20+ Patreon Features & Integrations That Make Life as a Creator So Much Easier
As a creator, it’s easy to feel like there just aren’t enough hours in the day. Whether you’re working on your project part time or full time, the act of creating takes, well, as long as it takes. But if you want to interact with your followers, set up ways to reward them for their support, and add more value to your offerings, those are additional time commitments.
We believe in doing things the easy way and saving time when possible, so here’s a list of features and integrations with Patreon that just make life as a creator easier. Different tools are right for different creators — it all depends on your approach and what your patrons value most.
Think these integrations could help your creator business take off? Sign up for Patreon here.
1. Discord
Irshad Karim‘s patrons react to a new high-tier patron joining the community’s Discord channel.
Cost: Free
Summary:
Discord gives your patrons a place to congregate, both with each other and with you (if you choose to be active in your community). In addition to the allure of an exclusive gathering space, creators can offer extra features like brighter name colors for higher tier patrons or a space for patrons to troubleshoot problems (like developer Nekotekina does).
By integrating your Discord channel with Patreon, you can automatically add patrons to a private channel.
2. Vimeo
Cost: Must be using a paid version of Vimeo.
Summary:
With the Vimeo integration, Pro and Premium creators can easily upload and securely share videos with patrons without ever leaving their Patreon page.
- Optimize your work flow: Save operational work time by uploading raw video files directly to Patreon.
- Choose your audience: With Vimeo’s top-notch privacy settings, you can be sure that your videos are being seen by your patrons (and only your patrons).
- Experiment with your content: Get unrestricted freedom to try and share new content ideas, like behind-the-scenes, or early access videos, in a safe place made up of just your patrons.
For more information, check out the blog post titled, A New Way to Share Exclusive Video on Patreon with Vimeo.
Or, if you’re ready to start using the Vimeo integration with your patrons today, subscribe to any paid plan at Vimeo. If you don’t have a paid subscription to Vimeo, sign up for their free 30-day trial for the Plus or Pro plans and try it out. Sign up now.
Once you sign up for Vimeo, check out this support article for detailed instructions on how to set up the integration.
3.WordPress Plugin & Patron Plugin Pro
Cost: Freemium
Summary:
There are two integrations for WordPress and Patreon: the WordPress Plugin which we provide to all creators on Patreon for free, and the Patron Plugin Pro, which is maintained by a third party.
The WordPress Plugin developed by Patreon is a free plugin that lets you gate access to content on your website based on patron tier. You can set a minimum patron tier level and use custom HTML to prompt non-patrons to become a patron so they can view that content. For example, Laura Lawless uses the WordPress Plugin to gate access to her word of the day (“Le mot du jour”). The plugin makes it easier for you to deliver content to your patrons and encourage site visitors to become patrons.
Patron Plugin Pro (built by Code Bard) adds additional features to the free WordPress Plugin. Creators have more options for which types of content to gate as well as how to gate it (such as automatically locking the last X posts, then releasing older ones to the public as you produce more content). Patron Plugin Pro costs 30€/year or $34/year; premium support is available for an additional fee.
4. MailChimp
Cost: Free*
Summary:
Zapier powers an integration with Patreon that helps creators manage a patrons-only mailing list. New patrons are automatically added to your MailChimp list when they pledge. You can lump them all in one email campaign, or segment the list based on tier. That way, you can keep patrons up-to-date on all news and information you’d like to share with them.
*Your first five “zaps” (integrations using Zapier) are free. Pricing explained below.
5. Discourse
Cost: $5/mo OR $100+/mo
Summary:
Discourse is a platform that provides a space for forum discussions, private conversations, live Q&A sessions, and search functionality. If you have an active patron community looking for a place to interact, Discourse is a good option. Many Patreon creators (such as the Fantasy Footballers, whose Discourse-powered forum is pictured above) are already using our integration.
Discourse is made entirely from open source software. If you’re tech-savvy, you can install and host it yourself for $5/mo (which goes to their cloud provider). Full hosting packages begin at $100/mo, increasing based on how much traffic your site gets.
6. Automated Early Access
Cost: Free
Summary:
This feature is available to all creators on Patreon. It’s a tool that allows you to release posts for early access to patrons before releasing the content to everyone else. You can release it to all patrons, or restrict it to specific tiers. When the time you set has passed, the post will become public for everyone.
Early access is a consistently popular reward across disciplines. Professor Steve Keen, for example, uses this feature to release new articles on economics to his followers before they are published anywhere else online.
7. Patronizer
Cost: Freemium
Summary:
Patronizer is a third party integration made by a creator on Patreon. It’s a tool that pulls your list of patrons for inclusion in the end credits of a video. You can list all patrons together or separate by tier. Either way, it’s easy to recognize your supporters at the end of each video you produce.
Patronizer is free for the first 25 patrons. $1/mo means you can use Patronizer with up to 50 patrons; $3/mo increases the cap to 100 patrons, and $5/mo results in unlimited usage.
8. TubeBuddy
Cost: Freemium
Summary:
TubeBuddy is an integration that allows you to see which comments on your YouTube videos come from current patrons. At the base level, it’s a free browser extension or mobile app that lets you identify patrons and receive summaries of their activity on your channels via email.
Many additional features built around maintaining a YouTube channel are unlocked at $9/mo, $19/mo, and $49/mo. Creators who use Patreon get a 25% discount on these fees.
9. Patreon Lens
Cost: Free
Summary:
Patreon Lens is available to all Patreon creators who want to offer “behind the scenes” style rewards (like Kati Morton does in the GIF above). If your patrons enjoy insights into your daily routine or other aspects of your work, then Lens makes it simple to snap a photo or share a short video with all patrons of the appropriate tier. Updates you post are visible to patrons on the Patreon website or via the Patreon app. You can read this article for more information on how other creators are using Lens.
