Best Picky Me Alternatives
Picky Me is a wishlist app that monitors prices and stock availability. It works well if you want to keep an eye on favourite items and receive alerts when prices drop. If that is what you need from a list, it may be sufficient.
This guide looks at options for sharing gift lists across different phones and computers. It compares Picky Me with Things To Have across ten practical criteria, such as account requirements, reservations and device support. It also lists other alternatives worth considering for family gift-giving.
What Picky Me does well
- There are no download fees and no banner ads.
- The app provides price and stock updates, with alerts when prices drop.
- You can organise saved items into collections by category, season or mood.
- A Safari extension lets you save items from any online shop.
Why people look for an alternative to Picky Me
Thin on gift-giving. The app lacks a birthday layer and date reminders. Its listing also says little about sharing with people who do not have the app.
It is built for price watching. The features focus on price alerts and stock updates. The listing does not mention reserving or claiming items.
Android availability is unclear from the app's own pages. Picky Me runs on Apple devices. We found no Android app.
Picky Me vs Things To Have
View without an account
A shared list is only useful if the person receiving the link can open it. Asking a friend to install an app first is often where sharing stops.
Things To Have. Anyone with the link can open a shared list in a web browser. The person opening the link needs no account and no app.
Picky Me. You can share a single pick or a whole collection with a friend. You can also start using the app as a guest. Its App Store listing does not say what the other person needs to open a shared collection.
Verdict: Unclear, because Picky Me does not document it.
Reservations
Reserving an item lets people see what is already taken. This prevents duplicate gifts when several people buy from the same list.
Things To Have. You can turn reservations on for any list you create. Visitors sign in to reserve an item so others see it is taken.
Picky Me. The listing says you can share picks and collections with friends. It does not mention reserving or claiming items.
Verdict: Unclear, because the app's documentation does not say.
Free, no paywall
People often keep wishlists for years, but they use them only in short bursts. A recurring subscription rarely feels worthwhile for something that sits unused for months at a time.
Things To Have. The service is free, with no paywall behind any feature. There are no limits on how many lists you create or how many items you save.
Picky Me. The app is free to download from the App Store. Its listing shows no in-app purchases and no subscriptions.
Verdict: Even: both are free.
No ads
A wishlist works best when it contains only items you selected. Suggested products compete with the things you actually want. That changes what the list is for.
Things To Have. There are no ads and no sponsored products. The app has no algorithmic feed and makes no product recommendations. You see only the items you save.
Picky Me. The app has no banner ads and describes itself as ad-free. It includes a Discover feed of editor picks, trends and sales. That places items you did not choose in front of you.
Verdict: Things To Have is ahead for anyone who wants only their own items in view.
Any store
Good gift ideas come from small shops and independent websites as well as big retailers. A list should accept items from anywhere.
Things To Have. You can add links from any online shop to your list.
Picky Me. You can save products from any store using the share sheet or a Safari extension.
Verdict: Even: both save items from any store.
Autofill
Typing a title, price and photo by hand for each item is slow, and it is often why people stop adding things. Autofill saves time by gathering the item details for you.
Things To Have. Pasting a link fills in the title, photo and price without needing a browser extension. A bookmarklet, an iOS Shortcut and an embeddable save button are also available.
Picky Me. You can save items from any shop through the Share button or a Safari extension. The app then fetches the price from the store and sends an alert when it drops.
Verdict: Even: both fetch prices from the store automatically.
Works on any device
A family usually owns a mix of iPhones, Android phones and laptops. A list that needs one particular platform leaves someone out.
Things To Have. It is a website and an installable web app. You do not need to install anything to view or manage lists on any device.
Picky Me. Picky Me is an iPhone app that also runs on Apple silicon Macs and Apple Vision. It works on the web as well, but we found no Android app.
Verdict: Things To Have is ahead for households that are not all on Apple devices.
Sort & filter
Wishlists grow quickly as people add items over time. Without search or basic filters, friends buying gifts struggle to find something that fits their budget.
Things To Have. Any visitor can search a list, set a maximum price and sort items by price in either direction. People do not need to sign in to use these tools. Prices added in different currencies are automatically converted so they compare accurately.
Picky Me. The app lets you sort and filter your saved items directly. You can also organise products into separate collections based on category, season or mood.
Verdict: Even: both let you sort and filter.
Export your data
A wishlist holds a long record of items you liked and saved over time. If a service shuts down without an export tool, that entire history is lost.
Things To Have. Under Settings → Data, you can download all your lists as a JSON file. The app also imports items from pasted links or from files in .txt, .md or JSON format. It displays a preview of your items before you confirm the save.
Picky Me. Its public documentation does not mention a data export feature.
Verdict: Unclear, because Picky Me does not document it.
MCP
The Model Context Protocol lets an AI assistant such as Claude or ChatGPT read and update your wishlists. This lets you add items or plan gifts for people by talking to your assistant.
Things To Have. You can connect Claude, ChatGPT or your own agent over MCP to add items, tidy lists and work out gifts for friends you follow. You choose the permissions the assistant receives and can revoke the connection at any time.
Picky Me. Picky Me publishes no MCP server, ChatGPT app or Claude connector. Its website and help pages make no mention of an assistant integration.
Verdict: Things To Have is ahead, as Picky Me does not offer an MCP server or assistant connection.
Final verdict
- You want a free list to send to family who will not sign up: Things To Have. Anyone can open your list in a browser on any device without creating an account.
- You want what Picky Me is best at (tracking favourite products and their prices): stay with Picky Me. It monitors stock updates and sends alerts when prices drop.
Picky Me, Things To Have and the runners-up
| App | View without an account | Reservations | Free, no paywall | No ads | Any store | Autofill | Works on any device | Sort & filter | Export your data | MCP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Things To Have | Yes | Yes — anonymous even to the owner | Yes — everything free | Yes | Yes | Yes — no extension needed | Yes — web/PWA, nothing to install | Yes | Yes — JSON | Yes — Claude, ChatGPT and more |
| Picky Me | — | — | Yes | No — curated Discover feed | Yes — share sheet, Safari extension | Yes — prices fetched from stores | No — iOS plus web | Yes | — | No — none published |
| Chestr | — | — | Yes | — | Yes | Yes — Chrome extension, iOS share | Yes | No | — | No — none published |
| Moonsift | Yes | Yes — guests mark bought | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes — browser extension | Yes | No — manual reorder only | No — on request | No — none published |
| Listful | Yes | Yes — gifters mark purchased | No | No — gift suggestions | Yes | Yes — paste a link | Yes | — | — | No — none published |
“—” means we could not confirm it from the app’s own documentation.
Spotted a mistake? Email comparison@thingstohave.app
Frequently asked questions
Is there a free alternative to Picky Me?
Yes — Things To Have has no paywall and no list limits. Picky Me is free too, so cost is not the reason to switch — the rest of the table is.
Do my friends need an account to open the list?
Not on Things To Have — viewing never requires a signup. Picky Me does not document what it requires. This is the criterion that decides how many people actually see your list.
Can I move my list out of Picky Me?
Picky Me publishes no export we could confirm, so copy what matters before you stop using it. Either way, a pasted list of links is enough to rebuild it here — importing shows a preview before anything is written, and the way back out is an export in JSON.
Keep comparing
- Best wishlist apps, all of them ranked against the same ten criteria
- Every comparison, one page per app