We make one of the apps on this list, which you should factor in. What we
have tried to do is describe each product by what it is for, and say who
funds it, because that explains most of the differences.

As at August 2026. Everything here changes; check before committing.

The exchange organisers

Elfster — the big one. Draws, wish lists inside the platform, tens of
millions of users, heavy retailer integration. Free, funded by merchants and
advertising. Best when your group is large and half of them have used it
before.

DrawNames — a clean Kris Kringle generator with an Australian presence.
No account needed, exclusions supported, free. Best for a one-off office
draw where asking fourteen people to sign up is a non-starter.

Sneaky Santa and the dozens like it — a draw and nothing else. Perfectly
good at that.

Common limit: the product’s job ends when the names are out. Birthdays, the
people not in the draw, and everything after the day are elsewhere.

The family wishlists

Giftster — family groups, everyone keeps a list, relatives claim so
nobody doubles up, birthdays remembered. Since 2008, free, mature. The
closest product to ours.

Amazon’s wishlist — free, already in your account, purchase tracking that
actually works, but only for things Amazon sells, and it is a shop with a
shop’s incentives.

Common limit: they are built on a group or a store. Everyone you buy for has
to be in it.

The registries

Zola and The Knot for weddings, Babylist for babies,
MyRegistry across both. All free to the couple, all funded by retailers
paying for placement and a cut of guest spending. Polished, familiar, and
quietly commercial — the platform has an interest in where your guests buy.

Where we fit

GiftGambit is a year-round gift tracker with the exchange and the
registry inside it. The distinguishing bits:

  • Private lists for people in no group at all — the teacher, the neighbour,
    your partner. No account for them, no invitation, no chance of them finding
    out.
  • Claims hidden from the person they are for, across every circle they are in.
  • Secret Santa with exclusions and a memory of past years.
  • After the day: who gave what, thank-yous, receipts for the wrong size.
  • No affiliate links, no sponsored suggestions, no cut of anything. Extras
    cost $29 a year instead.
  • Australian: AUD, GST included, Kris Kringle spelled properly.

Limits, fairly: we are new and small, our free circle caps at 15 people, and
there is no app-store download — it installs from the browser.

Choosing, in one question each

  • One draw, then nothing? DrawNames or Elfster.
  • Big US family, everyone lists, nobody pays? Giftster.
  • Everyone buys on Amazon anyway? The Amazon list.
  • Wedding, guest familiarity above all, free? Zola, The Knot, Babylist.
  • Gift-giving is a year, not an event — and some of the people you buy for
    will never join anything?     That is the gap we built for.

The funding question is the useful one

Almost every free product in this category is funded by shops paying to be in
front of you. That is not a scandal, and the free products are good. But it
does answer questions like “why is this shop suggested first” and “why is
adding an item from a partner easier than adding one from anywhere else”.

Ask of any gift app: if I am not paying, who is, and what do they want?
Then decide whether you mind. Plenty of people reasonably don’t.

Start free, or see
what’s free and what’s Pro.

Originally published on the GiftGambit blog.