Gleam vs Heyo: A Honest Comparison for Marketers

If you're comparing Heyo and Gleam to run your next giveaway, here's what you need to know: they aren't really competing for the same customer. Heyo was built for Facebook fan page promotions during the era when organic Facebook reach was a brand's primary growth lever. Gleam was built for multi-channel audience growth. That difference determines which one is actually right for you.

Heyo suits brands running simple, Facebook-focused promotional campaigns. If your audience lives primarily on Facebook and your goal is straightforward lead capture or engagement on that platform, it covers the basics with minimal setup.

Gleam is built for brands where the giveaway is one part of a larger marketing system. Campaigns are built around entry actions - following social accounts, visiting product pages, joining Discord communities, completing surveys, referring friends - each one serving a specific growth goal across multiple channels simultaneously.

Heyo's drag-and-drop builder is genuinely approachable. You can have a sweepstakes, photo contest, or quiz live on a Facebook page quickly, without technical knowledge. For brands whose audience is primarily on Facebook and whose goal is straightforward engagement or email capture, that simplicity has real value.

The platform supports a range of campaign types: sweepstakes, photo contests, video contests, quizzes, instant win, refer-a-friend, and hashtag promotions. Email integrations with Mailchimp, GetResponse, and Infusionsoft cover the most common list-building workflows.

There are meaningful constraints worth knowing upfront. Every Heyo plan caps the number of campaigns you can run simultaneously - the Basic plan allows just 1 campaign (or 3 on the annual version), and leads are capped at 5,000 per month. Standard unlocks 10–15 campaigns and 10,000 monthly leads. Brands running multiple concurrent promotions or higher-volume campaigns will hit those limits quickly.

The Facebook fan count requirement is the other significant barrier: every connected Facebook page must have a minimum of 2,000 fans. For a small business or brand running its first contest - the exact audience that Heyo's pricing targets - that threshold alone can make the platform a non-starter.

Heyo and Gleam can both run a basic Facebook giveaway. The gap opens up as soon as campaigns need to do anything beyond that.

Gleam Competitions start from $29/month with unlimited campaigns on all paid plans and no caps on leads or page views. For brands running multiple active promotions or building long-term acquisition programmes, that structure is a practical advantage over Heyo's per-plan limits.

Gleam also verifies entry actions through platform integrations where APIs allow it, checking that a social follow, video view, or page visit was actually completed. Heyo's entry model is primarily form-based, which works for Facebook contest use cases but does not extend to verifying actions across other platforms.

Heyo's architecture is built around Facebook fan pages, with every plan gated behind that 2,000-fan minimum. Gleam campaigns can run anywhere - embedded on your website, hosted as a standalone page, or distributed through creator and brand partnerships - with entry actions spanning Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube, Discord, email, product pages, and more.

For brands whose audience extends beyond Facebook, or who want a single campaign to grow multiple channels at once, Heyo's Facebook-first model is a hard constraint rather than just a limitation.

Heyo runs Facebook contests. Gleam combines Competitions, Rewards, Captures, and Galleries into a single platform, meaning campaigns can feed directly into email nurture flows, retargeting audiences, CRM workflows, and repeat acquisition programmes. The full package starts from $119/month, giving access to all four apps at a discounted rate compared to purchasing individually.

After a giveaway closes, you can follow up with a referral rewards programme, gate content behind a lead capture, and collect UGC through a gallery - all within the same platform and without stitching together separate tools.

Gleam's integration ecosystem spans e-commerce platforms, CRM tools, email marketing platforms, and automation workflows. Heyo integrates with a select range of email platforms - Mailchimp, GetResponse, Infusionsoft, and a few others - without the e-commerce or CRM connections that brands typically need as campaigns scale.

Gleam Competitions start at $29/month versus Heyo's $25/month annual entry point - a small gap at the low end. The more relevant comparison is what each price buys: Gleam's entry tier includes unlimited campaigns and no lead caps. Heyo's Basic plan includes one campaign and a 5,000 lead ceiling. For any brand running more than a single occasional contest, Gleam's pricing structure is the more cost-efficient of the two.

If your needs are a single Facebook contest run occasionally, Heyo is serviceable. If campaigns are part of a broader growth strategy - or if you simply haven't hit 2,000 Facebook fans yet - Gleam is the better fit.