9 Best Giveaway Tools For Online Contests (2023)

Looking for giveaway tools to help you run online contests? We’ve got you covered.

In this post, we’ll be revealing the best giveaway platforms on the market this year. 

All of these platforms make it easy to set up online contests, collect and manage entries, and select winners. But each one comes with its own unique features, and different pros and cons.

To help you figure out which tool is the best fit for your needs, we’ll be reviewing each of them in detail. By the end of this post, you’ll have all the information you need to make an informed decision.

Ready? Let’s get started.

The best social media contest tools for giveaways

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#1 – SweepWidget

SweepWidget is our top pick for the overall best giveaway platform. It has everything you could want in a giveaway tool, with a huge number of supported entry methods, affordable pricing, and an easy-to-use interface.

You can use SweepWidget to make all kinds of giveaways, including social media contests, refer-a-friend campaigns, leaderboard competitions, etc. 

Plus, set up instant reward milestones to automatically distribute coupons and other prizes to entrants who get a certain amount of points.

In total, there are 90+ entry methods and 30+ supported social media platforms supported

So whether your goal is to drive traffic to your website, get people to follow your TikTok account, collect user-generated content (UGC), or pretty much anything else—SweepWidget can handle it. 

It only takes a few minutes to build your contest with SweepWidget’s intuitive drag-and-drop builder. And when it’s ready, you can publish the contest widget to a free SweepWidget landing page, or embed it to your own site in a couple of clicks.

Once you’ve launched your campaign, you can manage entries from your SweepWidget dashboard, select winners manually or randomly, and export entrant data as a CSV file.

Key features

• Drag-and-drop editor
• Custom styling 
• Instant coupons & rewards
• Viral share campaigns
• Leaderboards
• Native API
• Data management
• Custom form fields
• 30+ social platforms
• 90+ entry methods
• Winner selection
• Unlimited entries
• 20+ email integrations

Pros

• Fantastic value
• Easy to use
• Tons of supported entry methods
• Flexible and customizable

Cons

• Only for giveaways/contests (no other interactive content types supported)

Pricing

Free plan available. Paid plans start at $29/month, get 2 months free if you sign up for an annual plan. There’s a 14-day money-back guarantee subject to terms and conditions.

Read our SweepWidget review.

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#2 – ShortStack

ShortStack is the best choice for teams and agencies. It’s a powerful platform with a raft of enterprise-level features, but it doesn’t come cheap.

ShortStack supports some really cool, interactive content types. 

Aside from regular social media contests, you can use it to build things like photo caption contests, video upload contests, instant win games/puzzles, personality and knowledge quizzes, etc.

And like SweepWidget, it’s super easy to use. There are 65+ templates for you to choose from when designing your contest (or alternatively, you can just build it from scratch), and plenty of styling/customization options.

Once it’s built, you have a bunch of flexible publishing options to choose from. For example, you can publish it as a standalone landing page, or embed it as a triggered popup on your website.

But the best thing about ShortStack is its team-focused features. 

You can set up custom user roles and permissions for each of your team members, create white-label campaigns without ShortStack branding, access advanced analytics to better track and measure your campaign performance, etc.

The main downside is the price tag. ShortStack has a higher starting price than SweepWidget, but if you’re an agency or enterprise with a bigger budget to work with, it’s more than worth it.

Key features

• Social media giveaways
• Instant win contests
• Refer-a-friend
• Coupon code distribution
• Video upload contests
• White-label campaigns
• Winner selection
• Games and quizzes
• Email tools
• Customization
• Flexible publishing
• Templates
• Winner selection
• Entry management
• Landing page builder
• Email delivery

Pros

• Enterprise-ready features
• Great for team collaboration
• Supports cutting-edge interactive giveaway types
• Flexible design and publishing options

Cons

• Expensive
• Limited entries on all plans

Pricing

Plans start at $99/month, save 20% with annual pricing. Free trial available.

Read our ShortStack review.

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#3 – Woorise

Woorise is an all-in-one (AIO) lead generation platform that includes a powerful and flexible giveaway builder. It also comes with a decent free plan.

As an AIO platform, Woorise doesn’t only let you build social media giveaways. You can also use it to build all sorts of other lead-generation assets, like landing pages, quizzes, forms, surveys, etc.

