Crowdfunding
Should You Launch Your Product on Kickstarter and Indiegogo at the Same Time?
Why running Kickstarter and Indiegogo at the same time splits your backers, what each platform's funding model means, and which one to pick.
Yohan Jacob
12 min read
Crowdfunding has changed how entrepreneurs bring new ideas to market. Platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo attract millions of visitors each month. Kickstarter sees over 40 million monthly users, while Indiegogo draws another 15 million. With this level of traffic, a million-dollar campaign is possible.
Because of this opportunity, many creators ask a common question:
“Should I launch my product on Kickstarter and Indiegogo at the same time?”
You can launch on both. But it may not be the best strategy. Before you decide, consider the four factors below.
Key takeaways
- Kickstarter sees over 40 million monthly users and Indiegogo draws another 15 million, so both have reach. Reach is not what decides this question.
- Permission is not the issue. Whether either platform forbids it matters far less than what splitting backers does to momentum on both listings.
- A backer who finds the same product twice sees two funding totals and no way to tell which is real. Ambiguity reads as delivery risk.
- Running two campaigns doubles the comment threads, updates, refund handling and fulfillment admin at the exact moment you have least time.
- A retail buyer reads a campaign as a demand test. One funded campaign is evidence. Two half-funded campaigns are a product that struggled twice.
- A live campaign is a public disclosure of your design. Any patent or design filing should be done before the page goes up, not after.
Is running both campaigns even allowed?
Yes, you can run a campaign on Kickstarter and on Indiegogo at the same time. Neither platform requires exclusivity for the same product, and plenty of creators have done it. The question people are really asking is whether it is a good idea. That is a different answer.
Permission is not the same as sense, and the mechanics are what get you. The two platforms handle funding differently. On an all-or-nothing model, you set a goal and you collect nothing unless you reach it. Pledges on a campaign that stalls simply vanish. On a flexible funding model you keep what you raise whether you hit the goal or not. That sounds safer, but it carries its own obligation. You have taken money for a product you may not have raised enough to make. Run both at once and you can easily end up in the worst version of this. One campaign funds and the other does not. The money you counted on from the second one never arrives, and the backers on it are left with nothing.
The second mechanical problem is ranking. Both platforms surface campaigns that are moving. Both reward early velocity with placement and with discovery badges. Splitting one audience across two listings means each listing shows a smaller total, a smaller backer count and slower movement. That is exactly the signal that keeps a campaign out of the placements that would have grown it. Two campaigns at half strength do not get half the promotion each. They often get none.
Before you commit either way, read both platforms’ current terms yourself. Do not trust a summary, including this one. Platform rules, fee schedules, approval steps and payout timing all change, and they change without notice. Look for the funding model on each campaign type, how and when funds are released, what happens to pledges if a campaign does not fund, the process if a project fails to deliver, and any rule about listing the same project in more than one place. If you cannot find a clear answer, ask the platform in writing and keep the reply.
1. Project Credibility
Your campaign needs trust to succeed. Running two campaigns at the same time can confuse potential backers. They may not know which page to support or share with friends. Confusion slows momentum and weakens credibility.
A single, clear campaign looks more professional and is easier to understand. Backers feel more confident when all the activity happens in one place.
What a split campaign looks like to a backer
Picture the person you are trying to convince. They have seen your product in a video. They are interested. Before pledging money for something that does not exist yet, they do what everyone does: they search for it. They find two campaigns. One has a funding total and a backer count. The other has a different funding total and a different backer count. Nothing on either page explains why there are two.
What they are trying to work out in that moment is whether you are real. Backers on these platforms are buying a promise. They judge a promise by looking for signs that other people have already judged it and stayed. Two listings break every one of those signs at once. Neither total looks as strong as the combined number would have. The comments are split, so neither page shows an active community. The updates are in two places, so whichever page they landed on looks quieter than it is. And the obvious question, which one is the real campaign, has no answer on the page. In a category where the backer is already worried about delivery, ambiguity reads as risk. The safe response to risk is to close the tab.
