Wishlists is the polished German app a lot of people swear by for Secret Santa. Here is how it stacks up against WishApp on price, the devices you can use, and what your friends have to do before they can reserve a gift.
Last updated: June 2026
Looking for a Wishlists alternative? Wishlists is a lovely mobile app with the best Secret Santa draw around, but it is phone-only and makes gift-givers install the app to reserve. WishApp stays free forever, works on every browser and desktop, and lets friends reserve without an account. Among Wishlists alternatives, WishApp is the one we would pick.
Every row reflects what each app actually does today. Wishlists genuinely wins a few, so we marked those too.
| Feature | Wishlists | WishApp |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing & value | ||
| Free forever, no subscription | Freemium | Everything free |
| Unlimited lists and items | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| No ads | Never any ads | No ads |
| All features included, no paywall | Some paid | Yes |
| Platforms & devices | ||
| iPhone, iPad and Android apps | iOS + Android | iOS + Android |
| Full web app to create and manage | Mobile only | Yes |
| Browser extensions | None | Five browsers |
| Raycast quick-add | No | Yes |
| Sharing & reservations | ||
| Friends view a shared list without an account | Yes | Yes |
| Reserve a gift without installing the app | App required | No account needed |
| Hidden reservations (owner cannot see) | Yes | Yes |
| Collaborative lists | No | Yes |
| Gifting features | ||
| Secret Santa / gift exchange | Best-in-class | Yes |
| Reserved and received tracking | Reserved only | Both |
| Group gifting / chip-in | No | Yes |
| Barcode scanner for in-store items | Yes | Not offered |
| Ease of use | ||
| Add from any store by pasting a link | Auto-import | Auto-fills |
| Save a product in one click while browsing | No extension | Yes |
| In-app language support | 29 languages | English + Danish |
Both apps are free to start, and neither shows ads. WishApp goes further: every feature is free forever, with no premium tier at all. Wishlists is freemium. The core is free, but things like priority flags and custom list images sit behind a subscription that runs from $1.99 a month up to a $29.99 lifetime unlock. The awkward part is that Wishlists never says which features are paid, so you find the wall mid-use.
This is the big gap. Wishlists is mobile-only. There is no web app and no browser extension, so if you shop on a laptop you have to switch to your phone to add anything. Its macOS version is an iOS Catalyst build that needs an Apple Silicon Mac. WishApp runs on iPhone, iPad, Android, macOS and the full web, plus extensions for Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera and Safari, and a Raycast add-on. Same list, wherever you are.
Here is the deciding row. With both apps, friends can open a shared link and view the list without an account. But to actually reserve a gift on Wishlists, they have to download the app and sign up. It is the single most common complaint in its reviews, and it gets duplicates bought. WishApp lets anyone reserve straight from the link, no install, no account. Both hide reservations from the list owner, so the surprise survives either way.
Wishlists earns real credit here. Its Secret Santa is the feature people rave about: a spinning draw wheel, budget settings, invitations, and it handles groups of 20 or more. It is arguably better polished than WishApp's. WishApp counters with breadth: it also runs Secret Santa, plus collaborative lists, group gifting, and a reserved-and-received view that remembers a gift came 'from Sarah'. Wishlists has no group chip-in and no shared editing. One feature WishApp lacks: a barcode scanner for adding products in a physical store.
Both apps are easy to live in, and Wishlists in particular is beautiful. Reviewers reach for words like 'stunning' and 'minimalist', and the share-sheet flow on your phone is quick. The catch is reliability and reach. Some users report 'page could not be opened' errors when importing from certain shops, and there is no desktop path at all. WishApp auto-fills the title, image and price from any link, and its extension saves a product in one click while you browse. Wishlists is localized in 29 languages in-app, where WishApp's mobile app is English and Danish only.
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