Creator Subscription Platform Fees Compared in 2026

A creator subscription platform is a service that lets creators sell paywalled memberships, pay-per-view content, paid DMs, and tips to fans, taking a percentage of each transaction in exchange. In 2026, platform fees cluster into four bands: Fanvault at 8%, Passes at 10% plus $0.30 per transaction, Fanvue at a 15% promotional rate that resets to 20% after 12 months, and Fanfix at a flat 20%. On $100K of annual creator revenue, that spread is the difference between keeping $92K and keeping $80K, a $12K gap that compounds every year.

What is the actual platform fee on each subscription platform in 2026?

The headline fee is the percentage of creator revenue the platform keeps before payout. Here is what each named competitor charges, sourced from primary documentation:

Passes' fee is documented as 10% of gross merchandise value plus a flat $0.30 per transaction, per Sacra. Fanvue's standard 20% rate (with a 15% promotional band for new creators in their first 12 months) is published in Fanvue's legal terms and confirmed in their Help Centre. Fanfix's 20% is set in its Creator Terms of Use on Fanfix. Fanvault's 8% is platform-inclusive of the Stripe processing layer that Stripe bills at 2.9% + $0.30 underneath.

What does the fee actually cost a creator at $1K and $10K per month?

Headline percentages obscure the dollar impact. Here is the math on identical creator revenue across all four platforms, ignoring promotional rates and assuming a representative average sale of $10 per transaction for the Passes per-transaction calculation:

The gap between the cheapest and most expensive platform is roughly $14,400 per year on the same $120K in creator revenue. That matters because Goldman Sachs Research estimates only about 4% of global creators clear $100K annually, while roughly half earn under $15K. At the median, every percentage point of platform take is the difference between viability and attrition.

How fast does each platform pay creators out?

Payout cadence and minimums diverge as sharply as fees. Fanvue runs a weekly cycle but requires a $20 minimum balance ($50 in some regions) plus five pieces of uploaded content before a creator can withdraw, per the Fanvue Help Centre. Fanfix processes earnings every Wednesday and deposits via Stripe every Friday, with weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly cadence options available, per the Fanfix Blog.

Passes pays bi-weekly but takes up to 30 days after each bi-weekly period to release funds, with a $50 minimum, per the Passes Help Center. Fanvault rides Stripe Connect on the standard schedule. In practice, the platform with the highest per-transaction surcharge (Passes) also has the longest float window, which is a cash-flow consideration most creators don't price in.

Which monetization features are bundled into the fee?

All four platforms share the core subscription, PPV, paid DM, and tip stack. Where they split is on storefront, memorabilia, and automation:

• Fanvault: subs, PPV, paid DMs, tips, wishlists, an integrated storefront with auctions and buy-it-now drops, authenticated memorabilia with provenance metadata, and a conversational automation layer that runs creator operations through chat (in-app and on Telegram).
• Fanvue: subs, PPV, paid DMs, tips, bundles, and custom content. No native storefront, no memorabilia, no conversational layer.
• Passes: subs, paid DMs, livestreaming, merch, 1:1 video calls, automated messaging, PPV, per Sacra. No authenticated memorabilia auctions.
• Fanfix: subs, PPV (locked content), paid DMs, tips. No AI creator support, no storefront, no memorabilia.

Wishlists, in particular, are a Fanvault-only feature across this competitive set. The storefront with authenticated memorabilia auctions brings the sports-collectibles model (a $30B+ market) into the same account that handles a creator's subscriptions.

What about the hidden fees: processing, promotional rate expiry, and surcharges?

Three line items the headline fee doesn't show:

1. Stripe processing. Stripe Connect charges 2.9% + $0.30 per successful online card transaction underneath every platform on this list. Fanvault's 8% is inclusive of the processing layer in its published rate. On other platforms, creators should check whether the percentage they see is gross or net of Stripe.
2. Promotional rate expiry. Fanvue's 15% rate only applies for the first 12 months. After that, the rate resets to 20%, which means year-two creators earn 5 percentage points less per dollar than year-one creators on the same content, per Fanvue.
3. Per-transaction surcharges. Passes' $0.30 per transaction is invisible on a $100 PPV unlock but eats 15% of a $2 tip. Creators with high-volume, low-ticket transaction patterns (tip jars, small unlocks) pay materially more than the 10% headline suggests.

Which platform is best for which creator?

For a high-ticket comparison, BusinessWire reported Fanfix surpassed $170M in total creator payouts in June 2025, validating the brand-safe direct-to-fan model. The tradeoff is the 20% take. PRNewswire documented Passes' April 2026 rebrand to the "creator accelerator platform" while keeping the 10% + $0.30 fee structure intact, meaning the rebrand was positioning rather than economics.

What's the 2026 trend on platform fees?

The fee floor is moving down. Fanvault's 8% and Whop's 3% for digital products are resetting the band that Fanvue and Fanfix have held at 15-20% for years. Promotional intro rates (Fanvue's 15% for 12 months) are becoming a standard acquisition lever that obscures higher steady-state take. Per-transaction surcharges (Passes' $0.30) are emerging as a hidden second axis. And bundled feature stacks (storefront, memorabilia, conversational automation) are starting to differentiate platforms more than headline fee alone, particularly for athletes, streamers, and virtual creators.

The big-picture context: Goldman Sachs Research projects the creator economy will nearly double from $250B in 2024 to $480B by 2027, with the 50M-creator population growing at 10-20% annually. In that environment, fee economics aren't a back-office concern. They're the gap between a side hustle and a career.