The creator economy is fragmented. You know this because you're living it.
Right now, you're probably juggling a course platform, a community tool, a payment processor, an email service, and a landing page builder. Maybe you've got a Notion doc somewhere trying to keep track of which subscriber paid for what. And let's be honest—none of these tools talk to each other, and none of them feel like they belong to you.
We built BTS because creators deserve better. After paying out over $1.4 million to more than 1,600 creators on our platform, we've learned exactly what separates creators who build real businesses from those who stay stuck on the content treadmill.
BTS is where creators turn content and community into real businesses. Not another tool to add to your stack—the infrastructure that replaces the chaos.
In this article, we're breaking down the 10 features that make BTS fundamentally different from other creator platforms. These aren't just product specs. They're the philosophical decisions we made when building creator business infrastructure—decisions that directly impact whether you can build something real or remain stuck renting space on someone else's platform.
Let's get into it.
1. One Space for Everything (Not Another Tool in Your Stack)
Most creator platforms solve one problem. Teachable handles courses. Patreon handles subscriptions. Circle handles community. Discord handles... chaos.
The result? Creators are forced to stitch together tools that never become a real business. You're paying five different platforms, managing five different logins, and somehow expected to create a cohesive experience for your audience. Spoiler: it never works.
From our experience: We've seen creators spending 10+ hours per week just managing tools instead of creating content or connecting with their community.
BTS takes a radically different approach. Everything runs behind the scenes in one space. Your courses, community, subscriptions, digital products, and member management live under one roof. No integrations to break. No data living in silos. No Zapier workarounds that mysteriously stop working at 2 AM.
When everything lives in one place, you get something powerful: visibility. You can see which members are engaged, which content is performing, and where your business is actually growing. That's impossible when your data is scattered across six platforms.
What we've learned: The most successful creators on BTS aren't the ones with the biggest audiences—they're the ones who stopped wasting energy on tool management and redirected it toward building relationships with their members.
Actionable takeaway: Audit how many tools you're currently using to run your creator business. If it's more than two, you're likely spending more time managing infrastructure than growing your business.
2. Modern, Brand-Forward Design (Not a Classroom Portal from 2005)
Here's something nobody talks about: most creator platforms look terrible.
They're designed by engineers, not designers. They feel like back-office software. And when your audience lands on your course or community, they're greeted with clunky interfaces, dated typography, and layouts that scream "budget online course."
Your brand is your business. Why would you host it somewhere that undermines your credibility?
BTS's take: Unlike Skool's classroom-style interface, BTS is designed to look and feel like a modern brand—not an online course portal from the early 2000s.
We obsess over design because we know your members do too. When someone joins your BTS space, they're not entering a generic portal. They're entering your world. The experience feels premium, modern, and intentionally crafted—because it is.
Our recommendation: Before you launch on any platform, show it to someone outside your industry. Ask them: "Does this look like a serious business or a side hustle?" Their honest answer will tell you everything.
This isn't about vanity. It's about trust. Members who trust your brand pay more, stay longer, and recommend you to others. Design builds that trust before you ever say a word.
From our experience: Creators who move to BTS from platforms like Circle or Kajabi consistently report that their members comment on how "professional" their new setup looks. That perception translates directly to retention and revenue.
3. Built for Structure and Momentum (Not Set-and-Forget)
The creator economy sold you a lie: build a course, set it up once, and watch passive income roll in forever.
That's not how real businesses work.
Real creator businesses require structure—a clear path for members to follow—and momentum—consistent engagement that keeps people coming back. Most platforms optimise for the transaction (getting you to build something) but ignore what happens after.
How BTS Approaches Creator Momentum:
- Clear member journeys — We help you map out exactly how new members become engaged members
- Progress tracking — Members see their advancement, which drives continued engagement
- Engagement touchpoints — Built-in prompts and structures that keep your community active
- Content dripping — Strategic content release that maintains interest over time
This methodology has helped our creators build businesses with retention rates that rival the best subscription services in any industry.
