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How To Build A Crowdfunding Website With WordPress

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Crowdfunding websites such as Kickstarter, RocketHub, and Indiegogo have helped get some great projects off the ground including the Pebble watch, the Ouya video game console, and a consumer 3D printer.

However, if you have a project you want to find financial backers for, or you want to create your own fundraising community, there is now no reason why you can’t create your own crowdfunding website. All you need is WordPress, a crowdfunding plugin, and a suitable theme and you could be up and running in no time at all.

In this article we will take a look at the best options available for building your own crowdfunding website, whether it’s to secure funding for your own projects, or to help put backers in touch with inventors and designers.

IgnitionDeck Crowdfunding WordPress Plugin

IgnitionDeck Crowdfunding Plugin

When it comes to creating a crowdfunding website with WordPress, the plugin options are pretty thin on the ground. In our previous guide to this topic, the AppThemer Crowdfunding plugin from Astoundify was the tool of choice. However, since then IgnitionDeck, who has their own WordPress crowdfunding solution, has acquired the Astoundify plugin and their popular Fundify theme.

So today we will be taking a look at the crowdfunding solutions from IgnitionDeck. There is a free version of the IgnitionDeck plugin available which should give you a good overview of the interface that you can use to create an unlimited number of crowdfunding, per-order, or fundraising projects on your WordPress website. However, the more advanced features are found in the premium version, and include:

  • PayPal and Stripe integration
  • 500 Framework Crowdfunding Theme
  • One or more IgnitionDeck extensions
  • Kickstarter importer plugin
  • IgnitionDeck ecommerce plugin
  • Membership registration and dashboards
  • Recurring pledges or donations
  • Front end project submissions

As you can see from the options, upgrading to one of the three premium versions of IgnitionDeck will give you the ability to build a fully functioning crowdfunding website with WordPress as its base. Depending on the license you choose, you can have everything up and running to allow visitors to register and start adding their own products in the hope of finding financial backers, with multiple options for processing and collecting payments.

When it comes to setting up your crowdfunding website the IgnitionDeck team offers a premium valet service in which they take care of everything from installing WordPress, through to creating your first project, with the end result being that you will have a working IgnitionDeck installation. If time is money then this service can help you save a lot of both.

Whether you want to host your own crowdfunding projects in the search for backers, or let others host their own projects, IgnitionDeck is currently the strongest candidate for WordPress users. Although IgnitionDeck isn’t a free option, the one-time fee compares favorably to the percentage amount charged by hosted crowdfunding services such as Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and RocketHub.

IgnitionDeck Extensions

Another selling point of IgnitionDeck is the extensions that are available for it. Depending on the license you choose when purchasing the plugin, you will get access to at least one of these extensions, with the others being available at an additional cost. Some of the highlights from the library of extensions for IgnitionDeck include:

  • Amazon Payments: use Amazon’s powerful payments API
  • Stretch Goals: add and maintain dynamic stretch goals
  • Constant Contact: forward supporters to your email list

You can view the full list of options on their extensions page.

Get IgnitionDeck 

Crowdfunding WordPress Themes

While the above IgnitionDeck plugin will in theory work with any theme, the developers have created a selection of themes built especially for creating a crowdfunding website with WordPress.

500 Framework

500 Framework

The responsive 500 Framework is a free theme that comes with IgnitionDeck and now includes with WooCommerce support for handling the checkout process. The framework gives you the opportunity to customize the colors of your website through a visual set of controls, without the need to edit any code. There are a number of child themes for the framework which add a totally new look to the underlying set of features.

Preview 500 Get 500

Backer

Backer Crowdfunding Theme

The clean and minimalistic design of Backer will appeal to anyone looking for a sleek and modern look for their crowdfunding website. Once this third party theme has been installed on your site Backer makes it easy to customize the colors used for many of the elements of the theme, allowing you to create a personalized look with a mass market theme. Whether you are hosting your own projects or hoping to create a community of users promoting their own projects Backer covers both angles.

