Kickstarter or Indiegogo?
How to choose the right crowdfunding platform for your tech and hardware projects.
One question that we often get asked by inventors and entrepreneurs is: which platform should I use, Kickstarter or Indiegogo? Which will give me a better chance of success for my tech and hardware product campaign?
As an industrial design company that specialises in product innovation, we work closely with many tech and hardware start-ups that are choosing to crowdfund (one of which raised over $250k on Kickstarter). We have seen firsthand the benefits of a successful campaign and how crowdfunding has revolutionised early product marketing. It allows entrepreneurs to learn more about their target market, build a customer following, connect with potential distributors, and raise the necessary capital to fund the first production order. All before a single unit has been produced.
So which platform, Kickstarter or Indiegogo, is the best option for launching a hardware crowdfunding campaign? We take a look at the differences.
The behemoth of the crowdfunding world. Kickstarter still has the most web traffic, so it will maximise the number of eyeballs that browse your campaign. Kickstarter also has the highest percentage of projects successfully funded, which may be due to their relatively tight control on the types of projects that are allowed.
The Kickstarter model is backer-focused: the all-or-nothing campaigns give security to the backers that their money will only been taken when enough has been raised in total to fulfill the rewards. The controlled environment has been created to give confidence to backers and has led to them having a dominant share of crowdfunding traffic for the past five years.
The original crowdfunding platform, but has played second fiddle to Kickstarter for a long time. Indiegogo does not have the same traffic or success rate as Kickstarter, but has made a lot of smart moves in recent times to wrestle back market share.
Indiegogo has always been creator-focused, allowing anybody to post a project about almost anything. It also has a ‘flexible funding’ option that allows creators to keep everything that they raise. In recent times, they have launched a ‘in demand’ feature that offers creators after-campaign support: allowing them to continue raising money and capitalize on their success. These features are particularly useful for technology and hardware start-ups and have drawn a lot of high-profile projects to the site, increasing its overall popularity.
Recommendation
This is always the difficult part. Both platforms have strong technology categories with many high-profile projects that have raised well over $1m. The success of a campaign is far more dependent on the creator’s efforts and the product’s ability to solve a real need in the market. But here is a little decision tree that might help you choose, based on the purpose of the campaign and resources available to you.
If you need professional assistance for any stage of the new product development cycle, come and see the industrial design team at Form Designs Australia for a free consultation.
