How to Move Your Supporters Off Patreon Without Losing Them

Move Patreon supporters over by announcing on every channel they follow, running both pages through one full Patreon billing cycle so no one loses access mid-month, and giving supporters a specific new action — a tip, a project contribution, or a paid request — rather than a link to "check out my new page."

FanBell is free to start with no monthly fee and applies a 12% platform fee only when a fan pays (pricing); every Patreon, Mailchimp, Baymard, and Stripe figure below is cited to its own official source with the month it was checked.

Creators leave Patreon for different reasons. Patreon's help center states that "since August 4, 2025, we've consolidated our platform plans into a standard 10% fee plan + applicable taxes and payment processing fees" (Patreon Help Center — Stop accepting new members by unpublishing your page), and for other creators the tiered-membership format simply doesn't fit work that arrives as one-off requests rather than ongoing content demand — the same pull that leads small streamers to move tips off Twitch to external platforms. Either way, the risk isn't the move itself — it's supporters who never notice the announcement and quietly stop paying anyone.

When should you announce that you're leaving Patreon?

Announce the move as soon as your new page can actually take payment, not after Patreon is wound down. Post it on Patreon, by email, and in every social bio on the same day, then repeat it at least twice more before the transition closes, because one message reaches only a fraction of your paying supporters.

Repetition is a hedge against low reach rather than nagging: Mailchimp's email reporting benchmarks put the average email open rate across all industries at 21.33% (Mailchimp email reporting benchmarks), so roughly four in five recipients never open a one-time announcement email. Patreon's own wind-down documentation gives creators the same advice for the same reason.

"If you have active members, especially those on annual plans, we highly recommend notifying them before unpublishing. Post an update to explain your decision, outline what they can expect, and maintain a strong relationship with your community."

— Patreon Help Center, "Stop accepting new members by unpublishing your page" (support.patreon.com)

Annual supporters are the group most likely to miss a single post, because their next charge may be months away. Treat the move as a short campaign — a pinned Patreon post, an email, a social post, and a reminder a week later — rather than one message you send once and consider done.

How long should you run both pages at once?

Run your Patreon page and your new page in parallel for at least one full Patreon billing cycle, then stop accepting new pledges while existing supporters keep the access they already paid for. Patreon bills different members on different dates, so a single hard cutover date tends to strand whoever was charged most recently.

Patreon's Subscription Billing FAQ states that under subscription billing "new paid members are charged when they join and then monthly on the same date (e.g., a member who joins on April 12 is charged again on May 12)," while members who joined before a creator switched "continue to be charged on the first of the month" (Patreon Help Center — Subscription Billing FAQ). One creator's audience can span both patterns at once, which is why "one billing cycle" is a window of several weeks rather than a single day.

Nobody has to lose access mid-period. Patreon's help center states that a member who cancels "will retain access to paid content until the end of your billing period" (Patreon Help Center — Canceling a paid membership), so a supporter who moves to your new page this week still keeps what they paid for on Patreon until their cycle ends.

The "stop accepting new pledges" step has a specific mechanism and a specific catch. Patreon's help center states that unpublishing a creator page "removes your page from public view and stops new memberships, while allowing you to return and republish at any time," but the same article warns that unpublishing pauses active memberships made on web or Android, and that memberships made on iOS after in-app purchasing rolled out "will be canceled without automatic refunds". Unpublishing at the start of the next cycle stops new pledges cleanly; unpublishing on announcement day cuts short the paid period your existing supporters were promised.

Sources for the table above: Patreon Help Center — Stop accepting new members by unpublishing your page and Patreon Help Center — How to erase your Patreon account.

What should you actually ask supporters to do next?

Give supporters one specific next action — send a tip, fund a named project, or buy one paid request — not a bare link to a new page. Every extra step between the announcement and the payment costs conversions, and forcing a former Patreon supporter to create another account is a commonly reported reason people abandon a purchase.

Baymard Institute's cart-abandonment research reports that 18% of US online shoppers who abandoned an order cited "the site wanted me to create an account" as a reason (Baymard Institute — cart abandonment statistics). FanBell's how-it-works page states that a fan "pays the full price upfront — checking out as a guest by card, with no account to create and no app to install" (how it works), which removes that step for a supporter arriving straight from your announcement.

Match the ask to the kind of support each person actually gave you. A supporter who tipped occasionally can be pointed to a Tips page; a supporter who backed a specific goal can be pointed to a Wishlist / Project Support page that keeps the "funding a goal" framing they already understood. A supporter who mainly wanted individual attention — a question answered, a shoutout, a small custom deliverable — should be sent to that one offer rather than to a general "membership." If your Patreon tiers underpriced that attention, the move is also a natural point to work through how to raise your prices without losing followers before you set the new page's rates.

Do you need to rebuild your Patreon tiers on the new platform?

No. Keeping supporters paying you does not require recreating a tiered recurring membership. Patreon's model is monthly or annual tiers with ongoing perks; a direct-payment page sells priced, one-off interactions instead. The honest framing for supporters is "pay for what you want, when you want it," not "same tiers, new platform."

Running a membership also means running a billing model, and billing models change underneath creators: Patreon's Subscription Billing FAQ states that "all creators still on legacy billing must switch to subscription billing by November 1, 2026," and that creators who take no action are switched automatically with billing paused until they consent to the new pricing. Rebuilding Patreon's tier structure elsewhere means signing up for subscription billing, tier perks, and churn management all over again.

FanBell's offers are built around single, priced requests instead: a Paid Private Question, a Personalized Shoutout, a Creator Service, a one-time Tip, or a contribution toward a Wishlist / Project Support goal. None of those require building membership tiers before supporters can pay you again.

Can supporters bring their community with them, or just their payment?

