WordPress Patreon Alternative: Paymattic X FluentCommunity

There’s a popular saying,
“Don’t build your castle in someone else’s sandbox.”

If you are a Patreon enthusiast but looking for a WordPress Patreon alternative, you are already smarter than half of the world population.

In this article, I’ll show you how you can create a Patreon alternative for WordPress using two super-powerful WordPress plugins.

So, let’s dive into the details.

Why look for a Patreon alternative?

Patreon is awesome. No doubt. But there are some limitations that might make you think another way.

Cost comparison with Patreon vs Paymattic X FluentCommunity:

With Patreon, you get what you get. The expandability of the platform is quite limited.

On the other hand, WordPress is incredibly powerful, super simple, and crazy customizable. Not to mention the extra functionality support you get from all the themes, plugins, tools, and communities.

Let’s look at the reasons why you should consider a WordPress Patreon alternative:

• Patreon platform cut
  Patreon can take a significant cut of your earnings. This includes a platform fee (starting at 10% for new creators) and additional payment processing fees. The fees add up quickly, leaving you with less of your hard-earned money.
• Lack of ownership
  On Patreon, you don’t fully own your audience. The platform serves as a middleman between you and your fans. Patreon controls the relationship between you and your supporters, which limits your direct communication channels. If Patreon changes its policies or introduces an issue, your livelihood could be at risk.
• Limited brand identity
  You are restricted to Patreon’s pre-set tiers and branding options. It’s difficult to create a unique experience that truly reflects your brand’s identity. As a result, your brand identity becomes diluted within Patreon’s standardized framework.
• Platform dependency risk
  Platform policy changes can dramatically affect your income overnight. Additionally, Patreon’s algorithm updates or feature removals will happen without your input or consent.

Patreon alternative duo: Paymattic X FluentCommunity

To build your own Patreon alternative on WordPress, you will need two WordPress plugins that work together seamlessly.

Plugin 1: FluentCommunity
Plugin 2: Paymattic

Plugin 1: FluentCommunity

This is a membership and community management plugin for WordPress. It lets you create an online community with features like user profiles, activity feeds, private groups, courses, and forums. It’s perfect for building a space where your paying members can connect and interact.

Plugin 2: Paymattic

This is a payment and donation processing plugin for WordPress. It allows you to create flexible payment forms and accept recurring payments directly on your WordPress website. With Paymattic, you can handle subscriptions, manage customer profiles, and get detailed reports on your revenue.

Together, these two plugins let you replicate something better than Patreon.

You can set up membership tiers, accept recurring support, offer access to a private community, sell courses, and gate exclusive content.

What can you do with Paymattic X FluentCommunity?

The combination of these plugins gives you a powerful and flexible setup to build your own creator platform. Here is what you can do:

• Offer exclusive paid community access: With FluentCommunity and Paymattic, you can create a private community or specific groups that are only accessible to your paying members. This builds a sense of belonging and gives your paid fans a VIP forum only accessible to them.
• Offer exclusive paid course access: If you are a course creator, you can use FluentCommunity’s built-in LMS features to create and manage courses. Then, use Paymattic to gate those courses, granting access only to those who have paid.
• Create subscription tiers: You can set up different subscription plans, like weekly, monthly, or annual subscriptions, for your subscribed members to choose from.
• Collect recurring payments: Paymattic handles all types of payment processing. You can accept recurring payments through various payment gateways and manage recurring billing directly from your WordPress website.
• 100% ownership of audience + no hefty fees: By hosting your community platform on your own WordPress site, you own all the data and relationships with your fans. Plus, you avoid Patreon’s platform fees and can keep more of your revenue.

Tutorial: How to build your Patreon alternative on WordPress

Let’s build your paid community on WordPress. I’ll show you a step-by-step guide to create a paid community on your site.

For a comprehensive demonstration, I’ll use the Paymattic Pro and FluentCommunity Pro WordPress plugins.

Ideal steps will be:

Step 1: Installing Paymattic Pro and FluentCommunity Pro
Step 2: Create a private space/course with FluentCommunity
Step 3: Create a payment form with Paymattic
Step 4: Test and Publish

Let’s get started.

Step 1: Installing Paymattic Pro and FluentCommunity Pro

If you don’t have the Pro plugins, you can buy them from the Paymattic and FluentCommunity websites. And the Paymattic Free plugin is available on the WordPress plugin directory.

• Go to your WordPress website’s Dashboard > Plugins > Add Plugin.
• Then go to the Upload Plugin and upload the Pro plugin files.

• Hit Install and Activate them.

Step 2: Create a private space/course with FluentCommunity

After you’ve installed and activated FluentCommunity Pro, you’ll have to set it up with your information. That includes setting up your community permalink, community feed, and basic customization.

Now that you are all set, let’s create a private space or course in your community.

