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Regulation Crowdfunding lets a company raise up to $5 million in a rolling twelve-month period from anyone, accredited or not. The rule that shapes everything else is that the offering must be conducted through a single SEC-registered funding portal or broker-dealer.
That makes the platform choice more consequential than it looks. You are not picking a payments provider — you are picking an investor base, a fee structure, a compliance partner and, critically, how several thousand new shareholders will sit on your cap table for the next decade.
This guide covers how the main platforms differ, what a raise actually costs, the cap-table decision that matters most, what a campaign timeline looks like, and how to evaluate portals for your specific situation.
Before comparing portals, the constraints that apply to every Reg CF raise:
Our guide to US fundraising exemptions covers how Reg CF sits alongside Reg D and Reg A+, including running a community round in parallel with an institutional one.
Verify current terms directly — fee structures in this market change and the figures below are indicative of reported market positions rather than quoted prices.
Consistently among the largest Reg CF portals by capital raised, with reported 2025 volume ahead of the rest of the field. Investor base skews heavily toward retail, non-accredited participants and a community-oriented culture. Fee model reported as a percentage of the successful raise plus a platform fee, with an SPV structure included — which addresses the cap-table problem directly.
Fits: consumer brands, community-rooted businesses, and companies whose customers are a natural investor base.
The other consistently large portal by volume, with one of the biggest registered retail investor communities in the category and an emphasis on marketing support. Reported to charge investors a transaction fee in addition to issuer fees, which is worth understanding because it affects your investors' effective entry price.
Fits: consumer products, companies wanting maximum retail reach, and issuers who intend to run repeat raises.
Positioned more toward accredited and institutional-adjacent investors, with a broader product range spanning Reg CF, Reg D and private market offerings. Reported fee model has a threshold below which no cash fee applies, then a percentage above it. Smaller Reg CF volume than the two above, with a differently composed investor base.
Fits: technology companies wanting a more investor-sophisticated base, and issuers running community and institutional rounds together.
DealMaker and similar broker-dealer-based providers occupy a distinct position: they are technology and compliance infrastructure rather than a marketplace with a resident investor community. You bring the audience; they run the raise. Reported volumes place DealMaker among the leading platforms by capital processed, largely because it powers large self-marketed campaigns.
Fits: issuers with an existing audience — a large customer base, mailing list or following — who do not need a marketplace and want more control over the funnel. Also common for Reg A+ raises.
A long tail of smaller registered portals serves particular niches — local and main-street businesses, real estate, specific sectors, and community-development lending. For a regionally rooted business, a specialist portal with a genuinely relevant audience can outperform a large generalist one.
The SEC maintains lists of registered funding portals, and its guidance for issuers is the authoritative starting point for confirming a platform's registration.
This is the single most consequential structural choice, and it is easy to get wrong.
Direct holding: every crowdfunding investor appears individually on your cap table. Three thousand investors means three thousand line items, three thousand potential recipients of every shareholder communication, and three thousand signatures theoretically implicated in future corporate actions.
Nominee or custodial structure: investors hold through a single entity that appears as one line on your cap table. One signature, one vote, one communication channel — the same logic as an SPV.
Insist on the second. Later institutional investors examine crowdfunding cap tables carefully, and a table with thousands of direct holders is a genuine friction point in a Series A negotiation. Most reputable portals now offer a nominee structure by default, but confirm it explicitly and in writing before you launch.
Related: a Reg CF raise typically requires a registered transfer agent to maintain records of the securities issued. Our guide to transfer agents and cap table administration explains the distinction.
Platform fees are only part of it. Budget for:
All in, a serious campaign frequently costs a double-digit percentage of what it raises. That does not make it a bad deal — it is non-dilutive of control, brings customers who become advocates, and doubles as marketing — but it should be compared honestly against alternatives.
Founders consistently underestimate the preparation and overestimate what happens once the page is live. A realistic sequence:
Twelve to eight weeks out — the financials. Establish which financial statement tier applies to your target raise and start the accounting work immediately. If a review or audit is required, this is the item that determines your launch date and nothing else can compress it. Companies that discover the requirement six weeks before an intended launch simply do not launch on time.
Ten to six weeks out — the Form C and the terms. Counsel prepares the Form C, and you settle the security, the valuation or cap, the minimum and maximum, and the nominee structure. The valuation decision deserves real thought: a number set to flatter the campaign becomes a ceiling you must grow into, and a crowdfunding valuation is visible to every future investor.
