Giveaways and contests continue to be an extremely effective tactic for customer acquisition, email list building and social media growth. While incumbents like Gleam and Rafflecopter still dominate the space, new entrants have emerged – each with unique capabilities to meet specific campaign needs.
This definitive guide compares the leading gleam alternatives in 2024 across key criteria like features, templates, integrations, ease of use and pricing. We‘ve also included best-fit scenarios and examples for the types of contests enabled by each platform.
Quick Comparison Overview
| Tool | Best For | Key Integrations | Starting Price |
| SweepWidget | Beginners, Small Budgets | MailChimp, ActiveCampaign | $29/month |
| Woorise | All-in-One Solution | Stripe, Paypal, Zapier | Free Plan |
| Shortstack | Agencies and Teams | Instagram, TikTok, Slack | $79/month |
| Outgrow | Interactive Content | Google Analytics, Hotjar | $14/month |
| Wishpond | Automated Campaigns | Facebook, Instagram | Contact for Quote |
| Rafflepress | WordPress Users | ActiveCampaign, MailerLite | $39/month |
| Vyper | Enterprise Contests | Marketo, Eloqua | $75/month |
| KingSumo | List Building | ConvertKit, ActiveCampaign | $19/month |
Below we explore the key strengths of each platform in more detail, including templates, customization capabilities, ease of use and more.
1. SweepWidget – Best for Beginners
SweepWidget is the easiest gleam alternative to get started with for first-time giveaway creators. It offers an intuitive drag and drop builder to set up contests in minutes. Configuration options let you dictate:
- Number and type of winners
- Geo restrictions
- Entry mechanics for social sharing, invites, content downloads etc
- Multi-prize tiers
Styling and branding customizations are also available in the free plan, allowing over 90 color and font options for the entry widget.
Notable features include:
- Entry Fraud Protection – Prevents fake entries using back-end algorithms
- Instant Win Coupons – Encourage shares via single-use reward codes
- Custom Form Fields – Capture key user data for segmentation
With email and social media integrations, analytics dashboards, manual winner selection and a free plan with 500 entries – SweepWidget is the most affordable starting point for basic contests.
Good Fit for: Blog/website giveaways, social sweepstakes, lead generation
2. Woorise – Best All-in-One Alternative
While SweepWidget focuses solely on contests and promotions, Woorise is an integrated lead gen platform with giveaway capabilities built-in.
For fledgling startups or solo entrepreneurs without a complex martech stack, Woorise enables you to handle multiple functions from one dashboard:
- Drag and drop Landing Page Editor to host contests and capture entries
- Email Marketing with templates, automations and analytics
- Payment Collection via Stripe and Paypal integrations
- Surveys and Quizzes for customer research
Woorise essentially consolidates the capabilities of LeadPages, MailChimp and Gleam – making it easier for non-technical users to manage the end-to-end lifecycle.
While feature-rich, the interface remains clean and intuitive. Setting up a viral giveaway is as simple as picking a template, customizing the content blocks for opt-ins and social sharing buttons, then embedding it across your digital presence.
A forever free plan allows up to 500 contest entries per month, making Woorise the most cost-effective gleam alternative.
Good Fit For: Startups, small business, agencies with limited marketing technology
3. Shortstack – Best for Agencies and Teams
For mid-sized companies, Shortstack strikes the right balance between ease-of-use and sophisticated capabilities. It goes beyond basic sweepstakes and account giveaways to support more advanced techniques:
- Vote Contests – Fans vote for their favorite submission
- Hashtag Contests – Participants post with a custom hashtag
- Referral Contests – Entries for nominating friends
- Instant Win – Scratch cards, spin to wins
While Shortstack includes 85+ styled templates, what sets it apart is the ability to create tailored, branded contest experiences across any digital platform including:
- Websites
- YouTube
- TikTok
This omnichannel flexibility, combined with team collaboration features, makes Shortstack a great choice for digital agencies and fast-scaling startups.
Robust analytics, fraud prevention, guest entry options, and tools to manage winners round out the offering – providing the complete infrastructure to build contests at scale.
Good Fit For: Digital agencies, brand managers, product marketers
4. Outgrow – Best Interactive Giveaways
While most gleam alternatives focus strictly on contests and sweepstakes, Outgrow opens up more creative avenues for customer engagement including:
- Interactive Calculators
- Assessments
- Quizzes
- Surveys
- Forms
For example, an accounting firm could create a tax refund calculator, a publisher might develop a “Which Character Are You” quiz, and an HR software startup could offer a culture assessment.
