15 Best Secret Santa Apps: Gift Exchange Generator Tools For Memorable Christmas Looking for ways to make your Christmas special? Start with organizing a fun and memorable gift exchange. Check our top Secret Santa apps to help you with this!
Chicago, IL | December 01, 2022 12:47 PM Eastern Standard Time
Choosing The Best Secret Santa Organizer For A Truly Special Christmas
Looking for ways to breathe life into the Christmas gift exchange? Try setting up the good old Secret Santa game. Whether you will be exchanging presents with your colleagues or in a close family circle, this lovely ritual will help to ensure everyone feels valued and included. And with our selection of the 15 best Secret Santa generator services, you can find a tool that will help to get things organized. So pick an app of your liking, invite your friends, and get prepared for a truly memorable Christmas!
To save you time and effort, we have carefully scanned dozens of gift exchange generator services and apps available in the market today. Here are our top 3 recommendations. Our #1 recommendation is My Santa, a versatile Secret Santa app that has all the features necessary to organize an outstanding Christmas event.
#1 My Santa 💖 | #2 Elfster✨ | #3 Pikkado🎉 |
Best Secret Santa App overall | Great gift ideas & inspiration | Functionality & simple design |
What Is Secret Santa and Why Do You Need An App for It?
Secret Santa is a simple and enjoyable game that allows saving some money and ensures each person in a group gets the present. So, here is how it works:
A group of colleagues, roommates, friends, relatives, or whoever else, agrees to participate in the game. They write their names on a piece of paper and put them into a container.
Each person draws a name from the container to find out who they shall prepare a gift for.
The participants can set the basic rules such as the date, by which the presents must be ready, and the budget. They might provide wishlists or even agree upon a particular gift type such as digital only, gifts with meaning, or charitable donations.
The game begins and everyone tries to find the best possible gift for the assigned person.
By the due date, each participant must receive their secret present.
Set Up Your Perfect Secret Santa Event with My Santa
Sounds pretty straightforward, doesn’t it? But what if the participants want to play remotely? Or what if you need to send a digital present such as a subscription but do not know the email of the assigned person? A Secret Santa organizer service takes care of minor issues like this and ensures they do not spoil the whole fun. These services allow you to invite participants through social media, create a Secret Santa list with emails and phone numbers, add wishlists, and much more. Simply put, Secret Santa name randomizer services — at least, those from our top 15 selection — let you enjoy the best part of the gift exchange ritual without being distracted by organizational matters.
5 Features of the Best Online Secret Santa Generator
But how, you may wonder, do we know the services on our list are the top ones? Well, here are the four criteria we have kept in mind while compiling this selection. Maybe, they’ll come in handy when you are choosing your best Secret Santa app.
Price
Setting up a gift exchange game is, among all else, about saving some money so the best Secret Santa generator should be free. Or, it might have paid plans but, in that case, it must have a free one, too. And the latter should offer a decent feature set so that you only pay if you want some exclusive pro perks.
Feature set
The best gift exchange generator is the one that helps you get things organized. With this in mind, we expect it to have a basic set of options such as setting up the due date and the budget as well as some advanced features such as wishlists and personalized gift recommendations.
Access My Santa’s Free Advanced Features To Plan An Idea Event
Interface
What’s the use of advanced app features if you don’t understand how they work? The best Secret Santa app should, thus, have a simple user-friendly interface that feels intuitive and will appeal to different age groups.
Visual design
Christmas is probably the loveliest holiday in the year with a whole host of heart-warming symbols. In addition to being functional, the best online Secret Santa generator must have an eye-pleasing visual design for you to feel the magic vibe of Christmas time.
8 Awesome Secret Santa Organizer Services Worth Trying
#1 My Santa — Best Secret Santa gift exchange generator overall💖
When it comes to functionality, My Santa is the absolute leader on our list. Besides the standard due date, budget, and name drawing, it has a whole set of advanced features including
three modes of gift exchange: in-person, virtual, or mixed;
real-time reports to track the progress of each present exchange;
wishlists, where you upload links to particular items;
personalized gift recommendations for each participant and hints where these gifts can be bought.
The best part of it is that it only takes you a few seconds to set up an account and start the game. And if your group is 10 people or fewer, you can enjoy the service for free. For bigger companies, the price will vary between $9-$19, which is not expensive either. Add to this a charming winter-themed interface, user-friendly design, and prompt customer service, and you get a perfect organizer tool to make your Christmas unforgettable.
Find Out More About My Santa’s Plans And Pro Features
We especially love
two currencies (euro and dollars) for budget settings;
an opportunity to manage several games at a time;
participants can be invited via Whatsapp and Facebook;
secret chats to exchange messages;
progress reports to keep an eye on how it is going;
playful design and intuitive interface.
We wish they
made the service totally free;
added the feature to prevent certain pairings.
#2 Elfster — Best feature set for a free Secret Santa organizer✨
Another great Secret Santa gift exchange generator on our list, Elfster is a beautifully designed platform that offers all features necessary for a successful gift exchange game. In addition to classic options such as spending limit, due date, and wishlists, Elfster allows setting up draw restrictions and the exchange type (by mail or at a party).
Besides the great functionality, the platform is perfect for drawing inspiration. Elfster’s shop has all sorts of lovely gifts which you can buy as a present or add directly to your wishlist. Overall, Elfster offers the best feature set you can get from a Secret Santa gift exchange generator for free today.
