Comparison

Patreon vs Byline

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Patreon

Gain exclusive access to content from your favorite creators, including podcasts, videos, art, and more. Engage with creators and fellow fans in community chats and enjoy offline listening for audio content.

Highlights
  • Exclusive creator content access
  • Community group chats
  • Offline audio listening
  • Personalized fan profiles
  • Creator work collections
Read full description

Discover hundreds of thousands of podcasters, video makers, artists, musicians, marsupial mediators, fast food historians, and a kaleidoscopic cornucopia of creative people making what they love, not what they think will "perform." Get their best, most authentic, most exclusive work alongside millions of other people who know creativity is worth it. FIND creative people from every corner of the internet making what excites them. JOIN the communities of creators you love for free and keep up with everything they’re doing. UNLOCK exclusive posts and benefits through paid membership and one-time purchases. GATHER with creators and other fans in community chats and live streams. EXPLORE more creators, communities, and corners of creative subculture you’ll love. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Byline

Collaborate with others to create unique stories, one line at a time. Each participant only sees the previous line, fostering surprising and creative narratives. Share your finished tales with friends or the wider community.

Highlights
  • Collaborative story creation
  • Line-by-line writing
  • Public story posting
  • Private group invitations
  • Story titling and sharing
Features
Read full description

Byline is a modern take on exquisite corpse. Serendipitous stories come together one line at a time, with each writer only seeing one line before theirs. Create the weirdest, funniest, spookiest, strangest story you can. POST DIRECTLY TO BYLINE Write the first line to your story and post on the site for strangers to finish. INVITE YOUR FRIENDS Write the first line to your story and then send it to a specific group of people you know. Once finished, you decide who can view. Once everyone has written their line, it's your turn to title and share the result in all its glory!

Screenshots

Patreon4 screens
Byline4 screens

Verdict

The call

Patreon and Byline both sit at 4.9 stars, but that hides the real split: 86% of Byline's written reviews are positive against 41% of Patreon's. Byline also leads on monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases). Patreon's advantage is ratings volume (582K vs 16) and update cadence (weekly vs every 2 weeks). On price, rating, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for Patreon against 4.9 for Byline. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Patreon has 582K ratings behind it against 16, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 41% of Patreon's written reviews are positive against 86% of Byline's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Patreon ships an update weekly, Byline every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 9, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 5 level
Patreon versus Byline: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPatreonByline
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.9 (582K ratings) — better4.9 (16 ratings)
Positive reviews41.1% of reviews85.7% of reviews — better
Number of ratings582K — better16
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 2 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
Best chart rank#32 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size134 MB2 MB
Age rating17+12+
DeveloperPatreonApp't

Customer experience

Patreon

All ratings582,157 ratings
Positive97.7%
Neutral1.0%
Negative1.3%
Written reviews2,974 reviews
Positive41.1%
Neutral10.4%
Negative48.5%

Byline

All ratings16 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews7 reviews
Positive85.7%
Neutral14.3%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Patreon

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Search function crashes the app
  • Inability to access subscriptions on mobile
  • Inconsistent episode tracking and playback
  • Disappearing downloaded content
  • Inability to log in with email

Requested features

8 requests
  • Face ID feature
  • Ability to filter posts by year
  • Playlist/queue functionality for audio/video
  • Apple TV app
  • Ability to search through subscribed creators' posts
Show 3 more
  • Option to sort content chronologically
  • Timestamp for comments
  • Preview of creator's content before subscribing

Byline

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Patreon

No in-app purchases

None

Byline

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Patreon free?
Patreon is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Byline free?
Byline is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Patreon or Byline?
Patreon is rated higher. Patreon averages 4.9 out of 5 from 582K ratings, while Byline averages 4.9 from 16 ratings.
Do Patreon or Byline have ads?
Neither Patreon nor Byline shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Patreon or Byline?
Patreon ships an update weekly, and Byline every 2 weeks. Most recently, Patreon was updated on November 9, 2026 and Byline on November 3, 2026.

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