Supercast: A Powerful Patreon Alternative Built for Podcasters

With the podcast subscription market booming, you may be searching for a tool to help you launch your own podcast subscription program.

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Or maybe you already have a podcast subscription program on Patreon that’s not growing the way you’d like, and you’re wondering if a different platform would help.

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In this article, we compare Patreon vs Supercast to see how they stack up.

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Supercast is made for podcasters

Unlike Patreon, which serves a broad range of creator types, Supercast is made for podcasters. Every inch of our technology is focused on the needs of audio creators and optimized for a premium listener experience.

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With a podcaster focus, Supercast has gone deep on features that help you delight your audience, reduce friction in the signup process, and ultimately maximize your subscription revenue. With Supercast, you’re also in full control of your podcast business.

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Let’s dig into the details.
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• Time to sign up
• Market reach
• Options for building & shaping your subscription program
• Ownership of subscriber data
• Audience engagement tools
• Multi-show support
• Feed security
• Cost
• Reporting & analytics
• Comparison at a glance
  

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Why it’s important

Smooth signups create a better experience for your audience and lead to more people going paid. For you, that means more revenue and happier customers. 

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Compare

Patreon: 60 seconds to subscribe

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Supercast: 10 seconds to subscribe

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Supercast was built to get people from your free podcast episodes to your paid episodes as quickly and painlessly as possible. 

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Here’s how it flows.  

• Listener clicks subscribe on one of your plans.
• Listener pays using one of three convenient payment options (Apple Pay, Google Pay, or credit card).
• Listener is taken to your paid content in the podcast player of their choice.

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Easy.

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Compare that to Patreon’s multi-step subscription process that takes an average of 6 times longer to complete and often involves frustrated users contacting you for help.

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Here’s what one Supercaster told us:

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“On Patreon, I was spending a lot of time connecting people with their feed, going back and forth. Email after email connecting some tech-averse person who doesn't really even understand what a podcast is, just knows they want to listen to it, and has subscribed and doesn't really know how to link up and just keeps clicking on the RSS feed. Supercast was the easy alternative, streamlined and clean, no frills or gunk.”

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Why it’s important

The ability to serve listeners in whatever player they use helps you unlock the widest possible market. 

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Compare

Patreon: Offers RSS feeds only + third-party integrations to Acast, Downcast, Overcast, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic

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Supercast: Delivers directly to all major podcast players including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Castro, Downcast, Overcast, Pocket Casts, and others

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One of the ways Supercast makes signup so smooth is by integrating directly with every major podcast player—including Spotify. From your Supercast dashboard, you can push your paid content to anywhere your listeners happen to be.

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Patreon? Listeners must use a clunky process of cutting and pasting RSS feeds. And since Spotify doesn’t use RSS feeds, if your paid content is with Patreon, your Spotify listeners can’t access it.

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Since adding the Spotify integration to Supercast, some of our podcasters are seeing upwards of 30 percent of their new subscriptions coming in through Spotify.

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Why it’s important

Program flexibility means you can build your subscription program exactly the way you want, and helps you optimize for revenue, audience convenience, and a premium experience.

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Compare

Patreon: Set up multiple tiers, charge monthly or annually, accept donations, maximum tier price of $150

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Supercast: Set up multiple tiers, charge monthly or annually, accept donations + no limits on pricing, offer gift subscriptions, offer free or paid trials, offer promotions and discounts, accept one-time fees that come with perks

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Patreon gives you some flexibility in setting up your subscription program. You can offer multiple plans, charge monthly or annually, and accept one-time donations.

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For Supercast, that’s just the starting point.

• Offer listeners a free or paid trial? Supercast enables that. You can set the trial for any length or price you want.
• Let listeners give your podcast subscription as a gift? Supercast enables that. It’s an easy click from your podcast sales page.
• Promotions and discounts that drive listeners to subscribe within a limited time period? Supercast enables that. Set any timeframe and discount you want.
• One-time fees tied to perks? Supercast enables that. Some of our podcasters use the one-time fees to offer lifetime subscriptions or a limited series of perks, such as a set of 6 podcasts.

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(Here’s a full list of the plan and pricing options you have with Supercast.)

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Why it’s important

If you’re going to build a business on subscription, it’s important to know who your subscribers are. You need to be able to talk to them at any time, without a platform gating access. And you need the data to be portable so you have the flexibility to walk away whenever you need to.

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Compare

Patreon: Subscriber names and email addresses

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Supercast: Subscriber names and email addresses, credit card data

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Both Patreon and Supercast give you access to your subscriber names and email addresses. But only Supercast lets you own the whole billing relationship.

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With Supercast, you connect your own Stripe account to process transactions. You get detailed Stripe reporting, instant access to your money, and full portability of your subscriber base. You’re in full control of your important business assets.

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Why it’s important

Audience engagement helps with converting listeners to paid subscribers and keeping them around.

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Compare

Patreon: Plan-targeted episodes, Wall, Discord integration, Direct email capabilities

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Supercast: Plan-targeted episodes, Personalized episodes, Ask Me Anything, Gate to any community app, MailChimp integration, Episode engagement

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Both Patreon and Supercast offer engagement tools but what they offer is different.

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Patreon allows you to create specific episodes that are available only to patrons on certain plans.

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Supercast takes that further by allowing you to trigger episodes into subscribers’ feeds based on certain events, such as when a subscriber signs up or their payment fails.