Preview Backer Get Backer

Fundify

Fundify Crowdfunding Theme

Now under ownership of the IgnitionDeck team, Fundify continues to be a popular choice amongst those creating WordPress-powered crowdfunding websites. The Fundify theme is ideal for creating a website to promote a personal project, or building a multi-author, multi-project fundraising website. Just like the best crowdfunding websites, the individual project pages on Fundify display all the important information including the amount being sought, the total received so far, and the benefits for backers pledging certain amounts.

Investors and backers can easily find their way through the unlimited number of projects that this theme and plugin combination supports. The use of project categories and other filtering mechanisms should increase the chances of a willing backer being presenting with a project they can’t refuse. The price of this premium crowdfunding theme includes one year of support and updates, which can be renewed after the first year of use.

Preview Fundify Get Fundify

Conclusion

Once again WordPress and the scores of developers working in its ecosystem have made it very straightforward to build a specific type of website, which would otherwise require a large time or financial investment. While in this case the premium options will yield the best results, the amount of money required in order to get a professional looking and functioning crowdfunding website online is very reasonable.

Whether you want to start your own fundraising community, or simply get some financial backing for your latest great idea, WordPress has it covered. Have you used the IgnitionDeck plugin and suite of compatible themes or do you have experience of using any other crowdfunding tools for WordPress? Please share your experiences in the comment below.

Article by Joe Fylan WPExplorer.com guest author
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23 Comments

  1. Ioana

    Hello Joe! Thanks for sharing your great post on how WP could help with a crowdfunding website. I have recently seen a very funny episode of South Park – a satire on Kickstarter_ and I was actually thinking that crowdfunding still has much to say and that I would like to administrate a platform focused on this topic. I really like the examples you chose! Thanks for the inspiration!

  2. Anas Bahsas

    HI Joe,

    Does this theme support multilingual user interface ? in case not then what will be the solution ?

    • Kyla

      Actually, most themes are translation ready. I did a quick check and it looks like all three of the themes shared in this post are – so all you have to do is use a plugin to create your translations.

      • Shilpa Mayunk

        Hey Kyla,
        Thanks for the information. The list of plugins you mentioned are of great in use.I tried Multilingual Press Free WordPress Plugin,which I felt good.

  3. Josué Mota

    Very Good

  4. Holmes

    Im a customer with them. One year ago, they said premium service is a one off payment, we made purchase but found out most of the plugins were not ready, even after 9 months of purchase. right now we got the said plugin but it did not work as easy at it would on other wordpress platforms, The sad new is that they have gone to edit their page to ask for another payment from everyone same price we paid at the start. Ignition deck is simply a big scam, their features dont work very well with lots of bugs.

    • Kyla

      That’s a bummer to hear 🙁 I hope that at some point you at least get what you paid for!

      • Eric

        Same here and they are very rude about it. I even tried to help debug it and help other folks. It would work for a little bit but never stable. They said 1 time $500 fee or at least that is how it appeared. I asked for a refund 2 weeks in but they kept saying no. I’M STILL ASKING EVERY SO OFTEN FOR MY MONEY BACK. NEVER GOT WHAT I WAS SOLD.

        • Kyla

          I’m sorry to hear that 🙁 We have to handle refund requests on Themeforest for our own products so I can understand how many factors go into the decision to grant a refund or not, but when a product doesn’t work out of the box and the developer isn’t willing to help that’s troubling…

  5. Z.n. Singer

    We’re looking at self-hosted crowdfunding platforms in my company, and the big worry about the WordPress angle is security. Some of our people think WordPress is too easily hacked and we’ll just lose all the money and be culpable. But I can’t seem to google up any horror stories to support this. Can you tell me why this would or would not be an issue?