• From the plugin page, click “Go to the portal” to visit your community page.
• From your community page, go to Spaces > New Space, select your space category, and click Next.

Right now, you can create a Discussion space or a Course Space. I’m creating a discussion space for myself for demonstration.

• After choosing a discussion space, you’ll get a pop-up to create your space. Add your space title, URL slug, description, and other settings.

• In this pop-up, you’ll get a settings titled Access Control. Select Privacy settings to Private.

• From the next page, fill in the necessary boxes for further customization and click Create.

And your private community is ready.

Step 3: Create a payment form with Paymattic

Now that your private community is ready, let’s create a payment form through which you’ll provide paid access to your members. We’ll use Paymattic Pro to do that.

• From your WordPress dashboard, go to Paymattic Pro > Create Form > Blank Form.

• On the next page, add a name field, an email field, a password field, a payment field, and a payment gateway.

The payment field defines the amount you charge members to join your community. I am charging $10 and using the Stripe payment gateway. You can customize the payment form as you like.

• Now we will add the FluentCommunity integration and add access to our paid space upon payment.

You are done.

And this is how the form should look:

You can customize the form as you want. I kept it simple.

Step 4: Test and publish your form

Now that your Paymattic payment form is ready for members to sign up in FluentCommunity spaces, the only step left is to test it.

Use the shortcode of the Paymattic payment form and paste it into your target page. Then test if the setup works properly on your website.

Once you’re satisfied with the result, publish the page and share it with your audience so they can join your community space.

Who should use this setup?

This Paymattic and FluentCommunity combo is incredible for anyone trying to create a paid community on WordPress. It includes:

• Individual content creators who want full control over their monetization strategy.
• Podcasters and YouTubers who want a more direct way to monetize their audience.
• Bloggers and writers who want to offer exclusive content on a private forum for loyal readers.
• Artists and musicians who want to sell subscriptions to exclusive works or behind-the-scenes content.
• Course creators who want to build a community around their educational content and offer premium access.
• Membership site owners looking to create tiered content access.
• Small businesses that want to create customer loyalty programs with recurring payments.
• Service providers who want to offer exclusive access to resources and paid community support.

Benefits over Patreon

WordPress has always been the most flexible website solution. Going with a WordPress-based community over a Patreon community can provide you with several benefits:

• You get complete control over your community/forum. You control the design, payments, your website, and everything. There are no restrictions on what you can showcase, discuss, or talk about. You are never at risk of being shut down for policy violations.
• By eliminating the middleman, Patreon, you get to keep all of your money. You only pay for the yearly subscription fees for Paymattic Pro and FluentCommunity Pro.
• WordPress offers you limitless possibilities. As you grow, you can add new features like an online store, a portfolio, or a dedicated blog without needing to move to a new platform.
• Having your community on your own site, you foster a more intimate connection with your audience. You build a space that is truly yours, not just a profile on a third-party platform.
• With FluentCommunity, you get SEO benefits. Your public content can improve your website’s search engine rankings. Notably, this organic discovery can attract new supporters without additional advertising costs.
• As you scale up, WordPress grows with your business. You can add unlimited expansion of features and functionality. Additionally, you can integrate with email marketing, CRM systems, and analytics tools seamlessly.

Ready to take control of your creator economy? This WordPress Patreon alternative gives you the tools, flexibility, and ownership you need to build a thriving, sustainable membership business.

Cost comparison with Patreon

To set up Paymattic X FluentCommunity on your WordPress website, you can go with any of these combinations:

• To accept one-time payments with Stripe: Paymattic Free + FluentCommunity Pro
• To accept recurring payments: Paymattic Pro + FluentCommunity Pro

Right now, the FluentCommunity Pro starts at $159/year. You can check the FluentCommunity pricing page for the updated prices.

And, you can get started with Paymattic Free for one-time Stripe payments. If you need recurring payments and other payment gateways, Paymattic Pro starts at $59/year. Check the Paymattic pricing page for the updated prices.

On the other hand, Patreon charges you 10% of the income you earn on Patreon.

So, let’s do the math:

You see the pattern here, right?

No matter how much you earn, you only pay fixed yearly subscriptions with Paymattic Pro and FluentCommunity Pro.

On the other hand, Patreon takes a 10% revenue cut.

The more you earn on Patreon, the more money you lose to Patreon.

What I’m saying is Patreon is not bad. But it’s not convenient when you want to scale up.

The compounding cut might harm your revenue stream in the long run. That’s why more and more creators are switching to their personal WordPress communities.

Conclusion

Are you feeling confident about building your own WordPress Patreon alternative?

By combining Paymattic and FluentCommunity, you can create a platform that not only matches Patreon’s core features but also gives you complete control, full ownership of your audience, and more revenue.

No more middlemen, no more high fees, and no more worries about platform policy changes.

And it’s easier than you think it is.