Elfster: The Secret Santa App
Wishlists & Gift Exchange
How much does Elfster: The Secret Santa App cost?
Prices are current as of 9 Sept 2026.
Elfster: The Secret Santa App has no in-app products on record in the United States.
10+ alternatives to Elfster: The Secret Santa App
| Elfster: The Secret Santa App |   Evite: Party Invitation Maker |   drawnames | Secret Santa app |   The Knot: Wedding Planner App |   Zola - Wedding Planner |   Giftful - Wishlist & Registry |   Secret Santa app - draw names |   Listful - Wishlist Maker |   Giftster - Wish List Registry |   MyRegistry.com |   Sonny Angel USA | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rating / 5 | 4.9 | 4.8 | 4.8 | 4.9 | 4.9 | 4.8 | 4.8 | 4.8 | 4.8 | 4.8 | 2.2 |
| Reviews | 393K | 541K | 377K | 229K | 98K | 88K | 32K | 28K | 22K | 11K | 295 |
| Released | 2013 | 2011 | 2021 | 2011 | 2014 | 2019 | 2018 | 2024 | 2011 | 2010 | 2021 |
| One-time price | — | $32.99 | — | — | $12.99 | — | $2.99 | — | — | — | — |
The going rate for each plan in United States, in its own currency, shaded from the cheapest price on the row to the dearest. Plans fewer than four in ten of the priced apps sell are left out.
Elfster: The Secret Santa App reviews
4.9 out of 5, based on 392,819 reviews.
What people like
- Makes gift exchanges super easy
- Prevents duplicate gifts nicely
- Great for managing wishlists
- Helps people find better gifts
What they complain about
- Organizer sees everyone's draws
- Keeps signing you out randomly
- Hard to add non-Amazon links
- Too complicated for simple name drawing
Works really well
Works great, I use it every year for family secret santa. Highly recommend.
403 forbidden
Can’t use the site or app. Keep getting a 403 forbidden message and I’ve cleared cache and everything. Downloaded and redownloaded the app as well.
Me
I wish that I was more familiar with modern telephones
To geared towards Amazon
It’s really hard to bypass searching the web for what we want sometime. We just wanna make a plain list. It seems like this app is actually made so we buy more from Amazon. Or any of those type of places.
Great concept but could be more user friendly
I had problems logging in - discovered I had 2 accounts! As it’s an app I only use once a year I’m not that familiar with it and it’s not that intuitive. That said I’ve navigated it and it’s a great way to make secret santas less of chore !
Great for families
Honestly, help out the people in your life. Not everyone is a great gifter, this app gives them a hand, and saves you from the return lines.
App not working after latest update
Wish lists are not coming up after this latest app update (v2025.1128.69 on iPhone 15). Please fix asap!
AMAZING!!!😍
This app is really good although the app signed me out a couple times, but I can log back in and my wishes are still there. It works really well for a secret Santa and a gift exchange. Although I’m not sure why it’s rated 13+ because it can also be good for younger people. Overall, it’s a really good app, would recommend.
Hard to change email address for anybody on list
Cannot change email address without deleting friend not good
Great idea!
We use it for our family every year anyways because it’s very practical but the ease of connection and putting items on it is not user friendly enough.
What I was looking for
Excellent app!
Won’t load after latest update
This is not the time of year to be making changes to this app with I’m sure many people using it for Christmas and Holiday exchanges. Last week it was working fine and now I can’t see anyone’s wishlist.
Great but…
The app has a lot of features but that is its downfall, it makes it too complicated to use. I still can’t find the ‘Shop’ button even after searching for it. The help guide seems to be an earlier version. Why not just add a simple link on the home page to add a wish that takes you straight to where you can add your url for another wish list. I guess they make it difficult so you add from the gift listing on the app then Elfster get commission!
Stop keeping me half logged in
Why do you force me to logout then login. My account still displays but nothing populates. Do better! It’s so annoying.
Wish list integration
Hey, I know it is easier said than done but if it was possible to import wish list from site like amazon it would make it a lot easier to navigate through your application and create said wish list. The filters desperately need more filters options or categories that integrates all websites to be able to choses between products. Its good but with that it’d be great.