What we've learned: The creators earning the most on BTS aren't the ones with the biggest launches. They're the ones who've built systems that keep members engaged month after month.
We focus on structure and momentum, not algorithms. We're not a social network trying to maximise your screen time. We're infrastructure designed to help you build something sustainable.
Actionable takeaway: Before worrying about growth, map your member journey from signup to success. What does the first week look like? The first month? If you can't answer that, you don't have a business—you have a transaction.
4. Creator-Controlled Pricing (No Platform Dictating Your Worth)
On most platforms, you're boxed into their pricing models. Patreon wants you doing tiers. Gumroad wants you selling products. Teachable wants you charging for courses.
What if your audience wants something different?
BTS gives creators one place to build something they own—and that includes owning your pricing strategy. Our flexible monetisation supports:
| Monetisation Type | How Creators Use It |
|---|---|
| Monthly/Annual Subscriptions | Recurring revenue from ongoing access |
| Pay-per-view content | Premium content without full membership |
| One-off payments | Courses, workshops, or digital products |
| Free trials | Reduce friction for new members |
| Tips | Let superfans support at any level |
| Custom requests | Personalised offerings for your audience |
| Bundles | Package multiple offerings together |
Our data shows: Creators who use multiple monetisation types on BTS earn 40% more on average than those who stick to a single model. Why? Because different members want to engage differently.
Some want the full community experience. Others just want that one course. Some aren't ready to commit but would happily tip $5 for a piece of content that helped them.
From our experience: The most successful pricing strategies are the ones that meet your audience where they are—not where the platform wants them to be.
Your pricing, your rules. We just provide the infrastructure to make it work.
5. Fast, Global Payouts (Not Waiting Weeks for Your Money)
Here's something that sounds boring until you experience the alternative: getting paid quickly.
Many creator platforms hold your money for weeks. Some have complicated payout thresholds. Others have geographic restrictions that lock out huge portions of the global creator economy.
From our experience: Cash flow is the lifeblood of any business. When creators wait weeks to access their earnings, they can't reinvest in their business, can't pay their bills, and can't build momentum.
BTS processes payouts in 1-5 days globally, with same-day payouts available for US-based creators. We cover creators worldwide (excluding a small number of sanctioned regions), because your ability to build a business shouldn't depend on where you live.
| Payout Feature | BTS Approach |
|---|---|
| Standard payout speed | 1-5 days globally |
| US payout speed | Same-day available |
| Geographic coverage | Global (170+ countries) |
| Payout thresholds | Low minimum thresholds |
| Currency support | Multiple currencies supported |
What we've learned: When creators can access their money quickly, they reinvest it. Better equipment. More content. Ads to grow their audience. Fast payouts aren't a convenience—they're a growth accelerator.
BTS's take: Your money is your money. We're not a bank, and we're not here to hold onto it longer than necessary.
6. Apps That Extend Your Business (Not Locked-In Features)
Every creator business is different. The fitness coach needs different tools than the business educator. The musician has different requirements than the digital artist.
Platforms that try to be everything to everyone end up being mediocre at everything. Platforms that lock you into their specific feature set leave you frustrated when you need something they don't offer.
We built BTS differently.
Our app system lets you extend your business with exactly what you need. Think of it like your phone's app store—but for your creator business. Need tips? There's an app for that. Need custom requests? Add it when you're ready. Want to sell bundles? Enable it with a click.
How BTS Approaches Extensibility:
- Core infrastructure first — The essential tools every creator needs, built in from day one
- Apps for specific needs — Add functionality as your business evolves
- No bloat — Your members only see what's relevant to your business
- Future-proof — As we build new features, they become apps you can choose to add
This methodology has helped our creators build focused experiences that don't overwhelm their members with features they'll never use.
From our experience: Creators who start simple and add apps as they grow have higher member satisfaction than those who launch with every feature enabled. Your members don't want complexity—they want clarity.
Our recommendation: Start with the basics. Add an app only when a member asks for something you can't currently offer. Let demand drive your feature set.
