# Kickstarter Project Funding Tracker (`axery/kickstarter-funding-tracker`) Actor

Scrape a Kickstarter project's funding data - pledged, goal, backers, and a derived funding-velocity signal (pledged per day since launch). No login, no API key.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/axery/kickstarter-funding-tracker.md
- **Developed by:** [Axery](https://apify.com/axery) (community)
- **Categories:** Business, Marketing, Other
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 75.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $6.67 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Kickstarter Project Funding Tracker

Scrapes a Kickstarter project's funding data — pledged, goal, backers, category — plus a derived funding-velocity signal. No login, no API key.

Useful for crowdfunding market research, tracking a specific campaign's momentum, and competitive analysis for creators launching a similar project.

### What makes this different

**`funding_velocity_per_day` — the number that actually tells you if a campaign is working.** A raw pledged total or a percent-funded snapshot can't distinguish a project at 80% funded on day 2 of a 30-day campaign from one at 80% funded on day 29 — the first is a runaway hit, the second just squeaked by. This Actor divides total pledged by days elapsed since launch (capped at the deadline for finished campaigns), giving one number that reads as genuine momentum rather than a static snapshot.

**`days_remaining` for live campaigns.** Computed at scrape time, so filtering "campaigns ending soon" is a column, not manual date arithmetic against a raw deadline timestamp.

**A genuinely nasty encoding bug, found and fixed.** Kickstarter's own project page double-escapes backslashes inside the embedded JSON before HTML-encoding it, so an escaped quote inside a codec string like `codecs="avc1..."` arrives as an invalid two-character sequence instead of a single valid JSON escape. Parsing it directly fails partway through with a misleading "expecting ',' delimiter" error nowhere near the actual problem. This Actor corrects that extra escaping before parsing, which is the difference between a project that parses cleanly and one that silently fails on any project whose video happens to trip the bug.

### Input

| Field | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| `projects` | array | Full Kickstarter project URLs, or `creator-slug/project-slug` paths. |
| `proxyConfiguration` | object | Defaults to Residential. |

### Output

```json
{
  "project_id": "kickstarter.com:1955357092",
  "name": "Exploding Kittens",
  "state": "successful",
  "goal": 10000.0,
  "pledged": 8782571.99,
  "percent_funded": 87825.72,
  "backers_count": 219382,
  "funding_velocity_per_day": 289567.16,
  "days_since_launch": 30.33,
  "category_name": "Tabletop Games",
  "url": "https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/elanlee/exploding-kittens"
}
```

A project that's been removed, suspended, or never existed fails with a clear message rather than returning an empty row. Each run also writes a `RUN_COVERAGE` record to the key-value store with what was requested, what came back, and any per-project failures.

### Local development

```bash
pip install -r requirements.txt
python test_local.py https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/exploding-kittens/exploding-kittens --out sample_output.json
python test_local.py elanlee/exploding-kittens
```

`sample_output.json` is real output from a live run.

# Actor input Schema

## `projects` (type: `array`):

Full Kickstarter project URLs, or 'creator-slug/project-slug' paths. Each is fetched independently into the same dataset.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Apify Proxy settings. Defaults to Residential - Apify's own container IP range can be rate-limited or blocked by services that treat cloud IPs as suspicious regardless of any WAF.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "projects": [
    "https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/exploding-kittens/exploding-kittens"
  ],
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ]
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `projects` (type: `string`):

One row per project: funding totals, backers, category, and the derived funding-velocity signal.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "projects": [
        "https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/exploding-kittens/exploding-kittens"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("axery/kickstarter-funding-tracker").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "projects": ["https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/exploding-kittens/exploding-kittens"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("axery/kickstarter-funding-tracker").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "projects": [
    "https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/exploding-kittens/exploding-kittens"
  ]
}' |
apify call axery/kickstarter-funding-tracker --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,axery/kickstarter-funding-tracker"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/FJiwplh5XFvbMLeVQ/builds/h7czoz6BL1HVsA6sQ/openapi.json