Best suited for those who seek maximum functionality free of charge
#3 Pikkado — Best old-school Secret Santa name randomizer🎉
Pikkado is a unique Secret Santa list generator that brings together fairly good functionality and a very simple, somewhat old-fashioned design. Thus, its group creation form looks like one of those you could see at the onset of the Internet era. In the meantime, when setting up an event, you, all of a sudden, discover the service has all the necessary features in place. It allows you to determine the budget, specify the due date, and set up all sorts of draw restrictions.
In addition, Pikkado enables you to set up and manage several events at a time and write anonymous emails to participants. The latter is especially helpful if you need to find out important details about a person without disclosing yourself. All in all, it is a good free service that will appeal to people of different ages with its smart and simple design.
Best suited for families and mixed-age groups
#4 SecretSanta.com — Best variety of gift exchange games
Powered by Elfster, the service provides all features and functions you might expect from the best Secret Santa generator: prevent same pairings, set pairing exclusion rules, assign several recipients to each participant, and much more. All features are free and easy to use.
What makes the platform stand out from other Secret Santa apps on our list is that it offers different gift exchange formats. Besides the classic Kris Kringle game, you may likewise enjoy Yankee Swap and White Elephant. This should appeal to those who are not new to the gift exchange ritual and would love to add more fun and novelty to it. There is also a great blog with Christmas history, facts, and inspirational ideas.
Best suited for those who want to recharge the classic gift exchange game
#5 Sneaky Santa — Best source of inspiration and cool gift ideas
Another beautifully-designed platform on our list, Sneaky Santa is the best gift exchange generator for those who seek good functionality coupled with inspirational ideas and recommendations. Adding wishlists, contacting one another via a chat, drawing names, and preventing certain pairings — all this and a lot more is available for free here.
Whereas great functionality is what every best Secret Santa app on our list features, there is something that makes Sneaky Santa stand out. Thus, we particularly adore this site for its heart-warming blog with cool gift ideas such as 10 Gift Ideas for Homeowners or Gifts Under $25 For A Virtual Office Christmas Party. They are even present on Zazzle with cute Christmas souvenirs such as mugs and cards.
Best suited for those who seek inspiration and great gift ideas
#6 Secret Santa Organizer — Best for a simple design & lovely interface
We choose this organizer because it has a good design, plenty of features, and is simply lovely. There is some unique charm about this platform that will make you choose it again and again. Setting up an event here is super simple and free. All you need to do is to fill in a simple form with the date, location, budget, participants, and their emails. You can also add a personal message to greet the participants.
With all its simplicity, the organizer has as many as 12 interface languages available. It also has some advanced features such as excluding certain combinations, unlimited amount of participants allowed, and the opportunity to reuse your wishlist for new events. The service is, thus, a perfect fit for anyone who wants it simple, effective, and, meanwhile, atmospheric.
Best suited for those who want a mixture of simplicity and effectiveness
#7 Giftster — Best for shopping your family’s and friends’ wishlists
This Secret Santa list organizer is, first and foremost, about ensuring your presents are meaningful and wanted rather than organizing the gift exchange as such. The service is primarily focused on the wishlist feature. Once you’ve started a group and added at least one participant there, you can start shopping for the person’s wishlist. Gifster will show you which items have been already bought so that there is no risk two people will buy the same present.
The service is, thus, an ideal solution for those who want guarantees their presents will be appreciated. The interface is cute and the overall design is simple and intuitive. And because there are no due dates or budget limits, Gifster is a great way to make the process of shopping for gifts more enjoyable and stress-free.
Best suited for choosing meaningful and wanted presents
#8 My Wishlist — Best for cool wishlists for all occasions
As the name implies, the service specializes in generating and sharing wishlists. You can add items from any webshop, create a wishlist for any occasion, and reserve items on your friend’s Secret Santa list, to ensure there will be no double gifts in your company.
You can also use the platform as a simple Secret Santa name generator without email. You won’t find any advanced event setting features here but you can still use it to draw names and manage exclusions. The platform is very simple to use and free of charge.
Best suited for sharing all sorts of wishlists
More Downloadable Secret Santa Apps That Might Be of Help
For those looking for downloadable Secret Santa apps that allow you to manage the gift exchange on the go, we have compiled a selection of seven great Secret Santa organizer tools. Check the table below to find your best Secret Santa generator!
Name | Features | Interface | Best suited for |
Draw Names |
| festive and atmospheric | those looking for a downloadable Secret Santa app with phone numbers and personalized gift hints |
Simple Secret Santa Generator |
| bright and minimalistic | users of Apple devices |
Santa’s Secret Keeper |
| playful and сute | those looking for a free and unpretentious solution to optimize the gift exchange process |
Secret Santa 22 |
| neat and simple | those who seek functionality and are not too demanding about the visual design |
Secret Santas Helper |
| nice and smooth | those after a free Secret Santa gift exchange generator with a lovely interface |
Invisible Friend |
| fun and cartoonish | those who prefer simple Secret Santa apps with minimum features and an intuitive design |
Easy Secret Santa |
| colorful and full of joy | those who need a gift exchange generator that can be used on Christmas and other events, too. |
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Edward
+1 929-491-3157
edward@halvorsonmediagroup.com
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