Best Giftbuster Alternatives
Giftbuster is a shopping wishlist and gift registry app with promo notifications. It is a good answer to one specific question — a shopping list with brand promo codes — and if that is your situation, it may be all you need.
This page is for the people it does not fit: those who want a list with no ads in it and nothing being recommended at them. It compares Giftbuster with Things To Have on the eight things that decide whether a wishlist actually gets used, and lists the alternatives worth considering alongside it.
Short version: if you want a free, calm wishlist app for you and your friends — no ads, no account needed to view, and reservations your family can use without spoiling the surprise — Things To Have is the closest fit. If you need a shopping list with brand promo codes, Giftbuster is probably still the right tool.
What Giftbuster does well
- a bookmarklet that saves title, photo, description and price
- promo code notifications from brands you follow
- gift registry and fundraising options
- free on iOS and Android
Why people look for an alternative to Giftbuster
Brand promos are part of the experience. The list shares space with marketing.
No web app we could find, only the apps and a bookmarklet.
Little published on privacy or export.
Giftbuster vs Things To Have
| App | View without an account | Reservations keep the surprise | Free, no paywall | No ads | Any store + autofill | Works on any device | Sort & filter | Export your data |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Things To Have | Yes | Yes — anonymous even to the owner | Yes — everything free | Yes | Yes — autofill without an extension | Yes — web/PWA, nothing to install | Yes | Yes — JSON |
| Giftbuster | — | Yes | Yes | Partly — brand promos | Yes | Partly | — | — |
“—” means we could not confirm it from the app’s own documentation.
The best alternatives, compared
| App | View without an account | Reservations keep the surprise | Free, no paywall | No ads | Any store + autofill | Works on any device | Sort & filter | Export your data |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Things To Have | Yes | Yes — anonymous even to the owner | Yes — everything free | Yes | Yes — autofill without an extension | Yes — web/PWA, nothing to install | Yes | Yes — JSON |
| Wishlists | Yes — guests view without the app | Yes | Partly | Partly | Yes | Partly — managing lives in the app | Partly | — |
| Chestr | — | No — personal tracker | Yes | Partly | Yes | Yes | Partly | — |
| Picky Me | — | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partly — iOS plus web | Yes | — |
| Listery | Partly | Yes | Partly | Partly | Yes | Partly — mobile apps only | — | — |
“—” means we could not confirm it from the app’s own documentation.
How the two compare, criterion by criterion
Against the eight criteria, Giftbuster falls short on 2 of them. The two apps are level on 3 others.
- No ads
- Giftbuster: partly — brand promos. Things To Have: yes.
- Works on any device
- Giftbuster: partly. Things To Have: yes — web/PWA, nothing to install.
3 columns are left blank above — View without an account; Sort & filter; and Export your data. Giftbuster's own documentation does not answer them, and a guess in a comparison table is worse than a blank.
Giving up: Giftbuster's specific strengths, listed above. If those matter more than the criteria in the table — and for some people they genuinely do — staying is the right call.
Which should you choose?
- You want a free list to send to family who will not sign up: Things To Have.
- You want what Giftbuster is best at (a shopping list with brand promo codes): stay with Giftbuster.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a free alternative to Giftbuster?
Yes — Things To Have has no paywall and no list limits. Giftbuster 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. Giftbuster 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 Giftbuster?
Giftbuster 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 eight criteria
- Every comparison — one page per app