There are tons of responsive templates for all of the above to choose from, and you can customize those templates easily in the drag-and-drop builder. Then, embed them on your website, Facebook page, etc., and track engagements with the built-in analytics.

Woorise even supports orders and payments, so aside from generating leads, you can also use it to build checkout pages, collect donations, and sell products online.

One cool feature we like is Woorise’s Bonus Entries. This lets you set up standard entry actions for your giveaways, but then give out extra chances to win to entrants who refer their friends via their own unique referral URL. It’s a great way to boost your campaign’s virality.

We also like how Woorise lets you automatically send out personalized email notifications to your leads when forms are submitted, and push sign-ups to your email marketing software via native integrations.

Key features

• Giveaways
• Contests
• Landing pages
• Quizzes
• Forms
• Surveys
• Templates
• Drag-and-drop builder
• Embeds
• Analytics
• One-click winner selection
• Instant win
• Email integrations
• Email notifications
• Bonus entries
• Orders and payments

Pros

• All-in-one lead generation platform
• One of the only giveaway tools that supports payments
• Easy to use
• Affordable plan options

Cons

• Limited to 200 – 5,000 entries/month on all plans except Pro
• Free and Basic plan lack important features and integrations

Pricing

Free plan available. Paid plans start from $29/month, save 20% when you sign up for a yearly plan. You can try the Pro plan free for 14 days.

Read our Woorise review.

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#4 – ViralKit

ViralKit is a revolutionary AI-powered contest builder that takes contest creation to a whole new level. This platform stands out for its ability to build an entire contest in just 10 seconds by simply instructing it in a single sentence, demonstrating its AI prowess.

With its unmatched 60+ social platform integrations and 250+ entry method options, ViralKit has cemented its position as one of the most versatile contest tools on the market.

Embedding your contest into your website is as simple as using a shortcode, making it highly user-friendly. Or, use a fully customizable landing page on ViralKit.

The ability to fully customize the style and design of your giveaway ensures brand consistency, while its real-time in-depth analytics offer insights that help in effective decision making.

Its world-class security feature ensures only genuine entries, blocking out cheaters and fake participants.

But that’s not all. With ViralKit, you can run unlimited contests, allow for unlimited entries, and even manage these entries effectively. Whether you want to delete, invalidate, or choose winners, either randomly or manually, ViralKit has got you covered.

Key features

• AI contest builder
• 60+ social platform integrations
• 250+ different entry method options
• Custom forms
• Unlimited contests and entries
• Customizable style and design
• 25+ API integrations and fully custom API
• Leaderboard competitions
• Security features to block cheaters and fake entries
• Viral giveaways with friend referrals
• Real-time analytics
• Efficient entry management

Pros

• Fastest contest setup with AI generator
• Highest number of social platform and entry method options
• Comprehensive customization options
• Secure and trustworthy with anti-cheating measures

Cons

• No free plan

Pricing

7-day free trial available with no feature limitations. Plans start at $34/month and there’s a 2 month discount for annual plans.

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#5 – Outgrow

Outgrow is a feature-rich interactive content marketing platform. Use it to build online giveaways, as well as other interactive lead-generation widgets.

Outgrow’s a no-code platform built for beginners, so creating your giveaways is super easy. You can start by choosing an optimized template for the type of giveaway you want to run (there are 1,000+ templates to choose from), then customize it as needed in the intuitive editor.

Once you’ve built your giveaway, you can embed it on your landing page, on a subdomain, in a chat, or as a popup. 

But what makes Outgrow special is all the other things you can do with it, aside from creating giveaways. 

For example, it’s one of the only platforms that lets you build interactive calculators to capture leads. Other interactive content types you can build with Outgrow include chatbots, forms and surveys, assessments, polls, quizzes, and product recommendations.

And despite all that, it’s very affordable. Outgrow’s Freelancer plan is one of the cheapest you’ll find anywhere and gives you a lot for your money.

Key features

• Giveaways/contests
• Quizzes
• Chatbots
• Surveys
• Recommendations
• Polls
• Forms
• Assessments
• Calculators
• Templates
• Hosting and embedding
• Outcome mapping
• Conditional content
• Logic jump
• Analytics
• Integrations

Pros

• Supports lots of types of interactive content
• Advanced features like outcome mapping and conditional content
• Good value for money
• Huge selection of templates

Cons

• No free plan (but a free trial is available)
• Limited leads on all plans

Pricing

Plans start at $22/month but you can save up to 44% by signing up annually. Get started with a 7-day free trial.

