9 Best Giveaway Apps & Platforms To Run Contests In 2024
Looking for the best giveaway platform on the market? You’re in the right place.
There are lots of tools out there that can help you to build, run, and manage online contests. And it can be tough to figure out which one you should use.
To help you narrow down your options, we picked out what we think are the best giveaway apps out there this year, and reviewed and compared each of them below.
The best giveaway platforms compared
Top pick:
SweepWidget is the best giveaway platform for most users. It’s robust, packed with features, and it’s surprisingly affordable.
There’s even a free plan with a surprising amount of features.
#1 – SweepWidget
SweepWidget is our top pick for the overall best giveaway platform. It’s packed with powerful features and supports all the most popular types of giveaways. And it’s super affordable.
The best thing about SweepWidget is how flexible it is. You can build pretty much any type of giveaway you can think of. Refer-a-friend giveaways, interactive leaderboard competitions, Airdrop/NFT giveaways… you name it.
It supports 30+ of the most popular social media platforms, as well as 90+ entry methods, and 40+ API integrations. So you have lots of options.
Another feature we like is SweepWidget’s instant-win milestones. To give users more of an incentive to enter your giveaway, you can deliver rewards like coupons to users automatically when they reach a certain number of entries.
But our favorite thing of all is how easy it is to use. The UI is incredibly intuitive, and you can set up your giveaway in as little as a few minutes.
But don’t just take our word for it. You can try it out yourself thanks to SweepWidget’s generous free plan, which includes unlimited contests and entries. And when you’re ready to upgrade to a paid plan, you’ll find it’s super affordable.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Very flexible | Not an all-in-one platform (can only be used to run giveaways) |
| Tons of entry methods | |
| Easy to use | |
| Great value for money |
Pricing
Get started with SweepWidget’s free plan. Paid plans start from $29/month, and you can get 2 months for free when you pay annually. 14-day money-back guarantee available.
#2 – Woorise
Woorise is an all-in-one lead generation platform that includes a powerful giveaway tool.
Like SweepWidget, you can use Woorise to build all sorts of viral giveaways, contests, and competitions in a drag-and-drop campaign builder.
It has some really cool features that enable you to create sophisticated giveaway campaigns, including bonus entries, conditional logic, 1-click winner selection, instant rewards, promotional codes, geo-targeting, email notifications, and fraud detection.
But Woorise isn’t just for giveaways. As an AIO platform, you can also use it to build all sorts of other types of marketing content.
For example, you can use mobile-responsive page templates and page builder to create awesome, high-converting landing pages.
Or you can use the built-in quiz maker to build high-performing quizzes that drive tons of leads. Or the survey builder to collect useful feedback from your customers.
Woorise even supports orders and payments, so you can use it to create checkout pages and sell products online.
And despite its broad feature set, it’s still very affordable, with a decent free plan and paid plans starting at a fraction of the cost of its competitors.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
| All-in-one lead generation solution | Limited monthly entries (200 – 20,000 depending on the plan) |
| Lots of advanced features | Might be overkill if you just want to build giveaways |
| Easy to use | |
| Supports orders & payments |
Pricing
Paid plans start from $29/month, and a 20% discount is applied if billed yearly. 14-day free trial available for paid plans.
#3 – ViralKit
ViralKit is a unique player in the contest/giveaway app space. This is partly due to it’s use of AI to streamline the giveaway creation process.
What sets ViralKit apart in the contest arena is its AI-driven contest builder. The idea is simple yet transformative: feed the platform with your contest vision in one sentence, and in a matter of 10 seconds, your contest takes shape. Or, you can use the more traditional contest builder if you prefer to do it manually.
With a comprehensive suite of integrations, ViralKit supports 60+ social platforms and offers an impressive 250+ entry method options, giving users a broad spectrum of choices, more than most platforms in its class.
ViralKit is equipped with tools for custom form creation, unlimited contest runs, and a generous allowance for unlimited entries. Its design customization options provide a touch of personalization, and with options to embed on your site or use a free hosted landing page, flexibility is at your fingertips.
The management side is well-thought-out too. From managing entries to downloading contestant data as a CSV, to implementing security measures against fraudulent entries, ViralKit tries to cover all bases.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Quick contest creation with AI | UI could be improved slightly |
| Wide array of platform and entry method integrations | |
| Modern UI | |
| Highly customizable |
Pricing
ViralKit has a free plan that offers a significant number of features. If you need extra features like brand customization and more entry methods, upgrade to a paid plan. Plans start at $29/month.
#4 – RafflePress
RafflePress is our pick for the best WordPress giveaway plugin. If you plan on running your giveaways from your WordPress website, this is the way to go.