7. Real Creator Support (Not Ticket Systems and Chatbots)
Here's something we believe deeply: creators deserve humans, not helpdesks.
When you're building a business, you don't have time to explain your problem three times to a chatbot, wait four days for a response, then discover they didn't actually solve your issue.
BTS provides hands-on creator success support. Real people who understand what you're building, why it matters, and how to actually help you succeed.
This isn't customer service. It's creator success. The difference matters.
Our data shows: Creators who engage with our support team in their first 30 days have significantly higher retention and earn more on the platform than those who don't. Why? Because we help them avoid the mistakes that kill momentum early.
| Support Aspect | BTS Approach |
|---|---|
| Response time | Hours, not days |
| Support style | Humans who understand creator businesses |
| Focus | Your success, not just ticket resolution |
| Availability | When you need us |
| Onboarding | Guided support to get you launched |
What we've learned: The creators who succeed aren't the ones who never need help. They're the ones who ask questions early, get answers quickly, and keep moving forward.
We built BTS to support real businesses—and real businesses need real support.
Actionable takeaway: When evaluating any platform, test their support before you commit. Send them a question. See how long it takes to get a useful answer. That response will tell you how they'll treat you when it really matters.
8. Custom Domains (Your Brand, Your URL)
When your members visit `yourname.behindthescenes.com`, they know they're on your turf. But when they visit `yourname.com`, they know they're entering your world.
That distinction matters more than most creators realize.
Custom domains aren't just about vanity. They're about credibility, SEO, and ownership. When your business lives at your own domain, you're building equity in something you control. When it lives on someone else's subdomain, you're renting.
BTS allows Pro members to connect custom domains to create a fully branded experience. Your members never need to know what platform powers your business—they just experience your brand.
From our experience: Creators with custom domains see higher perceived value from their members. The psychology is simple: a custom domain signals investment and permanence. It says, "I'm serious about this."
Our recommendation: Even if you're just starting, secure your domain now. It's one of the few investments in your creator business that costs almost nothing and appreciates over time.
| Branding Feature | What It Means for Your Business |
|---|---|
| Custom domain | Full brand ownership of your URL |
| No platform branding | Your brand, not ours |
| SEO benefits | Build domain authority in your name |
| Professional perception | Members trust established domains |
BTS's take: We run the infrastructure behind the scenes. Your audience should see your brand, not ours.
9. Simple Setup, Flexible Scale (Not Enterprise Software Complexity)
There's a certain type of platform that sells complexity as a feature. "Look at all these options! Look at all these settings! Look at how customisable everything is!"
Behind that complexity is a dirty secret: most creators never use 80% of those features. They just get lost in settings pages, paralyzed by decisions that don't actually matter.
Whop is powerful but complex; BTS is designed for creators who want simplicity and momentum.
We built BTS to get you launched fast. Most creators go live within a day—not because we cut corners, but because we made decisions for you. Decisions based on what actually works, based on data from 1,600+ creators on our platform.
How BTS Approaches Simplicity:
- Opinionated defaults — Start with settings that work, customize later if needed
- Progressive disclosure — Advanced features exist, but they don't overwhelm beginners
- Clear paths — You always know what to do next
- No setup paralysis — Launch first, optimize later
From our experience: The creators who launch fastest are the ones who earn fastest. Every day you spend tweaking settings is a day you're not building your audience or serving your members.
But simple doesn't mean limited. As your business grows, BTS scales with you. More members, more content, more complexity—the platform handles it without you having to rebuild from scratch.
What we've learned: Simple to start, flexible to scale. That's the formula that actually works for creator businesses.
10. Ownership Mentality (Not Renting Space on Someone Else's Platform)
This is the big one. This is why we built BTS.
Most creator platforms optimise for transactions, not ownership. They want you making sales so they can take a cut. They don't particularly care whether you're building something sustainable, something valuable, something you could potentially sell one day.
We think differently.
BTS is the creator business infrastructure. Not a tool. Not a feature. Not a marketplace. Infrastructure—the foundation on which you build something you own.