This interactive content is proven to drive higher conversion rates by tapping user curiosity and providing an immediate value exchange.
Outgrow simplifies creation using a template library of over 1000 pre-built options spanning different industries and niches. You can gate prize entry behind interaction to supercharge virality.
Factor in the ability to deliver experiences via pop-ups, chatbots and social channels – and Outgrow offers the most diverse formats to capture visitor data. Powerful lead segmentation features enable sending tailored follow-ups based on responses.
Good Fit For: B2C Brands, Agencies focused on quizzes/calculators
5. Wishpond – Most Marketing Automation Capabilities
While the other alternatives covered focus primarily on campaign creation, Wishpond is a more expansive marketing platform with giveaway functionality built-in.
Similar to Outgrow, it allows pop-ups, web forms, landing pages, and lead scoring in addition to multiple contest types:
- Photo Contests
- Video Contests
- Essay Contests
- Sweepstakes
But what sets Wishpond apart is the ability to leverage customer data across other modules without any coding or IT help. For instance, entrepreneurs can:
- Visually map journeys with a drag-and-drop editor
- Use insights from contest participation to trigger emails for retargeting cold leads
- Track ROI from acquisition sources across the entire conversion funnel
This “no code” automation makes Wishpond ideal for mid-market companies looking to scale beyond makeshift point solutions.
Good Fit For: Lead gen focused startups, small ecommerce firms
6. Rafflepress – Best Contest Plugin for WordPress
Rafflepress eliminates tech hurdles altogether by operating as a plug-in seamlessly integrated into WordPress sites. This avoids the need for iFrames or coded embeds.
With Rafflepress, users can instantly build giveaways natively as part of their webpage content structure within the familiar WP interface.
While simpler in scope compared to Wishpond and Shortstack, standout features include:
- Mobile responsive entry forms
- 1-click social login for faster entries
- Referral reward system to spur shares
- Email and social media integrations
Rafflepress also layers in fraud detection capabilities to flag fake entries, duplicate participants and block VPNs.
For bloggers, solopreneurs and small Shopify store owners already on WordPress, Rafflepress streamlines launching and managing contests without new tools.
Good Fit For: Bloggers, solopreneurs, WordPress site owners
7. Vyper – Most Enterprise Grade
Vyper targets the highest tier of marketers with advanced contest capabilities like:
- Tiered Prizes
- Leaderboards
- Instant Wins
- Limited-Edition Rewards
Campaign configuration options run deeper with settings for entry frequency, mandatory vs optional referral flows and having users qualify across multiple channels.
Robust fraud prevention and compliance adherence makes Vyper suitable for heavily regulated industries like Healthcare and Financial Services with restrictions on chance-based promotions.
From an execution capacity standpoint, Vyper enables large volume contests handling over 50,000 entries. Performance remains fast due to built-in caching, indexes and other optimizations.
Custom reporting, mailbox deliverability features and enterprise-class security round out the offering.
Minimum pricing starts higher at $75/month but comes with open access to Vyper‘s product and engineering team. This white-glove support ensures flawless execution for big brand giveaways.
Good Fit For: Enterprise marketers, regulated industries
8. KingSumo – Focused on List Building
The final alternative worth including is KingSumo, which offers a free WordPress plugin dedicated solely to giveaways for list building.
Once installed, KingSumo lets you rapidly create contests on any post or page optimized to grow your email subscriber base.
You dictate the number of entries required to trigger the contest, then visitors enter their details for a chance to win.
Email services like ConvertKit, MailerLite, MailChimp and Constant Contact are supported out of the box for seamless list integration.
While simpler compared to Vyper and Shortstack, the specialization on quick lead capture contests helps maximize blog/website conversions.
Notable features include pop-up designs for higher visibility, trust badges and social proof elements to increase credibility and participation.
For solopreneurs focused exclusively on audience growth through giveaways, KingSumo delivers the best free solution.
Good Fit For: Bloggers, YouTubers, influencers
Conclusion
Giveaways and contests will continue gaining traction as competitive attention shifts from traditional advertising to organic community building across platforms like TikTok and Instagram.
This guide summarizes the leading alternatives to consider as gleam ownership changes create uncertainty around support and product direction.
We hope mapping capabilities to use cases helps you zero in on the right platform fitting your business needs and budget. Each fills a unique niche spanning beginners to enterprise.
Whether just starting out or executing large scale promotions – integrating promotions into your customer acquisition strategy has never been more accessible.