Unlike the other apps we’ve looked at so far, RafflePress is exclusively for WordPress. All you have to do is install and activate the plugin on your WP site and you have everything you need to run awesome contests at your fingertips.
The drag-and-drop giveaway builder lets you easily set up your campaigns in minutes with no coding or developer skills required. There are even pre-built templates to make the process as easy as possible.
One-click entries make it easier for users to sign up to improve conversions, while fraud protection helps ensure your giveaway is fair.
There are also a bunch of other advanced features like bonus entries, viral sharing links, tracking and retargeting, marketing and CRM integrations, and more.
And don’t worry, the RafflePress plugin shouldn’t slow down your site. It was built with performance in mind and, in our tests, it didn’t cause any sluggishness or impact loading speeds.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Great for WordPress | Requires WordPress (won’t work on other platforms) |
| Lots of advanced features | |
| Easy to use | |
| Flexible |
Pricing
Plans start at $39.50/year with current promotional discounts (50% off) applied. A money-back guarantee is available subject to terms and conditions.
#5 – ShortStack
ShortStack is an enterprise-level platform that can help you build powerful interactive content. You can use the tool to build everything from giveaways and social media contests to video upload contests, instant win games, puzzles, quizzes, and more.
It’s an easy-to-use solution that offers a range of optimized templates to help you get started. You can choose from over 65 templates or build your giveaways from scratch if the templates aren’t exactly what you’re looking for.
To launch yo giveaways, ShortStack offers a selection of great options, including landing page embedding, or you can embed it as a pop-up on your website.
ShortStack is a great solution for teams and agencies, as it has a range of great features that are specifically designed to make working with team members and clients easier.
For example, you can set up custom user roles for team members, and you can also create white-labeled content for your clients. Not only that, but you can provide users with access to detailed analytics to track your competitions and giveaways.
Although ShortStack is a really great giveaway platform, it’s more suited to larger businesses and agencies, and the price does reflect this, as it’s one of the most expensive options on the list.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Good for teams and agencies | Not affordable for small businesses |
| Wide variety of interactive content options | None of the plans include unlimited entries |
| Optimized templates make it easy to get started |
Pricing
Plans start at $99/month. 20% discounts are available for annual plans. Free trial available.
#6 – Outgrow
Outgrow is a no-code tool that can help you build interactive lead-generation content such as giveaways, quizzes, forms, calculators, and more.
Outgrow is a no-code platform, making it a great choice for beginners that want to create social media contests and other types of interactive content without too much hassle.
You can get started by choosing from one of the 1000+ optimized interactive templates, and then make any changes and customizations using the beginner-friendly editing tool.
Once your giveaway is ready to launch, you can choose from a variety of embed options and deploy it on a landing page, subdomain, pop-up, or chat.
In addition to giveaways, you can also choose from other interactive content types, including polls, quizzes, product recommendations, surveys, assessments, and calculators.
If you’re in search of a giveaway platform that can really help you to supercharge your lead generation strategy, Outgrow is a great option.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Good selection of interactive content types | No free plan is available |
| Affordable | No unlimited leads option available |
| Easy-to-use templates |
Pricing
Plans start from $22/month with a 44% discount available for annual plan customers. 7-day free trial available.
#7 – Gleam
Gleam is a digital marketing platform that includes 4 useful apps. The Competitions app is their built-in giveaway tool.
Competitions from Gleam is one of the best social media contest tools you’ll find anywhere and can be used to build everything from Instagram hashtag contests to Facebook contests, Twitter contests, video contests, sweepstakes, and more.
It includes tons of features that can ensure the success of your giveaways, including one-click entries, built-in viral sharing features, and detailed analytics.
As well as Competitions, Gleam offers 3 more apps that can help you to improve your lead generation efforts; Gallery, Captures, and Rewards. You can use the Rewards app to reward your customers and increase engagement, and the Captures app to manage your mailing list.
Gleam offers an innovative pricing strategy, so you only pay for the tools you need. This makes it one of the most affordable giveaway platforms on the market, as you can pay for the Competitions app individually if you don’t want access to the other tools.
Gleam is a great choice for creating giveaways, and it’s also a good option if you’re looking for additional marketing tools to level up your lead generation.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Easy-to-use | All-inclusive plans are not the cheapest |
| Affordable | The pricing structure could be simpler |
| Viral sharing and one-click entry features are useful |
Pricing
Gleam offers a free plan for the Competitions App. The paid Competitions App plans start from $10/month. All-inclusive plans start from $97/month.
