 5% + processing. Just 5%.

I switched everything in February.

Same supporters. Same content. Same memberships.

8 months later:

Saved $3,200 in fees

Added digital product sales (wasn't easy on Patreon)

Direct chat with top supporters (game changer for retention)

My take-home: 95% instead of 85%

The migration took one weekend. Sent one email. Lost 3 supporters, gained 47 new ones in the first month because the checkout was cleaner.

What actually mattered:

Transparent pricing (supporters see exactly where money goes)

Multiple revenue streams in one place (donations + memberships + digital products)

Direct connection features (not buried behind tiers)

I'm not saying this works for everyone. But if you're paying 10%+ in fees and wondering where your money goes, do the math.

Someone asked me in DMs how to calculate if switching is worth it:

Monthly revenue × 12 × (current fee% - new fee%)

Example: $5,000 × 12 × (13% - 5%) = $4,800/year saved
If that number is bigger than what you'd spend on a good laptop, maybe worth exploring.

Happy to answer questions.