The Honest Guide to Supporting TinkerAtlas
By MakerViking
Published
Updated
5 min read
Category: Announcements
TinkerAtlas costs about $335 monthly to run and improve. Here's the honest breakdown of what that covers, plus two ways to help: becoming a Supporter with real platform perks, or making a one-time PayPal contribution whenever you can.
<p class="mb 2" Hey everyone,</p <p class="mb 2" I want to talk about money. Not the fun kind where we discuss which printer upgrade to buy next, but the practical kind that determines whether TinkerAtlas continues to exist.</p <h2 class="font bold" What It Actually Costs</h2 <p class="mb 2" Running TinkerAtlas isn't free. Every month, there's roughly $135 going out for the basics: servers that keep the site online, the database storing your projects and posts, caching that makes everything load fast, and the email system that sends your notifications. That's the baseline. Below that number, the site goes dark.</p <p class="mb 2" Then there's another $200 for development tools. These aren't optional luxuries. They're what let me fix bugs in hours instead of weeks, implement the features you've been asking for, and generally keep improving the platform instead of staring at broken code. Without them, development slows to a crawl.</p <p class="mb 2" So we're looking at about $335 a month to keep TinkerAtlas running and improving. Every month.</p <h2 class="font bold" Why I'm Bringing This Up Now</h2 <p class="mb 2" I've been building TinkerAtlas more than full time for over six months, every day of the week. Most days that means 12 to 16 hours of development, community work, talking with manufacturers, and all the behind the scenes stuff that goes into running a platform. I believe in what we're building here.</p <p class="mb 2" But here's the thing: I've been doing this without a steady income from the site. When monthly support hasn't covered the costs, I've covered the gap out of pocket. That's not sustainable anymore. My personal finances simply can't absorb the shortfall.</p <p class="mb 2" I'm not saying this to make anyone feel guilty. I chose this path. But I also need to be honest about where things stand. The more stable our funding becomes, the more I can focus entirely on making TinkerAtlas better for the nearly 290 of you who are now part of this community.</p <h2 class="font bold" Two Ways You Can Help</h2 <p class="mb 2" Here's where I want to give you real options, because I know not everyone can commit to the same thing.</p <h3 class="font bold" Option 1: Become a TinkerAtlas Supporter</h3 <p class="mb 2" This is the native subscription we built directly into the platform. $9.99 a month or $99 for a full year (which saves you about 17%), and there's also an early bird life time subscription available for $149 one time (Only 4 left). More of your money goes directly to TinkerAtlas compared to external platforms because we use Stripe with lower fees.</p <p class="mb 2" But it's not just about supporting the platform. You actually get real features that make your TinkerAtlas experience better:</p <p class="mb 2" Your posts can be up to 1,000 characters instead of 280. You can share up to 10 images per post instead of 4. You get a supporter badge on your profile, the ability to add a custom banner, and a feed announcement celebrating when you join. There's a 25% XP boost to level up faster, streak protection for when life gets in the way, and a 90 day analytics dashboard to see how your posts are performing (Still working on this, should be available in the next few days, I'll also be adding editing of posts.</p <p class="mb 2" These aren't made up perks. They're the features I always wanted to give supporters but couldn't until we built our own subscription system.</p <p class="mb 2" You can check it out at <a target=" blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="text blue 600 hover:text blue 800 dark:text blue 400 dark:hover:text blue 200 underline cursor pointer transition colors underline offset 2 decoration 1 decoration current/40 hover:decoration current focus:decoration current" href="/pricing" tinkeratlas.com/pricing</a .</p <h3 class="font bold" Option 2: One Time PayPal Contribution</h3 <p class="mb 2" Maybe monthly subscriptions aren't your thing. Maybe money is tight and you can only spare something occasionally. Maybe you just prefer one time contributions. That's completely fine, and I'll add the appropriate perks and badges for this too.</p <p class="mb 2" A one time PayPal or Ko fi donation lets you support TinkerAtlas whenever you're able, for whatever amount works for you. There's no commitment, no recurring charge, just a direct contribution when you can. Five dollars, ten dollars, whatever. It all goes toward keeping the servers running and the development moving forward, and if we'll get over our goal it will be used for gear that will improve my ability to create good content for you.</p <p class="mb 2" You'll find the PayPal and Ko.fi option under this article, along with a link to the Supporter page.</p <h2 class="font bold" What If You Can't Do Either?</h2 <p class="mb 2" That's okay too. TinkerAtlas will always have a solid free tier because I believe maker communities should be accessible. If you're getting value from the platform but can't contribute financially right now, here's what helps just as much:</p <p class="mb 2" Share your projects. Comment on other people's work. Report bugs when you find them. Tell other makers about us. Invite people who might fit in here. An active, growing community is valuable in its own way.</p <h2 class="font bold" What's Coming</h2 <p class="mb 2" Development isn't stopping while I figure out the financial side. I'm working on getting bugs fixed and the streamer tool next. There's more on the roadmap that I'm genuinely excited to build.</p <p class="mb 2" Every bit of support, whether it's a monthly subscription, a one time contribution, or just being an active member, means more time building those features and less time worrying about whether we'll be here next month.</p <h2 class="font bold" The Bottom Line</h2 <p class="mb 2" TinkerAtlas exists because makers deserve a dedicated space that puts community first. Not algorithms. Not advertisers. Just people sharing what they build and learning from each other.</p <p class="mb 2" If you believe in that, and you're in a position to help, consider becoming a Supporter or making a one time contribution. If you can't right now, that's genuinely fine. Keep making things and sharing them here.</p <p class="mb 2" Either way, thank you for being part of this.</p <p class="mb 2" Thomas (MakerViking)</p
