Crowdfunding has been big news in the last couple of years and has gained a lot of attention in the press, for all the right reasons. It seems like every other week there’s a new story about a product that has been brought to market by the group effort that is crowdfunding and many of these products are things that we would never have seen otherwise.
Generally, these stories tend to focus on just two sites: Kickstarter and Indiegogo. While Kickstarter gets more exposure, Indiegogo has an appeal as the slight ‘underdog’ of the crowdfunding world and as a place where there’s a less competition for the eyeballs that do get to the site
But of course, there are many more options than just these two crowdfunding sites. When something is this popular, it is a given that other companies are going to pop up and try to emulate the successful formula. Here we will look at the top sites to help you choose the best one for your particular project.
Kickstarter:
Kickstarter is the crowdfunding platform that everyone knows. It has had the most media attention and provided backing for some of the most impressive projects, and as such it’s probably the one that will connect you with the largest audience.
Indiegogo:
Indiegogo is essentially the slightly smaller alternative to Kickstarter. It’s slightly smaller audience means less competition for your projects. It also allows you to keep whatever you raise, unlike Kickstarter which can be a mad-dash to the finish line.
Crowdfunder:
Crowdfunder is an aptly-named crowdfunding site that is aimed more at businesses. It’s a social network for investors, tech start-ups, social enterprises and small businesses and helps to connect projects with the people that have the means to fund them.
RocketHub:
RocketHub focuses on ‘donation’ based funding and is a favorite among creative types. Their FuelPad and LaunchPad programs help to put real marketing power behind their projects.
Crowdrise:
Now we’re getting to the lesser-known territory. Crowdrise is a donation-based crowdfunding site aimed specifically for causes and charities. They have a large community of users working hard towards a range of causes.
AngelList:
AngelList is a great site for tech start-ups that can help them to find angel investors. For a while, they didn’t consider themselves a crowdfunding site, but have recently expanded their approach to encompass more traditional ‘crowdfunding’ efforts.
Somolend:
Somolend takes another slightly different approach to crowdfunding, this time focussing on loans for small businesses in the US. They even partner with banks and help start-ups to get loans from friends and family.
Appbackr:
Appbackr is a site aimed squarely at those hoping to develop the next hit mobile app. Here you can raise donation based funding to get things going and take advantage of the great built-in community for developers.
