The best platform for creators depends on your goal: a decision guide

What are you actually selling?

Most "best platform for creators" lists compare tools by features. A more useful question comes first: what are people paying you for? Nearly every creator income falls into one of four kinds:

• Time: lessons, advice, feedback and conversation, live and one-on-one.
• Products: downloads, courses, coaching packages, memberships and physical items.
• Attention: brands paying to reach your audience through your posts.
• Goodwill: fans who want to thank you, with nothing specific in return.

There is also a fifth need that costs money rather than earning it: advertising something you sell. Once you know which of these you are dealing with, the choice of platform gets much easier.

A quick disclosure: we publish thebestplatform.com, and our company, Premiums Only LLC, also makes the five platforms in the table below. We recommend them where they fit, and we say plainly in a later section where they do not.

Which platform fits which goal?

Prices and shares are as published at the time of writing; each platform's own pricing page is the final word.

When is hello.fan the right choice?

Choose hello.fan when people keep asking you questions that need a real answer: a tutor, a coach, a musician who gives feedback, anyone with know-how people want to talk through. Fans video call, voice call or chat with you one-on-one, at a price per minute you set from 50 to 5,000 credits (100 credits = $1). They pay per started 15 seconds only while you are both connected, and ringing is free.

It suits creators who can give some hours a week, because live time is time you spend. Working hours switch you online and offline automatically, and booked sessions inside those hours are paid up front. It works in the browser with no download, and on Android there is also an app that rings like a phone call. Nothing is recorded, phone numbers stay private and every call has block and report, which matters when people you have never met can call you. A labelled example: at 100 credits a minute, a 20-minute video call is 2,000 credits, or $20, of which you keep $12 at 60% or $14 at 70%. The hello.fan guide for creators covers the setup.

When is store.fan the right choice?

Choose store.fan when you have, or can make, something people can buy without you being there: a template, a guide, a course, a coaching call or a membership. It is also a free link-in-bio page with unlimited links, so it can be the one link that points to everything else you do.

Payments go straight to your own Stripe account, so store.fan never holds your money.

The plan question is arithmetic. Free Plus costs nothing, and store.fan keeps 30% of each sale. Starter is $24 a month at the launch price with a 0% platform fee and a 14-day free trial. The two cost the same when your sales reach $80 a month, since 30% of $80 is $24; above that, Starter costs you less. If you have nothing to sell yet, the Ready-to-Sell catalog has 216 personalized products that store.fan's AI studio produces and delivers. There is more on our store.fan page and in our picks for selling digital products.

When do market.fan, mytop.fan or ads.fan make sense?

market.fan: brands already notice you

If brands message you, or your content naturally features products, market.fan lets you list stories, posts, short videos, UGC and more at your own price, with payment held until the brand approves your delivery. You keep 60% of each completed order, or 70% while your linked store.fan store is an active paid seller.

mytop.fan: fans want to say thanks

If viewers ask how they can support you, mytop.fan lets them send whole-dollar support from $5 with no account. You join free and verify your links first. It works alongside calls or a store, not instead of them.

ads.fan: you have a product to promote

If you sell something and need ads, ads.fan turns a product photo and a few lines into AI-made video ads and ad images. One credit is one second of video or one image. It is a cost, so it only makes sense once you have something worth promoting.

When does none of our platforms fit?

Some creator goals are better served by a different kind of tool, and you should use one:

• Ad revenue from long videos: that comes from a video platform's own partner program.
• A paid newsletter: a newsletter tool built around e-mail subscriptions handles it better.
• Freelance project work, such as design or editing for clients: a freelance marketplace or your own invoicing fits.
• Selling physical products at scale, with inventory and shipping rules: a full e-commerce platform fits better than a link-in-bio store.
• Podcast hosting and distribution: a podcast host.
• Ticketed in-person events: an event ticketing tool.

That is not a weakness to hide. A tool built for one job usually does that job better than a tool that tries to do everything, and you can still point to it from your store.fan link. Check any tool's current terms and fees on its own site. For video calls specifically, our comparison pages look at how hello.fan differs from meeting apps, social apps' calls and freelance marketplaces, by how each one works.

Can you use more than one?

Yes, and the platforms are designed to connect. A store.fan shop on a paid plan that links to your hello.fan page raises your hello.fan share from 60% to 70%. market.fan pays 70% while your linked store.fan store is an active paid seller, and mytop.fan pays 70% once you add your store.fan link in the mytop.fan dashboard and your mytop.fan link in the store. Each platform still has its own sign-up and dashboard; there is no single account. One simple pairing is store.fan as the link in your bio and hello.fan for calls, with the store linking to your call page. Our article on the Creator Fan Network explains each connection.

How do you decide in five minutes?

1. Look at your last 20 comments and messages. Are people asking questions, asking for files, asking how to support you, or are brands asking about posts?
2. Pick the platform that matches the most common request.
3. Set one price you can explain, using a labelled example like the ones above.
4. Put the link where people already look: your bio and your next post.
5. Give it a month before you add a second platform.

For more detail on specific jobs, such as tutoring, coaching or memberships, browse our "best platform for" guides, and read how we pick our platforms if you want to know why these are the ones we feature.

Frequently asked questions