The Best Giveaway & Social Media Contest Tools for 2024
Check out our top picks for contest, sweepstakes & giveaway apps and learn to pick the perfect tool for your business.
Picture this: You're scrolling through your social media feed, and you stumble upon an ad that introduces a cool new brand or product that catches your attention. You watch the product reel for a couple more seconds and learn that they are running a giveaway campaign!
You are intrigued by the brand, and you really want to win this desired product. You eagerly click on the outgoing link and enter the campaign for a chance to win.
This is the magic of giveaways, also known as social media contests. E-commerce brands, retail businesses, streamers, and influencers use social media contests as a way to tap into a large audience and generate consumer desire through images, videos, or reels. Then, viewers are offered an opportunity they can't refuse which gets them to take action right away.
The incentivized actions can have short-term and long-term business growth benefits. For example, social media contests can help you grow followers, increase engagement organically, drive more website traffic, and grow your business revenue. The best social media contest tool for you will depend on your business goals, budget, and technical capability.
Many of the social media contest & giveaway tools in the market provide the following features:
- Customizable, pre-built templates
- Mobile responsive giveaway widgets
- Terms & conditions generator
- Hosted landing pages
- Instant coupons distribution
- Drag-and-drop builder
- Social media & email marketing integrations
- Viral sharing or refer-a-friend for referral campaigns
- Integration with Google Analytics
- Ability to add Facebook tracking pixel
- Installation on Facebook page or Facebook tab
- Fraud detection & anti-spam protection
- Automated email notifications or follow-up emails
So you might be wondering, how do I pick the right tool for my business? We'll introduce you to the top contests, sweepstakes and giveaways tools available in 2024. We'll discuss unique features provided by each platform or app in finer detail. Finally, we'll share tips on how to choose the right tool for your business to create social media contests.
All prices listed are in USD and billed on a monthly basis unless stated otherwise.
So, buckle up and get ready to power up your marketing strategy with the best social media contest tools of 2024!
Gleam is a popular and versatile marketing platform that offers a range of tools to help businesses create giveaways, instant win campaigns, website popups, and social media galleries under the same platform. It's used by some of the world's biggest brands and agencies, including Razer and Shopify.
Gleam Competitions is a powerful giveaway app that can help you set up simple to complex giveaways with just a few clicks. This is the perfect social media contest platform since they are integrated with major social media channels, which has the added benefit of automatic entry verification & fraud detection.
You can also import submissions directly from social media hashtags to save users from having to submit entries through the Gleam widget. This allows you to run hashtag campaigns where the user only has to upload their post to social media with the correct hashtags.
Gleam Competitions is full of powerful features, even on the Free plan. Their templates make it easy for you to create your own sweepstakes, photo contests, video contests, hashtag contests, and more.
Gleam offers a variety of pricing options, including a free plan and a variety of paid plans that range from $10 to $150 per month.
Here are some key features on the free version:
- Run unlimited giveaway campaigns
- Use the free hosted landing page to distribute your campaign
- Create a mobile responsive giveaway widget
- Pick up to 10 random winners per campaign
- Use the random name picker and draw winners from up to 1,000 names
- 1-click installation on Shopify
Overall, Gleam is a versatile marketing platform that can help you run social media contests, instant win campaigns, hashtag campaigns, and more. Its comprehensive features and user-friendly interface make it a great choice for businesses of all sizes looking to drive website traffic or generate leads.
RafflePress is an intuitive and powerful WordPress plugin designed to help you create engaging giveaways and contests that drive traffic, increase your email list, and boost your social media following.
RafflePress is perfect for Wordpress site owners as it works directly from the Wordpress interface. You can create your giveaway using their drag-and-drop widget builder, then install the contest on your Wordpress site via shortcode or set up a dedicated landing page.
Their giveaway rules generator will help you generate automatic terms & conditions to keep your campaign compliant.
RafflePress offers a free plan and a variety of paid plans that range from $7 to $33 per month. They have a 14-day 100% money back guarantee in case you change your mind.
Here are some key features on the free version:
- Use free giveaway templates
- Drag-and-drop builder for giveaway entry methods
- Create a mobile responsive giveaway widget
- SEO-optimised landing pages
- Fraud prevention and anti-spam protection
- Automatically generate giveaway rules
Overall, RafflePress is a powerful giveaway tool that can help you grow your site and drive more traffic. Its seamless integration with WordPress and email marketing platforms such as Mailchimp or AWeber, along with its viral sharing features, make it a great choice for anyone looking to run a successful giveaway or contest on Wordpress.
KingSumo is a simple giveaway tool that makes it easy for users to run giveaways through their Wordpress plugin, or on their web app. Its user-friendly interface and straightforward editor make it a great choice for business owners who need a fuss-free social media contest tool.
KingSumo allows you to create referral campaigns and entrants can share them on the following platforms:
- Messenger
To use KingSumo, you only have to pay a one-time fee of $49 for the web app, or $198 per site for the Wordpress plugin.
