NameDraw is a small, web-only Secret Santa organiser that does one job: drawing names fairly. We compared it with WishApp on the draw itself, the devices you can use, and what happens to your wishlists after the names are out.
Last updated: June 2026
Looking for a NameDraw alternative? NameDraw is a clean, web-only Secret Santa tool with a smart draw engine and magic-link invites. It has no app, though, and you fill in wishlists by hand. WishApp is free forever, runs on phones, desktops and five browsers, auto-fills any product link and hides reservations. It's the NameDraw alternative we'd go with.
The table reflects both tools as they are today. Both run a Secret Santa, and NameDraw takes the advanced draw rows, which we've marked.
| Feature | NameDraw | WishApp |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing & value | ||
| Free forever, no subscription | Free | Free |
| No ads | No ads | No ads |
| Named company behind it | Anonymous | Named team |
| Platforms & devices | ||
| iPhone, iPad and Android apps | Web only | iOS + Android |
| macOS app and Raycast | Web only | Yes |
| Browser extensions | None | Five browsers |
| Push notifications | Email only | Yes |
| Secret Santa & group draw | ||
| Built-in name draw | Yes | Built in |
| Exclusion / forbidden pairs | Yes | No |
| Avoids last year's pairings | Cross-year | No |
| Magic-link join, no account | Yes | View without account |
| Wishlists & gifting | ||
| Add from any store by pasting a link | Manual entry | Auto-fills |
| Save a product in one click while browsing | No extension | Yes |
| Hidden reservations (owner cannot see) | Draw-only privacy | Yes |
| Received archive with notes | No | Yes |
| Works for birthdays, baby showers, any occasion | Mostly Christmas | Year-round |
| Sharing & reach | ||
| QR code sharing | No | Yes |
| Gift discovery feed | No | Yes |
| Multiple languages | English only | 26 languages |
Neither tool costs anything. There's no paid tier and no ads on either, so on price it's a tie. Trust is where they differ. NameDraw is run anonymously: its terms name no company, no founder and no physical address. WishApp has a named team behind it, public app-store ratings and more than 50,000 users. For a quick holiday draw that may not matter. For the place your family keeps gift details all year, it might.
The draw is NameDraw's whole reason to exist, and it does it well. You get random assignments, exclusion rules so couples don't draw each other, and a memory across years that avoids repeating last year's pairings. Even some big competitors skip that last one. WishApp has Secret Santa built in too, so a gift exchange is covered, but NameDraw goes further with the exclusion rules and the repeat-avoiding memory. If a fair draw that avoids last year's pairings is all you need, start with NameDraw.
NameDraw only runs in a web browser. There's no iPhone or Android app, no Mac app and no browser extension, and it talks to you by email only, without push notifications. WishApp has apps for iPhone, iPad, Android and macOS, extensions for Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera and Safari, and a Raycast add-on. If people in your group run the exchange from their phones, they'll hit NameDraw's web-only limit quickly.
Both tools let people make wishlists, but filling them in feels very different. In NameDraw you do it by hand: type a title, paste a link, add a note, save. It doesn't fetch anything, so no images or prices get pulled in. WishApp takes any product link and fills in the title, image and price for you, or you save it in one click from the browser extension. A NameDraw list ends up as plain text. A WishApp list shows the actual gift.
Once the names are drawn, NameDraw is done. There's no archive of received gifts, no gift-idea feed and nothing to use it for until the next exchange. WishApp keeps track of what you've reserved and received, with a note like 'from Sarah' so you remember next time, and has a Discover feed for when you're out of ideas. On privacy, NameDraw relies on the draw: only your assigned giver sees your list. WishApp's hidden reservations protect the surprise on any list, all year, and not only at Christmas.
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