Revenue share vs monthly fee: how to compare membership platform pricing
Updated · 7 min read
The short answer
A flat monthly fee costs the same whether you make US$500 or US$50,000, so it gets cheaper as you grow; a revenue share costs nothing until you sell, then rises with every sale. Against a 10% share, a US$179 a month plan breaks even at US$1,790 a month in sales and a US$499 plan at US$4,990. Above that, the flat fee is cheaper on fees alone, so the real question is what each price includes and who does the work.
Two ways platforms charge
Membership platforms for creators make money in one of two ways, and some mix them.
A flat monthly fee. You pay a subscription for the software, whether you have 10 members or 10,000. Kajabi, Uscreen, Passion.io and Memberful work this way. You set it up, you run it, and you keep everything else apart from card fees and any per-sale charges.
A revenue share. You pay nothing upfront and the platform keeps a percentage of what members pay. Substack and Patreon take 10%. Playbook, a fitness app platform, keeps 20% of net revenue by default. Voyage takes a share from 10%, agreed with each creator before launch.
Card processing (Stripe’s standard US rate is 2.9% plus 30 cents per charge) applies under both models, so this guide leaves it out of the comparisons unless it differs.
What the main platforms charge
Figures in US dollars from each platform’s own website, checked in October 2026.
| Platform | Monthly fee | Fees on sales |
|---|---|---|
| Kajabi | US$179 to US$499 (US$143 to US$399 billed yearly) | None to Kajabi; 0.5% to 2% extra with another processor |
| Uscreen | US$49 to US$499 | US$0.99 to US$1.99 per active subscriber on larger plans |
| Passion.io | US$119 to US$599 billed yearly | PassionPayments fee from 3.9% (Launch) to 1.9% (Plus) |
| Memberful | US$49 | 4.9% |
| Substack | None | 10% of subscriptions |
| Patreon | None | 10% for creators who launched after 4 August 2025 |
| Playbook | None | 20% of net revenue by default |
Look closely and few platforms are purely one or the other. Memberful charges a fee and a percentage. Uscreen’s larger plans charge per member, which behaves like a revenue share. Passion.io keeps a slice of each sale through its own checkout. When you compare, add both columns together at your own numbers.
The break-even maths
The break-even point is the monthly revenue where a percentage costs the same as a fixed fee:
break-even revenue = monthly fee ÷ revenue share
A US$179 plan against a 10% share: 179 ÷ 0.10 = US$1,790 a month. Below that, the share is cheaper. Above it, the flat fee is.
Here’s the monthly platform cost at four revenue levels, before card fees:
| Monthly sales | 10% share | 20% share | Memberful (US$49 + 4.9%) | Kajabi from US$179 | Kajabi Pro US$499 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US$1,000 | US$100 | US$200 | US$98 | US$179 | US$499 |
| US$5,000 | US$500 | US$1,000 | US$294 | US$179 | US$499 |
| US$20,000 | US$2,000 | US$4,000 | US$1,029 | US$179 | US$499 |
| US$50,000 | US$5,000 | US$10,000 | US$2,499 | US$179 | US$499 |
Break-even points against a 10% share:
- Memberful: about US$960 a month (49 ÷ (0.10 − 0.049))
- Kajabi at US$179: US$1,790 a month
- Kajabi Pro at US$499, the plan with a branded app: US$4,990 a month
- Passion.io Expand at US$599, its plan with your own App Store listing: US$5,990 a month, before its per-sale fee
So the honest answer is that at high revenue, a flat fee is much cheaper on fees alone. At US$50,000 a month, a 10% share costs US$5,000 against US$499 for Kajabi Pro. That’s about US$54,000 a year. Anyone selling you a revenue share should be able to explain what that money buys.
Two worked examples
A recipe creator with 400 members paying US$12 a month makes US$4,800 a month. A 10% share costs US$480. Kajabi’s entry plan costs US$179, so on fees alone Kajabi is US$301 a month cheaper. Kajabi has no recipe tools, though, so serving scaling, shopping lists and meal plans would need another tool or a workaround, and those cost money or time too.
A fitness creator with 1,500 members paying US$20 a month makes US$30,000 a month. A 10% share costs US$3,000. Kajabi Pro costs US$499. On Uscreen’s Growth plan, the US$1.99 per active subscriber adds US$2,985 a month before the plan price, which is close to the 10% share. Per-member pricing scales like a percentage, just less visibly.
To run these numbers at your own price, member count and churn, use the membership revenue calculator. If you haven’t settled on a price yet, see how much to charge for a fitness membership or for a meal plan membership.
The months before you sell anything
Break-even tables assume revenue. Most memberships start with none.
Say it takes three months to plan, build and load your recipes or programs, and your first month of sales brings in US$1,500. On Kajabi’s entry plan, you’ve paid about US$716 (four months at US$179) by the end of month four; Kajabi offers a 30-day free trial, which would cut that to about US$537. On a 10% share, you’ve paid US$150.
If the launch goes badly, the flat-fee creator has a bill and the revenue-share creator has nothing to pay. That’s the clearest difference between the two models: who carries the risk early. With a flat fee, you do. With a revenue share, the platform does.
What each model rewards
Pricing shapes what a platform pays attention to.
A flat-fee platform earns the same from you whether you sell or not. Its incentive is to keep you subscribed and move you to a higher plan. That tends to produce broad feature sets, good self-serve tools and tiered plans that put the features you want (a branded app, lower transaction fees, more members) a step up. None of that is bad. It suits creators who want to build and market the business themselves and who are confident it will sell.
A revenue-share platform earns only when your members pay. Its incentive is your sales: more members, less churn, better launches. In practice that ranges from nothing at all (a platform that takes 10% and leaves you to it) to a partner that does real work on the product and marketing. The percentage alone doesn’t tell you which.
That’s why the useful question isn’t “which is cheaper?” but “what does the fee cover, and who does the work?” Here’s what to check:
- What’s included. Does the share cover design and build, or just hosting? Is your own app included or extra?
- Who does the work. On most flat-fee platforms, setup and marketing are yours. Some revenue-share arrangements include a team; many don’t.
- Whose payment account it is. If members pay into your own Stripe account, you can move platforms without asking everyone to re-enter a card. If they pay the platform, moving is harder.
- Who owns the member list. You want an export with emails, not just a follower count.
- Whether the rate changes as you grow. Ask whether the share falls at higher revenue, and what notice you get before any change. Patreon’s August 2025 change applied to new creators only, but platforms can and do change terms.
- Exit terms. Contract length, exit fees, and what happens to your domain.
Which suits you
A flat monthly fee tends to suit you if:
- you already sell more than the break-even figure, or are confident you will soon
- you’re happy to build, design and market it yourself
- you want predictable costs and the margin that comes with scale
A revenue share tends to suit you if:
- you’re launching and don’t know yet how it will sell
- you don’t want to pay for software before your first sale
- the share pays for work you’d otherwise do or hire for, such as design, build, an app or marketing
Plenty of creators start on a revenue share and reassess once revenue is steady. If you do, check the exit terms on day one, not when you want to leave.
How Voyage prices it
Launch with Voyage uses a revenue share. There’s no monthly fee and no setup fee for your website and membership; Voyage takes a share of sales from 10%, agreed with you before launch, and Stripe’s card fees apply as they would anywhere. Members pay into your own Stripe account and you own the member list. Your own iOS and Android app and the growth team are optional and priced separately. There’s no lock-in contract and no exit fee. The full detail is on how Voyage pricing works, and the comparison page lists the other platforms side by side.
