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What made you decide to go with Kickstarter over other crowdfunding websites like Indiegogo? What do you think the strengths of both platforms are?

What do you think the strengths of both platforms are?

Since Indiegogo is more of an international crowdfunding platform with looser requirements, it's kind of the default if you live outside the areas that Kickstarter accepts projects from (unless you own a business in one of the areas that it does accept projects from).

I don't really like the flexible funding option for Indiegogo, unless it's a super cool product and I am confident that if the team doesn't hit the goal, they can still make good on the rewards they promise, as they will keep the funds. It also obviously works well for more charity type projects.

I do think Indiegogo is more proactive about getting out education materials and is more aggressive with their marketing. Kickstarter does have some cool initiatives too like the film festival. Their creator guide is kind of sparse though. On the other hand, they have great stats, where Indiegogo is much more private with their stats.

I still believe that Kickstarter has more of a backer community centered around the platform. At the same time, there isn't much data that Indiegogo has released regarding backers to verify that belief.

Flexible funding is pretty controversial. Seems like a scape-goat and almost a lack of commitment. Can really screw the owners over too if they need a certain order quantity to hit a certain production cost but they should be taking that into account.

One big con while using Kickstarter is the lack of Paypal. I think if Kickstarter did decide to use Paypal it would allow for a larger amount of users. I personally would rather use Paypal than Amazon Payments ANY day. Just my opinion though!

We seriously considered Indiegogo over Kickstarter. Primarily because they allow greater flexibility in structuring pledges. For example, allowing charitable contributions. However, in the end, we ended up staying with Kickstarter due the strength of the platform and amount of visibility. We also decided that flexible funding wasn't for us.

As we are trying to mass produce a physical product, we need to meet a minimum order requirement. This means that the flexible-funding option would definitely not work for us because anything short of our funding goal will mean we simply can't produce the product. It also seems that the added pressure of the 'all-or-nothing method' drives backers to pledge more aggressively which would increase our overall chances of success.

What are your thoughts on the changes that kickstarter made recently? I was planning everything for indiegogo but just recently heard that you can get accepted on Kickstarter for almost anything too. No more review process! yey!


Alice

"Where there is no struggle, there is no strength."

There are still some rules that you need to adhere too and if you don't, they'll put a hold on or cancel your campaign. You can find them here: https://www.kickstarter.com/rules

They still have a review process, it just doesn't necessarily need to happen before you launch. We decided to accept the offer to have ours reviewed first (check it out: http://kck.st/1sN4nQb). It helps to eliminate a little bit of stress.

For me its just a matter of numbers. KS has a larger base and more repeat backers. I don't mind the all or nothing funding , as long as I meet my goal!.

sbriggman wrote:What made you decide to go with Kickstarter over other crowdfunding websites like Indiegogo? What do you think the strengths of both platforms are?

There's a full analysis on this very topic at hivewire.

Insights from 400k Kickstarter & Indiegogo Campaigns