When you build on BTS:
- You own your member data
- You own your content
- You own your brand
- You own your relationships
- You own your business
From our experience: The creators who treat their work like a business—with ownership mentality—dramatically outperform those who treat it like a side hustle or content play.
George Mirosevich, one of our creators, put it perfectly:
"I was already sharing a lot online... BTS just helped me turn it into something much more tangible."
That tangibility—that ownership—is what separates a real business from just posting content and hoping for tips.
| Platform Type | What You Own |
|---|---|
| Social networks | Nothing—you're renting attention |
| Marketplaces | Your listings—maybe |
| BTS | Your business—everything |
Our recommendation: Ask yourself: if this platform disappeared tomorrow, what would I have left? If the answer is "nothing," you're not building a business. You're building someone else's platform.
How We Built BTS to Address These
When we started building BTS, we didn't begin with features. We began with a question: What would it take for a creator to build a real, valuable, sustainable business?
Not a side hustle. Not a tip jar. Not a content play. A real business.
That question led us to a core philosophy: BTS is not a social network or a marketplace. We're not here to find you an audience (that's your job). We're not here to maximise your engagement (that's what social platforms do). We're here to help you turn an existing audience into a business you own.
If a creator has an audience but no structure, BTS is the answer.
Every feature we've built stems from this philosophy:
One space instead of multiple tools — Because fragmentation is the enemy of real business building.
Modern design — Because your brand deserves better than dated interfaces.
Structure and momentum — Because transactions without retention aren't businesses.
Flexible monetisation — Because your pricing should reflect your value, not platform limitations.
Fast payouts — Because cash flow is survival.
Apps for extensibility — Because every creator business is different.
Human support — Because you deserve partners, not ticket systems.
Custom domains — Because ownership includes your URL.
Simple setup — Because momentum beats perfection.
Ownership mentality — Because you should own what you build.
We've paid out over $1.4 million to creators on our platform. We have more than 1,600 creators building real businesses with us. And we're just getting started.
The creator economy is fragmented. But it doesn't have to be for you.
Ready to Build Something Real?
You've read about what sets BTS apart. Now the question is simple: are you ready to stop renting space on someone else's platform and start building something you own?
BTS offers a free Starter plan to get you going. No credit card required. No complicated setup. Just you, your audience, and the infrastructure to turn them into a real business.
Our Pro plan unlocks custom domains, lower fees (from just 3.5%), and additional features as your business grows. But you don't need Pro to start. You just need to start.
What you can do today:
- Visit our homepage and create your free account
- Set up your first offering — a course, a community, or both
- Invite your audience and start building
You bring your audience. We help you turn them into a real business.
That's not marketing speak. That's what we do, every day, for 1,600+ creators who decided fragmentation wasn't for them.
Your audience is waiting. Let's build something real.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does BTS cost?
BTS offers a free Starter plan to get you launched and earning. The Starter plan includes a 10% platform fee. Our Pro plan is $149/month with a reduced fee of 3.5% + 30¢ per transaction—ideal for creators earning consistently. Check our pricing page for the complete breakdown.
Is BTS free to use?
Yes. Our Starter plan is completely free to get going. You only pay a percentage when you earn. This means you can launch, test, and build without any upfront investment. Upgrade to Pro when the math makes sense for your business.
What makes BTS different from other creator platforms?
We focus on creator business infrastructure, not just monetisation features. While other platforms solve one piece of the puzzle—courses here, community there, payments somewhere else—BTS gives you everything in one space. We run the infrastructure behind the scenes so you can focus on creating and connecting.
Can I migrate my existing members to BTS?
Absolutely. We've helped creators migrate from Patreon, Teachable, Kajabi, Circle, and many other platforms. Your members can transfer seamlessly, and we provide support throughout the migration process. Your relationships don't have to start over.
How long does it take to set up BTS?
Most creators launch within a day. Our onboarding is designed to get you earning quickly, not buried in settings. We made opinionated design decisions based on what works, so you don't have to spend weeks configuring options that don't matter.
