Patreon Reviews

by Vivix Metti

I am a creator who recently opened an account and thought the mobile should be just as functional but I was so wrong.

Most of the features are halfway there or absolutely gone entirely. There is no way to fix or adjust my tiers. No option to change or edit my payout options and any posts I make disappear on the “post” page. And speaking of posts, the options are incredibly limited! You mean to tell me I CAN’T upload any videos from my mobile device, a device with a convenient camera option that almost anyone has access to? I don’t understand it. It is an incredibly clunky app and I hope that it gets fixed but judging from the other reviews, i won’t hold my breath.

Edit: Now when I post my patron only posts, its public view is almost all the way visible???? All of the old pages have completely blurred out images for non-patrons and now you can practically see through my post! Outrageous, what is the point of having patrons pay for content you’re going to show them all anyway??? Why cant we CHOOSE how opaque the blurred image will be???

by Xanthines

I seriously don’t understand why Patreon is rated so highly. It’s pretty terrible from both a usability aspect as well design and maybe even coding.

It never correctly shows you how many creators/artists you’re supporting. It’s high near impossible to change your tier level or cancel. It’s very confusing. There are parts of Patreon that clearly kick you out the website, which is fine, but sometimes you’re literally entering in the same information in Patreon just to be sent to a webpage with blanks! Looking for someone in particular? Good luck with that, since the search function isn’t good at finding people. One of the nice things about Patreon , is that you can actually download certain files. They remain inside Patreon to prevent you pirating out to the rest of the internet, which I completely understand. However, every time they change app, or change the website too I think, all your downloads disappear. Good luck finding them again!

At least they’re slowly fixing app, bug by bug, to their credit. Patreon finally handles playing videos well. Turning your phone to horizontal and back during videos caused problems, but no longer. Still, Patreon is really not ready and seems like it’s stuck in beta testing. You’re better off just going to the this app website.

by Enforcednickname

I recently signed up for a podcast on this app. I normally listen to podcasts on stitcher as it’s a simple easy experience. But this one won’t show up for me On stitcher, so I have to go through the this app app. Unfortunately the person I’ve subscribed to has 400 podcasts and the one I’m trying to listen to is one of the first. I can get to it by searching for it on a web browser. But when I try to play it through a web browser (on the official site!) the podcast literally stops every 30 seconds. However I also can’t get it to open in Patreon . I can find no search function for specific episodes in Patreon . No list function. No favorite function that would show me even the ones I favorite on Patreon. The only way I can tell to get to this podcast in Patreon is literally to scroll through a feed of 400 podcasts which only load 10 at a time. Am I missing something or is this seriously how Patreon functions? It doesn’t function at all? I can’t believe how much time I’ve already wasted just trying to get a podcast I payed for already to play. Definitely no functionality allowing me to message the creator either. I can’t believe this is supposed to be the official app of a platform supposedly about helping creators easily connect with their audiences.

by Connor_kbrown24

Patreon is awful. It’s hard to search and navigate through the content of your ‘memberships,’ but the worst part is that Patreon doesn’t even load half the time. It will quit when moving between pages or just flat out fail to load the home page feed. I know it’s not an issue with my OS because I have a newer Iphone XR, and I don’t have these issues with any other apps. honestly it’s just disappointing. this app plays an important role as a platform for creators to share their work and make a livelihood doing so— Patreon is so buggy and awful that it honestly works against that very goal. If there were some other widespread subscription service for creators to share their content, I would migrate IMMEDIATELY!

To the this app ios dev team, I really hope you get Patreon in working order. It’s embarrassing how poorly Patreon functions, and you do a great disservice to creators and patrons by leaving it in such dysfunction. It literally blows my mind that a company as important and widespread as this app could mess up an app this badly.

by SlumpyK

I don’t know why Patreon has such high ratings either because it’s not functional. If I’m using Patreon on my iPhone I can put the video in the corner of my screen and watch my podcast while using other apps all day. Sometimes I just pause it and slide the video off the screen so I don’t lose my spot but I can start it up again very quickly. On my iPad I can’t use other apps while watching my podcast. Which doesn’t make any sense seeing how that feature was made available to iPads LONG before iPhones. Also, if I’m watching a video horizontally and I decide to change my device to the vertical position the whole video closes making me re start the podcast and finding where I was cut off. And there’s no way to get around it, I have to place my iPad in the position I want to view the video in and never move it until I’m done watching. It’s tedious and it shouldn’t be, sometimes I want to enjoy the luxury of a larger screen without having to travel with my laptop but the only working application you have is for the cell phone. Get it together because that last update didn’t fix bugs.