The operational half of this is worse, and it starts the day you launch. Every question in the comments has to be answered twice, in two places. Every update has to be posted twice. Every refund request, shipping change and delay notice has to go out twice, and the two versions have to match. Miss one and the gap is public and permanent. It sits under your campaign where the next backer will read it. When manufacturing slips, which it usually does, you will be doing this at exactly the moment you have least time for it. One neglected comment section is all it takes for the story about your project to become a story about how you stopped replying.
2. Funding Momentum
Both Kickstarter and Indiegogo promote campaigns that gain support quickly. Fast growth can lead to badges like:
- Kickstarter: “Projects We Love”
- Indiegogo: “Popular” or “Trending”
These badges can place your campaign in front of more people.
When you split your audience across two platforms, each campaign looks smaller. Less activity means you may not qualify for these platform boosts. One strong campaign can beat two weaker ones, even if the total number of backers is the same.
A single, focused effort often creates stronger momentum and better long-term results.
Pro tip
Line up enough committed pledges before launch day to clear a visible share of your goal in the first 48 hours, on one platform only. Both platforms surface campaigns that are moving. A campaign that funds fast gets shown to people who were never in your audience. Split that same pre-launch list across two pages and neither gets the early surge that triggers the algorithm.
Kickstarter and Indiegogo compared
The two platforms are not interchangeable. For most product brands the choice follows the funding model and the category, not the fee schedule. Kickstarter sees over 40 million monthly users and Indiegogo draws another 15 million, so both have enough traffic to fund a good campaign. Audience size is rarely the thing that decides it. What decides it is whether you can afford to walk away with nothing if you miss your goal, whether your category has an established backer base on that platform, and what you plan to do in the months after the campaign closes while you are manufacturing. If you lean toward Indiegogo, read our tips on launching an Indiegogo campaign first.
| Kickstarter | Indiegogo | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly users | Over 40 million. | Around 15 million. |
| Funding model | All-or-nothing. You collect only if you hit your goal. | Offers flexible funding, so you can keep what you raise. |
| What a miss means | Pledges are not collected and you keep nothing. | You keep the funds and still owe the backers a product. |
| Discovery badge | Projects We Love. | Popular and Trending. |
| After the campaign | The campaign ends when it ends. | InDemand lets you keep taking preorders. |
| Best suited to | Projects with a defined goal and an audience ready to hit it on schedule. | Projects that want to keep selling past the close, or cannot risk an all-or-nothing miss. |
| What to verify yourself | Current fees, approval steps, payout timing and category rules. | Current fees, approval steps, payout timing and category rules. |
Read the last row as seriously as the rest. Fee structures and approval requirements on both platforms change. The version you find quoted in blog posts is often a year or more out of date. Check the current seller terms on each platform before you build a budget around either.
3. Workload and Campaign Management
Crowdfunding takes a lot of work. Running two campaigns doubles the tasks. You need to manage two sets of updates, two communities, and two marketing funnels. Each platform also has different rules and setup requirements.
Pro tip
Before you commit, figure out who answers a backer comment at 11pm on a Saturday during week three. Campaign comment sections are public. Unanswered questions read as a project going quiet. A founder running two of them while also managing production is the most common way a funded campaign loses trust. If the answer is one person, run one campaign.
This extra workload does not guarantee higher funding. In many cases, creators spend more time managing both campaigns than promoting the product itself.
Keeping everything on one platform makes planning, marketing, and communication much easier.
4. Fulfillment and Customer Support
Many campaigns face delays during manufacturing, shipping, and logistics. These issues are common, even for teams with experience and a fulfillment partner in place. When problems arise, backers expect fast and honest updates.
Pro tip
Export your backer list, shipping addresses and delivery dates the week you finish fulfilling, and keep them outside the platform. That data is what proves demand and delivery reliability to a retail buyer later, and platform access to it is not permanent. Two campaigns means two exports that never reconcile cleanly into one story.