Their web app also comes with a free plan which allows you to:
- Run unlimited giveaways
- Connect your leads to MailChimp, SendFox, ConvertKit
- Use the embed code to install your widget on any website
- Collect GDPR-compliant entries
Overall, KingSumo is an easy-to-use giveaway tool that can help you drive traffic & grow your social media followers. Its simple selection of entry methods, easy-to-use interface, affordable price point and social sharing capabilities make it a great starter choice for new business owners.
Shortstack is a premium social media contest tool which also allows you to build interactive content such as quizzes & surveys. You can also use Shortstack campaigns to give out coupon codes to contest entrants.
Shortstack offers a wide variety of marketing & gamification templates for contests, popup forms, quizzes, puzzles, and more:
Shortstack comes with a powerful Style Panel which allows you to customize every aspect of your campaign, from a single button to the final page.
Furthermore, Shortstack offers premium services such as contest creation & moderation services. You can lean on their product expertise and experience in the industry to run white-labeled campaigns that are tailored to your business needs. They can also moderate giveaway entries on your behalf, particularly if you don't have time to check media submissions across multiple social media platforms.
Shortstack offers a variety of pricing plans, starting at $99 per month. You can use their free trial on the Agency plan ($249/mo) which additionally allows you to run video upload contests. There is no free version of this tool, but we believe it's the best online giveaway tool for larger enterprises.
Overall, Shortstack is a powerful social media management tool that focuses on gamification with interactive content. This is the premium platform which will allow you to run hashtag contests, instant coupon campaigns, create landing pages without any code, and hire experts on-demand.
Woobox is another marketing platform that offers a range of tools to run various campaigns, including photo and video contests, quizzes, polls, and more, to engage with your audience in different ways and keep your campaigns fresh and exciting.
Woobox additionally offers the voting bracket campaign type which allows you to set up a widget for entrants to vote or predict winners in a competitive setting. This feature can perfectly complement your leaderboard competitions.
Woobox offers a free plan and a variety of paid plans that range from $37 to $249 per month.
Here are the key features on their free version:
- Run unlimited campaigns
- Accept entries from up to 100 participants per campaign
- Full access to campaign types, entry methods, submission types, and email marketing integrations
- Give bonus entries to referrals
- Gate campaigns based on entrant's date of birth
- Password protection for running internal or exclusive campaigns
Overall, Woobox is a wonderful marketing platform that can help you create various types of interactive campaigns. On the paid plans, you can also use their landing page builder to create giveaway contests that will attract more visitors and increase your conversion rates.
Rafflecopter is a beautifully simple app perfect for creating sweepstakes or giveaways. According to their website, Rafflecopter is perfect for running chance-based campaigns where no purchase is necessary. That means, winners have to be drawn at random and no skill is involved to enter the campaign.
On the paid plans, you can use Rafflecopter's EZ Terms & Conditions feature to generate a mockup for your campaign terms to ensure a compliant giveaway. You can also access custom themes and use their DesignLab feature to create bright and colourful widget designs and embed on your website.
Rafflecopter offers a free plan and a variety of paid plans that range from $13 to $84 per month.
Here are some key features on the free version:
- Run unlimited giveaways
- Receive unlimited entries
- Export entrant data to CSV
- Facebook, Twitter & custom entry options
- Standard entry form with Rafflecopter branding
They also offer a 7-day free trial which allows you to try any of their paid plans and accept up to 50 entries before you decide to upgrade.
Overall, Rafflecopter is the perfect choice for users who are looking to run viral giveaways and sweepstakes campaigns on select social media platforms. If you're looking to grow your audience on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest, then this is the perfect giveaway tool for you.
ViralSweep offers a range of social media contest tools which allows you to create campaigns like sweepstakes, Facebook contests, Twitter hashtag contests, leaderboard competitions, instant win campaigns, and much more.
ViralSweep is integrated with major E-commerce platforms such as WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Shopify, and more. Their purchase promotions allow you to create contests where customers can gain entries based on dollars spent.
In addition, ViralSweep provides end-to-end contest administration & management services, including prize fulfilment and tax filing (for winners who receive prizes above $600 in value in the U.S.) if you prefer to outsource your contest campaign.
ViralSweep offers a variety of paid plans ranging from $49 to $999 per month.
There is no free version, but you can use their 7-day free trial on any of the paid plans and access entrant data from the first 10 entries you have received.
Overall, ViralSweep offers E-commerce businesses plenty of options to create contests and giveaways, along with the option to hire dedicated agents to manage and administer your campaign.
Easypromos is an online digital promotions tool which offers over 40 promotion types to choose from, such as giveaways, puzzles, games, quizzes, instant prizes, and more.
Easypromos has a unique OCR solution which allows retail businesses to validate purchases before giving out contest entries. You can also create instant win campaigns where entrants upload a receipt as proof of purchase, then get a chance to play the spinning wheel.
Easypromos offers a variety of paid plans ranging from $29 to $399 per month. While there is no free trial for Easypromos, they do offer the option to buy a single promotion which allows you to set up certain promotion types and only pay for the months you need.
Overall, Easypromos provides a variety of digital promotion options to enterprises and agencies to create gamification and engagement solutions that are sure to drive website traffic, grow social media followers, and increase business revenue.