Supporters can follow you to a new page and keep paying, but Patreon-hosted community access does not travel with them. Patreon's Discord integration grants server roles from Patreon tiers and removes those roles when a pledge ends, and Patreon's documented audience export covers contacts rather than posts, comment threads, or Discord roles.

Patreon's help center describes the integration plainly: "Our Discord integration syncs your Discord server roles with your Patreon tiers to grant exclusive server access and permissions". The same article documents what happens when the money stops.

"If a member deletes their pledge or their payment declines, we'll remove the role(s) from their Discord account for you."

— Patreon Help Center, "Setting up Discord for your members" (support.patreon.com)

Community access tied to Patreon tiers therefore ends when the Patreon pledge ends. If community (not just payment) is central to what you offer, set up a home you control — a Discord server whose roles you assign yourself, or a private group — before you announce the move, so supporters aren't losing two things in the same week.

What does move is contact information supporters have already given you. Patreon's help center documents downloading a CSV of contacts from the Relationship Manager, filterable by paid or free and active or canceled members (Patreon Help Center — Exporting your audience's emails from Patreon); as of that check, Patreon's help center documented no equivalent export that carries posts, comment threads, or Discord roles onto another platform. Email is the one channel that survives the move intact, so export before you unpublish anything.

Where should the new page link live so no one gets lost?

Put the new link everywhere the old Patreon link already lives: your Patreon about section, your pinned Patreon posts, every social bio that currently points at Patreon, your email signature, and the outro of any video or podcast that mentions Patreon. A wound-down Patreon page stops being findable, so any stale bio link sends new visitors nowhere.

Patreon's help center states that unpublishing "hides your creator page and work from public view — new members won't be able to find or join your creator page". Every bio link you forget to update becomes a dead end the day you unpublish, so update the links first and wind Patreon down second.

What should the new page look like before you send anyone to it?

The new page must be able to take a real payment before it appears in any announcement, because a "coming soon" placeholder loses exactly the supporters who would have moved on impulse. Publish and price the offers you're steering supporters toward, then push one real test payment through checkout before the first announcement goes out.

Checkout friction is measurable rather than hypothetical. Baymard Institute's compilation of 50 studies puts the average documented online shopping cart abandonment rate at 70.22%, and Baymard's own survey finds that 17% of US online shoppers have abandoned an order because of a "too long / complicated checkout process". A supporter who already trusts you and clicks through from an announcement is a warm click, and a confusing new signup flow is the fastest way to cool it.

On FanBell, a fan picks an offer, pays the full price upfront as a guest by card, and submits any details the offer needs on the creator's own page in a single flow.

What does it cost to run the new page compared to Patreon?

Compare take-home rather than headline percentages. Patreon's standard plan takes 10% of creator earnings plus taxes and payment processing; FanBell is free to start with no monthly fee and takes 12% only when a fan pays, with card processing billed separately by Stripe. The two percentages cover different things: recurring pledges versus one-off paid interactions.

Patreon's help center states that "since August 4, 2025, we've consolidated our platform plans into a standard 10% fee plan + applicable taxes and payment processing fees" (Patreon Help Center). FanBell charges no monthly fee and a 12% platform fee only on transactions where a fan actually pays, and typical US online card processing of 2.9% + $0.30 per successful charge is billed separately by Stripe (Stripe pricing).

Because Patreon's 10% applies to recurring monthly pledges and FanBell's 12% applies per one-off paid interaction, total cost depends on how your supporters actually pay you rather than on which percentage looks smaller. For a fuller breakdown of how flat subscriptions, percentage cuts, and processing fees stack up across creator platforms, see creator platform fees explained; creators weighing the do-it-yourself route instead of either platform can compare against the true cost of a self-hosted Patreon alternative.

Related: if the deciding factor is protecting income from a single platform's decisions rather than fees, see is your creator income safe if an app shuts down and the full FanBell vs. Patreon comparison.

Frequently asked questions

Will I lose supporters if I leave Patreon?

Some drop-off during any platform change is realistic, because not every supporter sees an announcement: Mailchimp's benchmarks put the average email open rate across all industries at 21.33%. Running both pages in parallel through one full billing cycle and repeating the announcement across every channel your supporters follow reduces missed transitions rather than eliminating them.

Do I have to cancel Patreon the same day I launch a new page?

No. Patreon's help center states that a canceled membership "will retain access to paid content until the end of your billing period", so you can launch the new page first, run both pages at once, and let Patreon wind down as each supporter's cycle ends.

Should I unpublish my Patreon page or pause billing?

Pausing "keeps your page active and your tools intact, without charging members during your time away," while unpublishing "removes your page from public view and stops new memberships" and pauses active web and Android memberships (Patreon Help Center — Stop accepting new members by unpublishing your page). Pause if you might return; unpublish once current pledges have already run their course.

Can I export my Patreon supporter list to reach them directly?

Yes. Patreon's help center documents downloading a CSV of your contacts from the Relationship Manager, with filters for paid or free and active or canceled members, which lets you email supporters about the move instead of relying on them seeing one Patreon post.

Does a new page need Patreon-style membership tiers to replace lost pledges?

No. A direct-payment page does not require rebuilding tiers: FanBell sells one-off priced interactions such as Tips for casual supporters or Wishlist / Project Support for supporters who backed a specific goal, with no follower minimum required to start.

What does FanBell charge compared to Patreon?

FanBell is free to start with no monthly fee and charges a 12% platform fee only when a fan pays, while Patreon's help center describes a standard 10% fee plan plus applicable taxes and payment processing fees on recurring pledges. On FanBell, that separate processing is typical US online card processing of 2.9% + $0.30 per successful charge via Stripe.

Create your free FanBell page and give your Patreon supporters a specific, ready place to keep paying you.