The best giveaway and contest software of 2026

ShortStack covers almost every contest format in one builder. You can run a plain sweepstakes, a public voting contest, a photo or video upload contest, a refer-a-friend sweepstakes or a multi-prize instant win, and you build each one on a hosted landing page or embed it in your own site. For social giveaways it pulls in comments from Facebook, Instagram and YouTube posts, collects every post that uses your hashtag, and picks a random winner from them, which saves you scrolling through comments with a spreadsheet open.

The free plan has no time limit. It gives you sweepstakes, quizzes, website pop-ups and unlimited landing pages and forms, but only 500 views and 200 stored entries a month, and ShortStack may show an ad overlay once you pass the view limit.

The formats you came for sit on different plans. Public voting starts on Launch at $29 a month, refer-a-friend sweepstakes and photo and video uploads on Build at $59, and the entry fraud filter with reCAPTCHA on Scale at $119. Paid plans charge for overages, so a contest that takes off costs more: on Launch that is $6.70 per extra 10,000 views and $3.33 per extra 1,000 entries.

Choose it if you run promotions through the year and want one tool for hashtag drives, voting and instant wins.

Skip it if you only need one prize draw. KingSumo or SweepWidget does that for less.

KingSumo does one job. You set a prize, people enter with their email address, and each entrant gets extra entries for sharing the giveaway with friends. That share loop is what grows your list, and KingSumo has offered it for years without asking for a monthly fee.

The free plan gives you unlimited giveaways, bonus entries, multiple prizes and winners, reminder emails to entrants, translation and an embed for any site, with basic integrations. The catch is a sponsored entry that KingSumo adds to your giveaway. The Lifetime plan, sold through AppSumo for a single $49 payment, removes it and adds custom branding, your own rules and terms, extra entry fields, Meta Pixel and conversion tracking, and advanced integrations. KingSumo is part of the AppSumo family, and the integrations it names are SendFox, Zapier, Mailchimp, ConvertKit (now Kit) and Klaviyo.

It has no voting, photo contests, instant wins or hashtag tracking, and its site does not mention fraud checks.

Choose it if you want to run a list-building giveaway this month and pay $49 at most.

Skip it if you need entries from social follows, purchases or user-submitted photos.

RafflePress is a WordPress plugin, so the giveaway lives on your own pages and the traffic it brings stays on your domain. You build it with a drag-and-drop editor, and entrants earn extra chances through more than 30 actions, grouped into growing your list, growing your followers and getting engagement. New entrants can go straight to Mailchimp, Kit (it still says ConvertKit), AWeber, ActiveCampaign, MailerLite, Brevo, FluentCRM and the other tools on its list, or to anything else through Zapier, Uncanny Automator or webhooks.

The free RafflePress Lite plugin on WordPress.org has more than 20,000 active installs. The Pro license adds the email integrations, giveaway landing pages, goal-based templates and verified bonus actions. Pro now sells as a one-time payment: $299 for one site or $349 for unlimited sites, both with every feature, one year of priority support and a 14-day money-back guarantee.

That pricing works for an agency or a site that runs giveaways every quarter. For one small contest, $299 is steep next to KingSumo's $49.

Choose it if you run self-hosted WordPress and want giveaways, entries and email sign-ups handled inside it.

Skip it if your site runs on Shopify, Wix or Squarespace, because RafflePress needs WordPress.

ViralSweep's Purchases app gives a shopper entries for every dollar spent on your Shopify or BigCommerce store. That turns a giveaway into a sales promotion, which most tools here cannot do. The same account runs sweepstakes, contests, instant wins, waitlists, milestone rewards, comment giveaways and photo galleries, and leads go into your email platform or CRM.

The $49 Starter plan includes unlimited promotions and entries, refer-a-friend bonuses, contest moderation, an official rules generator, live draws and real-time analytics for one brand. Its Purchases app counts only 100 orders, though, so a store promotion of any size needs Business at $199 a month, which raises that to 1,000 orders and adds hashtag tracking for 3 tags, white label branding, extra coupon options, leaderboards, geo targeting and premium integrations. Premium at $399 adds A/B testing, video uploads, pay-to-vote and API access.

Every plan starts with a 7-day trial that bills automatically when it ends unless you cancel. The random picker and rules generator are free tools anyone can use.

Choose it if you sell on Shopify or BigCommerce and want a giveaway that also moves orders.

