Kickstarter’s 2025 Product Roadmap: New Tools for Creators and Backers

Last year, we shared our vision: to evolve into a comprehensive crowdfunding and launch platform that supports creators at every stage of their journey—from pre-campaign planning to post-campaign fulfillment.

Already, we’ve been bringing this vision to life. Features like Late Pledges have helped creators continue raising funds after their campaigns end, while our Kickstarter Performance team has been helping creators market their projects to potential backers before, during, and after their campaigns.

This year, we’re building on that progress with our most ambitious updates yet. The features we’re announcing today reflect our evolution into the all-in-one crowdfunding platform creators have been waiting for. These updates not only simplify crowdfunding for creators but also elevate the experience for backers.

We’re so excited to give you a preview of what we’re focusing on for 2025. Here’s a quick look at what’s ahead:

• The post-campaign tools creators have been asking for: We’re introducing our very own set of Pledge Management tools for creators, helping to simplify logistics and fulfillment after a campaign ends.
• A better experience for backers: From easier project discovery to a new flexible payment option with Pledge Over Time, we’re making it easier for backers to find and support creative ideas.
• Building trust within the community: We’re rolling out new features to foster transparency, accountability, and confidence between backers and creators.

Keep reading for more details on these exciting updates—some of which you can see in action starting today.

Introducing Pledge Management Tools

Creators, Pledge Management tools are here – available now to select creators and coming to everyone later this year.

Your community and crowdfunding campaign are on Kickstarter. Your pledge management tools should be here too.  

With our 6-step pledge manager integrated into the creator dashboard, you can handle everything in one place, providing a seamless experience for both you and your backers—at no additional cost.

Here’s some of what you can expect in Kickstarter’s Pledge Management toolkit:

• Raise More With Add-Ons: Offer post-campaign add-ons, giving your backers more opportunities to support your project.
• Enhanced Backer Survey: Gather crucial production-ready data from your backers using our enhanced backer survey, which is fully integrated into our Pledge Management experience. 
• Simplified Shipping Management: Configure and charge shipping costs post-campaign.
• Tax Collection Made Easy: Collect applicable taxes like US sales tax and VAT for EU and UK backers directly within the pledge manager.

A native, built-in pledge manager has been one of our most-requested features. We’re excited to start rolling it out to help simplify post-campaign logistics and fulfillment, and make it easier than ever for creators to deliver on their promises to backers. 

Creators in our beta program are already seeing the impact of these tools: One participant received responses from 99% of their backers in just three weeks, quickly collecting crucial post-campaign details like shipping information and add-on selections.

We’re thrilled to bring this level of support and success to all creators later this year.

Pledge Over Time: Flexibility for Backers and a Game-Changer for Creators

Kickstarter is built on the belief that great ideas come to life when creators and backers work together. That’s why we’re investing in new tools and features to make backing projects on Kickstarter more rewarding, flexible, and transparent.

Today, we’re pleased to introduce Pledge Over Time. When a creator enables the Pledge Over Time option on their campaign, backers can split their pledge into four equal payments. This gives backers the flexibility to budget their support over time, making it easier to access higher-tier rewards, additional add-ons, and support big, ambitious ideas. Payments are automatically made every two weeks, ensuring a seamless and hassle-free process.

Right now, the first projects offering Pledge Over Time are live on Kickstarter: Check out these projects by Brother Ming Games, Dianne Gardner, Forgeborne Games, Juliana Haygert, Mighty Boards, and Rock Manor Games to see this feature in action. 

Pledge Over Time isn’t just a win for backers—it’s a game-changer for creators. When we remove or reduce cost barriers for backers, we’re helping creators attract higher pledge amounts and attract more backers.

While this feature is only available to select creators now, by spring, all Kickstarter creators will have the choice to enable Pledge Over Time for their projects.

Making it easier to find the projects you’ll love & manage the ones you support 

This year, we’re prioritizing optimizing search, discovery and recommendation tools so that finding your next favorite project is a breeze. We’ve already rolled out backend search updates. New search filters and sorting options will be coming on both web and mobile this spring. 

Ultimately, we want to surface more relevant search results for our backers, give them more ways to connect with more projects they are interested in, offer better recommendations throughout their journey, and give them a more personalized experience when they’re on Kickstarter. 

Our commitment to improving the backer experience doesn’t stop there. Last year, we introduced the Backings Dashboard within the Android app (iOS coming soon!) —a centralized hub where backers can view and manage all of the projects they’ve supported. From tracking project updates and reward statuses to completing action items like sharing shipping information with a creator, this tool has already simplified the backer experience.

This year, we’re making it even better. By the end of 2025, backers who use our mobile app will be able to view all their projects—funded, live, and even unsuccessful or canceled ones—in one place. Plus, we’re adding search and filter tools to help backers easily navigate their pledge history.

Building Trust in our Community

Trust is at the heart of crowdfunding. It’s what gives backers the confidence to support bold ideas and helps creators build meaningful connections with their supporters.

That’s why trust is always top of mind for us. We know that maintaining it means listening to our community, addressing their concerns, and continuing to evolve our platform to meet their needs. 

We’ve already been working to ensure that Kickstarter remains a safe and reliable space for everyone: Last year, we upgraded our fraud detection systems, helping us investigate new creators and shut down risky projects before any funds were collected. We’ve also been conducting interviews with backers to better understand what they want to see from us, ensuring our efforts are aligned with what matters to them the most. 

This year, we’re doing more by introducing updates that aim to give backers more clarity and confidence when supporting projects:

• Notifications for fulfillment failures: If our Trust & Safety team determines that a project faced significant fulfillment failures and the creator hasn’t followed our rules, you may see a notice on the project page. We’ll also send backers a notification that outlines the issue and the actions Kickstarter has taken—including restricting the creator from launching future projects.
• More creator information: Soon, project pages will include more details about a creator’s track record, collaborators, and past projects, making it easier for backers to assess a project and make informed decisions.
• Strengthening vetting and monitoring: We’re revamping our tools for vetting and monitoring projects. These updates will help us detect and address potential risks earlier in the project’s lifecycle.

These updates are just the start. We recognize that backers want more transparency, accountability, and assurance when supporting projects—and we’re committed to meeting those needs.

By continuing to prioritize trust, we’re strengthening the foundation of our community and helping ensure that Kickstarter remains the go-to platform for creativity, innovation, and collaboration.

An Exciting Year Ahead

This year, Kickstarter is delivering an all-in-one funding experience for creators, making it easier than ever to bring bold ideas to life. At the same time, we’re enhancing the backer experience to ensure that supporting creative projects is as rewarding and seamless as possible.

By simplifying crowdfunding and making it more effective for everyone who plays a part in turning ideas into reality, we’re staying true to our mission: to help bring creative ideas to life.

There’s never been a better time to be part of the Kickstarter community.

We can’t wait to see the incredible projects you’ll create and support in 2025. Stay tuned for more updates, and thank you for being part of this journey.