Decision frame · 2026-04-30
Memberful vs KeepTier
Both products solve the same problem — paid memberships on the web, no Apple tax, Stripe under the hood — and both ship the bits a Patreon-leaver actually needs. The decision is which set of tradeoffs fits your show. Memberful is the bigger product with a wider feature surface; KeepTier is the smaller product with a flatter price. The shorthand: Memberful is built for creators who want a member-area CMS, KeepTier is built for creators whose fulfillment is a Discord role.
Quick verdict
- Choose Memberful if: you run WordPress, you need 3+ tiers, you want a hosted member-area site with gated content, or your team includes multiple authors.
- Choose KeepTier if: Discord or Telegram is your delivery channel, two tiers covers what you need, you prefer a flat price to a percentage, and you want a single dedicated membership page rather than a member-area CMS.
Side by side
| Memberful (Pro) | KeepTier | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | $25/mo + 4.9% | $9/mo flat |
| Stripe processing (both) | 2.9% + $0.30 | 2.9% + $0.30 |
| Apple iOS in-app fee | None — web-only | None — web-only |
| Tier ceiling | Unlimited | 2 (opinionated) |
| Fulfillment shipped by default | Member-area, gated content, email | Discord role, Telegram channel invite |
| WordPress plugin | Yes | No |
| Custom domain | Yes | Yes |
| Email broadcasts | Built-in | Bring your own (Buttondown, Beehiiv, etc.) |
| Best for | Multi-author publications, WordPress sites, course platforms | Solo creators, Discord communities, podcasters |
The five axes
1 · Pricing math at three revenue bands
The take-rate gap depends on revenue. Memberful's 4.9% is the dominant term; KeepTier's $9 flat is the dominant term at low revenue. Where they cross is the number worth knowing.
| Gross MRR | Memberful keeps | KeepTier keeps | Gap (KeepTier − Memberful) |
|---|---|---|---|
| $1,000/mo | $917/mo | $962/mo | +$45/mo |
| $2,000/mo | $1,808/mo | $1,933/mo | +$125/mo |
| $4,200/mo | $3,832/mo | $4,054/mo | +$222/mo |
| $8,500/mo | $7,786/mo | $8,231/mo | +$445/mo |
KeepTier wins the take-home math at every revenue band above the trivially-low ones. The gap scales linearly with revenue once the fixed plan fee is amortized — roughly $0.049 per gross dollar above Memberful's first $200 of monthly take.
2 · Fulfillment surface
Memberful's fulfillment is content-rendering. You give it your posts/pages/videos, it renders them gated behind a paywall on a member-area subdomain. That's a lot of product if your show is a written newsletter or a paid course. It's wrong-shape if your show is a podcast (members already get the audio via private RSS) or a Discord community (members already get the Discord access). KeepTier's fulfillment is access: Stripe webhook fires, our service assigns the right Discord role or sends the right Telegram channel invite, the page is just the checkout funnel. If your content lives somewhere else — YouTube, a podcast host, your own site — KeepTier's smaller fulfillment surface fits.
3 · Tier ceiling
Memberful supports unlimited tiers. KeepTier ships with a hard limit of two — typically "supporter" and "premium". This is opinionated: most creators ship two and stop, but a meaningful minority (course platforms, multi-product creators) need five or more. If you want a "founder" tier, an "alumni" tier, a "comped friends" tier, and a regular tier — that's Memberful's territory, not KeepTier's.
4 · Switching cost from Patreon
Identical in both directions. Migrating an existing Patreon audience costs roughly 5–15% attrition regardless of the destination — fans who don't successfully re-enter their card or follow the new link. The cost isn't a Memberful-vs-KeepTier axis. It's an are-you-leaving-Patreon-at-all axis. The web-only explainer has the migration playbook in detail.
5 · Risk and ownership
Memberful was acquired by Patreon in 2018; it continues to operate independently but the corporate parent is the platform creators are leaving. Some founders see that as a deal-breaker on principle; others see it as fine since the products are run separately. KeepTier is independent. Operationally, both products own only your billing relationship — the customer database row is yours either way; if you migrate hosts, you take the list, the Stripe customer IDs, and the email addresses with you.
The honest pitch for each
Memberful's pitch: "If you run a real publication or course, this is the one tool you need. Member areas, gated posts, broadcasts, WordPress integration. It's a CMS for paid content, not just a checkout."
KeepTier's pitch: "If your content lives somewhere else and the membership is just access, you don't need a CMS — you need a checkout funnel and a webhook. We're $9/mo flat because the surface is small enough that's all the product needs to cost."
YOUR DELTA, NOT THE BASELINE'S
Plug your gross MRR into the calculator and the Memberful-vs-KeepTier line shows up alongside the Patreon-Apple-tax line. Same calculator, three decisions in one view.
Open the calculator →Related reading
- A Memberful alternative: KeepTier — same numbers, structured for "I'm searching for an alternative" intent.
- Patreon vs your own membership site — the broader frame Memberful and KeepTier both inhabit.
- Best Patreon alternatives ranked by what you keep — Memberful and KeepTier in the ranked list.
- Eight Patreon alternatives compared — full eight-platform ledger.
Receipts use the standard KeepTier baseline: $4,200/mo in gross subscription revenue, fifty active subscribers, US creator with USD audience, Stripe at the standard 2.9% + $0.30 US card-present rate. Memberful Pro pricing per memberful.com/pricing. Numbers as of 2026-04-30.