Here's the comparison table before we go deep on each:
| Platform | Best For | Monthly Fee | Transaction Fee | Live Video | Digital Products | Memberships |
|---|
| Talkspresso | Live video calls, workshops, digital products | $0 | 10% | Yes (built-in) | Yes | No |
| Patreon | Memberships and community | $0 | 8-12% | No | Yes (posts) | Yes |
| Ko-fi | Tips, commissions, memberships | $0 (Gold: $6/mo) | 0-5% | No | Yes | Yes |
| Buy Me a Coffee | Tips and one-time support | $0 | 5% | No | Yes | Yes |
| Gumroad | Digital products | $0 | 10% | No | Yes | Yes |
| Stan Store | Digital products + booking | $29/mo | 0% | No | Yes | No |
| Beacons | Link-in-bio + products | $0-$30/mo | 0-9% | No | Yes | No |
| Teachable | Online courses | $0-$119/mo | 0-10% | No | Yes (courses) | No |
| Kajabi | Full creator business suite | $69-$399/mo | 0% | No | Yes | Yes |
| Substack | Email newsletters + subscriptions | $0 | 10% | No | Limited | Yes |
Talkspresso: Best for Live Video and Real-Time Expertise
Talkspresso is built for creators who want to sell their time and knowledge live. It covers 1:1 video calls, group workshops, webinars, and digital products from one platform.
What sets it apart from every other platform on this list:
The video call happens ON the platform. Not a Zoom link, not a Google Meet invite. You click, you're in a video room. Sessions are recorded automatically. After the session, AI generates a summary, key takeaways, and action items that both you and your client can reference.
This sounds like a small detail. It's not. Every other platform on this list sends clients to a third-party video tool for the actual session. Talkspresso owns the entire experience.
What you can sell:
- 1:1 video calls (coaching, consulting, Q&A)
- Group workshops and webinars (up to 500 attendees)
- Digital products (PDFs, templates, guides, recordings)
- Session packages (multi-session bundles)
Fees: No monthly subscription. 10% platform fee on all transactions. Plus standard Stripe processing fees (~2.9% + $0.30).
Who earns well here: Coaches, consultants, and creators with an engaged audience who will pay for direct access. A fitness influencer selling personalized training calls. A finance creator doing portfolio reviews. A musician giving one-on-one lessons. If your value is you, Talkspresso is built for that.
Limitations: No native memberships or subscriptions. Not ideal for creators whose entire model is recurring monthly revenue without live interaction.
Patreon: Best for Recurring Community Revenue
Patreon has been the default membership platform for creators since 2013. The model is simple: fans pay a monthly fee for tiered access to exclusive content.
The honest picture:
Patreon is strong for creators with large, loyal audiences who want to support them consistently. Podcasters, artists, YouTubers with long track records do well. But the platform has real limitations.
Patreon takes 8-12% depending on your plan (plus payment processing). That's on top of the free work you're doing to keep members engaged. And Patreon doesn't help you grow. It monetizes the audience you already built elsewhere.
What you can sell:
- Tiered memberships (monthly or annual)
- Exclusive posts, videos, podcasts
- Discord integration
- Digital files and downloads
Fees: Pro plan (8% fee), Premium plan (12% fee). Both include Stripe/PayPal processing fees separately.
Who earns well here: Established creators with 10k+ followers who already have a dedicated community. First-time creators often struggle because Patreon provides no discovery.
Limitations: No live video, no scheduling. You still need separate tools for coaching or workshops. Patreon has also changed its fee structure multiple times, frustrating longtime creators.
Ko-fi: Best for Low-Overhead Fan Support
Ko-fi started as a tipping platform ("buy me a coffee" literally) and has grown into a full creator commerce tool. The free plan is genuinely useful, which is rare.
The honest picture:
Ko-fi's free plan charges 0% transaction fees on tips and donations, which is unusual. You pay 5% on shop sales on the free plan. The paid Gold plan ($6/month) eliminates most fees and unlocks subscriptions.
Ko-fi is less polished than competitors but more generous with its free tier. Good for creators who want to start without commitment.
What you can sell:
- One-time tips and donations
- Digital downloads (free plan)
- Commissions (custom work requests)
- Memberships/subscriptions (Gold plan)
- Physical products via shop
Fees: Free plan: 0% on tips, 5% on shop sales. Gold ($6/mo): 0% on everything.
Who earns well here: Artists, illustrators, and hobbyist creators with supportive communities. People who want to accept support without building a full business infrastructure.
Limitations: No live video, no scheduling, no course builder. Community features are limited. Less professional polish than other platforms.
Buy Me a Coffee: Best for Simple Fan Support
Buy Me a Coffee is similar to Ko-fi but simpler. It's for creators who want a clean, fast way to accept tips and sell basic products.
The honest picture:
The platform takes 5% on everything. Setup is under 10 minutes. It does one thing (accept money from fans) without much friction.
If your goal is to add a tip button to your content, Buy Me a Coffee works. If you want a real business infrastructure, it's not the right tool.
What you can sell:
- Tips and one-time support
- Memberships
- Digital downloads
- Extras (personalized requests)
Fees: 5% on all transactions.