Vyper is a viral marketing platform that specialises in giveaways and referral programs. They offer tools like contests, waitlists, leaderboards and loyalty programs for generating social actions.
Vyper gives you complete freedom to set up your own branded campaigns. On the Enterprise plan, you can completely remove Vyper's branding on your landing pages, and you can use your own custom domain or subdomain.
Vyper offers Enterprise & Agency plans at $149 & $299 per month respectively. They also have a 15-day money back guarantee. Additionally, it was noted on their pricing page that cryptocurrency-related campaigns are not allowed on Vyper.
Wishpond is a premium social media engagement suite that offers tools to help you convert at every step of the marketing funnel. At the top of the marketing funnel, they offer lead capturing tools to create social promotions, landing pages, and appointment booking pages.
Wishpond offers up to 12 different contest types that allow you to create hashtag campaigns, photo or video contests, voting contests, and leaderboard contests.
Wishpond also offers professional services that lend you their marketing expertise to set up campaigns on your behalf, minimising the hassle of managing and moderating your contest entries. For example, the Wishpond team can split test and run paid ads for your campaign on your behalf.
With their extensive range of marketing tools from top to bottom, you can take combine social promotions with their other tools to take your leads further. For example, you can use their drag-and-drop landing page builder to create your contests and giveaways. Then, you can further nurture your social media leads with Wishpond's new AI platform and guide users further down the marketing funnel.
Wishpond doesn't publicly list their pricing structure, so you will need to book a 30-minute demo call with them to discuss your options. However, third-party review sites have revealed that their subscriptions start from $49 per month, provided you sign up on an annual plan.
Outgrow is an interactive content platform which focuses on qualifying leads through quizzes, surveys, contests, and more. Their unique Calculator tool allows customers from all industries to set up their own complex calculators that will instantly deliver valuable results to their end users, not to mention qualify more leads through actionable data.
Since Outgrow is primarily a landing page & form builder tool, it does lack deeper integrations that allow you to collect entries and media submissions directly from social media. But, if you're looking to qualify your leads through a mixed set of tools such as polls, quizzes, and surveys, then this platform could be for you.
Outgrow offers a variety of pricing options ranging from $22 a month for freelancers to $720 a month for larger companies. To access the Giveaway content type, you'll need a $45 per month plan. They also offer a 7-day free trial.
UpViral is a popular viral marketing platform that offers a variety of unique features to help businesses grow their audience and increase their customer base. UpViral also comes with A/B testing which allows you to split-test almost every aspect of your campaign, from the landing page to follow-up emails.
UpViral offers a variety of paid plans ranging from $79 to $299 per month. While there is no free version, they do offer a 14-day $1 trial which allows you to fully access all their paid features with just a dollar.
Choosing the right online contest & giveaway tool for your business is crucial to the success of your marketing campaigns. Here are some key factors to consider when selecting the right giveaway app for your business:
Different platforms will focus on different set of features, so choosing a tool that aligns with your campaign goals is important. Some tools offer basic features like form builders and email integrations, while others offer more advanced features like social media integrations, analytics, and advanced targeting options.
Look for a giveaway tool with a drag-and-drop builder and pre-built templates to help you create your campaigns quickly and easily. Gleam, RafflePress, WooBox, and ShortStack, for example, all offer drag-and-drop builders and pre-built templates, while KingSumo only offers pre-built templates.
Consider lock-ins and subscription periods when choosing a giveaway tool. Look for the lowest price tiers and compare the features they offer with your campaign needs and budget. Annual plans tend to be cheaper and come with at least 2 months free. For example, Gleam starts at $10 per month on the annual Hobby plan.
It's important to ensure that the giveaway tool you choose allows you to create legally compliant campaigns. Look for tools that support No Purchase Necessary laws and do not violate third-party engagement policies. This will help protect your business from any legal issues and ensure that your campaigns are fair.
Look for a giveaway tool that offers good customer support, including email, phone, and live chat support. This will ensure you can get help if you encounter any issues or have questions about the software.
Make sure that the giveaway tool you choose integrates with the other tools you use, such as your email marketing platform, CRM, and social media channels. This will ensure that your campaigns run smoothly and that you can easily collect and use the data you gather.
By considering these factors and choosing a social media contest tool that aligns with your specific needs and goals, you can set yourself up for success and create engaging campaigns that drive website traffic, grow social media followers, and convert leads.
Online contests can be an incredibly powerful marketing tools for your business. With so many great tools available in 2024, it's important to choose the right tool that aligns with your specific needs and campaign goals.
By using a giveaway tool that fits your needs and goals, you can create engaging campaigns that capture the attention of your audience, generate excitement, and drive conversions. So don't be afraid to experiment and try out different tools until you find the one that works best for you.
Ultimately, the right giveaway tool can help you take your marketing strategy to the next level and achieve the results you're looking for in 2024 and beyond. So go ahead and power up your marketing strategy with the best giveaway tools of 2024!
Helena Ng
Helena is a Growth Marketer at Gleam. Leave her a nice comment below if you got something out of this post ☺