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Add to SafariWhen comparing Kickstarter vs Steam Greenlight, the Slant community recommends Kickstarter for most people. In the question“What are the best ways to promote an indie game?” Kickstarter is ranked 2nd while Steam Greenlight is ranked 4th. The most important reason people chose Kickstarter is:
Knowing that there is enough funding will allow long-term budget planning. Knowing that there's *not* funding allows users to move on.
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro All-or-nothing model allows commitment with certainty
Knowing that there is enough funding will allow long-term budget planning. Knowing that there's not funding allows users to move on.
Pro Helps to promote projects
Potential pledgers are encouraged to browse Kickstarter much like Pinterest. While most of the funds will be generated by personal effort, Kickstarted certainly offers a good boost for those who need it.
Pro Popular site
Kickstarter is one of the most well known crowdfunding site. Over $1.2 billion has been pledged so far, with 10 million monthly visitors to the site.
Pro Greenlight Concepts section can help get early feedback
The Concepts section of Greenlight allows incomplete projects to be put on display and receive feedback, including mock-voting as if they were full Greenlight submissions. This can be a valuable tool for refining design, presentation and marketing techniques.
Pro The largest and best-known PC distribution service
Steam's user base is over ten times that of the next nearest competitor, making it by far the largest single marketplace.
Cons
Con 5% fee is applied to successful funding
Any successful crowdfunding operation run on Kickstarter will have a 5% fee. The payment processor will take an additional 3-5%.
Con Registration costs $100
In order to submit games to Greenlight at all, you must first purchase a $100 activation for your Steam account. Note that this does not represent profit for Valve: all proceeds are donated to charity. It is strictly a barrier to entry.
Con Approval process is a competitive market
The Greenlight submissions with the most votes are approved in arbitrary batches, generally 50 to 100 per month. No metric is used other than raw quantity of positive votes.
