The 4 best Memberful alternatives
Short answer
The best Memberful alternatives are Patreon, Kajabi, Ghost. Patreon is our top pick — it scores 7.8/10 and is best for YouTubers, podcasters, and artists with existing audiences looking to monetize. The right choice depends on your budget, team size, and which features matter most.
Why look for a Memberful alternative?
Memberful scores 8/10 in our review and works well for many teams — but it is not the right fit for everyone. The most common reasons readers look elsewhere:
- ✗Revenue percentage fee on lower-tier plans
- ✗Less out-of-the-box community features than Circle or Mighty Networks
- ✗Best value requires moving to paid plan
Memberful alternatives, ranked
Patreon
Top pickMembership platform with built-in creator discovery
Patreon is the original creator membership platform — patrons pay a monthly or per-creation fee to support creators and unlock exclusive content. Patreon's built-in discovery network exposes creators to patrons already browsing the platform, which is a real growth advantage. The platform fee varies by plan tier, taken as a percentage of monthly earnings. For creators already building an audience on YouTube, podcasting, or art, Patreon is the lowest-friction way to monetize.
Strengths
- ✓Built-in patron discovery — Patreon users actively look for creators to support
- ✓No upfront cost — revenue-share model only
- ✓Supports monthly, per-creation, and annual billing
Best for
- →YouTubers, podcasters, and artists with existing audiences looking to monetize
- →Creators who want built-in discovery without marketing their own membership
Kajabi
Everything you need to run your creator business
Kajabi is the all-in-one platform for creators who sell knowledge: courses, coaching, podcasts, communities, and memberships. It replaces multiple tools with one subscription — website, email marketing, payments, checkout, and analytics all included. Expensive but eliminates integration complexity.
Strengths
- ✓Truly all-in-one — replaces 5+ tools
- ✓Excellent course and coaching product builder
- ✓Strong email marketing and automation included
Best for
- →Course creators doing $5k+ MRR who want simplicity
- →Coaches running programs and group cohorts
- →Anyone paying for 3+ separate tools already
Ghost
The professional publishing platform for serious creators
Ghost is an open-source publishing platform purpose-built for professional content creators, newsletters, and membership sites. Unlike Substack, Ghost is self-hostable (free software, you pay hosting) or available as a managed service via Ghost(Pro). It takes 0% of membership revenue — you keep everything minus Stripe's payment processing fees. Ghost has superior SEO tools, custom themes, and a professional CMS feel compared to any newsletter-first tool.
Strengths
- ✓0% platform fee on membership revenue (only Stripe transaction fees)
- ✓Excellent SEO — structured data, sitemaps, canonical URLs built in
- ✓Open source — full data ownership if self-hosted
Best for
- →Serious writers who want full control and 0% revenue cut
- →Creators who care deeply about SEO and content ownership
Ko-fi
Accept donations, memberships, and shop sales — 0% fee
Ko-fi is a lightweight creator monetization platform with a key selling point: Ko-fi takes 0% of donations and shop sales (only Stripe and PayPal payment processing fees apply). Creators set up a public page where fans can make one-time donations (buy a 'coffee'), subscribe for monthly memberships, purchase digital or physical products, or commission custom work. Ko-fi Gold (paid) adds a custom domain and additional features. Popular with artists, illustrators, writers, and gaming content creators.
Strengths
- ✓0% platform fee — you keep everything minus payment processor fees
- ✓Accepts one-time tips, monthly memberships, digital products, and commissions
- ✓Instant setup — live in minutes
Best for
- →Artists, illustrators, and creators wanting a tip jar with 0% fees
- →Creators supplementing another platform with a low-friction support link
Memberful vs. the alternatives
Memberful alternatives — FAQ
What is the best Memberful alternative?
Patreon is our top-rated Memberful alternative, scoring 7.8/10. It is best for YouTubers, podcasters, and artists with existing audiences looking to monetize.
Is there a free Memberful alternative?
Yes — Patreon, Ghost, Ko-fi offer a free plan you can use to evaluate the tool before paying.