Kickstarter and GoFundMe handle general crowdfunding. But the real opportunity is vertical — building a crowdfunding platform for a specific community, cause, or industry where general platforms don’t serve well. Tradly has the building blocks for this out of the box.
Crowdfunding models Tradly supports
- Reward-based — backers contribute in exchange for a product or perk (Kickstarter model). Configure reward tiers as listing variants with different price points.
- Donation-based — contributors give with no return expectation (GoFundMe model). Deactivate payout-to-backer features; configure direct creator payout.
- All-or-nothing — campaign only receives funds if goal is met by deadline. Supported via order rules configuration.
- Keep-what-you-raise — contributions flow to the creator regardless of goal. Configure continuous payouts.
What Tradly gives you for crowdfunding
Tradly’s marketplace platform maps naturally to crowdfunding:
- Campaign listings — campaign creators post their project with goal amount, deadline, description, images, and video embed
- Goal and deadline tracking — display funding progress bar, amount raised, and days remaining via listing attributes
- Contribution tiers — reward-based campaigns use listing variants for different pledge levels (e.g. £10 = digital download, £50 = physical reward, £200 = VIP access)
- Payment processing — Stripe, Paystack, and other gateways handle contributions. Payment docs
- Platform fee — configure your take as a % of each successful campaign’s funds. Commission docs
- Creator payouts — funds disbursed to campaign owners automatically after campaign ends
- Backer accounts — contributors have profiles tracking what they’ve supported
- Updates — campaign creators post backer updates directly from their dashboard
- Admin moderation — approve campaigns before they go live, flag suspicious activity
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Add Products
Write your product title and description. Upload product photos or other media. Set your price, Setup Stocks limit.
Activate Payment gateways
We support multiple payment gateways. If you are interested in implementing a custom payment gateways, let us know in the contact form.
Activate Shipment options
Pick up at source
Delivery/Pick up at Storage Points
Delivery at Destination
Delivery
Add your custom domain
Your store is ready to start making money 🚀
Why build a niche crowdfunding platform
General platforms (Kickstarter, Indiegogo) have massive reach but high noise. A niche crowdfunding platform wins for specific communities:
- Local civic platforms — neighbourhood improvement projects, community spaces, local businesses
- Creative verticals — indie games, films, music, books — communities where backers are also fans
- Social enterprises — environmental projects, social impact ventures with a defined audience
- Industry-specific — agricultural co-ops, fishing communities, craft producers needing equipment
- Diaspora communities — community members funding projects back home
Similar platforms you can build
| Platform | Category |
|---|---|
| Kickstarter | Reward-based general |
| Indiegogo | Flexible funding |
| GoFundMe | Personal and cause donations |
| Patreon | Creator recurring support |
| Republic | Equity crowdfunding |
| Experiment.com | Scientific research funding |
Tradly is best suited for reward-based and donation-based models. Equity crowdfunding requires securities regulation compliance that’s jurisdiction-specific.
Advanced Features
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Product Collection
Organise your products into collections (Thematic, promotional, season etc)
Taxes (Advanced)
- Discounts
- Mini-tools (QR Code Generator, Barcode Generator, Short Link generator, UTM Generator)
Product Types
- Items with Variances
- Items with Bundles Read more about Variation Here.
Advanced Rules
- Limit number of items purchased on platform level (Stocks, Ticket Limits)
- Limit number of items purchased per user
- Limit Minimum Price, Minimum Quantity, Maximum Quantity
- Limit minimum total order size on Payment method level
Read more about how to use this rules here
Learn more about shipping methods.
Custom Fields (Attributes) for Product descriptions & Filters
You can easily add custom fields for your product adding page. And it can be customised to be shown on listing category level.
Monitoring Business
- Inventory report
- Sales report
Growing your Crowdfunding Platform
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On top of Tradly Free Creator tools. You can add 3rd party apps inside your store for further faetures.
SEO
SEO (Structured card image) & Search engine listing preview, Connect Tradly Analytics to Google Search Console insights and other search engine data to understand which queries bring visitors to your store and how organic search is performing. AI agent Jack turns those signals into a daily digest of useful insights and suggested actions for business owners.
Email Tools
Use Tradly Marketing to:
- Send transactional emails such as order confirmations, receipts, and password resets.
- Broadcast campaigns and special offers to your full list or a behavior-based segment.
- Build welcome, onboarding, and drip workflows, or trigger abandoned-cart, re-engagement, and post-purchase emails from customer activity.
- Review opens, clicks, unsubscribes, and bounces by campaign.
- Email customers already on Tradly without maintaining a separate subscriber list, or connect services like Mailchimp.
Advertising Tools
Your hosted website can add integrations to run ads. Example: Facebook Pixel, Google Ads Conversion Pixel can be added through Native integrations. or you can use Google Tag Manager integration to do advanced pixel placement in specific pages or custom trigger condition.
