Community Creators produce content under Paizo’s Community Use Policy. This is a non-commercial policy, meaning you can’t earn money off of it, but allows you to create podcasts, videos, live performances and more while using Paizo’s Intellectual Property. At a high level, that means you can descriptively reference Paizo’s game universes, gods, NPCs, maps, and more. Paizo maintains the Paizo Partners Discord for Community Creators to collaborate and share news of their creations with Paizo and their fellow creators too!

Third-Party Publishers use the Pathfinder Compatibility and Starfinder Compatibility Licenses to produce for-profit materials. This gives you access to the game mechanics (but not world materials) behind Paizo's roleplaying games and allows you to produce for-profit creations using the compatibility logos for each game. The legal framework and applications for using those licenses are at the respective license URLs. They’re built on top of the Open Gaming License v 1.0a framework owned by Wizards of the Coast. 

Anything Paizo has declared as Open Game Content in their products is available for use under the Open Game License! Anything Paizo has declared as Product Identity is not available under the OGL. In most of their products, you'll find the statements of OGC and PI on the title or credits page at the front of the book.  Make sure not to rely on websites for determining what qualifies as open content, as some sites (like Archives of Nethys) operate under a commercial license from Paizo that grants them more rights. 

Pathfinder and Starfinder Infinite is a program that allows you to create content (adventures and locations; monsters; character classes, archetypes, and backgrounds; fiction; etc.) based on Paizo’s intellectual property (IP), including Pathfinder’s Lost Omens campaign setting, and to make some money while you’re at it. Your work might even be recognized by the community and earn you an invitation into the Infinite Masters elite creator program.

Both Pathfinder Infinite and the Paizo Community Use Policy allow you to use Paizo’s IP, reference Pathfinder and other trademarks, and use some Paizo-owned art. The primary difference between them is that the CUP is strictly non-commercial, meaning you can’t sell the content created under it or restrict access to it behind a paywall.

Alternatively, Pathfinder Infinite allows you to use the Lost Omens setting, an even larger selection of artwork, as well as content created by other Pathfinder Infinite authors. Furthermore, it allows you to sell your product on the Pathfinder Infinite Marketplace. If it’s a product containing rules, you must still adhere to the terms of the OGL.

Official Licensed Partners get access to all of Paizo’s intellectual property, including the official logos, world settings, storylines, artwork, and more. Among Paizo's licensees partners are WizKids, Roll20, Lone Wolf Studios, Syrinscape, and many others. Podcasters can become Official Licensed Partners as well, but most of those stay under the Community Creator Program. 

To become an Official Licensed Partner, you should let Paizo know about your business plans, current revenues, marketing and promotional places, etc. The annual/up-front costs for becoming a licensee can be as low as $2,500 (for a podcaster) to more than $100k for a computer game. There’s also royalties paid to Paizo from the sale of your creation (generally starting at 10%).

It’s important to remember that becoming an official licensee will not make you successful. Paizo encourages you to use the Community Creator and Third-Party Publisher options to build out your business before attempting to enter into a commercial license. Success might be lots of followers instead of money (in the case of the Community Creator).