Element vs Patreon

Element (Founded by the creators of Matrix, we build digitally sovereign, secure and interoperable real-time communication solutions for large organisations.) and Patreon both appear on the Smoower Developer Ecosystem Index.

Element (rank #190) holds a modest lead over Patreon (rank #536) on the overall Smoower ecosystem score (50 vs 36). The gap of 14 points reflects composite signals across code, docs, community and reach.

On code quality (the state of repositories, tests, releases and polish), Element is clearly ahead of Patreon. On education (docs, guides and learning material for developers), Patreon is slightly ahead of Element. On community (issue response, PR reviews and discussion health), Element is clearly ahead of Patreon. On reach (how visible the ecosystem is beyond its own repos), Patreon is ahead of Element. On momentum (release cadence and how fast the ecosystem moves), Element is clearly ahead of Patreon.

Element carries 34,608 GitHub stars across 137 public repos, with 33 repositories active in the last 90 days and 97 external contributors on record. Patreon shows 846 stars across 62 public repos, 0 active in the last 90 days and 2 external contributors. The star gap on its own does not decide the comparison, but Element's footprint is roughly 40.9x larger, which usually shows up in downstream signals like inbound issues and third party integrations.

Element is the stronger read for anyone weighting momentum. Patreon looks better where reach is the deciding factor. The table below breaks the scores down pillar by pillar; the linked profiles cover the underlying repos, docs and community signals in full.