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In 2015, crowdfunding raised $34 billion.
Crowdfunding is more than just a fad, it’s an awesome new way to fund projects and it’s here to stay.
If you’re a fan of Kickstarter or other crowdfunding sites like Indiegogo and GoFundMe, you’re likely prepared to build your own crowdfunding website and capitalize on this trend.
The good news is that you don’t have to be a web developer or hire an expensive team of developers anymore.
The crowdfunding plugins featured here will do all the heavy lifting for you, so you can focus on marketing your platform.
Keep reading to find the top picks for the best plugins available to create a crowdfunding platform.
If you need a beautiful design for your site, visit our crowdfunding WordPress themes collection.
Crowdfunding WordPress plugins
If you want to make a complex site like a crowdfunding platform, you’ll likely need to spend a bit of money. That said, you’ll find a mixture of both premium and free plugins included below.
1. WP Crowdfunding
Plugin Description
WP Crowdfunding is the best crowdfunding plugin for WordPress. This plugin brings a powerful combination of great design and excellent functionality.
There are a few essential features a good crowdfunding solution needs. First, visitors need to be able to register and create projects. WordPress has built-in user registration and WP Crowdfunding provides a form for project editing and creation. The form is hosted on the front-end of the site, so members never access the dashboard where you control the site as the admin.
Your project creators need more than just a way to create new projects, they also need to be able to edit their projects and see their progress. WP Crowdfunding provides members with a comprehensive dashboard that includes a profile, list of pledges received, projects they’ve backed, and more. Members who simply donate to projects have the same options and can publish projects whenever they want too. As the admin, you get to review all submitted projects before publishing.
The project pages themselves are beautiful and structured a lot like Kickstarter’s. Visitors will recognize the design of a crowdfunding website right away.
In the admin menu, you have control over all aspects of the platform. There are customization options for the listing pages, emails, and more. For the payment processing, WP Crowdfunding integrates with WooCommerce which gives you a stable and reliable platform to work with. There is also a premium version that includes some pretty advanced features you might like for taking your crowdfunding site to the next level.
2. IgnitionDeck
Plugin Description
IgnitionDeck is a lot more than just a WordPress plugin, it’s an entire crowdfunding platform. While there are some simple and free features available in the plugin, Ignite Deck is mainly a premium solution designed for serious entrepreneurs.
Like the WP Crowdfunding plugin, IgnitionDeck’s eCommerce capabilities are powered by WooCommerce. You can accept payments from PayPal, Stripe, Coinbase, and more. Access to more payment platforms makes it easier for visitors to donate to your project creators.
IgnitionDeck also has content protection features, recurring payments, and a free theme that comes with it. Using a theme specially designed for the plugin ensures all the features integrate seamlessly on your site. In addition, there are tons of unlockable modules that add premium functionality like eCommerce tracking in Google Analytics, anonymous checkout, social sharing buttons, stretch goals, and more.
3. Galaxy Funder
Plugin Description
Galaxy Funder is a premium plugin for adding a crowdfunding system to your WP site. The design style is pretty simple, but it includes all of the functionality you’ll need. Customers have rated this plugin an overall score of 4.31/5 from 35 separate reviews.
The Galaxy Funder plugin includes front-end project submissions from members, multiple project goal settings (target date, target goal, etc.), and a shortcode generator to embed campaigns on any page of your site.
You’ll also get access to plenty of customization options to tweak the style of the project pages to match your site. The layouts are fully responsive so they’ll adapt to whatever device visitors use to view your site. Additionally, all of the content added by Galaxy Funder is translation-ready and it can be used for a multilingual website thanks to its compatibility with the WPML plugin.
One neat facet of Galaxy Funder is that you can use it with any theme. You may want to select one of the themes for crowdfunding here and then integrate this plugin with it.
4. Crowdfunding for WooCommerce
Plugin Description
Crowdfunding is a pretty complex feature to include on a site. If you want as simple a solution as possible, make sure to try out the free Crowdfunding for WooCommerce plugin.
This free plugin adds the essential functionality you’ll need to transform a basic WooCommerce eCommerce store into a full-blown crowdfunding platform. Visitors can signup, create projects, set the campaign end goals, and submit them to your site for final review before publication. Crowdfunding for WooCommerce comes with shortcodes you can use to display campaigns anywhere on your site.
While it doesn’t have all the robust functionality of some other solutions listed here, Crowdfunding for WooCommerce is an excellent choice for a WordPress user that wants a simpler option to add crowdfunding onto their site.
5. Give
Plugin Description
This last plugin isn’t used for making a comprehensive crowdsourced funding website. However, it will work great if you want to promote one campaign or even a few campaigns that your organization sets up. The main difference is that you won’t have members registering and submitting their own projects.
Give has to be the best-designed donation plugin on the market. The free version has everything you need to accept donations and manage your donors. You can create custom donation forms from your admin menu and style them to match your site. The donor management panel is excellent for viewing your donation history and generating tax-deductible receipts. Lastly, the donation reporting provides insights into how successful your campaigns have been.
The Give plugin also has premium add-ons for more complex functionality like recurring donations, currency switching, PDF receipts, and marketing integrations.
Which crowdfunding plugin is best for you?
With all these flexible plugins, I understand if you’re having trouble sorting through your options.
My top recommendation is WP Crowdfunding for its blend of premium design and features. The free version is feature-rich in its own right, so the add-ons only serve to offer additional features you might want. It also integrates with all of Themeum’s premium themes.
If you want another advanced solution, IgnitionDeck has been used by many sites to create robust crowdfunding platforms. Galaxy Funder may be a bit simpler to set up and likewise has a nice feature set.
If you want something simple to get crowdfunding up and running on your site, Crowdfunding for WooCommerce will be your last bet.
Finally, Give is the best plugin for website’s that will create the campaigns themselves rather than allow user-submitted projects.
Have questions or concerns? Use the comments section below to ask a question about these crowdfunding WordPress plugins.