by HonestlyReally223

Search functionality is terrible(and nonexistent when trying to search through a creator’s feed). Playback functionality is terrible, downloading content fails constantly, and even when “successful” refuse to play. No native video player, and mediocre/awful integration of Vimeo. I want to keep supporting my creators but Patreon makes it nearly impossible to justify spending money on content I may or may not be able to access. I’ve been using this platform for several years and still no significant improvements. Very disappointing.

Update: I’m literally trying to subscribe to a creator but I can’t. I can’t find it in Patreon , I can find it on a browser, but the browser won’t allow me to sign in, it also won’t allow me to address my sign in problems(like a ‘Forgot your Password?’-type solution). There is literally no way for me to support the creator I care about or access their content. This is an absurd failure in every level of your system. Please pass this on to your developers and chief executives. How can you grow without supporting the end-user patrons? How do you even continue to exist when a patron can’t support a new creator? Fix this.

by Ricklauder

Downloaded Patreon for the first time today, and yes, I saw some of the negative reviews. I have to say I agree with most of them. I followed an organization that produces podcasts I find very rewarding and then I signed up to be a patron. The signup went through well, but every time I start Patreon it tells me on the feed screen that I’m not following anyone, and tells me to search for people to follow. I already did that. So I look for Patreon feedback (I would think this would be mandatory for Apple to even allow an app on their store) but there is no feedback function. I can only send a message to the people I’m a patron of, but even then I have to search for them. They should already be listed as I’m a patron now. Do I have to go to the this app website to send app feedback? Is that even available there? This makes no sense at all. Patreon is needlessly crippled and I don’t understand why. If they add these and other badly needed features, I will update my review and perhaps my rating as well.

by Devinmarieb

Patreon is terrible. For context, I use it almost exclusively on an iPad. Very basic functions of other media apps are just absent from this app. The content doesn’t fit on the screen properly, you can’t read comments and watch/listen at the same time, the comments take forever to load and the scrolling breaks constantly, the content doesn’t save your place — god forbid you accidentally click on the comment section while watching — the video will reset to the beginning. I was shocked when the CEO fired 50% of their developers because Patreon seems like maybe one developer works on it part-time. I’ve been using Patreon for years and can’t even think of one update that’s happened that made the experience better. I have to imagine that the work being done for the other side of it, the content creators, is the priority. But the people who consume content on this app need to be thought about too.

by Cheekytrousers

As a patron, I like seeing the things I’m paying for in a convenient place. Patreon needs a landing page with a feed just like every other content driven service ever.
When I open it, I want to see the new stuff that I’m paying for, not the page of someone that hasn’t updated in 6 months.
When trying to edit my payment information that Patreon informed me I was missing, pages kept flickering in and out of view and I was never confident the information I was inputting was taking. Ultimately after two tries I gave up. Selections kept falling behind black blocker screens. It also gave me the sensation of a desktop site on mobile where it feels like the content is there, just down and to the right somewhere (maybe). For a service that is a middle man for giving other people money, the experience should inspire confidence that said money is being handled with care. Patreon doesn’t do that. It’s too clunky of an experience for a company that’s been around for 5 years.

by LadyVoltaria

Firstly, I will say that I like that this app allows me to support independent artists, however that is about where my praise ends. I have struggled with the functionality of Patreon since I downloaded it over a year ago. (And the trouble persists even after multiple app updates, uninstalling and reinstalling Patreon , and other trouble shooting.) There is a clunky user experience to almost every aspect of Patreon. Even trying to change my profile picture causes it to crash. Another example: if I click the “like” heart, it often won’t appear as selected next time I log on. Now my feed won’t update and this app’s recommended solution is to unsubscribe/re-subscribe to my podcasts?! This should be the responsibility of the developers to fix, not mine. A few other small things of contention; there isn’t an overtly obvious way to indicate that an episode has been played. Also, there is a pop/clipping noise a few seconds into each audio podcast I play, regardless of who produced the content. These kinds of things add up when it comes to user experience, so I’ll be looking for better ways to support these content creators outside of this app since Patreon seems to only be getting worse.