Skip it if you want white label or hashtag entries on a small budget, because both start at $199 a month.

SweepWidget lists more than 120 entry methods across more than 20 social platforms on its Pro plan, and 30+ platforms from Business up. If your giveaway asks people to follow you on one network, watch a video on another and join your list, it probably has an action for each. It also runs photo and video contests judged by votes or a panel, refer-a-friend entries, custom form fields, and connections to 38 email tools, with a free hosted landing page or a widget you embed anywhere. Giveaways run in 103 languages.

The free plan is for testing: it stops at 10 user entries. Pro at $29 a month is the real starting point, with unlimited entries for one brand. Business at $59 adds leaderboards, instant coupons, milestone rewards, Zapier and crypto entry methods and airdrops. You need Premium at $119 to remove SweepWidget's branding and add email verification and geo-blocking, which are the main defenses against fake entries.

Until November 30, 2026, a Black Friday offer gives new monthly customers the third month free and takes 30% off the first year on yearly plans.

Choose it if your giveaway is built around social follows and actions across many networks.

Skip it if you need fraud checks on a small budget, since they start at $119 a month.

Woobox has been building campaign tools for 15 years and now starts you with an AI builder: you describe the campaign and it drafts the page. Templates cover sweepstakes, photo contests, trivia and personality quizzes, polls, coupons, instant wins, surveys, forms and landing pages, so it suits a team that wants a giveaway one month and a quiz the next.

For giveaways, entrants earn bonus entries for following you on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X or YouTube, commenting on a post, sharing the page, watching a video or visiting a link, and each entrant gets a referral link. Where Woobox cannot check an action through the network's API, it relies on referral tracking and click-through checks, so some follow entries are not confirmed. Winner draws are random, can be weighted by entries, and are logged, and you can re-draw if a winner does not reply in time. Every giveaway comes with starter rules text and a one-line embed code, and entries export to CSV.

The free plan covers 1 site, 100 submits and 1,000 views a month. Basic at $29 raises that to 1,000 submits and 10,000 views, which is still tight for a giveaway that spreads. Paid plans add API access and webhooks.

Choose it if you want giveaways and quizzes from one tool and like starting from an AI draft.

Skip it if you expect thousands of entries and want a low price: Pro is $79 a month for 10,000 submits.

Convertful handles the kind of giveaway where a visitor plays straight away: a spin-to-win wheel or a scratch card that reveals a discount coupon in exchange for an email address. It has no sweepstakes draws, entry rules or winner picking. For an online store that wants more sign-ups every day, rather than one burst during a contest, that is often the better trade.

You build the game in a drag-and-drop editor and show it as a pop-up, scroll box, floating bar, welcome mat or inline widget. Rules decide who sees it: exit intent, time on page, scroll depth, traffic source, device, or the tags and custom fields your email platform already holds. That last option lets you keep the wheel away from existing customers, or show a different prize to people tagged as past buyers. Like and share buttons can also reveal a coupon code or a download link after a click, and countdown timers add a deadline. It works on WordPress, Shopify and other site builders.

The Solo plan costs $9 a month for 10,000 pageviews on one site and shows Convertful branding. Starter, from $29 a month, covers 3 sites. Every plan has a 14-day free trial.

Choose it if you want a permanent spin-to-win or scratch-card offer that feeds your email list.

Skip it if you need a contest with entries, rules and a prize draw. Pick ShortStack or KingSumo for that.

UpViral is built around referrals. Each person who signs up gets a link to share, and the people who bring in the most friends climb a leaderboard or earn rewards. That suits a product launch, a waitlist or a newsletter push, where the goal is a big list in a short time. It also runs contests and sweepstakes, picks sweepstakes winners automatically and delivers prizes, and includes an anti-fraud algorithm on every plan.

The Starter plan costs $99 a month, or $79 a month billed yearly, for unlimited campaigns and up to 10,000 leads under one brand, with 30+ integrations and no UpViral branding. Business adds location-based entry restrictions, API and webhook access and 25,000 leads; its plan card says $149 a month but the comparison table on the same page says $199, so confirm the price at checkout.

The trial costs $1 for 14 days with full access, then bills the plan you chose. UpViral also gives a 30-day money-back guarantee if the campaign does not grow your leads, subscribers or sales.

Choose it if you want a referral campaign with leaderboards and rewards rather than a one-off prize draw.

Skip it if you run occasional small giveaways. At $99 a month, KingSumo or ShortStack costs far less.