Best Santa's Bag Alternatives
Santa's Bag is a warm, ad-free Christmas planner for one person doing the shopping. It is a good answer to one specific question — one person organising Christmas for a whole family on an iPhone — 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 Santa's Bag 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 one person organising Christmas for a whole family on an iPhone, Santa's Bag is probably still the right tool.
What Santa's Bag does well
- recipients, budgets, ideas and wrapping progress in one place
- sortable and filterable views, with a countdown
- no ads, and database backup and restore
- well loved for the job it does
Why people look for an alternative to Santa's Bag
It is iPhone and iPad only. An Android-using sibling simply cannot take part.
It is a private planner, not a shared list. Nobody else adds to it or sees it — and nothing prevents two people buying the same gift.
It is seasonal. Christmas is the frame; a birthday in June does not fit.
Santa's Bag 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 |
| Santa's Bag | No | No — it is a private planner | Yes | Yes | Yes | No — iPhone and iPad only | Yes | Partly |
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 |
| Elfster | No — everyone needs an account | No — owners can see activity | Partly — paid tier | Partly | Yes | Yes | Partly | — |
| Giftster | No — you join a group | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partly | — |
| Wishlists | Yes — guests view without the app | Yes | Partly | Partly | Yes | Partly — managing lives in the app | Partly | — |
| Wishes | Yes | Yes | Partly — 3 lists free, $9.99/yr | Yes | Yes | Yes | — | — |
“—” means we could not confirm it from the app’s own documentation.
How the two compare, criterion by criterion
Against the eight criteria, Santa's Bag falls short on 4 of them. The two apps are level on 4 others.
- View without an account
- Santa's Bag: no. Things To Have: yes.
- Reservations keep the surprise
- Santa's Bag: no — it is a private planner. Things To Have: yes — anonymous even to the owner.
- Works on any device
- Santa's Bag: no — iPhone and iPad only. Things To Have: yes — web/PWA, nothing to install.
- Export your data
- Santa's Bag: partly. Things To Have: yes — JSON.
Giving up: Santa's Bag'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 Santa's Bag is best at (one person organising Christmas for a whole family on an iPhone): stay with Santa's Bag.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a free alternative to Santa's Bag?
Yes — Things To Have has no paywall and no list limits. Santa's Bag 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. Santa's Bag requires one. This is the criterion that decides how many people actually see your list.
Can I move my list out of Santa's Bag?
Santa's Bag offers a partial export. 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