• On a wish list you can collect plenty of gifts for yourself and for others over a long period of time, so you are never empty-handed before Christmas, birthdays and other occasions.
  • By sharing digital wish lists with family and friends, you avoid awkward surprises, bad buys and duplicate purchases – and instead fulfill your loved ones’ heartfelt wishes.
  • There is a huge choice of wish list apps, and the differences between them are just as big. Above all, pay attention to how they are provided, their functionality and data protection. SeaTable, for example, is a good choice.

Be it small tokens of appreciation or big wishes: most people are happy to receive gifts from friends or family members – because these can be useful, fulfill wishes or express gratitude and appreciation. It becomes unpleasant, however, as soon as a surprise backfires and does not match the recipient’s taste at all. Many dread such an embarrassing situation along with the awkward exchange that follows. That is why they avoid the risk and opt for universal gifts of money or vouchers that everyone can use.

Gifts from the wish list

If that is too impersonal for you and you do not care much about surprises, you can simply tell your loved ones what you would like. But you probably know the feeling: when asked out of the blue, you usually cannot think of anything; or your wish is not precise enough; or you accidentally tell several people the same thing. With a wish list, on the other hand, you can collect gift ideas all year round and keep track at the crucial moment in order to avoid bad buys and duplicate purchases.

Wish lists are particularly useful for parents who want to note down wishes not only for themselves but also for their children. Thanks to a wish list, they can remember many gifts over a long period of time and draw on a wealth of ideas before Christmas, birthdays and other occasions.

Wish lists are most helpful for occasions with lots of guests who want to give you something – because that is when it is particularly hard to keep track. Consequently, wish lists are often used for festive occasions:

Sharing suitable anniversary gifts via a wish list

  • Christmas & Advent
  • Easter
  • Baptism
  • Communion/Confirmation
  • Hanukkah – the festival of lights (comparable to Christmas)
  • Bar or Bat Mitzvah – the celebration of a boy’s or girl’s coming of age in religious terms
  • Eid al-Fitr – the festival of breaking the fast at the end of the fasting month of Ramadan
  • Eid al-Adha – the festival of sacrifice, the highest Islamic holiday
  • Diwali – the festival of lights (comparable to Christmas)

In Germany, the first forerunners of the wish list appeared as early as around 1800: so-called Christmas letters. However, these did not contain gift wishes but rather congratulations and expressions of thanks that children addressed to their parents or other family members. In them, they had to give thanks for their upbringing, care and God’s blessing, and put this down on paper in fine handwriting under strict supervision.

The first wish lists in today’s sense were a marketing idea of the toy industry. From 1850 onward, clever manufacturers and retailers printed attractive advertising leaflets on which children could see the range on offer and write a wish list right away – including a note on which department store carried the toys. Later there were even ready-made catalogs in which children only had to mark their wishes for Santa Claus or the Christ Child.

Child writing a wish list for Christmas

Nowadays, digital wish lists are becoming more and more established; handwritten wish lists are at most still made by children, while adults usually create their wish lists online.

The advantages of digital wish lists over paper notes are manifold:

  • Constant availability: gift ideas often come spontaneously and get lost if you do not have your wish list to hand. In a digital wish list you can note them down at any time.
  • Secure storage: if you write gift ideas for yourself or others on pieces of paper, you may not find them again after a while. Digital wish lists, by contrast, do not get lost.
  • Clarity: with a digital solution you bundle wishes and gift ideas for several people and occasions in a structured way in one place and put an end to a disorganized pile of notes.
  • Flexible design: a digital wish list is not set in stone but can be flexibly extended, edited and sorted. An analog note, by contrast, has to be rewritten every time something changes.
  • No guesswork: by directly sharing the links to specific products, the gift-givers know exactly what they can get. This makes unpleasant bad buys that require an exchange far less likely.

A wish list app is a digital solution for collecting gift ideas at any time, managing wish lists centrally and sharing them with family and friends.

Writing a wish list

First of all, you should consider whether you want to use your digital wish list across devices via the browser or whether you prefer an installation on your smartphone. In addition, the apps differ above all in how many features, how much data protection and how much freedom from advertising they offer. We therefore assessed the wish list apps we tested against the following criteria:

  • Type of provision and registration: does the app require registration? Does it run as a web app in the browser (on all internet-enabled devices) or do you download a native app (Android/iOS)?
  • Functionality and usability: does the app have an intuitive user interface and easy-to-understand features? How can you create wish lists and add gifts?
  • Costs and financing model: is the app free of charge? If so, is it financed through advertising and/or affiliate links?
  • Data protection and server location: where is the app hosted? What data do you have to disclose and how well is it protected?