Fantastique!
Tellement plaisant d’utiliser cette application et tellement pratique…
Lastest update is terrible
Not sure what happened, but the latest update make app almost impossible to use. Had to sign back in after updating, log in page said the email code was incorrect when it was not, takes minutes (not seconds like usual) to load any page on the app, tried viewing someone's wishlist and after loading for so long gave no results with the "no wishes yet" error even though I was looking at that same persons wishlist on the app just a few days ago. Didn't even bother trying to add a wish after this. It honestly makes me want to delete the app. Hopefully the web version works better.
Really good but…
The app is really good but I wish it was suited for iPad as well.
Difficult to use
I find Elfster very difficult to navigate. It’s not intuitive.
Ok app
This app is great with wishlists and the secret Santa but I’m having an issue that every few days I will get signed out. The most resent time I got signed out the app deleted everything off my wishlist and now I have to go back through and add everything again. Please fix this issue. If u are going to use this app with your family I hope your willing to put in the work
Love it !
Such a great app, love using it to jot down things I want throughout the year so I don’t feel stressed when someone asks, and I love talking my friends into using it to help me with gift ideas for them. Love the features like being able to refresh old wishes to tell people you’re still interested, and being able to secretly mark off on someone else’s list when you purchase for them so they don’t get duplicates. Makes secret Santa’s really simple! My only wish would be for the internal search engine to cover more retailers, it’s mostly Amazon and a few stragglers, but you can always write in wishes manually!
Can’t even get it to load
Took forever to even sign in. The first time it told me my security code was incorrect (it wasn’t). My exchange won’t load. Trying to add items to a wishlist fails. Maybe it’s just bad timing, but this has been a terrible experience so far.
Fun app but…
I love Elfster. It is a fun way to organize a Secret Santa and it is way easier to indirectly communicate to your secret Santa about what you want. However, every week I get signed out of Elfster, and it is very annoying to go log myself in again to check for gifts my Secret Santa may want. Please fix this issue.
It works but it’s not the best
First of all it’s amazing for the name draw but it can be bad sometimes 1) Me and my friends made an exchange and it got deleted by itself for whatever reason 2) It logged me out of my account and instead of letting me log back it it created a new account 3) Also its only really great for those in America as it uses the American Amazon which I get as it’s probably mostly used by American so you should only really use it for name draws
Logged out.
The app is really useful and easy to use! My only issue is that I keep getting logged out. It’s not hard to log back in, but it gets a bit annoying when it happens often. Hopefully this can be fixed in a future update!
Great app!
I actually enjoy this secret Santa app lots!! My family and I have used it for the past 2 years and it’s amazing!
Slow
slow but works
Great but…
It’s really easy to use which is a massive plus! I like that you can restrict each person getting certain people - we do this every year in couples so makes sure we don’t get our own partner :) Wishlist was easy to update and currency was easy to amend. I also liked the colours. I would say the few things that let it down (not sure if I’ve missed something on the app) - as the organiser you can see everyones results so ruins it especially if participating - you can’t put stuff on your list that’s not linked to amazon unless you put a note? Not tried? - can’t link other wishlists you may already have to it? Again as above I’ve not tried putting it in notes… is there a word limit on it? But then you can’t tick it off if you’ve bought it
Doesn’t include Australia
Great app but needs an upgrade to include Australia please for Australian shops.
Improvements would be helpful
The concept and aesthetics of this app are good however if you live in Australia it is not as easy to use as other apps that do the same thing. Developers need to include the ability to easily add Australian based links and gifts that also pre populate the pictures/images onto the wishlist when the URL is included. Other apps do this well.
Great app
Super convenient when groups aren’t able to get together to do a gift exchange. The only thing I am not loving is the fact the organizer can see who everyone drew, including who drew them. Kind of defeats the purpose.
Je déteste
Fonctionne très mal , ni convivial
Nice app!
I did enjoy this app but it was more complicated than what I needed for secret Santa. Highly recommend this one if you want to set up wish lists and such. But I was only looking for something to help draw names
Usability let’s it down
I work in product management and stuff as simple as adding an item to a wishlist on iOS is baffling in its ux.