Who earns well here: Creators who want the simplest possible monetization. People who want a tip link and nothing else.
Limitations: Limited customization, no live video, no workshops, no course builder. Five percent on tips is higher than Ko-fi's free tier.
Gumroad: Best for Digital Product Sales
Gumroad is the veteran of the digital product world. It launched in 2011 and has processed billions in creator revenue. If you're selling ebooks, templates, presets, or software, Gumroad is the benchmark.
The honest picture:
Gumroad is clean, proven, and has a marketplace that can drive organic discovery. The 10% flat fee is the same as Talkspresso's, but Gumroad applies it to digital products only. There are no monthly fees.
The tradeoff is that Gumroad doesn't do anything except sell digital products. No live video. No scheduling. No community features beyond email.
What you can sell:
- Digital downloads (ebooks, templates, software, music, art)
- Courses and tutorials
- Subscriptions and memberships
- Physical products (with shipping)
Fees: 10% flat on all sales.
Who earns well here: Creators selling digital products with demonstrated demand. People who have already validated their product and want low overhead.
Limitations: No live video, no scheduling, no community tools. Limited storefront customization. The marketplace can drive discovery but also puts you next to competitors.
Stan Store: Best for Creator Storefronts with Booking
Stan Store is the platform that blew up with Gen Z creators. It gives you a link-in-bio page that works as a full storefront: digital products, a booking link, and a clean one-page presentation.
The honest picture:
Stan Store charges $29/month (Creator) or $99/month (Creator Pro). In exchange, you get 0% transaction fees and a polished storefront. If you're doing consistent volume, the math can work out cheaper than percentage-based platforms.
But Stan Store has a key limitation: there's no live video. You can sell a "book a call" product, but the actual call happens on Zoom or Google Meet. You're paying for scheduling and a pretty page, not an actual session platform.
What you can sell:
- Digital downloads
- Booking links (external video tool required)
- Courses
- Membership access
Fees: $29/month (Creator), $99/month (Creator Pro). 0% transaction fees on both.
Who earns well here: Creators doing $500+ per month in sales who want 0% transaction fees and a professional storefront.
Limitations: Monthly subscription regardless of revenue. No built-in video. No session recordings, no AI summaries, no client management. Every Stan Store page looks similar.
Beacons: Best for Link-in-Bio with Light Monetization
Beacons is primarily a link-in-bio tool that has added monetization features. It's positioned as a free alternative to Stan Store.
The honest picture:
The free plan is functional for basic use. Store Pro at $30/month competes with Stan Store on price. The platform handles tipping, appointment booking (via Calendly integration, not native), digital products, and media kits.
Beacons is a solid choice if you want link-in-bio features plus light commerce. For a full comparison of link-in-bio tools built for creators who sell services, see our best link-in-bio tools for creators. But Beacons is not a serious business infrastructure.
What you can sell:
- Digital products
- Appointment booking (Calendly integration)
- Tipping
- Memberships (limited)
Fees: Free plan: varies by feature. Creator Pro ($10/mo): 0% on most. Store Pro ($30/mo): 0% on all.
Who earns well here: Creators who want a polished link-in-bio page with basic commerce. Early-stage creators who don't want to pay for Stan Store.
Limitations: Calendly booking (not native video), no built-in video calls, no session recording, less robust than dedicated platforms.
Teachable: Best for Structured Online Courses
Teachable is the go-to for creators who want to sell structured courses with a proper learning experience. Think modules, quizzes, completion certificates, and a student dashboard.
The honest picture:
The free plan is limited and takes 10% of every sale. Paid plans start at $39/month and get more useful. Teachable's strength is the course-building experience: drag-and-drop curriculum builder, built-in hosting, and student management.
If you're selling a $200 online course with 20 structured modules, Teachable is a reasonable choice. If you want live interaction, it's not the tool.
What you can sell:
- Online courses (video, text, quizzes)
- Coaching products
- Digital downloads
- Bundles
Fees: Free (10% transaction fee), Basic ($39/mo, 5% fee), Pro ($119/mo, 0% fee).
Who earns well here: Creators with established audiences who want to sell premium courses ($100+). People who have validated demand and want a professional course experience.
Limitations: No live video calls, no workshops. Expensive at the higher tiers. Course creation takes significant time investment. Students need to log in to your Teachable school.
Kajabi: Best for Full Creator Business Suite (with a Big Budget)
Kajabi is the all-in-one platform: courses, email marketing, community, website, funnels, and membership sites under one roof. It's powerful. It's also expensive.
The honest picture:
Kajabi starts at $69/month (Kickstarter) and goes up to $399/month (Pro). There are no transaction fees, which is a significant advantage if you're doing high volume. But you need to be doing real volume to justify the monthly cost.
Kajabi is a legitimate business infrastructure for creators who are already earning. It's not where you start.
What you can sell:
- Online courses
- Memberships and communities
- Digital products
- Coaching programs
- Email marketing and funnels
Fees: $69/mo (Kickstarter), $149/mo (Basic), $199/mo (Growth), $399/mo (Pro). 0% transaction fees.
