We just updated our analysis of the Kickstarter vs Indiegogo stats for 2018.
(If you want to immediately dive into the Kickstarter vs Indiegogo Stats for 2018, you can view the spreadsheet and data here.)
In deciding between Kickstarter vs Indiegogo, the answer is 100% Kickstarter. Kickstarter outperforms Indiegogo on every objective measure that matters. Namely, raising money for your campaign.
If you are launching a crowdfunding campaign, and trying to decide between Kickstarter vs Indiegogo, your best option is Kickstarter.
Before sharing my analysis, I'd like to make a comment about other articles that discuss the Kickstarter vs Indiegogo question.
Pretty much all of the articles are fluffy, puffy, and useless. They discuss points that aren't critical or important, and pretty much all end with "it depends" or "you decide".
I'm sorry. It doesn't depend.
If you actually know what you are talking about, and actually have experience in crowdfunding, like Funded Today, the answer is Kickstarter.
My analysis of the Indiegogo vs Kickstarter question is based off of more experience and more data than anyone else. At least, I don't know of anyone that has more experience or data than we have.
I just queried our database to make sure I had the most up-to-date numbers. Funded Today has worked with 1,864 Kickstarter campaigns, and 227 Indiegogo campaigns. That's 2,091 campaigns in total, with 89% of our campaigns being on Kickstarter, and 11% of our campaigns being on Indiegogo.
This is more actual experience with both Kickstarter and Indiegogo than anyone else. We know Kickstarter and Indiegogo inside and out. We have run more marketing to Kickstarter and Indiegogo than anyone else in the entire world. To be precise we have spent $7,898,800 just in facebook ads alone, sending traffic to both Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Here's a snapshot of our facebook ad accounts:
Nobody has worked on as many Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns as Funded Today, and nobody has spent as much money driving traffic to Kickstarter and Indiegogo as Funded Today.
In addition to our experience, we also have more Kickstarter and Indiegogo stats and data than anyone else.
Funded Today tracks every Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaign, and every hour updates how many pledges each campaign has, how many backers each campaign has, etc. We have years and years of stats, on every campaign.
In addition to tracking the public data on every Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaign, we have detailed data on 2,091 campaigns. Looking at just the stats and data we have from Google Analytics in our database, we have 2,245,752 rows of data, tracking every visit, and every pledge, and every referral source, for every campaign we have worked on.
Additionally, our custom link shortener, called fnd.to, which we run all our marketing through, has tracked 75,242,578 visits.
Thus, we have more data on campaigns than anyone else in the entire world, except for Kickstarter and Indiegogo themselves. And we have more data on marketing results than anyone in the world, including even Kickstarter and Indiegogo.
When we dive into the Kickstarter vs Indiegogo stats, the data doesn't lie. You are going to raise the most money on Kickstarter.
I have gone and objectively analyzed all of the data we have on Kickstarter vs Indiegogo. This data includes over 374,000 Kickstarter campaigns totaling $3.6 billion in pledges, and over 303,000 Indiegogo campaigns totaling $1.2 billion in pledges. You can view the spreadsheet and data here.
The average raise on Kickstarter is 2.35 times higher on Kickstarter than on Indiegogo. Specifically, the average pledge amount on Kickstarter is $9,835, whereas the average pledge amount on Indiegogo is only $4,182.
In the spreadsheet we broke down the probability of raising X amount on Kickstarter vs Indiegogo. In addition to viewing the data in the spreadsheet, you can see the breakdown in chart form below:
Notice that the probability of raising $10,000 on Kickstarter is 14%, whereas on Indiegogo it is only 5%. That's based off of the historical data for Kickstarter and Indiegogo.
If you are aiming for higher amounts, the probability of raising $100,000 on Kickstarter is 1.5%, whereas on Indiegogo it is only .4%.
Want to shoot for $1 million? Your chances are .08% on Kickstarter, but only .03% on Indiegogo.
