10 Best Crowdfunding Sites and Platforms in 2024 - Shopify (2024)

Finding the money you need to start a business can be challenging. Traditional methods like bank loans or pitching to investors are great options, but may not be accessible to everybody. Even if you’ve secured a small business loan, you may need more funds to cover your startup costs.

Crowdfunding is an innovative way to raise money from a large group of personal investors. You can use crowdfunding to raise funds from your existing customers or audience—or from a network of investors who are active on a crowdfunding platform.

Crowdfunding isn’t just a convenient way to raise money; it’s a movement. In 2023, crowdfunding added $1.1 billion to the US economy—with the average crowdfunding campaign raising nearly $8,000.

The benefits don’t stop at fundraising. Crowdfunding lets you test new products and gauge demand for your latest content idea. You can trade preorder rights, gifts, exclusive access, or equity for the support of your audience.

This post contains the top 10 crowdfunding sites for funding your business, product, content, or nonprofit project.

What is crowdfunding?

Crowdfunding is a method of raising capital where numerous individuals contribute smaller amounts of their personal money to support a business. This contrasts with traditional fundraising, which typically involves securing large investments from a limited number of sources, such as accredited investors or venture capital firms.

How does crowdfunding work?

Crowdfunding “backers” are offered incentives in exchange for their donations and support. Incentives can include:

• Early access to purchase a product, possibly at a discounted price
• The option to preorder a product and have a say in its development
• Exclusive rewards like an ongoing discount, enhanced customer loyalty status, or free merch
• Access to the founding team or other crowdfunders
• Equity
• Exclusive content

In exchange for hosting your crowdfunding campaign, crowdfunding sites charge platform, transaction, and payment processing fees.

While every crowdfunding site has its own features, fee structure, and user base, the core concept is the same: You submit your project to the platform with a fundraising target and a deadline, then campaign for support.

So, what are your options for raising funds for your business via crowdfunding platforms? Here aresome of the best crowdfunding websites in 2024.

10 best crowdfunding platforms

1. Best overall: Kickstarter
2. Runner-up: Indiegogo
3. Best for small businesses: Fundable
4. Best for Shopify stores: Crowdfunder
5. Best for content creators: Patreon
6. Best for UK and Europe: Crowdcube
7. Best for personal fundraising: GoFundMe
8. Best for nonprofits: Mightycause
9. Best for real estate crowdfunding: CrowdStreet
10. Best for high-growth startups: StartEngine

1. Kickstarter

Best overall crowdfunding platform

As one of the most well-known online fundraising platforms, Kickstarter is almost synonymous with crowdfunding. Since its launch in 2009, the Kickstarter community has helped more than 250,000 projects raise funds—including physical and digital products.

Kickstarter is a reward-based fundraiser platform. Backers are offered incentives to support a project, such as exclusive preorder discounts, gifts, or shoutouts. You can offer a tiered rewards structure to persuade backers to commit higher amounts to your project—the more money a backer pledges, the better the rewards they unlock.

Kickstarter campaigns are an all-or-nothing affair, which means you only get access to your funds (and pay Kickstarter’s platform fee) if you meet your initial fundraising goal. If you fall short, then all the money stays with your funders.

The result is that projects on Kickstarter tend to be high-quality and novel—often creative or innovative enough to catch the attention of early adopters and headlines from the press. Backers generally view these projects as more trustworthy because they don’t part with their money unless the campaign succeeds.

Learn more about running a Kickstarter campaign from successful projects such as Rockwell Razors, SaniKind, and LastObject.

Fees: Successful projects are charged a 5% platform fee plus transaction fees between 3% and 5%.

Pros:

• Large, active community
• All-or-nothing model encourages donations
• Ideal for creative projects

Cons:

• No funds if goal isn’t met
• Charges 5% fee plus transaction fees
• Not for personal causes or charities

2. Indiegogo

Runner-up crowdfunding platform

Indiegogo is a crowdfunding platform that supports businesses, artists, and nonprofits. While similar to Kickstarter, it comes with its own set of easy-to-use tools and campaign options.

The biggest difference between the two platforms is the option to choose a flexible funding goal for your campaign alongside a fixed all-or-nothing goal (like Kickstarter). With flexible funding goals, you receive your funds regardless of whether you’ve met your ultimate goal by its deadline.

The flexible funding option is handy if your project contains multiple stages or milestones. If you can fulfill some of your commitments to backers with a portion of raised investments, flexible funding allows you to get to work, even if you weren’t able to fund your entire campaign.

Indiegogo’s InDemand feature lets you keep the momentum going and continue raising money without a timeline, even after your fundraising campaign ends. This can be useful for funding extra production or fulfillment costs—or expanding your audience.

Fees: Indiegogo charges a 5% fee on all funds raised for your campaign. There’s also a transaction fee of 3% plus 20¢.