It’s good but not great
Every time I open the app again it makes me re-do my username and password
Lol
It is awesome i can add to my wishlist lol
Defaults to USA
Nice app, but wishlist keeps defaulting to Amazon USA and USD even though currency /country has been set to CAD / Canada. Will not use again.
Super good app but buffers
I love this app so much, ive got all my family on it but the only disappointing thing it buffers if im using either wifi or 5g it wont load my wishlist 😔
AUD
This app would be perfect if you could change the money to aud!!
Not user friendly for international users
The “secret Santa”feature is great. Creating and sharing lists with family for children’s birthdays or Christmas is great. Only drawback: Links for products are all US based. You can search your own country websites and add links but adding to Elfster is an extra step. It would be easier to just send your friends/family your Amazon List. However, the Elfster app is still worth the extra step if you want to keep track of the gifts purchases so as to not recieve doubles.
Its giving baddie
Its so slay it gives me such good choices from whatever i search
Email spammers
They won’t stop emailing! Made the mistake of using a real email, press unsubscribe on every email and they just keep on coming.
Elfster is a useful tool for groups and families
Elfster has been used by our family for several years to run a Secret Santa for adults. It takes a little getting used to , to access all the facilities. We do not use the advertised products we add our own. You have to go to the tiny writing to do this, as it is geared to buying products advertised. You can organise people who find it too difficult by managing them yourself. E.g. I manage it for my elderly mother. The benefit is that you can buy one good present for somebody from their list so it is something they want, but it still is a surprise if they put several things for you to choose from. It also reduces the cost of Christmas and your money is not wasted. Sometimes there are glitches but we have never had a problem with exchanging presents and it saves everyone a lot of time and trouble. Thank you Elfster!🎅🏼🤶👍
Update has made things harder
My family has been using your app for years, particular for secret Santa exchanges for Christmas. We’ve been trying to add wishes in lately and the website link field doesn’t work the majority of the time, the link from Amazon doesn’t work, and it takes at least 2 or 3 goes each time before a wish saves. Please fix ASAP??
Mocha
I like to be able for free to draw names. And that is why 3 starts. However I take one start for no use friendly navigating through the app when need to change the info of participants and one start less for no been able to fix the list when you make a mistake. I made a mistake by having a name twice. the participants that received a name don’t want to do the draw again no way to fix it. Try to contact the application representatives no response.
Very impressed!
It’s an amazing app for doing gift exchanges/secret Santa. It works great and theres never any issues. I would definitely recommend! 😃
Fix bugs!!
App crashes and closes after almost every input or action. Very frustrating! And very surprising for such a highly rated and reviewed app.
Useful, thank you
Just a thing: I need to be able to change date format from American to the more common dd/mm/yyyy
No sirve
No deja meter la moneda que se va a usar y no deja seguir
Need improvements
I would probably like this apps so much if I could send a gifts to my friend with the 3rd party participating with this company, otherwise what’s the point. I was just frustrated because in order to send this gift from Amazon I will need to ask my friend’s address to send this as a gift, so what is the point of Elfster asking our information like address if we could not able to add them at the Amazon or we could not even see it from Elfster apps. 🙄
Elfster: The Secret Santa App FAQ
- Is Elfster: The Secret Santa App free?
- Yes. The app is free, in all 175 countries it sells in, and it sells nothing inside it.
- Does Elfster: The Secret Santa App have a free trial?
- No. None of its offers (US) come with a free trial.
- What are the best alternatives to Elfster: The Secret Santa App?
- Evite: Party Invitation Maker (4.8 from 540,989 reviews, premium from $12.99), drawnames | Secret Santa app (4.8 from 377,010 reviews) and The Knot: Wedding Planner App (4.9 from 229,092 reviews).
Elfster: The Secret Santa App download
Last updated 29 days ago.
Elfster: The Secret Santa App sells in 175 countries. It was released 12 years and 10 months ago, on 21 Nov 2013. It holds a 4.9 rating from 392,819 reviews.
Supports 1 language: English.
How much does Elfster: The Secret Santa App make?
Third-party estimates for the last 30 days, worldwide — not the store's own figures, which Apple publishes for nobody.