How to Spot a Bad Kickstarter (and Why We Don’t Cover Crowdfunding)

We’re often asked why we don’t review crowdfunded items, such as those with campaigns on Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Although we love the concept of crowdfunding—a crowd of internet donors funds a project, and they typically receive the first versions of the finished item—we don’t review things from active crowdfunding campaigns. That’s because Wirecutter reviews aim to find the best stuff for most people; everything we consider must actually exist, and you must be able to buy it right now.

We may be willing to risk our own money to fund ideas we believe in, but we don’t risk our readers’ trust on them. Even if we do get offered a preproduction unit, we have no guarantee that it will be the same as the final production unit customers receive. When reputable publications rush to showcase all that’s new, they sometimes feature reliable-looking items that then totally disappear or that are delayed by months, if not years. Though we have reviewed and recommended a number of things that started as crowdfunding campaigns (the Peak Design Travel Backpack 45L and the Anova sous vide machine, among them), we waited until they were finished and ready to ship to people before we tested them.

Crowdfunding isn’t shopping

When you back a crowdfunding project, you’re taking a project’s organizers at their word that they will use your money to develop, manufacture, and ship an item by a certain date (which will almost certainly be pushed back several times during the process). Kickstarter clearly lays this out on its Kickstarter 101 pages, specifically saying, “Kickstarter is not a store,” “it’s the project creator’s responsibility to complete their project,” and “there is inherent risk in the creative process, and things don’t always go as planned.” This means if something goes wrong, that’s for you and the creators to sort out, not Kickstarter. So when you back something, you need a reason beyond simply wanting the final item.

Helping fund a successful project can be very rewarding, but if you’re considering backing a project that promises a complex item, you should first make sure you know what you’re getting into. Even if you truly believe in an item and the ability of the team behind it to bring it to fruition, you should still be realistic about its chances of success.

Over the years, we’ve identified common red flags among projects that under-deliver or entirely fail to deliver. Think of the following as the “7 Habits of Highly Ineffective Kickstarters.”

It feels like the first time

The most important question you should ask is: Has this group ever made hardware before? Manufacturing is hard. If you’ve backed many Kickstarters, you know that there are a million reasons for delays, from unreliable suppliers, to underestimating how long it actually takes to box and ship thousands of items, to failing to account for Chinese New Year. A company may have successfully manufactured and delivered an item previously, but even that doesn’t guarantee smooth sailing. The most polished-looking team can still fail to deliver on lofty promises. You may have heard about Hitch, the combination coffee thermos and water bottle that was recently ripped on TikTok for failing to deliver on its promise for 18 months.

The Coolest Cooler (a combination cooler, speaker, USB battery, and blender) was one of the most-funded Kickstarters ever, which likely had a lot to do with its impressive teaser video featuring a fully functioning prototype. But when it came to actually producing the cooler, strikes at its manufacturing plant caused huge delays. To make matters worse for project backers, the creators started selling the limited units they managed to produce on Amazon before backers received theirs. Adding insult to injury, the creators then asked for more money from backers for expedited shipping. By the time backers actually got their preorders, the reviews were in: The cooler was a thinly spread jack-of-all-trades that didn’t do anything well.

Since we first published this article in October 2016, many reputable, well-established companies have outright told us that they’ve launched a crowdfunding campaign for a coming item as a marketing mechanism, even if they don’t actually need the crowdfunding to make said item available for sale. (After all, more than one trend-seeking publication has been guilty of rummaging through Kickstarter or Indiegogo in search of story ideas.) If you’re okay with taking a little risk—again, manufacturing is hard, even for companies that know what they’re doing—you might be able to get a backer’s discount on something you were eventually going to buy anyway. Your money, your call. (Note to those companies: Wirecutter’s policy of not testing or reviewing gear while it’s in crowdfunding still stands, even if you tell us you don’t really need the money the campaign may bring in. We’re not here to do marketing for you.)

Looks can and will deceive

Making a fully functioning prototype that looks and performs like a finished product is difficult. If creators can pull that off before asking for funding, they probably know what they’re doing when it comes to designing and building things. But manufacturing at scale with a limited budget is not the same as making a few prototypes. Zano successfully managed to make a handful of drones and raised millions of dollars to produce them, but it didn’t ship to most backers. And though the Kreyos smartwatch did ship to all backers, it was missing a number of promised features. The Superstrata 3D-printed carbon bike, which was being delivered to Indiegogo backers in summer 2022, was simultaneously being roasted on Reddit: “The build quality is really bad, the paint job is bad, the finishing is bad, I even cannot fit the front wheel into the frame.”

It’s too good to be true

Does the device disobey the fundamental laws of physics? If something seems too good to be true, it probably is. The Skarp razor promised a great shave—using laser beams. The Triton gills promised the ability to breathe underwater like a fish. If these ideas were actually doable, the team would have been able to secure funding from traditional avenues.

Lofty promises = broken promises

Is something massively overfunded? If so, expect delays. Delivering 10,000 units is very different from delivering 100,000 units. Some projects now preempt this by putting hard limits on how many units they’re willing to presell. This is a sign of good planning.

Is an item trying to do a million things at once, like the aforementioned Coolest Cooler or the BauBax (a 15-in-1 jacket)? Both were heavily delayed and had major issues. And these items ended up being more expensive and doing a worse job than the separate, good-quality versions could do (though that’s hardly a problem unique to Kickstarter).

Ideas ≠ products

Does the campaign totally lack a functioning prototype? The Pseudo film canister ran a campaign with some bare 3D renders and cardboard cutouts, despite pitching an incredibly complex and expensive concept that many have tried and failed at. Concepts are easy; making the item work is hard.

It already exists

Is this just rebranded off-the-shelf hardware? The Anonabox was a cheap router that could be purchased wholesale with freely available software loaded on it. If you’re suspicious, look for news coverage of the project, especially from publications that don’t appear to be fawning over it. You can also try Google image-searching project pictures, in case they’re directly copied from their supplier. Diving into the comments helps as well. Kickstarter has public comments, and enthusiast subreddits, forums, and sites are often the first to flag these issues.

It doesn’t exist, for a good reason

This is a little more subjective because we don’t all share the same opinions about what’s missing from our world. But we have noticed some trends that tend to disappoint.

Is it another smartwatch? Both IndieGoGo and Kickstarter are built on a cemetery of smartwatches that have failed to ship entirely, functioned abysmally, or just couldn’t make a profit (like the Pebble watch). Even major electronics companies have trouble getting it right. Struggles by crowdfunded startups, such as the aforementioned Kreyos smartwatch and the Buddy, Dagadam, BozGo, and Agent smartwatches aren’t that surprising.

Is it a dumb appliance made smart? You don’t need a cutting board that requires charging. And these smart devices often have major flaws: They are vulnerable to hackers, break for nonsensical reasons, or the service closes or is bought (subscription required).

So what should you back?

Even if a project doesn’t trigger any of the red flags we talked about, it could still end up failing in some way or another. And if you care about getting your money’s worth, Kickstarter just isn’t a great way to get stuff. There are exceptions, but contributing is always a risk.

Crowdfunding is best suited to supporting artists whose work you enjoy, respect, and want to see more of. Back writers, comic book artists, dancers, photographers, and people who are printing art, crafting stuffed animals, and making video games. Even if the service or item has delays or issues, you’re supporting a creator whose work means something to you. Or back whatever you want—but we’re not going to write about anything until after it ships.

This article was edited by Jason Chen.