Pros:

• Flexible funding options
• Supports a wide range of projects
• Offers ongoing fundraising

Cons:

• Charges 5% fee plus transaction fees
• Smaller community than Kickstarter
• Risk of underfunding with flexible option

💡 Shopify store BodyBoss transitioned to Indiegogo InDemand after a successful Kickstarter campaign.

3. Fundable

Best crowdfunding platform for small businesses

Fundable is part of the Startups.co platform and is among the top crowdfunding sites that allow US startups to offer rewards—including equity—in exchange for funding.

The platform offers self-managed fundraising as well as campaign support, where Fundable will help you create a pitch deck and identify prospective investors. You can also use Fundable to organize your fundraising activities and keep track of investor interest.

According to Fundable guidance, startups that use the platform to offer rewards typically raise fewer funds but get more backers. Meanwhile, startups that use equity crowdfunding usually raise more capital from fewer investors.

To succeed with equity crowdfunding, you need to provide all the research and resources that accredited investors expect, including a track record of growth, a pitch deck, and a solid business plan.

Fees: $179 per month, plus 3.5% plus 30¢ transaction fee for any funds collected via credit card.

Pros:

• Rewards or equity funding
• Offers campaign support
• Suitable for small businesses and startups

Cons:

• High monthly fee
• Joining the platform requires preparation and documentation
• Extensive financial information needed for equity crowdfunding

4. Crowdfunder

Best crowdfunding app for Shopify stores

If you already have a Shopify store and are interested in crowdfunding a new product through your website, the Crowdfunder app is a good fit.

Most crowdfunding platforms require you to create and run an account on their website. Crowdfunder bucks this trend by allowing you to turn a website product page into a crowdfunding page—complete with a progress bar, funding goal, and preorder button.

Crowdfunder enables crowdfunding in its simplest form: accepting customer preorders as a way to validate an idea and fund production. Plus, you can avoid the commissions charged by third-party platforms in favor of a more predictable monthly fee.

Use Crowdfunder to gauge customer interest, test new product ideas, raise money for a cause, or launch a limited-run product.

Fees: $24 per month.

Pros:

• Turns a product page into a crowdfunding page
• Ideal for Shopify store owners
• Charges monthly fee, not percentage

Cons:

• Lacks community aspect or marketplace
• Built for Shopify only

5. Patreon

Best crowdfunding platform for content creators

Patreon is built with digital creators in mind. So, it’s worth considering if you’re a podcaster, musician, game developer, or videographer.

Whereas most crowdfunding sites support limited-run campaigns, Patreon works on a subscription basis. Creators develop membership programs for their fans, who pay to join a community of like-minded patrons and access exclusive perks.

Creators and internet personalities can use Patreon to monetize their audiences and generate recurring revenue. You can choose to let patrons pay per month or per creation.

Patreon creators offer all kinds of exclusive perks based on different payment tiers, such as access to gated content, branded merch, sneak peeks, shoutouts, and more. The site supports various integrations to support content on the platform. You can upload videos, host livestreams, and run forums or newsletter groups for your patrons.

Fees: Between 8% and 12% of the income you earn from Patreon, depending on your plan. Plus, processing fees of up to 6% plus 10¢ depending on payment method.

Pros:

• Ideal for subscription-based funding
• Allows community building
• Supports various integrations

Cons:

• Not for one-off projects
• Charges 8% to 12% fee
• Building a patron base takes time

💡 Learn how content creators Wait But Why use Patreon to increase their monetization streams.

6. Crowdcube

Best crowdfunding website for UK and Europe

Businesses outside the US should check the terms and conditions of the crowdfunding platforms listed so far to make sure that they qualify to use all the service’s features.

Unlike the sites above, Crowdcube is a UK-based equity crowdfunding platform built for European businesses. You can set up several types of equity crowdfunding using Crowdcube, including private and follow-on rounds.

Like Fundable, Crowdcube offers support with commonly faced issues such as follow-on rounds and dividends.

Crowdcube has a relatively small number of campaigns. Still, companies that are approved and succeed with their fundraising goals on the platform are able to join Crowdcube’s Funded Club, gaining exclusive benefits from their partner organizations.

Promote your pitch to solicit investors from your personal network or appeal to Crowdcube’s established community.

Fees: 7% of the amount successfully raised, plus a 0.75% to 1.25% completion fee and payment processing fees of up to 2.9%.

Pros:

• Made for European businesses
• Different types of equity crowdfunding
• Successful campaigns gain exclusive benefits

Cons:

• Charges 7% fee plus other fees
• Not suitable for businesses outside Europe
• Small number of campaigns

7. GoFundMe

Best crowdfunding site for personal fundraising

GoFundMe is a free crowdfunding platform built primarily to raise financial support for individuals, charitable causes, and community projects.

Because GoFundMe is suited to personal fundraising, anyone can create a campaign. Backers on the platform tend to support campaigns that originate from personal networks, local communities, or causes that resonate with personal interests (say, supporting a youth sports building renovation or helping a family in need).

