Growing an audience
Running the business
Both cover crowdfunding. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
| Donorbox | Kickstarter | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $150 | Free |
| Pricing model | Free plan, paid tiers | Free |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Usage-based |
| Free trial | None | Not stated |
| API | Yes | Not stated |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | Not stated | 5% of what you earn |
| Runs on | Web | Web |
| Covers | Tips & Donations, Crowdfunding, Monetization & Payments | Crowdfunding |
| Works with | Nothing in particular | Nothing in particular |
| Founded | Not listed | Not listed |
| Reader rating | No reviews yet | No reviews yet |
| Live deals | None right now | None right now |
Donation pages and recurring giving
Donorbox is built for nonprofits and reads that way, which is exactly right for a creator running a fundraiser or a cause and wrong for one collecting tips. Recurring donations, an embeddable form and donor records are the substance. Its free plan charges a higher percentage on each gift than the paid one.
Our note
Pro costs $150 a month and saves roughly 1.5 percent per donation, so it pays for itself somewhere around $10,000 a month in giving. Below that the free plan is the cheaper one, whatever the fee percentage looks like.
Only on this side
All or nothing funding with a real audience
Kickstarter is still where a project with no list of its own has the best chance of finding backers, because people browse it the way they browse a shop. All or nothing is the rule: miss the goal and nobody is charged, which protects a creator from half-funding something they cannot deliver. Nothing about the platform helps after the campaign ends.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.