Patreon vs HBCU DIGITAL
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- Exclusive creator content access
- Community group chats
- Offline audio listening
- Personalized fan profiles
- Creator work collections
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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/
HBCU DIGITAL
Access comprehensive content for HBCU conferences, members, and universities. Stream live sports and exclusive original content celebrating Black voices in HD, all without a cable subscription.
- Comprehensive HBCU conference content
- Latest news, photos, and videos
- Live sports streaming
- Exclusive original content
- HD streaming quality
- Mobile access for iPhone and iPad
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Follow HBCU news, sports and culture in one place. Read stories, search Culture articles, browse schedules and reported scores, and filter available sports by season, school or conference. View conference and overall standings with source information. Game information depends on available source coverage; reported scores may be delayed or incomplete. No account is required for public browsing.
Screenshots
Verdict
Patreon and HBCU DIGITAL both sit at 4.9 stars, but that hides the real split: 100% of HBCU DIGITAL's written reviews are positive against 41% of Patreon's. HBCU DIGITAL also leads on monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). Patreon's advantage is update cadence (weekly vs every 5 months) and ratings volume (581K vs 5). 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for Patreon against 5.0 for HBCU DIGITAL. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Patreon has 581K ratings behind it against 5, 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 100% of HBCU DIGITAL's.
Patreon ships an update weekly, HBCU DIGITAL every 5 months. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Patreon | HBCU DIGITAL |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.9 (581K ratings) | 5.0 (5 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 41.1% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 581K — better | 5 |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Every 5 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Best chart rank | #28 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 133 MB | 21 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 9+ |
| Developer | Patreon | HBCU Digital Network, LLC |
Customer experience
Patreon
HBCU DIGITAL
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
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- Option to sort content chronologically
- Timestamp for comments
- Preview of creator's content before subscribing
HBCU DIGITAL
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Patreon
No in-app purchases
HBCU DIGITAL
No in-app purchases