Who earns well here: Established creators doing $3k+ per month in revenue who want to consolidate tools and eliminate transaction fees.
Limitations: High monthly cost. Steep learning curve. No live video calls or session management. Overkill for most creators.
Substack: Best for Newsletter Subscriptions
Substack built the paid newsletter category. Writers, journalists, and thought leaders use it to charge for email content.
The honest picture:
Substack's 10% fee is industry-standard, but the platform provides real value: built-in audience, discovery through the Substack network, and a simple paid subscription setup. If writing is your primary medium, it's hard to argue with.
What you can sell:
- Paid newsletter subscriptions
- Individual paid posts
- Podcast subscriptions
Fees: 10% on paid subscriptions.
Who earns well here: Writers, analysts, and thought leaders with engaged email audiences.
Limitations: Writing-first platform. No live video, no scheduling, no digital products beyond content. Limited to newsletter and podcast formats.
Here's the honest answer: all of them can pay. None of them guarantee income.
The platforms that help creators earn consistently share a few traits:
1. They match your monetization type. A membership platform does nothing for a creator who sells one-time consulting calls. A tipping platform undersells a creator with a structured course.
2. They have low enough fees to be profitable at your volume. A 10% fee on $1,000/month is $100. The same fee on $100/month is $10. At low volume, transaction fees matter less than at high volume.
3. They don't require you to build a second audience. Patreon and Gumroad have marketplaces, but most sales come from creators driving their own traffic. A platform that helps you convert your existing audience is more valuable than one that promises discovery.
4. They handle the session, not just the scheduling. This is where most platforms fall short for live-service creators. Booking a Zoom link is not a product. When the video, the recording, the payment, and the follow-up all happen on one platform, your time-to-money ratio goes up.
The Creator Monetization Stack That Works
The creators earning the most in 2026 are not picking one platform and hoping. They're building a stack:
- Content platform (YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Substack) -- builds the audience for free
- Live service platform (Talkspresso) -- converts audience into paying clients via calls and workshops
- Digital product platform (Gumroad or built into Talkspresso) -- passive income from products
- Optional membership layer (Patreon or Ko-fi) -- recurring income from core fans
You do not need all four. Most successful creators pick two.
If you're choosing one platform to start, the question is: what's your primary value?
- If your value is expertise and access: Use Talkspresso. Get paid for your time. Sell workshops. The platform handles the whole session.
- If your value is content and community: Use Patreon or Substack. Build a subscriber base around your content.
- If your value is knowledge packaged as products: Use Gumroad or Teachable. Sell once, distribute infinitely.
The Live Video Opportunity Most Creators Miss
One monetization type consistently outperforms expectations: live video.
A creator with 5,000 Instagram followers can earn more per month from coaching calls and live workshops than a creator with 500,000 followers running ads. YouTube creators see this most clearly — a 20K-subscriber channel that adds paid consultations and workshops can earn 15x their AdSense income.
Why? Because live access is scarce. Your YouTube video reaches 500k people and earns you maybe $500. A live workshop with 50 people at $30 each earns $1,500. A week of coaching calls at $200 each earns $1,000. Both audiences are smaller. Both payouts are higher. If masterclasses are your focus, our step-by-step guide to monetizing your audience with paid masterclasses covers pricing strategies, promotion timelines, and platform selection.
The platforms built for live video are few (our Cameo alternative comparison covers the seven best, and our full Cameo alternatives guide ranks all twelve). Most creator economy platforms bolt on a "booking link" feature that sends clients to Zoom. That's not a live video platform. That's a scheduling tool with extra steps.
Talkspresso is the only platform where the booking, the video call, the recording, and the post-session notes all live together. If you run coaching calls, workshops, or any kind of paid live interaction, that integration matters. You're not managing three tools. You're running one.
Use this decision framework:
Do you sell live services (calls, workshops, consulting)?
Yes: Talkspresso is built for this. Everything else sends you to Zoom.
Do you sell structured courses with curriculum and modules?
Yes: Teachable or Kajabi (if you have budget). Gumroad if you want simple.
Do you want memberships and recurring revenue from content?
Yes: Patreon (large audience) or Ko-fi (smaller audience, lower fees).
Do you sell digital products (ebooks, templates, presets)?
Yes: Gumroad for simplicity. Talkspresso if you also want to offer live services.
Do you want everything on one platform and can spend $150+/month?
Yes: Kajabi is the most complete, but only makes sense at scale.
Are you just starting and want zero monthly fees?
Talkspresso (10% on transactions), Gumroad (10% on sales), or Ko-fi (0% on tips, 5% on sales).
The Bottom Line
Creator economy platforms are tools. The right tool depends on what you're building.
For most creators, the honest answer is: start with the platform that matches your primary monetization type, keep fees low, and scale from there.
If you want to sell your time and expertise live, Talkspresso handles the session from start to finish. No Zoom account needed. No separate recording tool. No duct-tape stack.
Every other type of creator monetization has a platform that does it well. The key is matching the tool to the product.
See how creators use Talkspresso to sell paid video calls to their followers, or explore the full Talkspresso for Creators feature set.
Start earning on Talkspresso, free (no monthly fee) →
