Nowadays, hundreds of crowdfunding sites exist to assist people in raising funds for a variety of purposes, ranging from charity to art to real estate. GoFundMe and Patreon are two wonderful online crowdfunding sites that allow you to raise money, but they serve distinct objectives and appeal to different audiences.
Patreon vs GoFundMe
The main difference between Patreon and GoFundMe is that Patreon is a subscription-based service for creators, which can provide them with a fixed monthly income and give them more artistic freedom, whereas GoFundMe is a prominent fundraising tool that allows a campaign creator to raise money for various social issues like the environment, helping children, and much more.
Patreon is an American firm whose business is to supply online content creation tools to artists in order for them to run a subscription plan. The technologies are mostly used by YouTube creators, webcomic creators, singers, artists, podcasters, adult content creators, and others. On May 2, 2013, Jack Conte and Sam Yam launched the firm.
GoFundMe is a for-profit crowdfunding website based in the United States that allows individuals to collect funds for a variety of events ranging from life milestones such as weddings and graduations to difficult circumstances such as accidents and diseases. From 2010 until the beginning of 2020, the website generated about $10 billion in contributions from nearly 125 million participants.
Comparison Table Between Patreon and GoFundMe
| Parameters of Comparison | Patreon | GoFundMe |
| What is it? | It is a creative and content-based platform to assist creators in earning a sustainable income. | GoFundMe is mostly used to generate funds for organisations, disaster relief, and personal projects. |
| Fees and Pricing for Creators | 5 to 12 % plus payment processing costs of roughly 3 percent | 0-5 percent (depending on region) plus about 3% payment processing fees |
| Cash-out Method for creators | Stripe, PayPal, and Payoneer | Payment to creators is immediate and direct. |
| Integration | It can be easily connected with Discord, WordPress, and other famous applications. | Your fundraising campaigns may be incorporated using a GoFundMe-styled widget. |
| Intended for | For content providers that provide subscription plans, create recurrent content, and require value integration. | For creators who want to raise finances, launch a one-time campaign, or pursue a personal goal. |
What is Patreon?
Patreon is a crowdsourcing website situated in San Francisco that was founded in 2013. Since its inception, the site has assisted 52,639 creators in raising over $100 million. On the platform, 867,473 patrons contribute to campaigns.
Patreon is used by artists and creators to allow people to finance their work on a monthly or per-project basis. Patrons receive advantages such as content subscriptions, exclusive privileges, live streaming, and more in return for monthly payments.
Creators on this platform may establish several financing milestones and explain to their backers what each of these milestones will allow them to achieve. One of the amazing things about Patreon is that it allows artists and producers to collect funds without having to give up any of their content rights; they keep complete control of anything they make and share with their audience.
Patreon allows producers to create several membership tiers. The author decides on the number of tiers and the subscription fee at each level. Casual fans might be willing to pay a modest monthly fee – potentially as little as $1 – while more devoted fans might pay as much as $10 or $20 each month. Donors at top levels gain accessibility to exclusive and special material that sponsors at bottom levels do not.
Tiers are flexible as well as customizable. Several creators may opt for only one tier in order to reduce the operational strain of coping with incentives and correspondence. Others organise their tiers with a supporter cap to prevent becoming overburdened with the creation, packaging, and distribution of premium content.
What is GoFundMe?
GoFundMe is a popular donation-based crowdfunding tool that debuted in 2010. GoFundMe has helped creators on its platform raise over $3 billion in the previous seven years.
This crowdfunding tool is most commonly used for emergencies, although users may raise funds for almost anything. They are the world’s largest social fundraising platform, with a network of over 25 million donors.
The setup process for folks who want to start a GoFundMe campaign is fairly straightforward and quick. Furthermore, after your page has been established, you may quickly change its details. In comparison to other donation-based crowdfunding systems, GoFundMe allows you to add prizes. Offline donations can also be added to your online donation total.
In this approach, GoFundMe allows users to raise donations in a variety of ways while keeping 100% of the dollars raised, even in cases, when they are not able to achieve their aim. There are also no tight deadlines to meet. If there is a need, campaigns might last continuously, such as those for continuing medical bills.
Users can fundraise for a variety of causes, including medical, volunteer, emergency, education, memorial, sports, animals, desires, contests, sports, newlyweds, charity, faith, travel, creative, community, events, business, and families.
Furthermore, it claims to be the figurehead in digital healthcare fundraising. One in every three initiatives aims to generate cash for medical expenses, with over 250,000 campaigns raising a total of $650 million in contributions each year. This is due, in part, to inadequacies in the United States healthcare system, with GoFundMe being utilised to fill the void.
Main Differences Between Patreon and GoFundMe
- Patreon is a San Francisco-based crowdsourcing service that was created in 2013. GoFundMe, which began in 2010, is a popular donation-based crowdfunding site.
- Patreon is intended for regular content providers who want to monetise their work, whereas GoFundMe is intended for specific fundraising initiatives.
- Patreon accepts subscription-based payments, whereas GoFundMe only accepts one-time donations.
- While Patreon takes a 5% – 12% cut of the authors’ revenue, GoFundMe takes a similar 5% cut. While most artists’ ultimate objective is to make a profit, GoFundMe wins because of its reduced commission on your revenue.
- Patreon integrates seamlessly with sites such as Discord, WordPress, and Zapier, allowing authors to expand Patreon membership to their sites. GoFundMe, on the other hand, works with a variety of websites and applications by adding a button code or link.
Conclusion
There are several parallels between both crowdfunding services. Both are basically crowdfunding systems that enable individuals to generate funds for a variety of causes. It is entirely up to you to determine which is ideal for you.
With so many possibilities on the market, the creator must seek, research, and verify the information before picking or purchasing a new product. Many features and opportunities are provided by internet platforms for building and running tasks or enterprises online. However, as a service provider, you should always keep an eye on the resources, availability, and security, whereas as a consumer, you should select the service that is most dependable and ideal for you.
If you want to raise money for a short-term goal or donate to a cause or charity, GoFundMe is a good option. Patreon is the way to go if you are an artist or creator with a long-term project that might benefit from consistent financing from a group of supporters or followers.
References
- https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02732173.2021.1875090
- https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02732173.2018.1502105