10. Crowdcast
Cost: $49+/mo
Summary:
Crowdcast makes it easy to host patron-only live streams. You can host Q&As, bring your patrons on-screen, give presentations, and more. Whenever you decide to host a stream, the integration lets you schedule the stream on Patreon to automatically share details with patrons of the appropriate tier.
Creators on Patreon get a 10% discount on Crowdcast services. After a one-month free trial, you can choose from three plans with varying feature sets: $49/mo, $89/mo, and $195/mo.
11. Bonjoro
Cost: Freemium
Summary:
Have you ever considered offering personal thank-you videos as a reward on Patreon? Bonjoro lets you set up reminders at key stages of a patron’s relationship (such as when a patron first joins, the anniversary of their patronage, and so forth). Bonjoro adds a video to your to-do list when those milestones approach so you can quickly film a personal video for each one. Nate Maingard, the musician in the video above, likes to make welcome videos for patrons at the $5/mo tier and higher.
You can send as many Bonjoro videos as you like for free. If you want to use your own branding plus a few other features, you can upgrade to the $25/user/mo or $45/user/mo plan.
12. Polls & Voting
Cost: Free
Summary:
Patreon has a built-in tool for running polls available to any creator on Patreon. You can set up voting to get feedback on an idea (like the Valleyfolk did when they were finalizing T-shirt designs) or use voting as a reward for patrons. Polls can be given to all patrons or restricted to patrons of certain tiers.
13. Itch.io
Cost: Free
Summary:
Do you offer your fans and patrons digital goods? From video games to artwork, Itch.io helps creators safely distribute their content to patrons. Creators on Patreon can grant access to materials hosted on Itch.io to all patrons who pledge to the appropriate tier.
Using the integration with Patreon is free. If you want to sell material on Itch.io to non-patrons, Itch.io takes whatever percentage of your sales that you determine (as long as it’s greater than zero).
14. Private RSS Feed
Cost: Free
Summary:
If you distribute audio content to your patrons, Patreon has a tool for that. You can enable our audio RSS feature to automatically generate a private link to your content for each patron you want to give access. Patrons can listen to your content on Patreon or in whatever app they prefer.
15. Sonix
Cost: $15/mo + $5/hr of audio
Summary:
Sonix uses automatic transcription to convert both audio files and video files into text. Patrons can access the transcription with timestamps and playback included. All the files are stored on Sonix, and you can choose which pledge tiers are eligible to gain access to the files.
Sonix charges $15/mo (or $120/year) plus $5 per every hour of audio or video you transcribe.
16. Streamlabs
Cost: Free
Summary:
Do you have a live stream? Patreon’s integration with Streamlabs gives you live updates whenever a follower becomes a patron. You can give them live shout-outs and add customizable animations, sounds, fonts, etc. It’s a nice way to recognize new patrons and generate excitement for fans who sign up.
17. Manage and Track your Benefits
Cost: Free
Summary:
It’s easy to lose track of who is due what and when. That’s why Patreon built a way for you to manage and track benefits. The special things you owe to patrons will automatically appear in a digital to-do list so you can easily keep track of all your deliverables. This will help win back the hours you used to spend in spreadsheets so you can get back to creating.
18. Goodbits
Cost: $19/mo and up
Summary:
Do you maintain a newsletter for your patrons? Pulling together a good mix of content is easier using Goodbits. It automatically adds and removes patrons from your list based on pledge activity. You can use a chrome extension to collect content while you explore the internet, then use a drag & drop editor to bring it all together in one place.
Pricing starts at $19/mo for 1,000 subscribers. $49/mo gets you through 10,000 subscribers, and $99/mo lets you use Goodbits with up to 20,000 subscribers. They offer custom pricing for larger groups.
19. MCLink
Cost: Free (donations appreciated)
Summary:
MCLink lets you offer exclusive Minecraft content to Patreons. Using the integration, patrons can link their Minecraft accounts with their Patreon accounts. This enables you to offer them private access to your Minecraft server.
This integration is free; however, the creator who made it happily accepts donations.
20. Google Sheets
Cost: Free*
Summary:
Zapier offers a simple integration between Google Sheets and Patreon if you want to keep track of your patrons the old-fashioned way (without taking old-fashioned amounts of time to do so). That way, you’ll always have your patrons’ information on hand. You can even add things like Twitter handles — the integration will update info automatically.
*Your first five “zaps” (integrations using Zapier) are free. Pricing explained below.
21. Google Analytics
Cost: Free
Summary:
Did you know that you can see Google Analytics information through your creator dashboard on Patreon? The picture above is a snapshot of traffic sources to posts that the Bitcoin Pub made public. They use public posts and SEO to bring organic traffic to their page. You can break down traffic by the source to see which channels are bringing in the most patrons.
22. Zapier
Cost: Free*
Summary:
Several of the integrations mentioned on this list (MailChimp, Google Sheets) are powered by Zapier. Zapier is a tool that integrates other tools. If you want more integrations with Patreon, or with the other tools you use to work, Zapier is a good place to look.
*Your first five integrations with Zapier are free; additional integrations require a paid subscription, starting at $20/mo. Note that workflows requiring more than two “zaps” to connect also require a paid plan.
Which Tools Will You Use?
Patreon’s list of integrations and features are constantly growing. We’re constantly looking to use technology to make your life (and ours) easier. Hopefully, you’ve discovered some new tools on this list that will help you run your creative business.
