Best Wishlists Alternatives
Wishlists is a universal wishlist app for iOS and Android with a built-in Secret Santa. It is a good answer to one specific question — a mobile-first list with a Secret Santa mode — 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 everything included, with no paid tier waiting at the point it gets useful. It compares Wishlists 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 mobile-first list with a Secret Santa mode, Wishlists is probably still the right tool.
What Wishlists does well
- claims over 1.2M users
- guests can view wishes without downloading the app
- a built-in Secret Santa organiser
- clean mobile interface
Why people look for an alternative to Wishlists
Managing the list lives in the app. Guests can look; keeping the list is a phone job.
No web app to speak of alongside the native apps.
No export we could confirm, in a category where apps have been closing.
Wishlists 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 |
| Wishlists | Yes — guests view without the app | Yes | Partly | Partly | Yes | Partly — managing lives in the app | 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 |
| Listery | Partly | Yes | Partly | Partly | Yes | Partly — mobile apps only | — | — |
| Wishlist (wishlistapp.io) | Partly | Yes | Yes | Partly | Yes | Yes — iOS, Android and web | Partly | — |
| Ohmywishes | Partly — account needed to create a wish | Yes | Yes | — | Yes | Yes | — | — |
| 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, Wishlists falls short on 4 of them. The two apps are level on 3 others.
- Free, no paywall
- Wishlists: partly. Things To Have: yes — everything free.
- No ads
- Wishlists: partly. Things To Have: yes.
- Works on any device
- Wishlists: partly — managing lives in the app. Things To Have: yes — web/PWA, nothing to install.
- Sort & filter
- Wishlists: partly. Things To Have: yes.
One column is left blank above — Export your data. Wishlists's own documentation does not answer it, and a guess in a comparison table is worse than a blank.
Giving up: Wishlists'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 Wishlists is best at (a mobile-first list with a Secret Santa mode): stay with Wishlists.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a free alternative to Wishlists?
Yes — Things To Have has no paywall and no list limits. Wishlists is only partly free.
Do my friends need an account to open the list?
Not on Things To Have — viewing never requires a signup. Wishlists also lets people view a list without one (guests view without the app). This is the criterion that decides how many people actually see your list.
Can I move my list out of Wishlists?
Wishlists 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