However, campaigns can gain momentum and attract a broader audience of backers. Even if visitors to your campaign page don’t donate, they can share your profile to boost its visibility.

Unlike other crowdfunding websites on this list, GoFundMe isn’t designed for commercial activities. But if you’re a small business owner facing difficulties, or need to raise money to overcome a personal challenge, try leveraging GoFundMe for support.

Fees: No platform fee for fundraising campaigns, just 2.9% plus 30¢ payment fee.

Pros:

• Ideal for personal fundraising and charities
• No platform fee

Cons:

• Not for commercial crowdfunding
• Success often depends on personal networks

8. Mightycause

Best crowdfunding site for nonprofits

Mightycause is a longstanding online fundraising software company for nonprofit crowdfunding. While platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo may be more well-known, campaigners have raised more than $600 million on Mightycause since its inception in 2006.

Instead of a centralized platform, Mightycause offers tools and features that you can use on your website. There’s a fundraising page creator, donation forms and buttons, as well as social media, email, and SMS integration. To manage it all, a CRM system gives an overview of crowdfunding activities and generates reports.

You can run unlimited peer-to-peer, team, and event fundraising campaigns with Mightycause. Campaigns aren’t required to meet any goals, so if your fundraiser doesn’t meet its financial target, you can keep and use the donations you receive.

Fees: $79 to $119 per month, depending on your plan. Up to 2.2% plus 29¢ in payment processing fees.

Pros:

• Tools for nonprofit crowdfunding
• No goal requirements

Cons:

• High monthly fee
• Not for commercial projects

9. CrowdStreet

Best for real estate crowdfunding

CrowdStreet offers individual investors the opportunity to contribute funds to real estate projects. So far, it has serviced more than $4 billion in investments.

Real estate sponsors can apply for access to the platform’s marketplace to raise passive capital for their construction or financial projects. CrowdStreet also supports projects with investor management services and a digital marketing campaign for your pitch.

As a niche crowdfunding platform, CrowdStreet is likely only suitable for established real estate firms that deal mostly in commercial properties. The platform’s annual market outlook report gives a signal of the kinds of projects investors are most likely to be interested in.

Fees: Varies.

Pros:

• Platform for real estate projects
• Offers investor management and marketing support

Cons:

• Only for established real estate firms
• Thorough vetting process for projects

10. StartEngine

Best equity crowdfunding site for high-growth startups

StartEngine is an equity crowdfunding platform where you can raise capital through the site’s network of more than 1.8 million prospective investors.

In order to open investment to the public, StartEngine allows fundraising through Regulation Crowdfunding, an exception to SEC regulations that allows companies to raise up to $5 million. While this process is more streamlined than traditional methods of raising funds from accredited investors, it still has strict financial and legal requirements.

Fortunately, StartEngine provides the financial review and legal documentation necessary to launch a Reg CF campaign. Companies can also save on costs and infrastructure by capping their fundraising at $107,000, which allows them to avoid extensive financial reporting requirements.

Nevertheless, StartEngine is likely best for startups that have already demonstrated a potential for growth and are able to invest upfront funds into their crowdsourcing campaign.

Fees: Varies.

Pros:

• Allows for equity crowdfunding
• Provides financial review and legal documentation

Cons:

• Application requires extensive preparation and documentation

How this list of crowdfunding sites was created

Creating a list of the top crowdfunding platforms required a deep dive into the world of crowdfunding. More than 20 platforms were considered, including well-known names and niche services.

The goal was to provide a comprehensive list that caters to a variety of founder and investor needs, whether it’s for personal causes, business ideas, nonprofits, or startups.

Each platform was evaluated based on several key factors:

• Usability. The ease of use of the platform was a top consideration. For example, Patreon’s user-friendly interface for content creators and their fans was a standout feature.
• Pricing. The cost of using the platform was another major factor. Platforms like Crowdfunder, which charges a predictable monthly fee, were given preference over those with complex fee structures.
• Tools. The tools and features offered by each platform were also considered. For instance, Mightycause’s fundraising and donation management features were particularly impressive.
• Success rate. The success rate of campaigns on each platform was also taken into account. Platforms known for their high project success rates were given preference.
• Post-investment support. Platforms like Indiegogo, which offer features like InDemand to keep the momentum going after a campaign ends, were highly regarded.
• Investment options. The variety of investing options available to backers was also considered. Platforms that offer multiple ways for backers to contribute were given preference.

Raise money for your business today

By reaching out to investors, potential customers, or fans, crowdfunding offers an accessible way to raise the money you need to start a business or speed up product development.

In fact, many Shopify merchants have seen their business take off thanks to the funds raised via the crowdfunding sites on this list.

If you can spread awareness of your product idea and pitch your campaign to the right people, crowdfunding could work for you.

You can also consider raising capital by combining crowdfunding with other forms of fundraising, such as small business loans and Shopify’s own investment program, Shopify Capital.

Illustration by Rose Wong