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How to host a Steppa challenge, and what it actually pays.
Most community cards on Discover have a handful of people and will lose the listing fee. This page is the math I wish existed before anyone paid $25 to find that out. I host The Weekly Split. I am not Steppa. Figures about other cards are observations, not a census.
The three challenge types
This comparison is not on the open web in one place. Types and commercial terms can change; verify in the create flow.
| Private | Public | Sponsored | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Listing cost | Free | About $25 | You fund the pool |
| Who can join | Invite / cap | Unlimited, Discover | Players enter free |
| Host must compete | Yes | No | Depends on the brief |
| Revenue | None | 5% of each stake, on top (the rate I set) | Brand / sponsor deal; platform fee on top |
| When it makes sense | Friends, a test week | A recurring series you can fill | A company that wants a prize without collecting stakes |
Steppa Pro (terms §Steppa Pro Subscription) includes: up to 5 concurrent challenges; a $10.00 monthly credit usable toward entry fees and challenge creation fees; one free public challenge creation per subscription month; and a Pro badge. Price is set in the App Store, not in the terms.
The creation waiver alone is worth $25/month; the credit adds $10. If Pro costs less than about $35/month it pays for itself on listing fees before you sell a seat. A weekly host’s annual creation-fee bill drops from about $1,300 to about $1,000. Check the live App Store price; we are not going to invent it.
The math nobody runs before paying $25
5% of each stake against a $25 listing fee means breakeven is a $500 pool (20 people at $25). A smaller card still loses money. The Weekly Split is $70, so that same $500 listing breakeven is about eight people, not twenty. If Steppa cancels a challenge before start for missing its minimum participant threshold, the creation fee is refunded as promotional credit. That is in the terms, not a promise we are making on this page.
| Pool | Seats at $25 | 5% host fee | Listing | Net before incentives |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $250 | 10 | $12.50 | $25 | −$12.50 |
| $500 | 20 | $25.00 | $25 | $0 |
| $1,000 | 40 | $50.00 | $25 | $25 |
| $1,500 | 60 | $75.00 | $25 | $50 |
That is why a one-off launch is a bad business and a weekly series can be a small one. First-party creator earnings for The Weekly Split will live on /receipts once No. 1 settles. Until then, treat the table as arithmetic, not a track record.
Why most community challenges fail
Three patterns, visible on Discover any Saturday:
- The empty-card death spiral. “1 joined” or “2 joined” is itself the reason the next person does not join. People use the count as social proof. A card that starts empty stays empty.
- Price clustering. Community hosts sell $15–$25 seats. On 16 August 2026 the live house card on playsteppa.com was a $250 stake for 15 days at 12,000 steps. You are not competing on pool size. You are competing on whether anyone believes the card will fill.
- No second edition. One listing, one weekend of posting, then silence. The product that retains people is a Monday that always exists.
Setting difficulty deliberately
The in-app difficulty estimator predicts a finish rate. That prediction is your participants’ payout multiple. A 90% predicted finish is a 1.11× week. A 50% predicted finish is a 2× week that burns half your room. We aim for 60–70% because most people should succeed and finishing should still be worth something. Sixteen settled house cards we transcribed on 16 August 2026 finished at a median of about 77%, a worse deal for finishers than that band. The table.
If nobody finishes, Steppa keeps the pool. A “hardcore” card that goes to zero is not impressive. It is a transfer to the platform. Say that in your description if you have the nerve; it is the most honest difficulty argument available.
Stake range in the terms has been $10–$500. The create slider has shown $10–$1,000. One of those is wrong. Do not design a premium tier on a slider you have not confirmed.
The join-window choreography
This is how you avoid listing a card that reads “1 joined.”
- Saturday morning: create the public challenge (name, cover, goal, dates, fee). Screenshot the fee breakdown for your archive. Start date the following Monday.
- First two hours: message the committed core directly. Target 15–20 on the card before any public post. The participant count is the conversion driver inside the app.
- Saturday afternoon: socials, pointing at a card that already shows momentum.
- Sunday: countdown, final hours. Screenshot the final count.
- Monday: start. Prior edition settles. Receipt publishes. Relist only when the queue window is actually open: a participant may enter a second challenge only during the final days of their current one. Do not list weeks ahead.
Your challenge description cannot carry your URL as a promotion. Keep it descriptive. Steppa’s code of conduct prohibits in-app solicitation.
What I would do differently
This paragraph will get specific after editions go badly. Until then, the planned mistakes I am trying not to make: listing before a waitlist exists; publishing a processing-fee dollar amount I have not confirmed; publishing other people’s handles; treating a house-sized pool as the competitor instead of a published finish rate.
When I have first-party lessons, including the weeks that lose money, they will be added here and on the receipts archive. A host page that only ever reports wins is an affiliate page.
Work with me instead
From edition 5 I will pay 30% of the host fee per verified referral, monthly, ledger public. At a $50 entry that is $0.75 a head. It costs me nothing until it works. If you are currently posting a Steppa referral for promotional credit, a recurring cut on people who stay is a different deal. Amounts are Steppa’s, shown in the app. See /refer.
Or just walk the weekly card and decide later. Related: payout math · community map · bonuses.