Patreon Tier/Subscription Changes (Patreon)

So, Apple has been putting pressure on Patreon for two things: to charge patrons for Apple's platform fee of 30%, and to remove per-update billing, both of which effect us. For the former, the recommendation is simple - if you can, pledge to creators using a non-iOS device, so neither you nor them need to pay Apple's fee. For the latter - that means we're moving off of a per-update billing schedule. This doesn't change anything for currently existing pledges, only new or returning patrons, so if you're reading this, nothing much is going to change for you, and no action is required on your part.

We've been a per-update Patreon from the beginning, in the early days of Patreon before you could do monthly charge pausing. We saw that other creators were getting negative feedback because on months where their output was low, patrons felt like they weren't getting value from their contributions, so we set ours up to only charge when we posted an art or writing update (this was pre-ToA, actually!) Since we both had full time jobs at the time, this felt fairest. Eventually, we settled on a four update a month schedule, which we've persisted to this day, now corresponding to the four ToA weekly updates.

We plan to keep that schedule going forward, since we've been consistent about it for years, but we are changing billing to once per month, which is something we've thought about doing for a long time. As we've grown the team, a consistent revenue has become more important, and this will inevitably result in some shocks, but we're hoping we can keep the team as-is and continue to fund and develop ToA at the same rate or better.

One reason we've thought about moving to per-month billing is confusion about when billing takes place: in a per-update Patreon, billing occurs at the end of the pay period, rather than at the beginning, so you're not charged anything until after your first month. With per-month billing, this can be changed so that it charges up front, which is more in line with what people expect when they pay for a subscription, and billing is also done on an anniversary basis - the next charge after the first will occur one month after on the same day, rather than always falling on the 1st - so you're never charged for a full month because you joined a few days before the end of the month.

Patreon's mobile app at times has made it confusing to set a monthly maximum, which has resulted in people being charged more than they expect, so we've been meaning to move to per-month subscription for that reason as well. This should completely eliminate any confusion about pledges, which was the major pain point. Monthly Patreon campaigns also have access to other features as well, like having the option for annual billing, gift subs, discounts, loyalty rewards and special offers, that weren't supported for per-update Patreon campaigns, so we're looking forward to trying those out, too. So, overall, this will be a better user experience and give us more flexibility.

To keep the tiers more in line with the old per-update pricings, the new prices for each tier for new pledges only will be:

Pony Tier - $6/month

Bunny Tier - $12/month

Dragon Tier - $18/month

As mentioned, if you're an existing patron, nothing will change - this only applies to new or returning pledges, everyone else is grandfathered in. Along with that, vote power will now be 1 vote for Pony tier, 3 for Bunny, and 9 for Dragon. The old Angel and Succubus tiers have been retired and merged with Dragon tier, so Dragon Tier patrons now receive all pledge benefits going forward; if you're in the dragon tier and you have suggestions for new benefits, you can message us here or on the dragon-tier discord channel!

tl;dr - if you're an existing patron, nothing changes for you, as you're grandfathered in, but any new pledges you make, you should try to avoid doing from the iOS app (if you're using an Apple device, you can just pledge on the browser instead). Since ToA isn't available on iOS to begin with, I imagine this won't affect too many of you. New and returning patrons will be able to pledge to the new tiers. All new pledges will be at the new tier prices.