Looking at campaigns that raise $10,000+, you are 3-5X more likely to hit that amount on Kickstarter than on Indiegogo.
Subjectively our entire team at Funded Today has said for years that Kickstarter is better than Indiegogo because conversion rates on Indiegogo are always 3-4X lower.
Specifically, we have worked with dozens of campaigns that were both on Kickstarter and then Indiegogo. Everything about the campaigns and ads are identical (product, graphics, videos, etc). The ONLY difference is the platform.
Notwithstanding the fact that EVERYTHING is exactly the same, the conversion rate is always lower on Indiegogo. Even our ad click thru rates, for the exact same ad, will perform worse when the destination is Indiegogo instead of Kickstarter.
People are more likely to click on your ad and buy your product if they see Kickstarter instead of Indiegogo!
Why this is, we don't exactly know. We believe it's because Kickstarter regulates their community and campaigns a lot more than Indiegogo. Thus, Kickstarter has a stronger brand and greater trust. This in and of itself is another benefit to launching on Kickstarter. You associate your product and receive validation from Kickstarter by virtue of the fact that you are on Kickstarter. It's not every campaign that gets to be on Kickstarter.
So we can both objectively and subjectively say, without any doubt, that Kickstarter will raise your campaign more money, when compared to Indiegogo. Well, what about other factors or things to consider?
There are a few other factors that can be analyzed when looking at Indiegogo vs Kickstarter, but they aren't material or that important. Nonetheless, I'll still address the more prominent points.
When it comes to customer support, Indiegogo hands down wins here. Kickstarter's customer support is not good. To their credit, it has improved over the years, but it is still bad. Good luck trying to talk to someone at Kickstarter either before or after your campaign launches. If you do, you often have to wait up to a few days to receive an email back, which typically is from some generic email address at Kickstarter.
Indiegogo truly does shine when compared to Kickstarter's customer support. Indiegogo will likely try to convince you to launch on Indiegogo rather than Kickstarter by promising you some extra promotions on their platform if you launch with them. Indiegogo really tries to take care of you, and win your business. However, I'd rather have a campaign that raises 3-4X the amount with lackluster customer support than a campaign that has great customer support but raises 3-4X less.
Often a lot of people will wonder about which platform, Kickstarter or Indiegogo, has better fees. That's not the question to ask or worry about. For the record, in terms of the Kickstarter vs Indiegogo fee decision, there is no decision. They both charge 5%, plus whatever the credit card processing is. So in terms of fees, they are the same. This means the Kickstarter vs Indiegogo fee inquiry is irrelevant.
One last factor to consider is whether Kickstarter will let you launch on their platform. If you are creating a product, Kickstarter requires a prototype. If you don't have a prototype, you won't be able to launch on their platform. This is a double edged sword. They have this policy for a reason. Kickstarter knows that having a prototype greatly increases the chances you will be able to deliver on your product. However, sometimes you need to crowdfund to get the funds just to do the prototype.
Indiegogo will let you be in the pre-prototype stage and still launch your campaign. Whereas Kickstarter won't. In such a case, you'll need to go with Indiegogo. If you don't have a prototype, this isn't so much a choice between Kickstarter vs Indiegogo, as you only have one option at this point. But it's something to be aware of. I would suggest that you may want to wait to launch until you have a prototype. This will allow you to launch on Kickstarter, and flesh out your idea a bit more before taking other people's money.
If you are trying to decide between Indiegogo vs Kickstarter, the answer is simple: Kickstarter.
I really can think of only one reason other people would beat around the bush or not give a straight answer: They don't know the answer because they don't have the experience or stats or data to clearly know the answer.
If you really want to run on both platforms, unfortunately that's not possible. Kickstarter will not allow you to launch on their platform if your product is already available elsewhere.
If you want to launch on both Indiegogo and Kickstarter, your best option, and really only option, is to launch on Kickstarter, and then AFTER your Kickstarter campaign is over, transition to Indiegogo. At Funded Today this is what we do.
