[Jaffar Ali]

Since the world has seen the success of popular crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, crowdfunding is all the rage! Niche websites have popped up dedicated to gaming, music, nonprofits, and more.

Before becoming a blogger, I was a part of a web development company that created two crowdfunding platforms for clients. I know what it’s like on the coding side and have a good amount of experience helping creators.

From my research, I’ve complied a list of websites, tools, and open source frameworks below that can help you create a crowdfunding platform. The coding ability required to implement these solutions may vary.

White-Label Crowdfunding Platforms

– Launcht: Launcht is one of the best known white-label crowdfunding platforms out there. They are based in Boston, MA and help customers create crowdfunding platforms for nonprofits, universities, startups, and more. Pricing information: Setup – $495-$5,995. Ongoing – $295/mo & 1% of all funds raised – $495/mo & 1% of all funds raised.

– Invested.In: “Fully customizable. Trusted and used by some of the largest brands and names on the planet. It’s super-simple. We’ll help you set up.” Prices range from $345.90-$995.90 per month. There is also an enterprise tier where Invest.In will help with coding/design work.

– CrowdValley: “Configure and launch your own crowdfunding, peer-to-peer marketplace, or online investment portal. Plug in services and APIs for investor accreditation, escrow accounts, due diligence, regulatory compliance, and financial back office.” Prices range from $99-$1,499 per month.

– CrowdfundHQ: “The fastest, easiest way to create a successful crowdfunding site. No coding required. Best pricing in the industry.” Prices range from $60-$200 per month.

– Towema: “The easiest way to launch a personalized crowdfunding platform.” Prices range from $500-$1,500 per month.

– CrowdForce: “DealRoom: crowdfinancing connects investors and issuers.
CrowdForce: rewards crowdfunding for business or nonprofits.” Pricing information: pending.

Open Source Crowdfunding Platforms

– Catarse: Catarse is an open source crowdfunding platform that was created in Brazil. Judging from the last time I used the code base, it will require a good amount of manipulation and bug fixing if you’d like to use it to create a crowdfunding site. It’s easiest to set up with PayPal. Once you do get it working to your needs, it’s awesome and performs the job well. You can see it in action here.

– Spot.us (Crowdfunded Reporting): Spot.us is a community funded reporting platform. There is also an open-source version on github. It uses the Ruby on Rails framework.

For more, see seeing factory’s blog, where there is a good list of open source crowdfunding platforms.

WordPress Themes for a Crowdfunding Platform

• Charity WP is an expertly designed and seriously effective, modern and resourceful, highly responsive WordPress multipurpose charity and nonprofit organization website theme. Charity has been crafted by an experienced team of talented developers working together to design an incredible solution for all sorts of charitable projects and nonprofit organizations and their endeavors. Whether you are putting together a charitable ball or gala, any sort of fundraising event, or managing an ongoing charity, Charity is the theme for you. This Charity WordPress Theme is made by ThimPressNonprofit organizations will also find in Charity a sound ally in all their pursuits, with Charity’s features being solely thought out to solve every problem a charity or nonprofit may encounter, from sophisticated, modern subscription newsletters with ample features to engage your donor base, an entirely functional out of the box system for creating and promoting your donation campaigns, charity drives and causes individually, a powerful donation system built right into Charity to ease your donor’s user experience while contributing to your cause, nonprofit event options, automated calls for volunteers, predesigned Mission and Vision pages, and so much more, you’d never hear the end of it. Charity is a resourceful and thorough package, equipped with a strong set of tools to get your charitable work done, today!
• Ignition Deck: Ignition Deck is a popular wordpress crowdfunding plugin and crowdfunding theme. Pricing ranges from $79-$349. Extensions include WePay, Amazon Payments, and MixPanel Analytics.
• Fundify: Fundify is a wordpress crowdfunding theme by the popular theme marketplace, ThemeForest. It costs $60, integrates with WePay and PayPal, and supports flexible and fixed fundraising options.
• FundingPress: FundingPress is another theme created by ThemeForest that you can use to create a crowdfunding platform. It costs $55 and has a bit of a different layout than Fundify.
• CrowdPress: CrowdPress is another wordpress crowdfunding theme on the ThemeForest marketplace. It costs $45 and uses PayPal as a payment method.
• Campaignify – Another wordpress theme, Campaignify offers a bit of a different layout than the other “build your own crowdfunding platform” themes on the website. it costs $55.
• Franklin: Franklin is a premium wordpress theme in the ThemeForest marketplace. Personally, I like the design. It costs $45.
• Mission theme: This theme is good for donation based crowdfunding websites. It costs $45 and is more geared towards charities and nonprofits.
• Funder WordPress Theme: Another crowdfunding platform theme in the ThemeForest marketplace. It costs $45.

I couldn’t find any Drupal themes/extensions to help with creating a crowdfunding platform, and only one resource for Joomla developers looking to create a platform. If you know of any, then please leave a comment below.

Self-Funding Crowdfunding Platforms

– Self-starter.us: “Selfstarter is an open source starting point for building your own ad-hoc crowdfunding site. It was put together by Lockitron after they were turned down from Kickstarter.”

– CrowdtiltOpen: “Launch your own crowdfunding platform without touching a line of code.” CrowdtiltOpen was launched by Crowdtilt.

For more, see the “continue fundraising” section of 22 websites to help post-kickstarter with reward fulfillment and product sales.

Deciding to launch a crowdfunding platform?

Be sure to publish a free press release through CrowdfundingPR.org and leave a comment below if you have any questions about the links I’ve included in this article. If you found this article to be helpful, leave a comment below and let me know!

In addition, I highly recommend checking out our other article on how to get projects for your crowdfunding platform.

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