A Ruby on Rails skeleton for creating your own crowdfunding site, originally built for Lockitron.
Selfstarter is an open-source Ruby on Rails application that provides a skeleton for building custom crowdfunding websites. It solves the problem of platform dependency by allowing creators to launch and manage their own funding campaigns, originally developed for Lockitron after their Kickstarter rejection. The project handles payment collection via Amazon Payments and offers configurable payment options for different support tiers.
Developers, startups, or creators who want to run independent crowdfunding campaigns without relying on third-party platforms like Kickstarter, and have the technical ability to customize and deploy a Rails application.
It offers full control over the crowdfunding experience, avoids platform fees and restrictions, and provides a proven, minimal codebase that can be tailored to specific project needs, as demonstrated by Lockitron's successful use.
Roll your own crowdfunding
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Product name, pricing, and colors can be quickly adjusted via config/settings.yml and SCSS files, enabling rapid setup without deep code changes.
Includes a Procfile for straightforward deployment to Heroku, allowing creators to launch their site with minimal hosting configuration.
Uses Amazon Payments with multi-use tokens to collect payment information without charging until shipping, ideal for pre-order campaigns as demonstrated by Lockitron.
Built and successfully used by Lockitron, providing a reliable, minimal codebase that encourages tailored additions for specific project needs.
The README explicitly states it lacks authentication, administration, mailers, and analytics, requiring significant additional development effort.
Out of the box, it only integrates with Amazon Payments; adding Stripe or WePay requires custom coding, as noted in the Contributing section.
The project has no tests, which the README admits and welcomes contributions for, posing risks for stability and maintenance.
selfstarter is an open-source alternative to the following products: