An honest comparison against the platforms that take a percentage of your raise, with numbers from SEC filings and public reporting. Including the cases where the other model is genuinely the right call.
Syndicators, funds, and founders with an audience: flat published pricing, your domain, your investor list, live in about a week. We take $0 of your raise, ever. The bigger your raise, the more absurd a percentage toll becomes.
Several leading platforms bundle a broker-dealer, a transfer agent, an in-house marketing agency, or a rented retail audience, and some have run very large online raises. If you want a single full-stack partner and accept the fees and conflicts that come with it, that's an honest trade. It's just not ours.
| $5M raise · 6 months · 100 investments | Success-fee platform (reported) | CrowdEngine Growth (published) |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing published on website? | Rarely. Usually a sales call. | Yes, every fee |
| Activation / setup | Reported up to ~$20,000+ | $0 |
| Platform subscription | Often ~$2,000/mo: $12,000 | $2,490/mo: $14,940 |
| Success fee | 2% to 8.5% of the raise: $100,000 to $425,000 | $0, ever |
| Usage fees | Bundled into the percentage | $12.50 × 100: $1,250 (capped at $50k/offering) |
| Marketing | In-house agency retainers reported at ~$15,000/mo on some platforms | Bring any agency. We take $0 of their fee. |
| Total platform cost | ~$112,000 to $457,000+ | ~$16,190 |
| Your investor list | On marketplaces, it stays with the platform | Yours, exportable anytime |
Competitor figures are drawn from SEC EDGAR fee disclosures (Form C and Form 1-A filings show actual platform compensation) and public reporting as of August 2026. Most success-fee platforms do not publish pricing, and individual quotes vary. CrowdEngine figures are our published rates. Both columns exclude third-party costs (escrow, verification, payment rails) that any raise pays regardless of platform. Corrections welcome: pricing@crowdengine.com.
A platform paid a percentage of your raise is a partner in your transaction. A platform paid $2,490 a month is a vendor you can fire. We prefer being the second thing. It keeps us honest, and it keeps your raise yours.
Full-stack platforms own the broker-dealer, the transfer agent, or the marketing agency around your raise. We arm your attorney, your agency, and your escrow partner instead, and we take $0 of their fees. Your professionals answer to you.
Reg D issuers apply here in three fields and get a sandbox the same day. No discovery call required, though one is available. Larger structures get white-glove treatment on any platform; we're the one that publishes what it costs.
Sometimes, honestly, yes. If you have zero investor acquisition capability and a consumer-scale story, a full-service partner can be rational. But you can also hire an independent raise-marketing agency (we'll introduce you to vetted ones and take nothing) and keep the percentage. On a $5M raise, the fee difference funds a very good agency several times over.
When you're renting an audience on purpose. If you have no investor list, no customer base, and no marketing plan, a marketplace's built-in crowd may be worth its 2-7% fee, and we'll say so. Bringing your own investors? Then you're paying rent on your own asset.
Their top-line stats are real. So are ours: $2.07B+ raised across 318+ portals since 2013, including a $73.9M Reg A+ with 8,171 investors and a $35M bank raise. Scale isn't the question. The question is whether the platform's cut and the platform's conflicts are worth it for your raise.
Usually, yes. Some platforms genuinely let you export your investor data; on others it's harder than it should be. We do free migrations, and your data on CrowdEngine is exportable any day you want it. Talk to us before you're locked into an activation fee.
We don't run a broker-dealer or transfer agent, so those come from partners rather than one contract. Reg CF requires a partner intermediary on our platform. And our in-house marketing help is a lean program, not a 50-person agency. If one throat to choke matters more to you than fees and ownership, that's a real consideration.
Run your own numbers, or apply and be in a sandbox today.