Kickstarter vs Locals.com
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Kickstarter
Explore and support innovative projects across various creative fields. Discover groundbreaking ideas in games, technology, art, and more. Pledge to projects that inspire you and stay updated on their progress.
- Discover creative projects globally
- Pledge to projects
- Receive project updates
- Track backings
- Join a global creative community
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Discover, back, and bring bold ideas to life. The Kickstarter app connects you with groundbreaking projects across games, publishing, technology, comics, and film. Whether you’re passionate about design, gadgets, stories, or innovation, there’s something for everyone. Use the app to: • Browse creative projects from around the world • Pledge to projects that align with your passions • Stay in the loop with updates and reminders • Follow your backings in one place • Join a global movement that fuels ideas worth sharing Start discovering today and help the next big idea take off.
Locals.com
Connect directly with creators and communities you admire. This platform prioritizes user control and creator ownership, offering features like live streaming, community feeds, and content libraries. Support creators independently without algorithmic interference.
- Direct creator support
- Algorithm-free content feeds
- Creator data ownership
- Live streaming with chat
- Community feeds and posts
- Content libraries (video/audio)
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Directly support the creators you love. Control your content and avoid the algorithms. Built from the ground up to champion the needs of creators, Locals does not sell your data and creators have unprecedented ownership over theirs. With features like live-streaming with chat, community feeds and posts, and content libraries for video and audio, the Locals app is an all-in-one solution to interact with the content you love, while directly supporting the independence of the communities and creators you care about. Power to the people. Not the platform. On Locals. https://locals.com/terms
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Kickstarter at none against Locals.com's 12. Locals.com's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and review sentiment (53% vs 33%). On price, rating, ratings volume and update cadence there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Locals.com sells 12 in-app purchases, starting at $7.99 per month. Kickstarter asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Kickstarter against 4.7 for Locals.com. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 59K and 42K respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 33% of Kickstarter's written reviews are positive against 53% of Locals.com's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 4 weeks. Both last shipped on October 30, 2026.
| Parameter | Kickstarter | Locals.com |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (59K ratings) — better | 4.7 (42K ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 32.6% of reviews | 53.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 59K — better | 42K |
| Update frequency | Every 4 weeks | Every 4 weeks |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | #184 | #153 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 129 MB | 53 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Kickstarter, PBC | Locals Technology Inc |
Customer experience
Kickstarter
Locals.com
User reviews
Kickstarter
From 59K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Handy tracker for backed projects
- 👍 Great app and great service
- 🚀 Bypass the traditional economy!
- 👍 Very nice
- 👍 Excellent
Room to improve
- 🐛 Works well enough unless you support a lot of projects
- 🐛 App is very buggy
- 🔒 Scammers Paradise
- 🔒 Don't fall into the trap
- 🔒 platform setup to scam you
Locals.com
From 42K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Real news and uncensored content
- 🙌 Freedom of speech and expression
- 🔒 Secure and censorship-free platform
- 💡 Innovative community-driven model
- 🚀 Steadily improving with updates
Room to improve
- 🐛 Buggy app with technical issues
- 🤔 Difficult to navigate and find content
- 💰 Expensive subscription fees
- 🔍 Limited search and discovery features
- 🔇 Inconsistent audio/video playback
Bugs and requests
Kickstarter
Reported bugs
5 issues- Explore tab broken in latest update
- Notifications not working correctly
- Activity feed not updating
- Issues with submitting surveys through the app
- Clunky UI, especially when updating pledges
Requested features
6 requests- Allow filtering backed projects by status (received, active, closed)
- Ability to follow creators directly in the app
- Improve comments section (threading, search, etc.)
- Add an archive/delete function for completed/cancelled projects
- Introduce a read/unread project status
Show 1 moreShow fewer
- Allow users to block problematic creators
Locals.com
Reported bugs
5 issues- Frequent crashes and freezes
- Disappearing notifications
- Orientation issues on iPad
- Inconsistent audio/video sync
- Unreliable live stream playback
Requested features
5 requests- Download option for offline viewing
- Better nested comments and community management
- Improved integration with Rumble platform
- Customizable notification settings
- Picture-in-picture mode for video playback
In-app purchases
Kickstarter
No in-app purchases
Locals.com
- Monthly: 50 coins + 20 bonus$7.991 Month
- 20 Coins$1.99
- 50 Coins$4.99
- 50$7.99
Show 8 moreShow fewer
- 100 Coins$9.99
- 100$14.99
- 150 Coins$14.99
- 200$19.99
- 210 Coins$20.99
- 300 Coins$29.99
- 360 Coins$35.99
- 500 Coins$49.99
