Kickstarter
The most recommended of 5 crowdfunding platforms
People recommend Kickstarter for letting small creators launch products and fund projects, including open source work, and for testing demand before production. Critics say scam campaigns and refunds are weak points.
People recommend Kickstarter for letting small creators launch products and fund projects, including open source work, and for testing demand before production. Critics say scam campaigns and refunds are weak points.
20 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 12
- criticize it
- 8
- approval share
- 60%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 12 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Lets small creators launch products
“Kickstarter and Steam have opened up the field to smaller studios in a way that has never happened before”
Comment from 14 Dec 2025 in “The Rise of Computer Games, Part I: Adventure” “If you're making a product, I think Kickstarter is awesome.”
Comment from 4 Dec 2025 in “The long wait is over, Ganymede has arrived” “That's why Kickstarter became such an unbelievable success.”
Comment from 8 Aug 2026 in “No One Can Afford to Make Myst Games Anymore” - Comment from 17 Nov 2025 in “Show HN: I built a synth for my daughter”
Funds open source and creative projects
“We have the technology for this. Platforms like Kickstarter, Patreon, GitHub Sponsors all enable this.”
Comment from 4 Dec 2025 in “Japanese game devs face font dilemma as license increases from $380 to $20k” “I think Kickstarter and similar are a great model for creating open source software.”
Comment from 21 Sep 2026 in “Nobody pays for FOSS, we can force them to”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Scam campaigns go unchecked
“It's so trivial to completely scam an entirely fake campaign, with zero repercussions, that no one should take this site seriously at all.”
Comment from 13 May 2026 in “Kickstarter Is Forced to Ban Adult Content by Payment Processors” “I tried to get Kickstarter to take down an obvious scam a while back.”
Comment from 7 Nov 2025 in “Meta projected 10% of 2024 revenue came from scams” Creators overpromise and under-deliver
“indie-go-go and kick starter are just absolute meat grinders of starry-eyed individuals”
Comment from 6 Aug 2026 in “What Happened to Talenti?” “who still got out over their skis with stuff they promised on Kickstarter”
Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “My smart sleep mask broadcasts users' brainwaves to an open MQTT broker” Project news emails flood backers
“they have abused the "project news" system to send me updates for every subsequent project”
Comment from 12 Apr 2026 in “We have a 99% email reputation. Gmail disagrees” “I have multiple accounts with various "Pledge Managers" because I gave Kickstarter a specific filtered address”
Comment from 21 Jul 2026 in “Apple Fixes Hide My Email Vulnerability After 404 Media Coverage”
Other crowdfunding platforms people recommend
The four most recommended other crowdfunding platforms, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KickstarterThis page | 12 | 8 | 60% | 8 | — | — |
| Open Collective | 8 | 2 | 80% | 5 | — | — |
| Crowd Supply | 5 | 3 | 63% | 5 | — | — |
| Pieces | 5 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
| CleverCrow | 5 | 7 | 42% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
19 of the 20 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I see kickstarter projects as gifts until proven otherwise.”
“some complete randos raised quite a bit more than the mine server project raised”
“Crowdfunding takes the guesswork out of these things”
“I think Kickstarter and similar are a great model for creating open source software.”
“That's why Kickstarter became such an unbelievable success.”
“indie-go-go and kick starter are just absolute meat grinders of starry-eyed individuals”
“I have multiple accounts with various "Pledge Managers" because I gave Kickstarter a specific filtered address”
“kickstarter.com and prosper.com should have been at the top, but sold out or lost their way to cater more to funders than entrepreneurs”
“It's so trivial to completely scam an entirely fake campaign, with zero repercussions, that no one should take this site seriously at all.”
“You post regular updates about what you're doing, you resist the urge to look perfect”
“Kickstarters preying on people with FOMO”
“they have abused the "project news" system to send me updates for every subsequent project”
“who still got out over their skis with stuff they promised on Kickstarter”
“kickstarter which defacto doesn't really offer refunds”
“Kickstarter and Steam have opened up the field to smaller studios in a way that has never happened before”
“If you're making a product, I think Kickstarter is awesome.”
“We have the technology for this. Platforms like Kickstarter, Patreon, GitHub Sponsors all enable this.”
“Kickstarter is a good idea”
“I tried to get Kickstarter to take down an obvious scam a while back.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.