A paywall and a payment relationship, not a destination. The community often lives elsewhere. Patreon, Substack, Memberful, Stan Store, Fourthwall.
A link-in-bio storefront that grew a course builder, bookings and a single community. $29/mo with 0% platform fee on your own Stripe or PayPal. Email broadcasts and flows are Creator Pro at $99. One community per store, iOS-only member app, no gamification.
A paid newsletter that's turning into a social network. Free to publish, 10% of paid revenue plus Stripe. One chat with threads, no courses, no gamification, no list sync beyond CSV. The best export on the site and the loudest algorithm.
No monthly fee, 10% of everything you earn, plus processing, conversion and payout fees. Tiers, free membership, up to 10 tier-gated chat spaces, posts emailed in full. No course builder, no gamification, no list sync beyond CSV and Zapier.