Choosing a crowdfunding platform starts with establishing which kind of campaign you are running. Donation, reward, debt and equity crowdfunding are different activities with different legal consequences, and in the United Kingdom the last two are regulated. The type determines the platform, not the other way round.
The four types, and why the difference matters
Donation. Supporters give money and receive nothing in return. Common for charitable and community causes.
Reward. Supporters give money and receive a product, an early edition or an acknowledgement. Economically this is closer to pre-selling than to investing.
Debt. Lenders advance money and expect repayment with interest.
Equity. Investors receive shares or another interest in the business.
The first two are broadly commercial arrangements. The second two involve people parting with money in expectation of a financial return, which in the United Kingdom brings them within financial services regulation. Loan-based and investment-based crowdfunding platforms require authorisation by the Financial Conduct Authority, and campaigns on them are subject to rules about how they may be promoted and to whom.
This is why the type comes first. A reward campaign and an equity raise are not two options on a menu; they are different activities with different obligations attached, and choosing a platform before choosing the type is choosing in the wrong order.
Check the platform's regulatory position first
If your campaign involves investment or lending, the platform's authorisation is not a detail to confirm later.
Check the platform's status on the Financial Conduct Authority's register directly, using the firm reference number the platform gives you, rather than relying on a claim on its website. Confirm what permissions it actually holds, because the categories are specific and a firm authorised for one thing is not authorised for everything.
Ask who approves the financial promotion for your campaign. In the United Kingdom, communicating an invitation or inducement to engage in investment activity in the course of business requires authorisation, or approval by a firm permitted to give it. If neither you nor the platform can explain who is doing that, the campaign has a problem no amount of platform features will fix.
Two changes since 2023 matter here. From 7 February 2024 an authorised firm needs specific FCA permission, the section 21 gateway, before it can approve a financial promotion for a business that is not itself authorised, so ask any approver to confirm it holds that permission. And under rules in force since February 2023 (FCA PS22/10), promotions of loan-based and investment-based crowdfunding to retail investors carry a prescribed risk warning, and a first-time investor must wait at least 24 hours before seeing the direct offer.
For donation and reward campaigns this section does not apply, but be certain that is genuinely what you are running. A "reward" that is really a share of revenue is not a reward, and calling it one does not change the analysis.
All-or-nothing against keep-what-you-raise
Platforms use one of two funding models, and the choice shapes the campaign more than most features do.
All-or-nothing. You set a target; if it is not reached, pledges are returned and you receive nothing. This protects supporters from funding a project that cannot proceed, and it protects you from being committed to deliver something you cannot afford to. It also creates urgency, which helps.
Keep-what-you-raise. You receive whatever is pledged. Useful where partial funding is still useful (a cause, a fund, an ongoing need) and dangerous where it is not. Raising forty per cent of what a product costs to make leaves you obliged to supporters and unable to perform.
The honest test is whether a partially funded campaign leaves you better off or worse off. If worse, choose all-or-nothing even where the platform offers both.
What the fees actually are
Published headline rates are rarely the whole cost. Establish each of these before committing.
The platform fee, as a percentage of funds raised, and whether it changes if you miss your target.
Payment processing, usually separate and usually a percentage plus a fixed amount per transaction.
Currency conversion, where supporters pay in a currency other than yours. This is frequently the largest hidden cost in an international campaign.
Payout timing. When funds actually reach you: immediately, on completion, or after a holding period. This decides whether you can begin work.
Refund handling. Who bears the processing cost when a pledge is refunded.
For regulated campaigns, any charge for compliance work, promotion approval or investor onboarding.
Model the total on a realistic raise rather than on the target, and on the assumption that some pledges fail.
Audience is the feature that matters
Platforms are not interchangeable audiences. A platform with a large user base in a category unrelated to yours contributes very little.
Look at campaigns similar to yours that have run on the platform recently: not the flagship successes it advertises, but the median outcome in your category. What proportion reached their target. What the typical raise was. Whether the supporters appear to have come from the platform or to have been brought by the campaign.
That last point is where most founders are wrong. On most platforms, the majority of a campaign's supporters are people the founder brought. The platform provides the mechanism, the credibility and some incremental discovery. It rarely provides the audience.
If you cannot identify who your first fifty supporters will be before you launch, the platform choice is not your constraint, and no platform will become one.
The operational questions
Which countries can support you, and can they pay in their own currency.
What data you receive about supporters, in what form, and whether you may contact them afterwards. If the platform holds the relationship, your campaign ends when the campaign ends.
What you are obliged to do afterwards (reporting, updates, delivery commitments) and for how long.
What happens if you cannot deliver. Read this before you need it.
Who owns the campaign page and its content.
What the platform does with supporter personal data, and whether you become a controller of it when it is passed to you. If you receive supporter data, you take on data protection obligations towards those people, which is a real obligation, not a formality.
Before you choose anything
Settle three things first, and the platform decision largely makes itself.
What supporters receive. Nothing, a product, repayment with interest, or a share of the business. This determines the type and therefore the regulatory position.
Whether partial funding helps or harms you. This determines the funding model.
Who your first fifty supporters are. This determines whether you are ready to run a campaign at all.
If the campaign involves investment or lending, take advice before you publish anything. The rules about what may be communicated, to whom, and with what risk warnings apply from the first public statement, not from the first pledge.
If what you are actually considering is raising against an asset rather than a project (a property, equipment, a revenue stream), tokenisation is a different route with a different structure, and the free Tokenisation Fit Check will tell you in a few minutes whether it is worth looking at. It is based entirely on your own answers, it verifies nothing, and it is not advice.
Trusty Digital provides tokenisation technology and professional services. It does not operate a crowdfunding platform, does not raise investment for clients and does not approve financial promotions. Nothing here is legal, financial or investment advice.
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