Best Secret Santa Generators Compared
We compare Elfster, DrawNames and List of Wishes on price, wishlists, exclusions and reveals, plus which one suits Australians best.
The best Secret Santa generator depends on where you shop and what you want built in. DrawNames is the fastest free option with no sign-up. Elfster suits people who shop mostly on US sites. List of Wishes is the strongest pick for Australians, pairing a proper wishlist with gifts you can actually buy at home.
Every year, someone in the group chat asks the same question: what's a good Secret Santa generator? There are a few solid ones around, and they are not interchangeable. Some are built for speed. Some are built for wishlists. Only one of them is built with Australia in mind. We have used all three, and this is our honest read on where each one shines and where it falls short.
List of Wishes
The best pick for Australian gift swaps
It pairs a proper year-round wishlist with a Gift Shop full of items you can actually get delivered here. DrawNames is the fastest free draw, and Elfster is strongest if your group shops on US sites, but for most Australian groups this is the one to beat.
How the three compare
| Elfster | DrawNames | List of Wishes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free to use | Free, no ads | Free |
| Sign-up required | Yes, for organisers | No sign-up needed | Yes, quick sign-up |
| Name draw and exclusions | Yes, with exclusion rules | Yes, with exclusion rules | Yes, random assignment |
| Wishlist built in | Yes, pulls from many US retailers | Yes, basic wish lists | Yes, full wishlist tool |
| Gift finder or shop | Suggestion tools within wishlists | Gift finder with popular picks | Built-in Gift Shop, AU-based |
| Remote or video reveal | Yes, video gift-opening parties | No video feature | Wishlist stays hidden until reveal |
| Australian focus | No, US-focused | No, general/international | Yes, built for Australia |
A few notes behind the table. Elfster's wishlist strength comes from how well it hooks into big US retailers like Amazon and Etsy, which is brilliant if that is where you shop, less useful if it is not. DrawNames strips everything back to the essentials: pick names, set a budget, done. List of Wishes builds the whole thing around a wishlist you can use all year, not just at Christmas, and pairs it with a shop stocked with items you can actually get delivered in Australia.
List of Wishes
4.7Elfster
4.2DrawNames
4.0Elfster
Elfster has been around a long time and it shows in how polished the wishlist side feels. Its wishlist tool can pull products in directly from retailers like Amazon and Etsy, so your Secret Santa can see exactly what you want with a link ready to go. It handles exclusion rules properly too, so couples or siblings will not draw each other, and it scales from a group of three up to groups of hundreds, which is handy for large workplaces.
The video gift-opening party feature is a nice touch for remote teams or family spread across different cities. You send invites by email, text or social media, and everyone can join a call to watch gifts get opened together.
Where Elfster shows its US roots is in the shopping side. The retailer links and suggestions are built around American stores, so Australian shoppers often end up window shopping products that either cost a fortune to ship here or are not available at all. If most of your group buys from Amazon US anyway, this will not bother you. If you are buying local, it is worth knowing before you start.
Who it suits: groups that shop heavily on US sites, or large workplace exchanges that want a video reveal option.
DrawNames
DrawNames does one job and does it well: drawing names, quickly, with no fuss. There is no sign-up required, no ads to click through, and no account to remember later. You set up a group, add exclusions if you need them, pick a date and a budget, and the tool draws names for everyone in a few minutes.
It also includes a gift finder with popular gift suggestions, which is a good starting point if half your group has no idea what to put on their wish list. Invitations go out through messenger apps or text, so people who are not fussed about email will still see them.
The trade-off is depth. DrawNames is built for speed rather than for building out a rich wishlist or organising a shopping experience. If your group just wants a quick, no-nonsense draw and nothing else, it does exactly what it promises. If you want more structure around the actual gift buying, you will likely end up doing that part somewhere else.
Who it suits: people who want the fastest possible name draw with zero sign-up and zero admin.
List of Wishes
List of Wishes was built with Australians in mind, which changes a few things in practice. You start a Secret Santa exchange, add participants by email, and the system randomly assigns everyone someone to buy for. Each person only sees their assigned person's wishlist, so gifts stay a genuine surprise right up to the reveal.
The wishlist itself is not a Christmas-only feature. It works year-round, so people can keep adding birthday ideas, house-warming wants or just things they have been eyeing, and it is ready to go again for the next Secret Santa without anyone starting from scratch. That is a small thing that saves a fair bit of admin each December.
The part that sets it apart from the other two is the built-in Gift Shop, stocked with products actually available in Australia. Instead of hunting through a wishlist full of US-only links and working out shipping costs, you can browse our Gift Shop and find something that will turn up on time, without a customs form attached. For groups where most people live in Australia, that alone removes a lot of the usual Secret Santa friction.
It is a newer tool than Elfster or DrawNames, so it does not yet have a video reveal feature. What it trades that for is a genuinely local shopping experience, which for an Australian group is often the bigger win.
Who it suits: Australian friend groups, families and workplaces who want wishlists and gift ideas that are actually easy to buy locally.
Elfster
- Rich wishlists that pull from big US retailers
- Video gift-opening party for remote groups
- Handles very large groups, from 3 to 300 plus
- Shopping is built around US stores
- Organisers need to sign up
DrawNames
- No sign-up and no ads
- Fast, no-nonsense name draw
- Gift finder for people who are stuck
- Wishlists are fairly basic
- No video reveal option
List of Wishes
- Built for Australia, with local gift ideas
- Wishlist works all year, not just at Christmas
- Each person only sees their match's list
- Newer than Elfster and DrawNames
- No video reveal feature yet
Verdict by use case
- Want the fastest possible draw with no sign-up at all? DrawNames is the one to reach for. It gets a group organised in minutes and nothing about it is complicated.
- Your group shops mostly on US sites and wants a video reveal? Elfster is the strongest fit. The retailer integrations and gift-opening call feature are genuinely well built for that use case.
- You want an Australian-friendly exchange with wishlists that work all year and gifts you can actually buy at home? That is exactly what List of Wishes is for. Create your free wishlist, invite your group, and let the site handle the assigning and the hiding.
Whichever one you land on, the goal is the same: less admin, more surprise, and a gift your person actually wanted. For more ideas once your group is sorted, our more gift guides collection has plenty to work from.
Frequently Asked Questions
4 questions answered
DrawNames is the quicker option if you just need names drawn with no sign-up. Elfster takes a little longer to set up but gives you wishlist links straight from retailers, which can save time later on.
It depends on the tool. DrawNames needs no sign-up at all. Elfster and List of Wishes ask organisers to sign up so the group, wishlists and reveal stay organised in one place, though participants usually just need an email invite.
List of Wishes is the strongest choice here, since its Gift Shop is stocked with products available in Australia. Elfster and DrawNames both lean towards US and international retailers, which can mean higher shipping costs or longer delivery times for Australian buyers.
Yes, and it is worth picking a tool that supports this. List of Wishes doubles as a year-round wishlist, so the same list you build for Secret Santa can be used for birthdays and other occasions too. All three of these tools do a solid job of drawing names. If you want the one built for Australia, with wishlists that last beyond December and a shop full of gifts you can actually get delivered, List of Wishes is worth setting up today.
Holly writes about gift-giving, wishlists and stress-free group gift exchanges for List of Wishes. She has organised more Secret Santas and Kris Kringles than she cares to admit, and has strong opinions about novelty socks.
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