by Tinder In Sac

I enjoy the ability to be able to support creators directly for the content I consume however the this app app itself has a bit to work out.
For instance it doesn’t consistently keep up with what videos/podcasts you have listened to. Sometimes there will be a green checkmark, other times there will be no indication that you’ve listened to it.
In addition when you go to use another app, say you’re on Twitter and a video plays, once you’re done with whatever you were listening to on that other app this app won’t always still be loaded on the control center page to play from so you have to go back into Patreon find that specific piece of content play it AND fast forwards to wherever you were in the episode.
There’s also often a long delay while it loads. Sometimes I have to close Patreon and reopen it just to get podcasts to play. I appreciate the purpose of Patreon but would like them to work on some basic errors.

by Mveras1972

Patreon has come a long way as far as fixing bugs so it has gone from horribly useless to poor which is an improvement. I find issues with the UI particularly in how hidden the menu is to search and find new content creators you don’t follow. I think the search for new creators should be out in the Feed section.

What I still find horrendously bad is the media player. It never remembers the last position where you left off if you close Patreon , or go to another section of Patreon , it does not play in the background, if your watching a long episode the video can abruptly stop and then brings you back to the beginning because again, it never remembers where it stopped. All these horrendous bugs I find it appalling that they have not been addressed in so long. I rather watch content on any other player just because it works much better.

by Justan Ray

I love the idea behind Patreon! Especially with other platforms constantly changing their monetization guidelines it’s nice to know there is a platform in which I can directly support creators I love. However, there are some issues that make Patreon much not so great on mobile devices. For one, after I created my profile there’s no way to go edit my profile on Patreon itself (can’t even add a profile picture, like what??). I would have to get on my computer or go through a web browser to do so. Another issue I’ve run into is the interactive capabilities (liking, posting comments, direct messaging) will randomly stop working and will force you to log out and then back in in order to fix the issue. I cannot speak to the experience as a creator so I am unaware of any issues or awesome features on that side of Patreon . Overall a pretty good app with some flaws from time to time, but still awesome knowing I can make direct contributions to my favorite creators.

by Tad Cornell

Patreon sometimes doesn’t display all the content from creators. I follow a certain creator who posts a weekly schedule so followers know what to expect and when. Sometimes, it will look like the creator didn’t post anything on a day the creator said they would, however, the truth simply is Patreon is not displaying all the content. If I switch over to safari and pull up this app, the video is, in fact, there. It just won’t show up on Patreon . And, just for the sake of clarity, I do not follow NSFW content crerators so this issue isn’t about filtering or censoring adult content. It’s just that Patreon is broken. I’ve had this issue since I installed Patreon last year, but it just seems to be getting worse with time. Sometimes I’ll be able to watch a video from the content creator on Patreon and then I will come back to Patreon days later and I can no longer find the video. It is as though the video never existed. I go to safari and it’s still there.

by Slatorade9000

I really love Patreon , it's a super convenient way to keep track of the artists I like and also keep updated on the content and my pledges without having to get on the computer or comb through my email, however even after having had Patreon for a few months, it's still kind of hair to navigate. Not impossible but I have found that some of the avenues to get to options that I thought I would find on the main page of an artist are often buried somewhere in my settings. Editing pledges is an example of this. The pages can be a tag glitchy and tend to lag depending on the content, but the scroll works well enough. There is no way to search tags other than scrolling until you find what you're looking for? Also unless you have a this app link or you know the specific handle of the person you're looking for, finding someone can be difficult at best.

by Phrome22

I’m not sure who designs there apps or webpages but None of it is intuitive. Patreon doesn’t allow you to just see one creators page. Or does it? Hard to tell since it’s not in your face and apparent. Even on their site I find myself clicking needlessly to go where I need to go. Just the other day I realized the this app symbol in the top left hand corner was a link to the home page. It’s silly. use words and stop making everything a “discovery”. I don’t have time to be wasting memorizing what clicking certain symbols do on a website. I swear I used to be able to see how many people are donating to someone I back. I have no idea how to do that now. Why do some modern websites insist on being edgy and making you work to get content. Simple and straightforward is all you need. Their app and website creators need a lesson in empathy. And whoever approves this needs to learn what it’s customers want. It really makes me want to use a different platform.

by Fellow Traveler.