Analytical Tools
Use Tradly Analytics to follow activity across your storefront, mobile app, and AI agent interactions. See live events such as product views, searches, cart additions, and checkout starts, then build funnels to find where shoppers drop off before purchase. Google Analytics and other tools can also be connected when you need them.
Feedback & Survey Tools
Collect customer input with Tradly Marketing forms, surveys, and feedback toolkits. Use what shoppers tell you to spot unanswered questions, confusing product information, or friction in the buying process.
These tools are also available to agents through Tradly MCP, to developers through the Tradly API, and on the Tradly SuperAdmin mobile app.
Promotion / Popup tools
Connecting Promotion / Popup tools
Back Office (ERP)
Your storefront is one part of running a business. [Tradly Business Apps](/erp) can also help small businesses, retail teams, and FMCG operations organize the work behind each sale:- Workforce: coordinate staff profiles, shifts, attendance, leave, and payroll records.
- Supply chain: manage inventory across warehouses and locations, receive stock, track batches and movements, and coordinate transfers.
- Purchasing and sales: organize supplier purchase orders and connect sales orders with the stock and fulfillment work they require.
Teams can connect compatible AI agents through Tradly MCP, or use connected voice agents to report field updates such as deliveries and stock issues. See the guides to multi-location inventory and workforce scheduling and payroll. Available operations depend on the app setup, connected tools, and permissions.
Advanced Growth Tactics
- Increase AOV by setting up minimum purchase
- Create Collection pages to get more exposure in Google Search results or thematic celebrations.
Scaling
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Established and looking to expand & Scale?
- Fleet Management System to manage your own deliveries thus reducing cost and providing end-to-end delightful experience for your customers
- Mobile Apps for your customers, so they can be in touch with you everyday
- Additional Integrations on backend level (Via API and Webhooks) to support with your internal systems
Crowdfunding & Fundraising Templates
Crowdfunding & Donation Templates
See AllSimple and FREE. Launch your project today!
- Launch Marketplaces, Online Storefronts, Booking Apps, Classifieds, Directories, Partner Portals, App Stores, etc.
- Tradly pricing starts with ZERO. You pay only when you grow.
- Free No-code Integrations, No-Code Editor
Checklist from start to end on what you need to build a marketplace using Tradly Platform.
Tradly Platform solution is catered to different groups separately
- For developers: Headless API solution. Using the API solution, developers can build apps on top of it.
- For no-code creators: A simple toggle based SuperAdmin Panel to configure features in the already pre-built apps (also called as storefront, front end apps, templated apps).
For developers
- Signup for a free account
- Get the API keys in the SuperAdmin > Settings > API section = Refer the API reference to start building the app
- Optionally Fork Open source app starter Kits
5 Steps for no-code creators and builders
Choose the templates Website or Mobile Apps
Do the branding customisation & business informations on launchpad
Prototype your app using our SuperAdmin builder and Visualise your app through test apps.
Launch
- Web App: By default when you register, you will get the production URL to use the app. And you can add custom domain.
- Mobile App: When you are ready to launch, Subscribe to our plans and get a white label app build
Advanced Informations
A. UI Customisation via SuperAdmin
Settings > App Customistion
- App Name
- App Primary & Secondary Colour
- App Icon
- Splash launch images
- Onboarding images, Onboarding Text
- Registration Text
- Sell Icon (optional)
- App title in Home Screen (Default will be app name) And others
B. Platform Fundamentals
You must configure the below things for the system to be able to open accounts, submit listings and make purchases.
Configure accounts: Settings > accounts(categories, attributes)
Configure listings: Settings > listings (Setting up listings information to be collected. Categories, attributes)
Stripe/other payment gateways configuration
Configure revenue model, commissions: Settings > commissions OR Settings > Subscriptions OR Settings > Special Fees
C. Integrations
App integrations
- Chat setup via Firebase ,
- Optionally referral / sharing features via Branch
- Optionally later legal informations (privacy, terms, etc)
System integrations
- Configure email if you want the emails to be whitelisted
- Configure domain if you want good deliverability of emails
- Configure Google Maps if you have location specific features
Website Integrations
Dozens of website integrations to help you with marketing, analytics and products. [Check here](https://tradly.app/integrations)Simple and FREE. Launch your project today!
- Launch Marketplaces, Online Storefronts, Booking Apps, Classifieds, Directories, Partner Portals, App Stores, etc.
- Tradly pricing starts with ZERO. You pay only when you grow.
- Free No-code Integrations, No-Code Editor
- More about Headless Commerce API
- Open source Repositories - iOS, Android, Web App
- Youtube Video series on how to build a marketplace
- VIDEO: Choosing the right stack and how to approach different solution
- Read: Why it’s better to use pre-built solution like Tradly
Also see: Fundraising and donation platforms · Peer-to-Peer Marketplace · Events Marketplace · How to Create a Marketplace Website