Crowdfunding isn’t about collecting money. It’s about making something happen with a crowd of people who believe in something. Normal people, not rich people with a lot of power, just people like you and me. — Jozefien Daelemans
The number of campaigns is growing on crowdfunding platforms, and so is the industry. Crowdfunding mobile apps unlock the door of support for projects to showcase their potentiality that might not get funding otherwise.
Basically, crowdfunding platforms open up financial opportunities to launch startups. Besides, online crowdfunding dissolves physical boundaries, letting the worldwide population invest in what they believe. In contrast, business minds are taking advantage of this soaring demand, developing crowdfunding apps such as Kickstarter, Indiegogo.
Nevertheless, creating a platform that taps into a large pool of individuals requires quite a budget. It’s not only about partnering with an excellent mobile app development company. From understanding the market, defining the user journey to bringing your crowdfunding app to life, many aspects are there you’ll need to discuss.
Lucky for you! We have equipped this guide with all those factors for anyone who wants to revolutionize the crowdfunding industry. So, let the crowdfunding app development quest to find the cost being.
Global Crowdfunding Market Is Soaring At A Fast Pace
One of the Global renowned research platforms, Statista, recently reported that the global crowdfunding market was valued at $12.27 billion in 2021 and was forecasted to double by 2027. In other words, the market is growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11%. Nevertheless, it’s not the only tempting figure; there are more appealing facts and statistics about crowdfunding. For example;
- Since March 2021, companies are allowed to raise funds up to $5 million in equity crowdfunding annually from the previous $1.07 million;
- Last year, 6,445,080 crowdfunding campaigns were hosted globally;
- 22.4% is the Global average success rate for crowdfunding campaigns;
- 17% of crowdfunding donations made through mobile devices;
- Entrepreneurs aged between 24-35 have more tendency to participate in crowdfunding campaigns;
- Kickstart, Indiegogo, and GoFundMe are the big-three reward and donation-based crowdfunding sites with 20M, 9M, and 7M donors, respectively;
- Social media is one of the critical factors in crowdfunding success;
WRAP YOUR MIND AROUND CROWDFUNDING APP DEVELOPMENT
Core Business Models for Crowdfunding Application
- Reward-based crowdfunding
Reward crowdfunding is one of the beloved crowdfunding forms. Crowdfunding websites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo are good examples of such crowdfunding platforms. Predominantly, individuals donate to a project or startup business without expecting any financial benefits. In contrast, they expect certain rewards in terms of goods/services or packages at a later stage.
- Donation-based crowdfunding
Donation crowdfunding is when individuals support a campaign without expecting any reward or monetary incentives. To put it differently, the fundraising approach lets go-getters raise money for projects, expenses, or events by asking for donations.
- Equity-based crowdfunding
In this form of crowdfunding, individuals become part-owner of a project or company by trading for equity shares. Moreover, they receive a financial return on their investment as per their share of profit. The return can be in the form of dividends or capital appreciation. Equity owners can also sell shares of the company in the future.
- Peer-to-peer lending
It’s more like loan-based crowdfunding as the platform matches lenders with borrowers to offer loans. Borrowers then have to repay such loans with interest. Put it simply, investors here get their money back with interest rather than any other financial incentives like Equity crowdfunding.
Start to end crowdfunding platform development
Now, when you have a clear understanding of different types of crowdfunding platforms, let us usher in steps for building a crowdfunding app.
Step 1. Ideation:
Choosing the type of crowdfunding is not enough for laying your app foundation. You also need to study the ideology attributed to the kind you choose and create a concise business model around it.
To emphasize, you want to create value propositions. Your app needs to offer specific benefits in addition to solving problems. To find the right value propositions, answer the following questions;
What problems does your app solve?
Why would people use your crowdfunding app?
Step 2. Research:
Scout your market and gather as much information as possible about your competitors and targeted audience, of course. Learn from your competitors’ mistakes and jot down why users use their platforms. In contrast, get the hang of your target audience behavior using competitor apps.
Researching in these two areas will help you define your project requirements. Besides, with the help of customer behavior patterns (you study), you can efficiently map a user’s journey on your app. Consequently, your app will become more user-friendly.
Step 3. User Experience & Interface:
Whether you develop a crowdfunding website or mobile app, user experience has to be equal across all the platforms and devices. Hence, it’s advisable to create wireframes followed by clickable prototypes of every software application.
Apparently, wireframes represent a skeleton version of your application. On the contrary, prototypes are a visual representation of your application. Both approaches are great for ensuring the consistency of user experience and interface throughout the application.
Step 4. Back-end development:
Your application’s back-end development depends on the platforms you choose to launch your app on, for example, iOS, Android, or Web. It goes without saying that the technology stack is dependent on your decision.
Step 5. Project Management:
No one can create a crowdfunding app in one go from scratch. It requires testing and approval at different stages. Hence, we break the project down into several milestones and deliverables with a timeline. Thanks to the practice, we maintain the entire team and client on the same page throughout the journey.
Step 6. Quality assurance:
You don’t want your crowdfunding app to halt in the middle of your user’s campaign. Right? Therefore, you hire a quality analyst to test your app from every angle and ensure it never malfunctions.
Step 7. Release:
Next to testing your app performance, and if it’s rightly configured, it’s time to blast off. One last thing, before the app launch, ensure it complies with platform security policies and UI guidelines.
How much does it Cost to Develop a Crowdfunding App?
The crowdfunding app development cost structure is no different than any app. There are the same factors that affect your budget, for example;
- App designing and development;
- Basic features of the app;
- Advanced functionalities of the app;
- App Platform (Android or IOS);
- The complexity of the app;
- Qualified developers’ wages as per their location.
Any factor from above can alter the budget dramatically. For instance, you hire mobile app developers from the USA that charge about $125 to $150 per hour. On the flip side, mobile app developers from Asia charge around $30 to $50 per hour.
On that note, to estimate how much your crowdfunding app development will cost, you need to consult with a software company like us. We offer free consultation specifically for tech startuppers. Further, our in-house experts help you from ideation to release.
The free consultation is a really effective option for getting expert advice on your project that I would never avoid. What about you?
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