Elfster has run the office Secret Santa for two decades. Here is how it stacks up against WishApp on the name draw, the apps and browsers you can use, and whether either one is worth keeping the other fifty weeks of the year.
Last updated: June 2026
Looking for an Elfster alternative? Elfster owns the automated Secret Santa draw, with exclusions, budgets and recurring groups nobody beats. But it is ad-supported, English-only, and built for December. WishApp is free with no ads, works on every platform year-round, and auto-fills items from any store. Among Elfster alternatives, WishApp is the one we'd pick.
Every row reflects what each app actually does today. Elfster genuinely wins the gift-exchange rows, so we marked those too.
| Feature | Elfster | WishApp |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing & value | ||
| Free to use | Free | Free forever |
| No ads | Ad-supported | No ads |
| Unlimited lists and items | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| No data selling | Affiliate + ads | Privacy-first |
| Platforms & devices | ||
| iPhone and Android apps | Both | Both |
| Native iPad and tablet layouts | Not optimized | Yes |
| macOS desktop app | No | Yes |
| Browser extensions | Chrome only, 2.7★ | Five browsers |
| Raycast quick-add | No | Yes |
| Sharing & privacy | ||
| Share with one link | Yes | Yes |
| Friends reserve without an account | Account to mark | No account |
| Hidden reservations on any list | Exchanges only | Any list |
| More than one language | English only | 26 languages |
| Gifting & group features | ||
| Secret Santa / gift exchange | Yes | Yes |
| Automated name draw with exclusions | Best in class | Not offered |
| White Elephant / Yankee Swap formats | Yes | No |
| Reserved and received tracking | No | Yes |
| Collaborative lists | Exchanges only | Yes |
| Ease of use | ||
| Add from any store by pasting a link | Unreliable | Auto-fills |
| Save a product in one click while browsing | Weak extension | Yes |
| Works year-round, not just holidays | Holiday-focused | Any occasion |
Both apps are free, so the real difference is what you pay in attention. Elfster runs on affiliate commissions and shows ads inside the free experience, with sponsored gift guides pushed throughout. WishApp is affiliate-funded too, but it shows no ads, ever, and sells no data. You get the same zero price tag, minus the promoted clutter.
WishApp reaches further. Elfster has solid iPhone and Android apps, both well-rated and actively updated, but that's roughly where it stops. The iPad build isn't optimized, there's no native macOS app, and the lone Chrome extension sits at 2.7 stars with no Firefox, Safari or Edge version. WishApp adds native tablet layouts, a Mac app, working extensions across five browsers, and a Raycast add-on. Same list, wherever you are.
This is where the two split. Elfster's anti-duplicate trick, marking an item as purchased so others can see, only works inside a formal exchange, and a participant has to create an account just to mark a gift. WishApp hides reservations on any shared list at any time, the owner never sees who claimed what, and friends reserve straight from the link with no sign-up. For a plain birthday list shared with friends, that gap matters.
Elfster wins the draw, plainly. Its name-draw engine handles exclusions for couples, kids and repeat years, supports White Elephant and Yankee Swap, sets budgets and deadlines, and remembers your group year to year. Nothing in WishApp matches that depth. WishApp has Secret Santa too, plus collaborative lists and reserved-and-received tracking, but if your whole reason for being here is an organized office draw, Elfster does it better.
Setting up an Elfster exchange is genuinely guided and quick. Adding the actual gifts is the weak spot. You either search Elfster's catalog or paste a URL that often fails to pull an image, and on mobile that flow is broken enough that reviewers complain about it. WishApp grabs any product link and fills in the title, image and price for you, or saves it in one click from the browser extension. No catalog to fight.
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