Eight to two weeks out — build the list. This is the phase that determines the outcome, and it happens before anything is public. Collect reservations or expressions of interest from customers, mailing list subscribers, community members and anyone who has ever bought from you. Aim to have commitments covering a meaningful share of your minimum before you open. Campaigns that launch cold almost never recover.
Launch week — concentrate everything. Momentum is publicly visible on these platforms and investors follow crowds, so a large opening matters disproportionately. Convert the pre-launch list in the first three to five days, and time any announcement, press or partner activity to land in that window rather than spreading it across the campaign.
Weeks two to six — sustain it. The middle of a campaign is where enthusiasm decays. Plan content, updates and paid acquisition through this period rather than assuming the platform will carry it. Answer every investor question on the page personally; visible founder engagement converts.
Final week — the deadline effect. A meaningful share of investment arrives in the last days, because deadlines work. Communicate the closing date clearly and repeatedly.
After close — the part nobody plans for. Funds settle, securities are issued, the transfer agent records them, and you now have an ongoing shareholder communication obligation and an annual Form C-AR. Set up the reporting rhythm immediately, while the goodwill from the campaign is still high — see our guide to private-company investor relations for how to tier communications once you have a long tail of small holders.
The most important thing to understand: portals amplify demand, they rarely create it.
Campaigns that succeed almost always follow the same pattern:
Founders who launch expecting the platform's community to fund them are usually disappointed. The platform's investors respond to campaigns that are already moving.
Not inherently, and it is far less of an issue than it was five years ago. What creates friction is a badly structured raise — thousands of direct holders, unclear terms, or a valuation set too high to grow into. A clean nominee-structured raise at a sensible valuation is generally accepted without difficulty. Our comparison of crowdfunding versus traditional fundraising covers the trade-offs.
Common structures include SAFEs, convertible notes, common stock and revenue-share instruments. SAFEs are widespread because they defer the valuation conversation, but note the QSBS implications — a SAFE does not start the Section 1202 holding period until it converts, which matters to investors holding for the long term.
Typically four to eight weeks live, plus six to twelve weeks of preparation covering the Form C, financial statements and pre-launch list building. If an audit is required, add materially more time.
Not for the same Reg CF offering — the single-intermediary rule prohibits it. You can run a Reg CF offering on one portal and a separate Reg D offering elsewhere, subject to the integration rules and careful handling of the marketing for each.
Annual Form C-AR filings, shareholder communications, and maintaining accurate securityholder records. These continue for years and are frequently underestimated at the point of deciding to raise.
All funds are returned to investors and the raise fails publicly, which is the real cost — you have spent the preparation money and the marketing budget, and the outcome is visible. This is why the minimum should be set at a level your pre-launch list can plausibly cover on its own. Setting an ambitious minimum to signal confidence is a common and expensive error; set it low, hit it early, and let the maximum carry the ambition.
Yes, and it frequently helps. Existing angels or a lead investor putting money into the campaign early creates exactly the opening momentum that determines the outcome, and it signals to retail investors that people with access have already committed. Check any pro rata or participation rights in your existing documents, and be careful that the terms offered to the crowd are not more favourable than those existing holders received without their consent.
More than the platform implies, and it is the line most often under-funded. Successful campaigns generally spend a meaningful share of the target on paid acquisition, creative and content, concentrated in the launch window. The useful framing is cost per dollar raised: track it weekly and stop spending on channels that are not converting rather than running a flat budget across the campaign. If you have a large owned audience, that number can be very low — which is precisely why a pre-launch list matters more than anything the platform provides.
In practical terms, frequently yes. The cap or price is public, visible to every future investor, and becomes the reference point for your next conversation. A company that raised at an aggressive community-round valuation and then needs institutional money at a lower one is running a down round with a large, unsophisticated shareholder base watching — which is considerably harder to manage than a normal one. Price it where you can realistically raise the next round above.
Choose the platform whose investor base matches your business, insist on a nominee cap-table structure, budget for marketing rather than assuming the platform supplies demand, and verify registration and total cost in writing.
And be honest about whether you have a community that wants to own part of your company. That, more than any platform feature, determines the outcome.
Global Capital Network connects founders with investors across the capital spectrum. If you are weighing a community round against an institutional one, get in touch.
Platform terms, fees and volumes change frequently. Verify current details directly with each provider. This article is general information, not legal or investment advice.
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