Pre-funded creator app or app builder: the difference

Two models, one question: who carries the risk?

An app builder is a tool. You set the app up yourself, or pay someone to do it, and you pay for the tool whether or not the app earns anything. The risk is yours. Providers such as Passion.io, Memberspot or Disciple offer tools like this for community and course apps. Prices and features are on their own sites and they change.

With a pre-funded creator app you pay nothing. CreatorStack covers funding, design, development, store publishing and operation. CreatorStack is paid only from an agreed share of the subscription revenue. No revenue means no income for us. The risk of the build is ours.

The differences at a glance

When is which cheaper?

It depends on how the app does. A builder is cheap if you have time to build and the fee is easy to carry. Pre-funding is cheaper as long as you do not want to put money in, or the app earns little at first, because then you have paid nothing.

If the app earns a lot, the revenue share can end up higher than a fixed fee. In return you get the build, the running and the upkeep without carrying any of it. Work through both routes. We cannot promise any earnings.

And a membership platform like Patreon or Steady?

Platforms such as Patreon, Steady, Mighty Networks or Circle are places where your community becomes a member. The platform belongs to the provider and you are one creator among many. With CreatorStack it is your own app under your own name, with no other creators in it and no CreatorStack logo on your members' home screen.

What you can do next

If you want your own subscription app and do not want to put money in, take a look at the partnership. Partnerships are selective, because we carry the risk of the build. Write to us about what you offer and who your community is.

Keep reading

From Instagram to your own app : Four steps from followers to members of your own app, with no promises.

Contract: the checklist : Nine points to have in writing before the build, if someone pre-funds your app.

What a subscription app costs : Custom build, app builder, platform or pre-funding: who pays what, including running costs, store fees and payments.

App, livestreams, memberships compared : Uscreen, Mighty Networks, Circle, Disciple and others compared, and when a pre-funded app fits better.

Providers paid by revenue share : Who builds a creator app with no upfront cost, what their pages say about cost, share and ownership, and what to watch for.

Subscription app without coding : Five routes to a community app with subscriptions without code, what stays with you and what Apple, Google and the law require.

When a subscription app pays off : No fixed follower count: break-even in paying members, scenarios with labelled assumptions, store fees and VAT.

App without start-up capital : Six ways to your own fan app without start-up capital, what pre-funded really means, and what applies extra to nutrition and health experts.

Income beyond ads : Ways to regular income without constant advertising: how the money recurs, fees according to providers, taxes in Germany and what nobody guarantees.

Is CreatorStack right for you? : What CreatorStack covers and what it does not: livestreams, a browser start, member chat, courses and follower count.

Own app name in the App Store : Name, icon and seller name in the stores: what Apple and Google set and what providers say about it on their own pages.

Requirements and process : What CreatorStack looks at in an application, how the partnership runs in four stages and what is agreed in writing before the build.