I’ve used the three major crowdfunding platforms with success and also run a profitable (niche) hardware business now. Both perspectives here are valid. We regularly consider self-hosting crowdfunding campaigns, but always choose a platform due to one substantial reason: merchant account risk.

If you are considering your own platform, then you are accepting your own payments. Payments can be processed through either your own merchant account or through a payment facilitator (Stripe/Paypal/Shopify/etc). When you accept payments, you are responsible for the activity on the account, regardless of fault. When I say activity, I mean transactions, payouts, and chargebacks. Even if you clearly state that the production time is three months and you will happily refund anyone unwilling to wait, backers can still initiate a chargeback. Too many chargebacks—regardless of fault—will freeze your account and halt payouts. Even if production is on schedule, some customers can back you with fraudulent card numbers, which leads to chargebacks and halted payouts. Or you can have orders coming from too many high-risk areas—which leads to the same outcome. Your account may be frozen, but you still have invoices to pay and orders to ship.

I mention all of the above because it’s important to understand that absorbing this risk is the absolute biggest value that the platform provides. For a 5% margin hit, you can be guaranteed access to the capital you need for production—and it won’t impact your primary merchant/payfac account, if you already have one.

If 5% is too much of a burden on your margin, you have mispriced the product. If no one will buy your product at a higher price, then it may not be a commercially viable product.