A great platform for supporting creators and kickstarting one yourself. Though it’s not without some issues, sometimes the video player will close something your in the middle of if you close your phone or switch apps. Sometimes comments you write will inexplicably disappear after posting it, which can be frustrating when being able to comment on certain posts can be a tier for certain projects. And lastly occasionally posts won’t appear on the mobile version. I support Easy Allies a group of video game enthusiasts that make video content, for a long period of time they’re patron exclusive series Cup of Jones never appeared on the mobile app. Thankfully they reached out to this app and worked this out. Despite a few annoyances this app is a great platform and a solid app.
I wouldn’t listen to half the podcasts i do without the Mobile version.

by Dleted

How do I log in with Apple if Sign Up with Apple isn’t an option? I’d like to support a this app and do not have an account. When I press “Continue with Apple” it always replies “Something went wrong”. I cannot tell if it’s a bug or if I did something wrong.

Update: Thank you for the speedy response. I don’t have an account so I don’t have this app email to send to you. This isn’t a critique, I genuinely want to know - why would I Sign In with Apple if I already had an account? I was hoping to create an account via “Sign In with Apple”. That’s my mistake. I realize now it doesn’t say Sign UP with Apple”. Seems odd to have one without the other though. Thanks again for the response.

Update 2: Continue with Apple works. Dunno if the update fixed it or if it was because I reinstalled Patreon . Thanks devs.

by Novabellaa

I’ve been hearing so much about this app so I finally caved and downloaded it so I could subscribe to my favorite podcast. I pay x amount of money a month for this subscription, but due to the glitches of Patreon the episodes almost never load. It doesn’t matter if i’m connected to wifi or using my data, Patreon is just so wonky and slow. It’s frustrating because there’s no where else I can get this content, so I rely on this app to work. Even more, i’m paying for this monthly so I want to be able to access it without waiting 10+ minutes for an episode to load. Even more so, this affects the content creators directly because of Patreon ’s low functionality. Hopefully this gets fixed in the future, however I’ve updated Patreon several time with no avail.

by Eddy77

I really love the idea of finding and patronizing through this app creators that are doing great work out there. No problem there.
What I would like to see is more flexibility with Patreon . For instance searching a creators posts. Some of the creators that I follow make many posts and refer back to other posts. I have not found a way in Patreon to search those. Also many of my the creators do video or audio. Patreon does not let you leave the page or even turn off the screen(for putting in your pocket). It also doesn’t save your place on the vid/audio file if you mistakenly turn off your phone or hit a button while holding it in your hand trying to listen. It might do a bunch of stuff but for me if it doesn’t do these things then it doesn’t really work how I need it to work. Thanks

by Colby415

I love Patreon , and I love subscribing to/reading from my favorite contributors, but that’s the only reason I continue to use Patreon. On a scale of 0-10 worst-best, the support team receives a solid 0.

The support I received, upon being locked out of adding/editing my payment method(which then restricted my usage), was absolutely terrible. Every reply I received had nothing to do with what I asked, and not once was a question answered. Information was provided that I did not need or request, and my issue was never addressed, as I stated it. I ended up having to DELETE/DEACTIVATE my ENTIRE account because I was locked out of billing, unable to change my card to pay for services, and couldn’t get support from this app- an unfortunately ineffective and inefficient way to operate/support locked out members.

Though, based on my prior support interactions, I don’t expect an intelligent response (from this app) related to anything I’ve written, I hope this is read and perhaps looked at by a human being that operates beyond a script.

by ShardsOfBlue

I love the this app concept, but Patreon drives me crazy. Recently, it’s started resetting all the in-app notification flags every time I open it. In other words, I can no longer tell from Patreon whether creators I follow have new content without visiting each creator, because all posts from all of them are marked as new/unread in the sidebar every time I open Patreon .

Also, I subscribe to an audio creator and listen to their work primarily from my phone. But the audio interface in Patreon on it is just awful. I can’t even see all the content because the bottom couple of tracks are cut off. (I have an iPhone X.)

