# Membership Revenue Calculator — Patreon vs Substack vs beehiiv Net Income

> Free membership revenue calculator. Compare net income after platform fees and payment processing across Patreon, Substack, and beehiiv. Multi-tier, churn projection, multi-currency.

- **Category:** Social Media & SEO
- **Interactive calculator:** https://youcalc.com/en/social-media-seo/membership-revenue/
- **Price:** Free, no sign-up required

## Overview

This calculator estimates your monthly and annual net revenue from a paid membership programme, after platform fees and payment processing. Enter your subscriber tiers and pricing, choose a platform, and set your expected monthly churn rate to see both your current take-home and how it decays over 12 months.

## How to read your result

The headline figures are your gross monthly revenue, net monthly revenue, and the projected annual net. The platform comparison bar shows what you would earn on Patreon, Substack, or beehiiv with the same subscriber numbers, so you can make an apples-to-apples cost decision. The churn projection chart traces how net revenue falls month by month as subscribers leave — the steeper the slope, the more urgent your retention strategy.

## Method

Gross monthly revenue equals the sum of subscribers × price across all active tiers. For each tier, net revenue per subscriber is price × (1 − platformFee − processingPct) − processingFixed, where platformFee, processingPct, and processingFixed come from the published fee schedule of the selected platform. Tier net monthly is then subscribers × net per subscriber. Total net monthly is the sum across tiers, and annual net is net monthly × 12. The effective percentage is net monthly ÷ gross monthly × 100. For the churn projection, net revenue in month m is the current-month net × (1 − monthlyChurnRate) ^ m, giving a 12-month exponential decay curve. Platform comparison applies the same tier inputs to each platform's fee schedule in turn.

## Example

- **Setup:** 200 members paying 10 per month on Patreon (Pro plan), with a 5 % monthly churn rate.
- **Result:** Gross is 2,000 per month. After Patreon's 8 % platform fee plus Stripe's 2.9 % + 0.30 per subscriber, net is 1,722 per month (86.1 % effective rate), or 20,664 annualised. At 5 % monthly churn, 114 members remain by month 12, reducing net monthly revenue to roughly 979.

## Frequently asked questions

### What are platform fees and why do they differ?

Each platform charges a percentage of gross revenue for hosting, discovery, and support (Patreon Pro 8 %, Substack 10 %, beehiiv 0 % on paid plans), plus a payment-processor cut of roughly 2.9 % + a small fixed fee per transaction. beehiiv passes all platform revenue to you but still charges the Stripe processing fee, making it the highest-net option when subscriber prices are above a few dollars.

### How is monthly churn factored in?

Churn is modelled as a constant monthly percentage of the current subscriber pool. If you start with 200 subscribers and churn is 5 %, you lose about 10 in month 1, then about 9.5 of the remaining 190 in month 2, and so on. The projection uses exponential decay: subscribers in month m = starting subscribers × (1 − churn rate) ^ m. Real churn is never perfectly constant, but this gives a useful worst-case benchmark.

### What counts as a "tier" in this calculator?

A tier is a single price point with a set number of active subscribers. You can model up to three tiers simultaneously — for example a basic tier at a lower price and a premium tier at a higher price. Leave subscriber count at zero to disable a tier. Each tier is costed independently using the selected platform's fee schedule.

### Does the calculator account for free trials or annual subscriptions?

No. The model assumes all subscribers pay the monthly price every month, with no trial periods, annual discounts, or mid-month cancellations. Annual plans typically reduce per-subscriber payment fees (because there are fewer transactions) and often correlate with lower churn — factor these differences in manually if they apply to your programme.

### Why might my actual payout be lower than the estimated net?

The fixed processing fee (0.30 per transaction) is applied once per subscriber per month — the worst-case model. Some platforms batch charges or issue weekly payouts, which can reduce transaction overhead. Currency conversion fees, refunds, and failed payments are also not modelled. Treat the figure as an optimistic upper bound for your net.

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## Sources

- https://support.patreon.com/hc/en-us/articles/206197906-Understand-the-numbers-listed-on-my-Patreon
- https://www.patreon.com/pricing

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Interactive version: https://youcalc.com/en/social-media-seo/membership-revenue/ · From YouCalc — https://youcalc.com