Patreon Changes 2024/2025 (Patreon)

I received an email from Patreon this morning detailing changes I will need to make to my Patreon in the coming year. I want to keep everyone updated as much as possible so I wanted to make a post about what I know and understand right now.

Due to their need to remain in the Apple Store all Patreons that are set to the per-creation model must change to a per month subscription. This change needs to happen either before November 2024 to remain in the iOS store, or by November 2025 to remain on Patreon AT ALL. Simply put, they are phasing out the per-creation model entirely.

What does this mean?

In the future I will be swapped to a per-month subscription model one way or another. If you already subscribe to a few patreons you are most likely used to the monthly model and have an idea of what those pricing structures are like. If not, tiers will be changing a bit as well as when payment is taken from people upfront. I will be doing my absolute best to keep the tiers fair based on what I am capable of drawing (2-3 finished uploads a month + WIPs). I want people to be able to support me without breaking the bank, and still get valuable content. I don't know exactly what this will look like yet but changes I am absolutely sure of are:

1) Tiers will be changing from per-creation to per-month and most likely have an increase in price. Based on my very rough math the increases should not affect 80% of patrons, but I promise to post about the changes well ahead of time so you can swap around if needed.

2) How rewards are sent out will change to be more streamline and easier to access.

I also estimate that this change should fix a lot of issues that have been clunky for a long time, but I also understand that budgets are tight and finances come before anything else.

What about right now?

Right this moment nothing will change. When I am ready to swap to the new system I will post at least one month prior to the change. This way people can choose what they'd like to do without having to worry about surprise charges or being in the dark. I have sent in my request to change models today but I expect Patreon Support to be backed up for quite some time due to this announcement.

Why haven't you changed to subscription earlier?

Per creation worked well for me. It was less stress worrying about how much art I needed to make and what value this had. If I made less art one month people paid less. If I made NO art, patrons paid nothing. As someone with multiple jobs this was a less stress way of working and I felt this was a more customizable system for Patrons. I am deeply sad Patreon is nuking this model, but I am remaining hopeful about swapping. My hope is that this will be a positive change so I am keeping my fingers crossed.

A note about the Apple Store:

Apple is requiring that Patreon use their in-app purchasing system and remove all other billing systems from the Patreon iOS app by November 2024. This means that starting in November, new memberships purchased in the iOS app will be subject to Apple's 30% App Store fee.

Just as a warning if you purchase a membership through the Apple Store there will be a 30% increase in fee as opposed to subscribing through the website itself. If you want to avoid this fee I urge you not to purchase through the Apple Store itself for future memberships. Creators having to absorb a 30% fee between the fee Patreon already takes is enormous. It is a shame this is being passed on to the creators and consumers. As far as I am aware this fee will not present outside of the Apple Store.

Bottom Line

I will do my best to keep you all up to date with more information in the coming months, but I wanted to let you all know what I know so that we can be on the same page. Please let me know if you have any questions not answered above and I can try my best! Though, I don't have all of the answers myself just yet and will be talking to Patreon over the next few weeks to try and get more.

As always thank you so much for supporting me. I means the world that people like to throw money at my fuzzy little characters and I hope to be able to keep making more and move for everyone!