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OnlyFans’ Founder Is Taking Its Subscription Model to the Wider Creator Economy

OnlyFans founder Tim Stokely launched Subs for creators across categories, including adult creators. Its feature pitch is broad, but its user count and market traction remain undisclosed in WIRED’s profile.
From TheFinanceBase Team5 min to read
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Tim Stokely, founder of OnlyFans, launched Subs in May 2025 as a subscription and interaction platform aimed at creators well beyond adult entertainment. Its pitch is to combine paid subscriptions, video, discovery and direct fan contact in one service. But Subs also allows adult content, and WIRED reported that the company would not disclose its user count—so its broad ambition is clearer than its market traction.

What is Tim Stokely’s new platform after OnlyFans?

Subs is a creator platform launched on May 8, 2025, by Tim Stokely. The company’s launch announcement described it as a mobile-first service for podcasters, athletes, musicians, influencers and adult creators, combining video hosting, paid subscriptions and one-to-one interaction. That is the company’s intended scope, not proof that it has attracted a large audience or displaced established services. Subs’ launch announcement

Stokely founded OnlyFans, but the two platforms should not be confused: WIRED reported he was no longer affiliated with OnlyFans while developing Subs. The new venture is an effort to take a direct-to-fan subscription approach into a wider creator market, rather than an expansion of OnlyFans itself. WIRED’s profile of Stokely and Subs

Is Subs like OnlyFans?

There is overlap in the basic model: creators can charge fans for access and interact with them directly. OnlyFans became strongly associated with adult creators, though academic research describes it as having begun as a general content platform before that association grew. A 2023 study characterizes the service around creator subscriptions and direct interaction with paying fans. The ACM Web Conference 2023 study, “Cashing in on Contacts: Characterizing the OnlyFans Ecosystem”

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The study also helps explain why a subscription platform is not just a payment page. Researchers found that OnlyFans creators’ audience-building activity connected with external social and shopping services. Their dataset contained 438,665 profiles across 144 countries, gathered from third-party recommendation sites; it is not a live or representative count of every creator on OnlyFans. In that sample, 46% of profiles included at least one external link, and 47% linked a Twitter profile. Those figures describe the study’s dataset and collection method, not current platform-wide behavior.

Subs aims to put more parts of the creator-fan relationship inside one service. That convenience is its strategic pitch; whether creators can replace the audiences and promotional networks they already use is a separate question.

What does Subs offer creators?

The launch announcement listed several features that span content, discovery and fan interaction. These are features the company announced in May 2025; the announcement alone does not establish their current availability or terms.

Launch-announced feature What it was presented as doing
Explore A discovery feed for finding creators.
Shows A format for long-form video.
One-to-one audio and video calls Direct paid or subscriber interaction, as described in the announcement.
Subscriptions and revenue sharing Ways for creators to monetize access and share revenue under the company’s model; detailed current rates and payment terms are not established by the cited sources.
Two-tier referral program A referral mechanism named in the launch announcement; its present terms are not established by the cited sources.

In July 2025, UKTN reported that Subs was developing Subs Boost, under which creators could give subscribers unique links and reward them for subscriptions they generated. Stokely did not provide specific participant earnings in that report, so it is not a basis for estimating what a creator or subscriber might make. The report described a feature in development at that time, not confirmation of its current status. UKTN’s July 30, 2025 report on Subs Boost

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Is Subs leaving adult content behind?

No. WIRED reported that Subs permits adult content as well as safe-for-work material. Its wider intended audience should not be read as a claim that the platform has abandoned adult creators. The distinction is positioning: the company says it wants creators across categories, while adult creators remain within the stated scope. WIRED’s reporting on Subs’ audience and content

The launch announcement also made company claims about moderation, AI tools, and age and identity verification. Those claims are not independent verification of how the systems work, their effectiveness, or the platform’s current policies. Creators should consult Subs’ current terms and safety documentation before relying on a particular policy or tool.

How does Subs compare with the creator platforms it wants to combine?

WIRED placed Subs in a crowded landscape where many of its features already exist in some form. Its profile compared the offering with YouTube, Instagram, Cameo, Patreon, Substack, X and adult creator services. Subs’ differentiator, if it can deliver it, is not a single novel feature so much as putting multiple creator functions together. The cited reporting does not establish that the combination is unique, or that it outperforms those services. WIRED’s platform comparisons

  • Discovery: Subs announced an Explore feed. A built-in feed could reduce reliance on outside promotion, but its reach and effectiveness are not established in the cited sources.
  • Formats: The company announced long-form Shows and one-to-one audio and video calls alongside subscriptions. Other platforms offer overlapping formats or interactions, according to WIRED.
  • Monetization: Subscriptions, revenue sharing and referrals form part of the pitch. The sources do not provide enough current, comparable fee and payout terms to judge which platform leaves a creator with more income.
  • Audience fit: Subs is positioned for general-audience creators as well as adult creators. That broad positioning does not, by itself, establish how fans or advertisers will perceive the service.

For creators, the financial comparison should start with current platform terms, not feature lists. Check subscription fees, payment processing and payout rules, chargebacks, content restrictions, account portability and how much control you retain over the fan relationship. The cited sources do not establish a current, like-for-like comparison of those terms across platforms.

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Has Subs gained enough users to challenge established platforms?

The cited public profile does not establish that. WIRED reported that Subs declined to share its current user count. Without a disclosed audience or creator count, there is no sound basis here to characterize Subs as a proven challenger or to estimate its reach. A feature announcement shows what a company intends to offer; adoption requires evidence such as disclosed active users, creator numbers, audience reach or independent reporting.

That uncertainty matters for creator economics. A subscription platform can offer more tools but still be of limited value if a creator must bring nearly every paying fan from elsewhere. Conversely, a discovery feature would matter only if it sends creators meaningful, paying audiences. The available reporting does not quantify either outcome for Subs.

What should creators verify before relying on Subs?

Because the platform’s launch features and reported referral plans are historical snapshots, check current documentation before moving paid content or fans. In particular, verify:

  • Which features are currently available in your country and on your device.
  • Subscription, transaction and payout terms, including payment timing and any conditions that affect earnings.
  • Rules for adult content, moderation, identity checks and account enforcement.
  • Whether fan lists, content and subscription relationships can be exported or moved if you leave.
  • Whether referral or reward programs currently operate, and their written eligibility and payment terms.

Do not treat a launch announcement or a founder’s earnings example as a typical income forecast. In its study of OnlyFans, ACM researchers found that 17% of sampled creators offered content for free and listed subscription prices ranged from $1 to $100, averaging $9.99 in that 2023 dataset. Those are historical sample figures about listed prices—not current prices, earnings, or a reliable benchmark for what a creator can expect to make.

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