#8 – Vyper
Vyper is a useful social media contest tool and giveaway platform that can be used to generate viral giveaways, rewards and loyalty programs, and more. This platform is popular with larger brands and has been used by big names like Walmart, Warner Bros, and Universal.
You can get started with Vyper for free, and create a contest in 10 minutes or less. They offer a super easy-to-use and intuitive drag-and-drop builder that can be used to generate everything from social contests to landing pages for lead generation.
As well as giveaways and landing pages, Vyper can also be used to create campaigns to incentivize your customers to take action and make purchases including loyalty schemes, and referral programs.
If you’re a business looking to diversify your lead generation efforts, then Vyper is a great tool to use.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Inclusive free plan | Free plan content features Vyper branding |
| Built-in landing page builder | Not the cheapest option available when it comes to paid plans |
| Additional tools like referral and loyalty program builder |
Pricing
Vyper offers a limited free plan. Paid plans start from $149/month. 50% discount available for annual plan customers.
#9 – Wishpond
Wishpond is more than just a giveaway platform. It’s an all-in-one marketing tool that can help you to run social media contests and giveaways, as well as perform a wide range of other lead-generation tasks.
When it comes to giveaways and contests, Wishpond offers tons of options that will help you to make your campaigns fun and unique. There are 12 different contest types to choose from and you can create contests for just about any social platform that you like, from your Facebook page to a Pinterest board.
Creating giveaways with Wishpond is super easy, as there is a selection of templates to choose from to help you get started. From there it takes just a few clicks to create awesome and professional-looking giveaways.
In addition to giveaway tools, Wishpond offers a wide selection of other marketing tools, such as a landing page builder, a funnel builder, Shopify marketing tools, and more.
Plus, useful reporting and analytics features that can help you to closely track your campaigns and monitor their effectiveness.
If you’re in search of an all-in-one tool with giveaway functions, Wishpond is one of the best tools available
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Templates make designing giveaways quick and easy | Larger packages are expensive |
| Good selection of contest types | Free trial is only included in annual plans |
| Extra marketing tools |
Pricing
Plans start from $49/month. 14-day free trial available for annual plan customers.
Giveaway platforms FAQ
What is a giveaway platform?
Giveaway platforms are an online app or tool that you can use to create and manage online contests.
They typically come with some sort of visual builder that you can use to create/style your giveaway widget and let you choose from multiple giveaway types and entry options.
They’ll also usually make it easy to publish your giveaway to your website/landing page, manage entries to your giveaway, select winners, etc.
How do you run a successful giveaway?
Running a successful giveaway requires careful planning.
You can start by determining your marketing goals. Are you hoping to use the giveaway to improve brand awareness? Grow your social media followers? Build an email list?
Once you know what your goals are, use this to determine your giveaway entry requirements. For example, you might set it up so that users have to follow your Instagram account to enter, or opt-in to your mailing list.
The most successful giveaways are those that go viral. To improve your giveaway’s virality, pick a great prize that your audience will really want. And consider running a refer-a-friend style contest in which users have to share the giveaway with their friends in order to enter.
And don’t forget to have a solid promotional strategy in place. Use relevant hashtags to increase your giveaway’s visibility on social media, and consider giving it an extra push through email blasts, influencer marketing, paid ads, etc.
How long should a giveaway run?
There’s no one-size-fits-all recommended giveaway duration. Some giveaways run for just a few hours, and others run for months. It really depends on your goals and the size of your audience.
That said, as a rough rule of thumb, 1-2 weeks is probably a good benchmark to aim for in most cases.
Big brands with a large, highly-engaged audience can generate great results with 24-hour giveaways, but those with a smaller audience should aim for a longer duration in order to provide ample time for people to enter.
How do you pick a winner for your giveaway?
Most giveaway platforms make it easy to pick a winner for your giveaway. In most cases, you’ll probably just want to select a winner at random from the pool of entrants.
But depending on how you set up your giveaway, you can also do things like pick a winner based on the number of correct answers in a quiz, the number of points in a leaderboard contest, etc.
If you want to get really creative, you could even run a UGC submission campaign and let other entrants vote for their favorite submission, then pick a winner based on who has the most votes.
Choosing the best social media contest tools
There you have it—everything you need to know about the 8 best apps for running giveaways and contests.
Overall, SweepWidget is hands-down the best giveaway platform on the market right now. It’s easy to use, affordable, and packed with features. And it integrates well with WordPress. What more could you want?
That said, if you’re looking for more of an all-in-one solution, Woorise is another great option. It’s much more than a social media contest app and can also be used to create landing pages, forms, quizzes, surveys, and more.
And if you want to build your giveaways in WordPress, then RafflePress is your best bet. It’s the best dedicated WordPress giveaway plugin out there.