Two campaigns can make communication difficult. Questions come from different pages, different inboxes, and multiple social channels. It can become overwhelming very quickly.
Launching on one platform keeps all communication in one place. This helps you respond faster and reduces backer frustration. A smoother experience leads to better reviews and a stronger brand reputation.
Should You Launch on Both Kickstarter and Indiegogo?
You can launch on both platforms, but it may not be the most effective path. Many creators see better results when they:
- Launch on one platform first
- Build momentum and gain backers
- Move to Indiegogo InDemand after the first campaign ends
This strategy lets you keep taking preorders without splitting your audience.
Note
Running the platforms in sequence is not the same as running them at the same time, and it is the option most creators actually want. Finish a campaign on one platform, then keep taking orders on the other. That keeps a single funding story intact while extending the sales window. Check the current terms for both before planning it, since the rules around continued funding change.
If retail is the goal, run one campaign
If the point of the campaign is to end up on a retail shelf, the campaign is not the business. It is the evidence you bring when getting your product into retail. A buyer looking at a crowdfunded product is asking one question: does anybody actually want this? A campaign is one of the very few ways a new brand can answer that with something other than an opinion. What makes it persuasive is that it is a single clean result. A funded total. A backer count. A delivery record. One number a buyer can hold in their head and repeat to their category manager.
Two campaigns do not add up in that conversation. Nobody in a buyer meeting sums two totals and gives you credit for the combination. What they see is a product that was launched twice and half-funded twice. The conclusion they reach is that it struggled. You will spend the meeting explaining your platform strategy instead of talking about sell-through. You will have handed the buyer a reason to hesitate that you created yourself.
So run one campaign, and run it to produce assets you can use afterward. The backer list is a customer list and a direct line to the people most likely to buy again. Collect it properly and keep permission to contact them. Reviews and unboxing content from real backers are proof of product quality that you can put in a sell sheet. Your delivery performance, meaning how close you came to the date you promised, is something a buyer genuinely cares about. A supplier who missed their own backers by months is a supplier who will miss a purchase order. Your shipping data tells you where demand is concentrated, which is how you decide which retailer and which region to approach first. And a shelf needs retail-ready packaging, which a campaign parcel does not, so plan for that change early.
One more thing to settle before you launch, not after. A campaign is a public disclosure of your design. Photographs, drawings, mechanisms and claims all go out to anybody who wants them, including people who manufacture. Any intellectual property filings you intend to make should be in place before the page goes live. Protecting your product design before you go public is a conversation with a qualified attorney, not something to work out from a forum thread. Crowdfunding is a good way to prove demand. It is a poor way to keep a secret.
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Frequently asked questions
Neither is better in the abstract. Kickstarter has the larger audience at over 40 million monthly users and an all-or-nothing model that signals confidence, which suits a product certain of hitting its goal. Indiegogo’s flexible funding and continued selling after the campaign suit a product that needs partial funding or a longer sales window. Decide from your funding model first, not the fee schedule.
The all-or-nothing model on most campaigns means missing the goal collects nothing. A campaign set too high returns zero rather than something. Funding also ends when the campaign does. And you are committing to public fulfillment, where every delay is visible in the comments. None of that is a reason to avoid it, but all of it should shape the goal you set.
It depends on the funding model chosen at launch. Under fixed funding, missing the goal means backers are not charged. Under flexible funding, the campaign keeps what it raised and the obligation to deliver stands. That is the part creators underestimate. Choose the model with your production minimum in mind, not your optimism.
Review times vary and are set by the platform. Check the current guidance rather than planning to a number you read somewhere. What matters more for your schedule is that review sits between your finished page and your launch date. Build in a buffer, and do not book pre-launch advertising against an unapproved page.
A meaningful share of campaigns do not fund, which is why the question behind this article gets asked at all. Splitting your audience across two platforms does not reduce that risk. It raises it on both listings at once. The reliable protection is a pre-launch list large enough to move the goal visibly in the first two days.