Read our Outgrow review.

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#6 – Gleam

Gleam is a giveaway platform that offers a variety of different tools that can help you to grow your business. The platform is broken down into 4 different apps: Competitions, Gallery, Captures, and Rewards. 

The Competitions app can be used to build powerful and professional-looking contests, sweepstakes, giveaways, and more. It has built-in viral sharing features, one-click entry options, and a bunch of other useful features.

If you’re looking to grow your business in other ways, you can also make use of the Rewards app to increase engagement and reward your customers or use the Capture app to help you to manage and grow your email list. Gallery is also useful for collecting and curating brand images. 

Overall, Gleam Competitions is a really useful tool for creating all types of social contests and giveaways, and the additional apps make Gleam a powerful platform for supercharging your business growth.  

Key features

• Dedicated competitions app
• One-click entries
• Viral sharing features 
• Host on your own site or create a landing page
• Gallery, Capture, and Reward apps 

Pros

• The Competitions app is easy to use 
• Affordably priced
• Viral-sharing features are useful 

Cons

• The pricing structure is a little complicated 
• All-inclusive plans are quite expensive

Pricing

Gleam offers a limited free plan that includes unlimited competitions. Gleam also offers an all-inclusive plan starting at $97/month. For the individual Competitions app, plans start at $10/month. 

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#7 – Wishpond

Wishpond is an all-in-one marketing platform that includes some useful giveaway and social media contest tools. 

You can use Wishpond to create everything from viral sweepstakes to photo and hashtag contests. In total, there are 12 different contest types to choose from. Plus, you can also create contests for all the major social media platforms including Facebook giveaways, Instagram, and even Pinterest. 

Wishpond also provides a range of useful templates that can help you set up your giveaways and contests in just a few clicks. Once your contests are up and running, you can also use the analytics and reporting features to track their success. 

In addition to the competition features, Wishpond includes a huge selection of other marketing tools too. You have access to everything, from a landing page and funnel builder to powerful automation tools, pop-up builders, and even Shopify marketing tools. 

Overall, Wishpond is the perfect solution for people looking for an all-in-one marketing tool with giveaway functions built in. 

Key features

• Powerful giveaway features 
• Wide selection of templates 
• 12 contest options
• Landing page builder 
• Pop-up form builder 
• Automation tools 
• Shopify marketing tools 

Pros

• Lots of professional templates to choose from 
• Create all types of giveaways for popular social media platforms
• Tons of additional tools included 

Cons

• Quite expensive for packages that include 1000+ leads 
• Free trial only available on annual plans 

Pricing

Plans start from $49/month when billed annually. 14-day free trial available on annual plans. 

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#8 – Vyper

Vyper is an innovative giveaway platform that can be used to run giveaways, social contests, loyalty programs, and referral campaigns.

Vyper is more than just a giveaway tool as it also includes other marketing features that are essential for lead generation campaigns, such as a landing page builder. 

One of the main perks of Vyper is that it’s super easy to use. You can create professional-looking landing pages, giveaways, and contests in under 10 minutes with the help of an intuitive drag-and-drop builder. 

In addition to the giveaway and landing page builder, you can also use Vyper to create reward programs, loyalty schemes, and refer all programs to incentivize customers to interact with your brand and share their data for marketing purposes. 

Overall, Vyper is a great platform for creating giveaways, but it can also be a useful tool to have in your arsenal when it comes to managing and scaling other areas of your marketing strategy. 

Key features

• Easy-to-use giveaway builder
• Social contest functions 
• Drag-and-drop landing page builder 
• Reward program tools 
• Referral program tools 
• Loyalty scheme tools 

Pros

• Landing page builder built-in
• Free plan available 
• Additional marketing tools included

Cons

• Paid plans are quite expensive 
• Contests created using the free plan include Vyper branding 

Pricing

Vyper offers a free plan that can be used to create contests and campaigns that include Vyper branding. Paid plans start from $149/month with 50% discounts available for annual payments. 

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#9 – RafflePress

RafflePress is a plugin that you can use to create social contests, viral giveaways, and more directly from your WordPress website. 

Unlike the other platforms we’ve looked at so far, RafflePress is designed specifically for WordPress users. So to get started, you’ll first need to install and activate the plugin from your WP dashboard.

