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The biggest difference would be that GitHub Sponsors has no fees [1], so everything people put in will go to the developer. Where Patreon can take 5-12% depending on the plan [2].

Additionally, GitHub is just so much closer to the actual open source work and more easily discoverable for users of your product.

As a supporter, I'll pick GitHub over Patreon anytime.

[1] https://help.github.com/en/github/supporting-the-open-source... [2] https://www.patreon.com/product/pricing




That's what I was surprised the most about. 0% cut and they also mentioned a 5k match? What? How is that even viable for Microsoft?

That seems superior to basically every single platform out there. It's an instant win for GitHub Sponsors.


It's a promotional incentive. Fees will happen, and matching will end. But in the meantime, it means my sponsoring a project I care about magnifies my money for a cause I value, so I'm happy to participate.


Paying 5k to high profile people is probably just a fraction of what they spend on marketing, but probably more effective.

Say you are a marketer and you bring hundreds of paying users to a platform, 5k is cheap.


Microsoft has such deep pockets, they can probably afford to lose a bit here to get people to migrate to their platform.


Yeah the $5k match seems easy to game




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