A Complete Guide to Crowdfunding App Development

Market Analysis & Overview

According to Statista, the transaction value in the crowdfunding segment has hit just a little over a billion at US1.02 bn in 2022.

Moreover, it is expected to reach $1.15 billion by 2027. Out of all the nations, the US has the highest transaction value of $526.4 million in 2022. It is followed by the United Kingdom with $58.34 million at number 2 and France with $45.65 million at number 3.

What is Crowdfunding and How does it Work?

Crowdfunding is the process of raising capital for funding a project from a large pool of people, investors, and/or businesses. In present times, this happens usually via the internet.

There are different ways in which this can happen. Sometimes, it involves the end users of a crowdfunding campaign to fund the same while at other times businesses looking to invest in profitable startups are the funders of the crowdfund campaign.

Let’s admit it, developing an app can be a costly affair. For instance, developing an app like Venmo can cost you somewhere around $37,500, and that’s just a conservative estimate. Another example is Discord, which can take at least $15,000 to build.

The cost of developing an app can make or break the decision to bring an app to life. Therefore, it is important to ensure that the app idea is strong enough so that it can self-sustain itself in the future.

Crowdfunding is usually a long process that can take anywhere between a few days to several months to complete. Now that we know what crowdfunding is, let’s answer the question, “how does crowdfunding work?”

Crowdfunding starts with the creation of a crowdfund campaign. It contains all the necessary details about the endeavor, including the name of the creator, what it will do, and the requirement of funds.

The next step involves pitching it to potential investors via crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and GoFundMe. Typically, a specific time period is set for capital raising.

After the collection or arrangement of the capital, the campaign jumps into the set course of action it defined earlier. Depending on the type of crowdfunding, the backers receive nothing, money, exclusivity, or the sum they invested with the interest.

What are the Benefits of Crowdfunding App Development?

There are several perks to crowdfunding app development, the most important among which is a minimal financial burden.

Moreover, it makes it faster to raise the capital required to turn an app idea into a reality. Other important benefits of crowdfund app development are:

• Any startup can launch a campaign without worrying about finances. If the idea is good enough to appeal to the right audience, then meeting the funding goal becomes smooth and easy.
• After the finalization of the concept, crowdfunding comes into play. This is not like MVPs and prototyping. Therefore, it becomes easy to start with fewer resources and then scale up.
• If the idea is great then the campaign has a higher chance of being successful, even beyond the minimum requirement. Hence, businesses can capitalize on the additional capital raised later for turning other initiatives into reality and making the app or platform even better.

Types of Crowdfunding Applications

Crowdfunding apps come in many forms. These are donation, equity, peer-to-peer, and reward. Let’s know about each of them in detail one by one:

1. Donation Crowdfunding

Here, the objectives match somewhat to non-profit organizations looking to solve a problem rather than make money.

For a successful donation crowdfunding campaign, you need a philosophy that the donors can sympathize with. This type of crowdfunding mostly coincides with events. Donation crowdfunding works best for apps and campaigns that have intentions to serve a social cause.

2. Investment Crowdfunding

Also known as equity crowdfunding and crowd-investing, in this type of crowdfunding, the simple idea is to offer the company’s securities to investors in exchange for financing.

It is also the best platform for businesses looking to invest in great ideas that can turn out to be immensely profitable in the long run. They get some portion of the equity or shares of the business that they are investing in. It is ideally employed by startups and early-stage companies.

3. Peer-to-peer Crowdfunding

This is more like lending. It is an ideal option when you have access to an extensive network that can spread the word about your business’s vision. Because you and your team know investors personally there is no involvement of a formal agreement.

Here, the business needs to pay individual attention to each donor. Unlike other forms of crowdfunding, peer-to-peer crowdfunding has no static donation goal and there are many goals. The investors get their capital back with interest over time in several increments.

4. Reward Crowdfunding

This form of crowdfunding is intended for the customers of a product for which crowdfunding is happening and features a rewards system. The success of this type of crowdfunding is directly dependent on the commitment of customers toward the brand and its vision.

The rewards that the business will offer can vary from pre-launch access and more value for money to access to an exclusive group. Reward crowdfunding is an apposite option when the selling pitch is simple.

Features With Due Prominence

All the features that are added to a crowdfunding platform work differently for the admins, campaign creators, and investors.

While some might be exclusively available only to the users – campaign creators and backers – of the crowdfunding platform, others are reserved for the platform owner. Let’s see each of these features one at a time:

1. A Multi-functional Admin Dashboard

A fully functional admin dashboard allows administrators to keep an overview of all things, the activities, analytics, tasks, campaigns, and so on. A great crowdfunding app must give admins the ease to add users in a jiffy and manage the same with a few clicks.

2. Detailed Notifications and Reminders

Another essential feature of a crowdfund app is a robust notification and reminder system. Notifications and reminders help a user to stay up to date with their transactions as well as keep track of everything.

3. Easy Login Process

Another important aspect of an app is the login process. It should be as short and quick as possible. An app that has a laborious login process is disliked by everyone.

4. Elaborate Campaign Details

The campaign information section must be precise. In this section, backers can choose a campaign that they want to support. Categorizing the campaigns will further ease the process of seeking the right campaigns for the investors.

5. Quick Account Creation

A crowdfunding platform must have the provision to add two types of accounts; one is that of the admins or campaign owners and the second is that of the platform owners.

For both types of accounts, it is important to have a fast process. Moreover, you should give them the option to connect using social media accounts – like Facebook and Twitter -, Google accounts, et cetera.

6. Robust Profile Management

Adding a display picture, bio, name, phone number, and more by backers, payees and owners must be easy and quick.

7. Smooth Transaction Flows

As a crowdfunding platform focuses on transactions, the transaction flow should be seamless and there should be immediate report generation when things go awry.

8. Superb Customer Support

Customer support is something that can make or break the app experience, irrespective of its type. A robust customer support functionality is a must-have for a crowdfunding platform.

Tech Stack for Crowdfunding App Development

Developing a successful crowdfunding platform depends verily on the underlying technologies. Therefore, you need to have the latest technologies powering your platform. Following are the best technologies right now to develop a crowdfund app:

• The frontend of the crowdfunding platform means what the user sees and interacts with, i.e., the user interaction. It can be developed using Angular, CSS, Java, JavaScript, HTML, Kotlin, React, and Swift.
• The backend or client-side of the crowdfunding app is where the actual processes happen that are invisible to the users. Laravel, NodeJS, and Python are popular options to develop it.
• The data – related to the campaign owners, payers, transactions, etc. – require storage in databases like MongoDB and MySQL.
• PHP and Python are the popular programming language options to develop the crowdfunding app.
• The user interaction (UI) and user experience (UX) of the platform can be developed using Adobe Illustrator, Balsamiq, and Figma.
• In order to gauge how well the platform is working on the basis of the total number of users, page views, clicks, CTR, and other important analytics, we will use Google Analytics.

Crowdfunding App Development Cost We Offer

Developing a cost estimation for a crowdfunding platform development is an important step in deciding whether to go for it or not.

Although this number varies depending on a range of factors, like technologies involved and geographical location, Apptunix estimates it to be somewhere around $20k to $30k.

Apptunix Expertise in Mobile App Development

Apptunix is a seasoned mobile app development company providing services to clients across the globe for 9+ years. Our professionals have expertise in building apps of all types and forms.

We have forged app development models and frameworks that help to easily integrate features specific to customer requirements and develop fully functional apps in the shortest span of time.