Pigeon vs Steady

Pigeon is a cloud-based platform for paywalls and subscription management for digital content. Its audience includes publishers of newspapers, magazines, blogs, podcasts, newsletters, educational resources, streaming video, and digital downloads, as well as social-media influencers. Paywall options include hard, soft, metered, time-based, cookie, advertising, newsletter, and credits models. The service works with WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, static-site generators, and custom CMSs; its listed integrations also include HubSpot, Magento, Wix, Squarespace, and several site frameworks. Subscriber and customer management, subscription and billing tools, and financial and engagement analytics are included. A Theme Editor changes the appearance of paywalls, registration pages, and user account pages, including logos and colors. Payment options include major cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, and manual payments. All customers receive email support, documentation, regular check-ins, and setup implementation support. The Experiment plan is free forever but permits no transactions. Publishers costs $99 a month, with a setup fee starting at $750 and 10% transaction fees. Pigeon cautions that determined hackers using advanced tools may still bypass its paywall.

Steady is a web and API platform for independent media makers, including magazines, newsletters, podcasts and video channels. It helps creators publish newsletters and memberships and earn directly from audiences. Newsletter sending is free without audience limits or escalating costs. Memberships use recurring billing, with monthly or annual charges, and Steady takes a 10% commission on membership revenue once earning begins; payment-provider fees and VAT also apply. The service supports full-site content gating, flexible paywalls, embedded buttons and supporter prompts. Newsletter tools can welcome readers automatically, resurface selected work and re-engage quiet subscribers. Externally hosted podcasts can be gated by membership tier and distributed through Spotify or private RSS. Steady Code adds website layers and embeds regardless of a site’s CMS. Creator income is transferred in lump sums, and failed payments are retried automatically. The Free plan is free. Custom domains are not supported.