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Patreon gives you a “wall” where subscribers can leave you messages. 

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Supercast offers a built-in AMA (Ask Me Anything) feature that allows subscribers to leave their questions and vote up questions from others. You can answer these questions by text or by audio. If you answer with audio, you can timestamp the audio file to start at the right answer for the person who asked the question.
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Patreon has a direct integration with Discord.

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You can use Supercast as a gate to any discussion community, such as a Facebook group, Slack channel, Discord server, or Circle group.

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Patreon gives you the ability to email your subscribers directly from your Patreon account.

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Supercast integrates with MailChimp, where you can manage and send email campaigns. You can also export your email list at any time and import to the tool of your choice.

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Supercast offers episode engagement features, which auto-inject a community link into the shownotes of your private episodes. Listeners can click through to like your episode or leave a comment and chat with other listeners.

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Why it’s important

Listeners love the convenience and cost-savings of bundles. For podcasters, it’s an easy way to juice sales. A single dashboard for multiple shows saves time and increases efficiency.

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Compare

Patreon: None

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Supercast: Support for multiple shows and podcast networks, subscription bundling, and multiple admin seats

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Comparing multi-show support on Patreon vs Supercast is easy—Patreon has none!

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With Supercast, however, you can manage multiple podcasts from a single account. Every account allows for unlimited admin seats so you can easily give multiple team members their own access to Supercast to help manage your subscription programs.

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You can also build subscription bundles from your network of shows, offering a single, easy payment for two or more podcasts. (Here’s an example of a podcast network on Supercast.)

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Why it’s important

If subscribers are sharing their subscription broadly, you’re losing revenue. With feed monitoring and alerting, you keep control of your business and your income.

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Compare

Patreon: None

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Supercast: Automatic feed monitoring and fraud alerting

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Feed security is another easy comparison point, since Patreon doesn’t offer any.

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On Supercast, each one of your subscribers gets their own RSS feed and we can see where and how often those feeds are accessed. If a subscriber suddenly accesses their private feed from five cities in two days, we’ll alert you to the suspicious behavior. You can contact them to investigate or simply disconnect their feed.
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Why it’s important

You deserve to keep as much of your revenue as possible.

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Compare

Patreon:  8-12% (+ Stripe processing fees)

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Supercast: $0.59 per subscriber per month  (+ Stripe processing fees)

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Patreon has three creator tiers. On the smallest tier, you pay 5% of your revenue to Patreon in commissions. This tier is so limited in features, however, that it’s not comparable to Supercast. On the company’s two higher tiers, you pay 8% and 12% of your gross revenue to Patreon.

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Supercast works on a flat fee model instead, charging $0.59 per subscriber per month.

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With the Supercast pricing model, the more you charge for your subscription plans, the more you keep. If you charge at least $7.50 for your plans, you’ll keep more of your money on Supercast than Patreon. 

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Let’s take a $10 subscription plan as an example:

• On the Patreon 8% tier, you’d keep $9.20.
• On the Patreon 12% tier, you’d keep $8.80.
• On Supercast, you’d keep $9.41.

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On this $10 plan, Supercast puts $.21 to $.61 per subscriber back in your pocket. Multiply that by a few hundred—or thousand—subscribers, well, it adds up quickly.

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Why it’s important

Information is power. The more you know about your subscription program, and what’s working and what’s not, the better you can shape it.

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Compare

Patreon: Revenue analytics

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Supercast: Revenue analytics, listener and engagement analytics (+ Stripe dashboard)

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Patreon provides reporting on your subscriber income, including earnings, refunds, and payouts.

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Supercast provides reporting on your subscriber income as well. And because Supercast is connected to your own Stripe account, you also have access to a Stripe dashboard and all the reporting that Stripe can offer. 

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Beyond revenue analytics, Supercast offers you data on your listeners, where they’re located, which operating systems they use, and how they’re engaging with your content. You can see who’s listening to what and which episodes are most popular to learn what drives subscriptions. 
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FAQs when considering Supercast as a Patreon alternative

Can I offer non-audio perks to my subscribers through Supercast?

Yes! Though we’re a podcast-first solution, you can use Supercast to deliver or provide access to any number of non-audio subscriptions perks, such as video, discussion groups, ebooks, or merchandise.

I have an existing subscriber base on Patreon. Wouldn’t it be hard to switch from Patreon to Supercast?

Not at all. Supercast has developed an easy-to-follow campaign framework for migrating your subscribers from Patreon to your new Supercast program. Podcasters who’ve used this migration process have successfully brought over up to 90% of their Patreon base. Listener feedback tends to be positive. 

Another option is to leave your existing subscribers on Patreon and simply build forward on Supercast. Supercast doesn’t require exclusivity. 

Do you have any examples of podcasters who’ve seen success after switching from Patreon to Supercast?

Yes! 

• Jesse Brown of Canadaland tripled his growth when he switched to Supercast.
• Rhonda Patrick of FoundMyFitness doubled her revenue after switching away from Patreon because listeners were complaining about content delivery and payment processing issues.

Patreon vs Supercast: Conclusion

If you’re a podcaster who’s serious about making money from show subscriptions, it’s clear that Supercast is the better alternative to Patreon in many different areas:

• Podcast-first philosophy
• Better listener experience
• Multiple ways to maximize revenue and retain subscribers
• Full control of your podcast business

Why not see for yourself? It’s free to open an account. Sign up here or email us at hello@supercast.com to chat with a subscription expert.