I have held off writing a review in hopes these issues would be addressed, but the former has been this way for weeks and the latter for months. Since I access this app almost exclusively from my phone, having a clunky app has a major impact on my feelings about the platform as a whole.

by Hdcomposer

Update: still a clunky app. Takes three times as long to keep redoing a post because it is clunky. Please fix. I added a star because at least now the keyboard doesn’t randomly disappear but your entire post may disappear or it will randomly change who the post is for while publishing but hey, at least I can type.

Old review:
I'm not sure what the purpose is for Patreon. You can write a post but the keyboard will disappear in the middle of typing then while trying to get the keyboard back it will post whatever you haven't finished. God forbid you have the ability to edit or delete a post from Patreon ... nope... you then have to go to the website to edit or delete the post that Patreon screwed up and posted randomly. Got to love having a half written post that was suppose to be for Patrons out there for public consumption until you fly over to the website to fix it. Also, what happened to the ability to write a post with editing tools like bold and italics and hyperlinks... can't even do that on the website anymore. Quite frustrating and disappointing. Guess it is back to the clunky website... which is not all that friendly to mobile devices either.

by Alice4Fun

While it is nice to be able to see what the creators posted without having to open the website, there are some drawbacks on Patreon . Unlike the website, Patreon doesn’t have a filter so there are times when you wouldn’t be able to see some of the contents from the creators if you were gone for a few weeks and the creators post multiple daily. There is also a glitch where Patreon will give you notifications stating that there are new or unseen contents from creators when I have already seen everything. And then there is also an overwhelming flood of notifications on your phone whenever the creators post contents for patrons of and you will see how the creators post something for all of the different tiers. That said, I still like Patreon quite a lot. I just hope that this app fixes those glitches they have soon as they are bugging quite a lot.

by Rambuncto

this app is a great idea. I love that I can support some of my favorite creators. Navigating Patreon (at least on the iPad) is a pain.

When I swipe to scroll through the feed, it works fine until it runs out of pre-loaded content. When new stuff needs to load, it’ll give you a spinning “loading” icon to let you know it’s thinking - fine. But when the new content loads, it rushes up past where you were quickly, so you lose your place.

When you scroll up to find your place again, the feed gets super stuttery, making it annoying to find your place (especially since you shouldn’t have to).

Some of my favorite artists post multiple images in one post - that’s cool, right? It’s nice to see a group of drawings around the same theme. But when you go back to the feed from within a post, it just puts you somewhere in the feed, usually past where you were when you clicked the post.

And if you’re deep in a feed but need to put your iPad aside - say you get a phone call or something - when you open your iPad again, you’re back at the top of the feed. Super frustrating.

I’ve had all of these problems in landscape and portrait modes, on the previous generation iPad Pro. It makes for a crappy user experience. I’d suggest using the website over Patreon .

by King Zuds

I'm mainly writing to request that the audio download tools be expanded.

A lot of podcasters use this app to post extra content, but downloading it via Patreon puts them all into one long slush-fund of unsearchable, partially named material. It needs to be better: searchable, with easily-accessible episode descriptions, more like Apple's system- if it's gonna allow artists to produce content that I feel are worth paying for. It's good, but it's frustrating to find what I... kind of paid for. In part. Lol

It's also stopped letting me control Patreon from the lock screen, which means I have to unlock my phone and open Patreon just to pause something; while with iTunes Podcasts, I can just pause it from my Bluetooth headphones. But there's a chance I've got some setting messed up on my phone. Who knows

by TiffHarris

After discovering this podcast several months ago and binging everything I could I finally decided today to join Patron. I loved these podcasts from the first episodes and converted a lot of my friends into crime junkie enthusiasts. I can’t (although I’ve tried) listening to other podcasts on murder but no one tells a story better than Ashley and Britt. I want to thank you guys for the abundance of information you have given all of us and the entertainment you’ve provided me with during all hours of my life from morning till night. I hope one day to meet you both at a meet and greet and hear first hand what sparked this all for the both of you. The void I was missing in my life was filled from this podcast <3 love you guys !

by ScreechingSergal

Even though this app just had a small hiccup related to payment processing, I can say that this is one of the best ways to support content creators of any kind. Whether it’s art that artists make or videos that Youtubers create, you can easily support your favorite idols with the integrated tier system that lets you, the user, choose who you want to follow, or how much you want pay. You can even get special rewards from creators themselves as a way to say thanks for your support. Even if you can’t support a creator, you can always cancel a payment and continue following them if you so choose. Remember, it’s all up to you.