FantasyHow to compare two agency offers that look the same
Two agencies quote you 40%. One of those deals can be worth thousands more per year than the other. Here's where the difference hides.
Short answer
Two agencies quote you 40%, and one of those deals can be worth thousands more a year than the other. The word that decides it is whether the percentage is charged on gross or on net. OnlyFans takes 20% of everything before you see it, so on $10,000 of gross revenue, $8,000 reaches you. Forty percent of gross is $4,000. Forty percent of net is $3,200. Same headline number, $800 a month apart, $9,600 across a year.
Put another way: a 40% of gross deal is effectively a 50% of net deal wearing a different label. Get the basis in writing before you compare any two percentages, because almost nobody in this industry publishes it. Ours is 30% to 60% of net, published on this site, and the calculator runs the arithmetic on your own figures.
Eight agencies publish a rate at all, and the table of who does, and which of them state the base, is the place to start before any call.
The first question: gross or net?
This single word changes the deal more than the percentage does, and it's the most common thing creators forget to ask.
OnlyFans takes 20% of everything before you see it. So on $10,000 of gross revenue, $8,000 reaches you.
- 40% of net: the agency takes 40% of the $8,000, leaving you $4,800.
- 40% of gross: the agency takes 40% of the $10,000 ($4,000), leaving you $4,000.
Same headline number. An $800 difference per month, $9,600 across a year. A 40%-of-gross deal is effectively a 50%-of-net deal, which is a materially different offer wearing the same label.
The second question: what's included?
A percentage means nothing without a scope. Two 40% offers can cover entirely different amounts of work:
| Service | Ask specifically |
|---|---|
| Chat coverage | How many hours a day? Is it genuinely 24/7 or "business hours plus evenings"? |
| Marketing | Which platforms, and who creates the promotional content? |
| Content | Do they plan it, direct it, or just schedule what you send? |
| Leak protection | Included, or an add-on? Monitoring only, or DMCA filing too? |
| Reporting | How often, and itemized enough to check against your dashboard? |
A 45% offer covering all of it can easily be better value than a 35% offer covering chat only. The percentage is the price; the scope is what you're buying.
The third question: are there costs on top?
A legitimate agency earns from the commission alone. Watch for anything additional: setup fees, "premium marketing" packages, priority support tiers, or equipment costs charged back to you.
The important distinction is who carries risk before revenue exists. An agency that fronts startup costs is investing in the partnership; one that charges you for them is transferring its risk onto you while still taking a percentage.
Tiered and staged models
Some agencies charge one rate to everyone. Others vary it by how much work they take on: a higher rate for creators starting from zero who need full setup and upfront investment, lower for established creators who mainly need scaling.
Neither approach is automatically better, but a tiered model is easier to sanity-check: you can ask why your rate is what it is and evaluate whether the answer holds up. A flat rate applied identically to a beginner and an established earner deserves the same question, and it should still have an answer.
The comparison that actually matters
Once you know the basis, the scope and any extra costs, compare offers on take-home rather than on percentage:
- Convert every offer to a net-basis equivalent.
- Note what each includes, and price the gaps. If one excludes leak protection, what would that cost separately?
- Ask each agency what they'd change in your first 30 days. An agency that can't be specific probably can't deliver growth either, which makes their percentage irrelevant.
Two offers, one month, what you keep
Enter each offer as it was quoted. The tool converts both to what lands in your account.
Offer A
Offer B
You keep more with
Offer A
Then run the arithmetic. Our commission calculator shows how much growth an agency needs to deliver before you come out ahead. At 40%, that's 67% growth just to break even. That number reframes the whole comparison: a lower percentage from an agency that changes nothing is worse than a higher percentage from one that doubles your revenue.
Questions to put in writing
- Is the percentage on gross or net?
- Exactly which services does it cover?
- Are there any charges beyond the commission, ever?
- Can the rate change, and under what conditions?
- Who pays for equipment, promotion, or content production?
In writing, not on a call. An agency that will answer these in writing has already told you a great deal about how it operates.