From there, you can choose from a wide range of ready-made templates and customize them using the easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor to start building your giveaway. 

RafflePress also has a range of features to ensure that your contests are easy to enter and fair. You can make use of the 1-click entry feature and set up fraud detection to automatically eliminate fraud entries.

In addition to this, RafflePress makes it super easy to share your giveaways and even has a viral sharing feature that can be used to encourage participants to share the competition with their friends in exchange for more entries or points. 

RafflePress also easily integrates with pretty much all of the most popular email marketing tools, making it easy to include giveaways in your wider marketing strategy. 

Key features

• WordPress plugin
• Wide range of templates 
• Drag and drop functionality
• Fraud detection
• 1-click entry feature 
• Viral sharing features 

Pros

• Great for WordPress users 
• Good selection of templates 
• Fraud detection built-in 

Cons

• No free plan is available 
• Cheaper plans only include a single site 

Pricing

Paid plans start from $39.50/year with a 50% discount applied. 100% money-back guarantee available.

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Giveaway platforms FAQ

Before we wrap up, here are the answers to some FAQs about running online giveaways.

How do I host a giveaway online?

There’s a lot that goes into hosting a successful online giveaway, but here are some basic steps to help you get started:

• Decide on your marketing goals (e.g. increase brand awareness, gain followers, build an email list, etc.)
• Choose a platform to build and manage your giveaway (any of the options on this list will work)
• Set a prize for the giveaway
• Add entry methods and requirements in line with your marketing goals (e.g. share the contest, follow your social media, opt-in to your mailing list, etc.)
• Publish your giveaway to a landing page or your website
• Promote the giveaway on social media/other marketing channels.

There’s a little more to it than that, but that’s the gist of it. Just make sure that you understand all applicable laws and regulations before you get started, and that your contest is fully compliant with those laws.

Where can I promote my giveaway?

The best place to promote giveaways is on social media: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc. 

You can try promoting it organically on social media by sharing it with your existing audience, or run paid social ads to reach a wider audience.

Aside from social media, it might also be worth promoting your giveaway through email. You can use email marketing software to build an email list and then embed your giveaway in an email and send it to your subscribers. 

Other things you can do to promote your giveaway include:

• Add a pop-up on your website promoting your giveaway to your site visitors
• Submit your giveaway to contest directories
• Partner with influencers and have them promote your giveaway to their audience
• Run paid Google Ads to promote your giveaway landing page on search. 

How do you make a giveaway go viral?

The most important thing you can do to make your giveaway go viral is to incentivize sharing. 

Fortunately, this is easy. Because most giveaway platforms give you the option to add refer-a-friend entry requirements that encourage sharing. 

For example, you can set it up so that in order to be in with a chance of winning the prize, your entrants have to first comment on the giveaway post and tag two of their friends. 

It’s also important to offer a really, really good prize that people want. The better the prize, the better chances you’ll have of seeing your giveaway go viral.

And finally, you’ll also need to give your giveaway a promotional push. It’s not going to have a chance to go viral if enough people don’t see it to begin with, so make sure you have a solid marketing strategy in place before you launch. 

Are giveaways allowed on social media platforms?

Yes, most social media platforms allow giveaways, as long as they comply with their rules and applicable laws.

That said, each platform has a different policy regarding giveaways and contests, so I’d suggest doing your research before you get started.

How effective are giveaways?

Giveaways can be very effective if you get them right. The most successful giveaways can significantly boost brand awareness and bag you thousands of new followers, email subscribers, and business leads.

Choosing the best giveaway platform for your contests

That concludes our guide to the best giveaway tools. 

All that’s left now is for you to sign up and start building your online contests.

If you’ve still not decided which giveaway platform makes the most sense for your needs, here’s a quick reminder of our top three picks and who they’re best for:

• SweepWidget is the best giveaway platform for most users. It supports pretty much any entry method you can think of, and it’s super easy to use and very affordable.
• ShortStack is the best solution for teams and agencies. It’s pricier than SweepWidget but comes with a landing page builder, email delivery, and some powerful collaboration features like role-based team access.
• Woorise is the best all-in-one lead generation platform. It doesn’t just help you to build and manage giveaways, but also other lead-gen assets like landing pages, forms, surveys, quizzes, etc.

We hope you found this useful. Good luck!

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