Does BTS take a percentage of my earnings?
Yes, like most creator platforms. On our free Starter plan, the fee is 10% of transactions. On Pro ($149/month), it drops to 3.5% + 30¢. Our fee structure is transparent and competitive—no hidden charges or surprise fees.
What kind of support does BTS offer?
Real humans who understand creator businesses. We provide hands-on creator success support, not just ticket systems. Our team helps you with strategy, troubleshooting, and growth—because your success is our success.
Can I use my own domain with BTS?
Yes. Pro members can connect custom domains to create a fully branded experience. Your members visit your URL, see your brand, and experience your world. We stay behind the scenes where we belong.
What types of content can I sell on BTS?
Courses, community access, digital downloads, coaching packages, exclusive content, memberships, and more. Our flexible monetisation system supports subscriptions, one-off payments, pay-per-view, free trials, tips, custom requests, and bundles. Your business model, your rules.
Is BTS good for beginners?
If you have an audience and a clear value offering, yes. We're not the right fit for complete beginners still building their first following. But if you have even 1,000 engaged followers and something valuable to offer them, BTS can help you turn that into a real business.
How does BTS compare to Patreon?
Patreon monetises content through tips and tiers. BTS helps you build a real business with courses, community, and multiple revenue streams in one place. We're infrastructure, not a tip jar.
How does BTS compare to Kajabi?
Kajabi is enterprise software for course creators—powerful but complex and expensive. BTS is designed for creators who want simplicity and momentum without sacrificing capability. We're built for creator businesses, not corporate training departments.
How does BTS compare to Skool?
Skool offers a classroom-style community experience. BTS provides modern, brand-forward design that looks and feels like a premium creator business. If you want your space to reflect your brand's quality, BTS is the better fit.
What payment methods do members have?
We support major credit cards and standard payment methods globally. Your members can pay however they're comfortable, and we handle all the processing infrastructure.
How fast do I get paid?
Payouts process in 1-5 days globally, with same-day payouts available for US-based creators. Your money is your money—we're not here to hold onto it.
Can I offer free content alongside paid content?
Yes. Many of our successful creators use free content as a gateway to their paid offerings. BTS makes it easy to structure free and paid tiers however works for your business.
Does BTS work for non-English creators?
BTS is used by creators globally across many languages. While our interface is currently in English, your content and community can be in any language. We support creators worldwide.
What if I want to leave BTS?
Your content is yours. Your member relationships are yours. While we hope you never want to leave, we don't hold your business hostage. Ownership means the freedom to move if you choose.
Who are some creators using BTS?
We're proud to work with creators like Nick Bell, Etienne Steven, George Mirosevich, Finlay Noorlander, Cassie Leong, and Tom Noske—along with 1,600+ others building real businesses in education, business, fitness, and entrepreneurship.
How do I get started?
Visit our homepage and create a free account. Set up your first offering, invite your audience, and start building. No credit card required. No lengthy onboarding. Just you and your audience, with the infrastructure to turn them into a real business.
Key Takeaways
- Stop stitching together tools — BTS gives you everything in one space, eliminating the fragmentation that kills creator businesses
- Design matters more than you think — Modern, brand-forward design builds trust and increases member retention
- Build for momentum, not just transactions — Structure and engagement systems separate real businesses from one-time sales
- Own what you build — Your members, your content, your brand, your business. BTS is infrastructure, not a landlord
- Start simple, scale flexibly — Launch fast, then grow into more advanced features as your business evolves
About the Author
The BTS Team is the Creator Success team at BTS, helping 1,600+ creators build real businesses from their content and communities.
We've paid out over $1.4 million to creators and learned firsthand what separates sustainable creator businesses from content treadmills. This article reflects our methodology and experience working with creators across education, business, fitness, and entrepreneurship.
Sources
- BTS Platform Data, January 2026 (1,600+ creators, $1.4M+ paid out)
- Creator Success Team observations and methodologies
This article reflects BTS's methodology and experience as of January 2026.