For our test we tried out and compared 10 well-known wish list apps.

This wish list app for iOS, Android or the browser comes from a developer in Bavaria. With the app you can create digital wish lists free of charge and without registration and share them with friends. As soon as you enter the link to a product from any online shop, the image, name and price are filled in automatically. The provider finances itself through affiliate links, i.e. it receives a commission on purchases. Since the app collects hardly any personal data and stores the wish lists on servers in the EU (Nuremberg, Vienna or Amsterdam), compliance with the GDPR is guaranteed. The excellent user reviews praise the fast support, the clear design and the ease of use.

Okurimono means “gifts” in Japanese, but the app comes from Germany. The free app for iOS and Android promises unlimited wish lists that you can share with friends and family. It supports items from all common online shops – photos, titles and prices are recognized automatically when you add them via the URL. Just as important as the plain design and good usability is data protection to the developers: the servers are located in Nuremberg; tracking, cookies and the passing on of data are dispensed with. However, registration by email is necessary, which can lead to delays if the confirmation email ends up in the spam folder. Financing works via affiliate marketing .

As a pure web app for wish lists, you open wishsite in the browser, whereby registration with an email address is optional. With just a few clicks you can create a wish list online right away. However, you have to remember the URL carefully, as this is where you can edit the list and add new wishes – otherwise you will not find the page again. There is another link for guests, which they can use to view the wishes and mark them as reserved. wishsite is free of charge too and is financed through affiliate programs, but effective data protection is not guaranteed: the website works with cookies and Google services that transfer data to the USA. The hosting provider and server location of the website are unknown. If you log in via Facebook, wishsite links your profile and gains access to the data.

A digital wish list helps you keep track

The wish list app from Denmark is free of charge, but overloaded with sponsored advertisements and therefore appears cluttered. It can be used with iOS, Android or in the browser. Once you have set it up, you receive numerous product suggestions and can even follow creators or brands. Using links, you can easily share any wish list and record gift ideas, but adding wishes via automatic data transfer does not work flawlessly with some shops. GoWish uses cookies and Google’s cloud infrastructure, and also passes on data for advertising purposes to third parties such as Meta Platforms. Right at registration you have to provide a fair amount of personal information such as country, date of birth and gender in order to enable more precise targeting. Data protection? Nowhere to be found!

GiftList is likewise available as a wish list app for iOS, Android or in the browser – but exclusively in English. Thanks to the clear navigation, creating wish lists digitally and sharing them with friends is a breeze. You can add new gifts not only via links but also search directly in the in-app browser and the integrated online shops. In addition, you can use the built-in AI chatbot Genie as a gift finder. All features are free of charge. In return, you have to state your country, date of birth and gender when registering and live with personalized gift ideas being displayed in several places in the app. Behind GiftList are the developers of Malibu Vista Ventures. The provider from California is subject to US surveillance laws such as the Patriot Act and can therefore not guarantee compliance with European data protection standards.

Giftful is available for iOS, Android and the browser. After signing up with your name and email address, you can get started straight away. The clear, visually appealing user interface ensures an intuitive user experience and makes it very easy to create a wish list digitally and manage gift ideas. Wishes can be added via URL from any online shop or searched for directly in the in-app browser. Item information such as price and photo is usually transferred without errors. You can also follow some brands and other people from the community. Giftful takes part in affiliate programs (e.g. from Amazon) and is therefore free of charge for users. According to its own statements, the provider from Georgia (USA) does not pass on sensitive personal data, but it can receive data from third parties such as Google, Facebook and Apple if you log in via one of these services. Giftful operates servers in the USA and ultimately cannot guarantee data protection at the EU level.

The German wish list app StarSnoopy is also available for iOS, Android and the browser. What stands out immediately are the cute illustrations, which are presumably meant to appeal to parents with small children. However, they make the user interface look rather restless. If you download the free app, you can get started immediately without registration and create digital wish lists. However, wishes can only be added via an in-app browser, which is rather cumbersome if you do not want to look for the gift in one of the few integrated online shops. StarSnoopy offers a login via Google, Facebook and Apple, which comes with the data protection problems mentioned above. Beyond that, the app stores personal data in Google’s Firebase Cloud and on the Squarespace platform, a US website builder. Signing up with StarSnoopy is therefore not advisable.

