
// Development
How Much Does It Cost to Start a Crowdfunding Website
// Development
Crowdfunding venues such as Kickstarter, Patreon or Indiegogo are very popular among users, because thanks to them you can quite simply find investors for your project or, conversely, support the launch of your favorite product, film, music album, video game, etc. The creators of such sites also receive their benefits, usually in the form of a small commission from each crowdfunding campaign or advertising, which makes these sites an excellent investment target.
Next, we will examine in detail the five main factors that most affect the cost of developing a crowdfunding site: a niche, a fundraising model, design and functionality, marketing and development approach. But, before moving on to these factors, decide on the following things:
This means that you need to create a unique platform with functionality and design that will distinguish your project from direct competitors. Therefore, you need to either make the best crowdfunding site, or come up with some kind of chip that will attract attention and be useful to users. It could be a new financing model, technology, or something else. And, of course, the creation of such a project will cost several tens of thousands of dollars.
It is much simpler and more correct to go the other way: choose a niche with minimal competition and start with it, and then gradually expand your reach. That is how almost all major crowdfunding platforms started: Kickstarter - small P2P projects, Patreon - support for YouTube channels, Indiegogo - film industry. Now these niches (industry + country) are occupied, but you can bet on:
If you need a more complex model, for example, when investors participate in the project in exchange for a share in the capital, then we need a system that will collect money, calculate the share of each investor and issue a “digital” certificate of ownership. Now this is done with the help of blockchain, smart contracts and property tokens. The launch of such a site is much more expensive - from 10 thousand dollars + expenses for licenses and other permissions (10-100 thousand dollars depending on jurisdiction).
Here are descriptions of the most popular crowdfunding models:
The following 7 functions are included in the basic functionality of a crowdfunding site:
Registration and Login Form. If your site does not just publish bank account numbers to which inverters can transfer money, then the login and registration form should be both simple and complete enough for your site to comply with KYC / AML rules. This is important, because now there is a trend towards constant tightening of the rules of supervision by regulators.
For example, when collecting money for developing a game, it can be: $ 10 - thanks, $ 50 - early access to the game, $ 100 - game and branded T-shirt, $ 1,000 - VIP edition, and the character in the game will be called your name.
Monetization and project management. As the owner of the site, you should have the ability to manage the web platform, user profiles, categories, projects, content, the monetization system and the KYC / AML verification procedures, and you also need a powerful system for monitoring the status of all this in real time. Statistics and reports are also required.
Responsive Design and Application. Another mandatory feature without which a crowdfunding site will not be successful, as modern users use several different devices to access the Internet. And these are not only phones, tablets and computers, but also smart TVs, game consoles, VR devices and even smart refrigerators and microwaves.
For the USA, Canada and Western Europe, these are approximate numbers: