Best My Wishlist Alternatives
My Wishlist is a simple universal web wishlist where friends reserve gifts. It is a good answer to one specific question — a quick free list with reservations and no signup ceremony — 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 anyone can open from a link, without being asked to create an account first. It compares My Wishlist 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 quick free list with reservations and no signup ceremony, My Wishlist is probably still the right tool.
What My Wishlist does well
- add items from any store
- family and friends reserve gifts
- free, with a bookmarklet that reads the item for you
- no app to install
Why people look for an alternative to My Wishlist
Web only, and spartan. No mobile apps, no reminders, no birthday layer.
Thin feature set beyond the core list and reservations.
Limited public information on privacy and export.
My Wishlist 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 |
| My Wishlist | Partly | Yes | Yes | Partly | Yes | Yes — web only | — | — |
“—” 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 |
| WishList.com | Partly | Partly | Yes | Partly | Yes | Yes — web | — | — |
| WishApp | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | — | — |
| GiftList | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partly | Yes | Yes | Partly | — |
| Wishr | Yes — public profile | Partly | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes — web | — | — |
“—” means we could not confirm it from the app’s own documentation.
How the two compare, criterion by criterion
Against the eight criteria, My Wishlist falls short on 2 of them. The two apps are level on 4 others.
- View without an account
- My Wishlist: partly. Things To Have: yes.
- No ads
- My Wishlist: partly. Things To Have: yes.
2 columns are left blank above — Sort & filter and Export your data. My Wishlist's own documentation does not answer them, and a guess in a comparison table is worse than a blank.
Giving up: My Wishlist'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 My Wishlist is best at (a quick free list with reservations and no signup ceremony): stay with My Wishlist.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a free alternative to My Wishlist?
Yes — Things To Have has no paywall and no list limits. My Wishlist 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. My Wishlist lets them some of the time, depending on how the list is shared. This is the criterion that decides how many people actually see your list.
Can I move my list out of My Wishlist?
My Wishlist 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