Creating a wish list digitally for a birthday party

With the free web app from Wunschbiber you can get started directly in the browser without downloading anything. The user interface is structured very plainly and clearly. Once you have created a wish list online, there are four ways to add wishes: select suggested gift ideas, search via the in-app browser, insert a link to an online shop or save any text. As soon as you want to share the wish list with others, however, registration with an email address is required. Wunschbiber manages without tracking and cookies and describes itself as shop-independent. The website is hosted by Cloudways in Frankfurt am Main; the servers, however, are provided by US providers such as AWS or DigitalOcean.

Since many people are likely to know it, let us say a few words about the Amazon Wish List, even though it is not a standalone app but only one of many features in Amazon’s ecosystem. The classic among online shops has now visually aged – both the website and the app appear rather cluttered and do not offer an optimal user experience. Fittingly, the wish list option is rather hidden away under “Account & Lists.” A major disadvantage compared to the other apps is that you cannot add items from other online shops to the wish list. Amazon uses cookies, personalized advertising and its own servers in the EU. For certain purposes, however, the parent company in the USA can also access data from European customers. As with most apps in the test, you quickly lose data sovereignty .

In SeaTable’s wish list app you store and organize all your gift ideas in a table, including title, category, price and URL. In a second table you record all the people for whom you want to buy gifts or with whom you want to share a wish list. Since the two tables are linked to each other , you can easily assign recipients and givers to the gifts. This way you can not only create wish lists for individual people (e.g. for a birthday), but also a shared wish list app that lets the whole family share their wishes before Christmas, for example, and keep track of who is giving what to whom.

Unlike the apps presented so far, SeaTable is not limited to wish lists alone. The AI no-code platform makes it possible to create your own apps without any programming knowledge by individually assembling ready-made page types and building blocks with a click of the mouse – flexible, simple and intuitive. You can share every app via a link with as many people as you like, and open access can be secured with a password. Using granular permissions and filters, you can also control precisely who may see and edit which pages and data in the app.

SeaTable’s wish list app is fully included in the free version . It also comes completely without advertising and affiliate links, which sets it apart from all the other apps. SeaTable is financed through paid subscriptions, which customers with a greater need for storage space, users or features can take out. In addition, the provider is uncompromising when it comes to data protection: the SeaTable Cloud is hosted exclusively on servers in Germany and does not transfer any data to other countries.

Register for free now

Once you have registered with your email address, you can use the SeaTable Cloud immediately via your browser. If you want to host the app yourself, you can download and install SeaTable Server .

Whether for Christmas, birthdays or weddings: collecting and sharing wishes often causes gift chaos and unwelcome surprises. If you want to avoid bad buys and keep track of everything, you are better off with a digital wish list. That way you can record gift ideas at any time, store them centrally and securely with a unique URL, and organize wish lists clearly.

It is remarkable that all the wish list apps in our test are free of charge. Many apps are therefore overloaded with advertising, use affiliate links or offer in-app browsers so you can search for gifts directly in particular online shops. If, on the other hand, you are looking for a flexible wish list app without a lot of frills and place great value on data protection and freedom from advertising, SeaTable is a good choice.

Woman handing over gifts

What is a wish list app?

A wish list app is a digital solution that lets you create wish lists online, manage gift ideas and share them with family and friends.

How can I prevent gifts from being bought twice?

Most wish list apps offer features for sharing wish lists with the gift-givers in real time. As soon as they reserve a gift, it disappears from the list for the others or is clearly marked as taken.

Is a digital wish list also easy to use for older family members?

Yes, many apps offer an easy-to-use interface with intuitive features. Especially if you provide direct links to the gifts you want, hardly anything can go wrong.

What advantages does a customizable template offer over rigid wish list apps?

SeaTable’s wish list app offers considerably more features and flexibility than other apps. You can not only create wish lists for individual people (e.g. for a birthday), but also use a shared wish list app that lets the whole family keep track of who is giving what to whom before Christmas, for example. The template can be individually adapted to your needs and is suitable for countless use cases.

TAGS: Everyday Life & Leisure Tools & Plugins