Kickstarter vs Indiegogo 2013
And so , you find yourself a budding entrepreneur with the next great idea and you are searching for money . The seats cushions have been searched , the empties taken back , and all direct contacts have been tapped . Where to go next ?
At one time or another you heard about crowdfunding sites , with the heavyweights being Kickstarter as well as Indiegogo . You’re new to this and are doubtful about which fighter to opt for . Thankfully for you we were able to get YOU the inside advantage . Here is our digest on the differences between Kickstarter and Indiegogo .
With political affiliations groups , faith based causes and environmental institutions are all welcome to make their pitch . Indiegogo thrives on this fact and provides help throughout the site to assist socially beneficial causes in making their presentations .
They are quickly becoming a go to site for “one-off” campaigns for example pleas for individuals that have lost everything due to fire , natural tragedy or fraud . Moved by a tragedy in the news ? Head to Indiegogo . There’s a place for you . As of this writing there are 28 various campaigns focused on the citizens of Newtown , Connecticut . In a few mouse clicks you see a long list of who can come in . Think the Statue of Liberty .
At this point take the ferry past the Statue of Liberty, hop in a cab , head down to Wall Street and try to grab a burger in the executive dining room at Goldman Sachs.
You have a better chance of pulling that off than you are of having a social cause pitched on Kickstarter . They are exclusive to particular milieu and are not apologetic about that .
Campaigns in design , performing arts , media and technology are their target markets . Click on “Start your project” and read “How Kickstarter works” . They tell you creativity should get it’s own space . Reasonable enough , but this ( with a little luck ) inadvertently snooty response to a variety of wonderfully creative solutions to social issues comes across as overbearing . In a few clicks here you will notice a long list of who CAN’T pitch .
Location , Location , Location
You can only create a campaign on Kickstarter if you reside in the U .S . or U .K . With Indiegogo , however , you could be anywhere in the world .
Kickstarter may have a nice note expecting you to have patience as they are working on it ( adding countries ) . My teen uses the same rationale when I simply tell him to clean up his room and the next morning his socks are laying in a dish of popcorn . That notice has been on the website for some time now . Better to say nothing , and underpromise/overdeliver .
It’s great to have options .
Big difference here . Kickstarter is all or nothing . If you do not reach your preset funding goal , you do not get to keep any of the money pledged , whether you earned a nickel or fell one dollar short . Now if you are the former , you have some larger issues at hand , with an additional one being you lose the nickel . Either way it’s back to the drawing board .
Indiegogo offers some flexibility . Like Kickstarter , they offer the all or nothing ( “fixed funding” ) plan . Unlike Kickstarter , there is a flexible option where you keep what you earned , but with a tradeoff that we will soon see .
Money money money
What does each company take for their services ? Kickstarter’s fee system is much simpler to explain . They take 5% . Payments are made through Amazon , who takes an additional 2-6% , depending on whether you are paying via your bank , domestic credit card or international credit card .
Indiegogo has a tiered payment plan . Under the fixed funding plan described above , Indiegogo takes a 4% fee , plus 3% for credit card payment , for a total of 7% . If you chose their flexible funding plan , which allows you to keep whatever amount you raised and you DON’T hit your goal , Indiegogo takes 9% + 3% ( credit card ) for a total of 12% . If you reach the goal , the total take is the 7% as laid out above .
“Call me…”
Another difference between Kickstarter and Indiegogo is their philosophy on dealing with projects . Kickstarter only accepts projects with defined beginnings and ends , that have clear results – widget , album , game . Ongoing business funding is not allowed . Think fun date but no relationship .
Indiegogo will meet your parents . They encourage you to come back and pitch the next stage of the project . They have also forged ongoing partnerships with KIVA , Startup America and some two dozen umbrella organizations whose members have made several Indiegogo presentations .
This is convenient if you are a fan of Women Make Movies , for example , and you wish to see if they have endorsed any projects you want to support .
Perks
Both sites encourage you to develop perks that are creative , unique and memorable . Where they differ is in valuation . Kickstarter suggests pricing the perk at the retail cost . So if you are supporting a game that costs 50 bucks , that’s what you sould price the perk at .
Indiegogo encourages you to price it higher than retail to show people that they are supporting something bigger , that they are part of something beyond the game .
