You buy a plan to support a creator. On each publication’s Steady page, you will find one or a selection of plans. By selecting a plan, you decide what you would like to pay to support the publication regularly (and often what kinds of benefits you can expect, too!).

Generally, these are monthly plans. This means that you pay monthly and can cancel anytime during a month, in order to avoid paying for the following month. For some publications you can also sign up for an annual membership (then you would pay once per year).

In order to become a member and choose your plan, you will need a Steady account – registration takes less than two minutes. Once you are logged in, you can become a member of any publication using Steady.

You can easily sign up for a membership on a publication’s Steady page by selecting a plan there. (Some publications also offer checkout on their own website, so you can choose a plan directly on their site without visiting the Steady page).

Once you have chosen a plan, enter your email address and accept the terms and conditions. To pay, enter your bank account or credit card details. Done!

Memberships are for people like you who care about independent media. The great thing about memberships is that they create a close bond between creators and audiences. For creators, their community is really important – the community not only finances their publication, but also brings them new ideas, feedback and dialogue with their audience.

Often creators will give you something in return as a thank you, depending on which plan you have chosen. For example: If you choose the smallest plan, you get a postcard; if you choose the next plan up, you get access to an exclusive podcast feed.

Of course, you can switch from one plan to another if you like. For example, if you think a publication is doing a great job, you might like to acknowledge their hard work by bumping up your plan and paying a larger amount each month.

It is also possible to change your billing cycle from monthly to annual, when the publisher has made this option available.

Unfortunately this is not possible, as your name, email address and account information are required to process your membership and payments.

This information is visible to the payment provider.