    • Kyla

      Not an issue at all to me – if WordPress was really that insecure, 25% of the internet wouldn’t be using it right 😉 WordPress security really boils down to keeping your installation, themes & plugins up to date and following reasonable security measures (like not naming your user account “Admin”, or using “password” as your password – easy stuff). Most of the security issues I’ve seen have been server side, so different types of CMS’s were all equally vulnerable (a good reminder that it’s always a good idea to invest in a good, reliable webhost). Really security is something to keep in mind no matter what platform you use for your website, and WordPress is not less secure than any of your other options – but I do think that WordPress is one of the easiest and most flexible options you could choose. Best of luck deciding! 🙂

  6. susan

    Is any of this free or are there costs?

    • Kyla

      There is a free version of the IgnitionDeck plugin on WordPress.com you can get started with, and their 500 Framework theme is also free. But if you’re building a large scale website you’ll probably want to upgrade to their pro version eventually to have access to all of the plugin features.

  7. Terence Milbourn

    The problem with IgnitionDeck is that the customer who has to pay out nearly $500 for a license, and $275 p/a for a support contract, all with no Enterprise version reference sites, no trial registration key, no admin sandbox, and basically no way to find out whether the product meets your requirements or not.

    And by the way, they have a NO REFUNDS policy, which is completely unlawful here in the UK, where I live.

    Sales of this kind are known as ‘distance selling’ and online, mail and telephone order customers have the right to cancel their order for a limited time, even if the goods aren’t faulty. So by law thehy must offer a refund to customers if they’ve told them within 14 days of receiving the goods that they want to cancel. And they don’t have to provide a reason.

    Maybe they think that being in Florida makes them immune from European law?

    When they say “no refunds” I hear, ” … we don’t trust you, and whether you are happy or not, and whether our software solves your problem or not, we’re going to keep your money anyway”.

    • Kyla

      My guess is that they offer the free IgnitionDeck plugin as a way for you to “try before you buy,” but I do agree that a live test site where users can poke around and try features would be great.

      But if you have purchased the plugin and you feel that it’s not working out I would suggest contacting the plugin authors! Even if a refund isn’t initially on the table, I’m sure they can help you (or recommend a freelance developer who can) or maybe work out another solution 🙂

  8. Jonathan

    I have read so many frustrated reviews of trying to set up crowdfunding communities using ignitiondeck enterprise. Does this framwork even function for this type of website? Is the whole thing a mess and should not be bothered with? Is there any other functional theme for crowdfunding community site that we can consider?

    • AJ Clarke

      Well we used to also highly recommend Fundify which was a free plugin but they have been acquired by IgnitionDeck which we also believe is pretty good of course you won’t know yourself until you give it a try 😉

  9. Kingston

    These tools are helpful starting for crowdfunding website. Thanks for sharing

  10. Murali Sundeep

    Very helpful tools!!

  11. Janet F.

    Great article Joe! Very useful!

    I would like to suggest one more. I work for Thrinacia which provides a white label SaaS to anyone who wants to easily build and manage a crowdfunding platform. Our tools are powerful yet easy to use. Thrinacia’s subscriptions are highly competitive with monthly plans starting at $69.99. Here is a link for anyone interested in building extraordinary crowdfunding websites: thrinacia.com

    Good luck!

  12. Yulia Ye

    I read about the experience of creating own crowdfunding app at this blog – cleveroad, and they said that creating app took 7 months..Is it not too long?

    • Kyla

      An app and a website are two very different projects. I would think that an app would take significantly longer since there aren’t as many easy resources while websites have all things WordPress (themes, plugins, code snippets, free graphics and more) that make creating a crowdfunding website (or any website for that matter) quick and easy 🙂

  13. Kyle Tummonds

    Speaking of Crowdfunding websites and apps, instead of using something like a wordpress theme to develop your own Crowdfunding website, one could also use a white label Crowdfunding platform. One company that offers this technology is called Thrinacia, they have their own white label platform called Atlas, and suite of Crowdfunding products including a white label Crowdfunding app. This means that you can easily create a Crowdfunding website along with a Crowdfunding app. Much like a CMS website, you do not need much coding knowledge, users can easily customize the website via the admin dashboard. For more information about Thrinacia, and their Crowdfunding platform called Atlas, go to:

    full disclosure, please note that I work with Thrinacia Inc. as crowdfunding advocate.

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