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Gleam is one of the most popular social media giveaway tools.
So, you’ve probably heard about it or used it.
But it’s far from perfect.
Some of its users have complained about:
- High cost
- Lack of customization options
- Difficulty in creating contests
But even beyond these issues, Gleam alternatives can have features that fit your contest needs better.
In a moment, I’ll talk about 6 Gleam alternatives and how they compare to Gleam. You’ll see where they perform better than Gleam and how they help create viral contests and giveaways.
1. SweepWidget
Apart from being one of my best Instagram and Facebook giveaway tools, SweepWidget is one of the best Gleam alternatives.
And for a few reasons.
First, SweepWidget is more affordable than Gleam. For example, Gleam’s cheapest plan costs $79 monthly (if you pay annually), while SweepWidget’s costs $25 monthly (on an annual plan).
They both support unlimited campaigns and entries. If you go through their features, you’ll see similarities even though Gleam is 3 times more costly.
Apart from that, SweepWidget also has a generous free plan.
So, if you only run a few giveaways monthly, SweepWidget is likely the best value.
Second, SweepWidget is easier to use than Gleam.
Based on my experience, I doubt any marketer would have a problem creating and running a giveaway with SweepWidget.
It’s easy to set up, and you can create a giveaway in less than 10 minutes.
Beyond these, here are other features you’ll get on SweepWidget:
- Over 60 entry methods: SweepWidget gives you access to over 60 entry methods across over 30 social media platforms. So, you can create giveaways on Twitter, Patreon, or even eBay.
- Giveaway builder: The easy-to-use builder has a few steps to set up your contest. You can specify your entry methods, design giveaway landing pages, and require login details.
- Templates: With over 25 templates for various social media platforms, you can spend less time creating your giveaway. You can use the templates as a starting point.
- Data collection: Many people run contests to generate leads. You can collect participants’ data through the login form.
- Giveaway security: Without security, bots can dominate your contests and defeat its aim. SweepWidget lets you prevent cheating by blocking duplicate IP addresses, disallowing VPN usage, blocking high-risk email providers, and more.
- Integrations: SweepWidget’s integrations let you transfer your contest data to other marketing tools. This way, you can easily nurture the leads you generate.
You can read my full SweepWidget review to learn more about it.
SweepWidget pricing
SweepWidget has a free plan. Then, the Pro plan comes with unlimited campaigns, unlimited user entries, 20+ social platforms, 20+ email integrations, and photo/video contests. It costs $29 monthly ($24.17 on an annual plan).
The Business plan comes with 2 brands, 30+ social platforms, leaderboards, instant coupons, instant prizes, and Zapier integration. It costs $59 monthly ($49.17 on an annual plan).
The Premium plan comes with 3 brands, white labeling, custom logo, custom CSS, custom URL for hosted landing page, geo-block entries, and email verification. It costs $119 monthly ($99.17 on an annual plan).
The Enterprise plan comes with 5 brands, API access, custom SMTP, custom HTML welcome email, and unlimited winners. It costs $249 monthly ($207.5 on an annual plan).
2. Shortstack
Shortstack and Gleam have similar base plans in terms of cost. Even though Shortstack offers a free trial, both tools have base plans that cost $79 monthly.
Gleam also beats Shortstack with unlimited entries since Shortstack only allows 10,000 entries for its base plan.
However, Shortstack lets you do more than just giveaways.
First, you get over 60 templates for giveaways, popups, and landing pages.
Second, you have a builder that allows you to customize giveaways to your taste.
Many Gleam customers have complained that Gleam contests tend to look the same no matter who is running it. You won’t have this problem with Shortstack, as the builder lets you create unique pages.
Not just for giveaways but for landing pages too.
So, if you want to create landing pages for your search and social media campaigns, consider Shortstack.
You can even create popups on these pages.
Beyond these, Shortstack lets you create autoresponders for your campaigns.
Whether someone has entered a giveaway or filled a landing page form, you can send automated emails to them. You can also send follow-up emails or schedule emails to nurture your prospects.
Here are some key features of Shortstack:
- Templates: Shortstack has over 60 templates for giveaways, landing pages, and popup forms. These templates can be a great starting point for your campaigns.
- Drag-and-drop contest and landing page editor: The WYSIWYG editor lets you edit every element of your contest landing page to have a unique result.
- Landing pages and forms: If you want to generate leads through other campaigns on search and social media, you’ll find the landing pages and popups useful.
- Email marketing: This lets you send automated emails to contest participants and leads. That said, Shortstack’s email features are basic compared to email marketing software products.
You can read my Shortstack review to see more of what it offers.
Shortstack pricing
The Startup plan comes with unlimited campaigns, 2,000 stored entry limit, random winner picker, comment to enter giveaways, story contest, and public voting contest. It costs $49 monthly ($39 on an annual plan).
The Business plan comes with 10,000 stored entry limit, photo contests, and instant win static prizes. It costs $99 monthly ($79 on an annual plan). In addition to what the Business plan offers, the Growth plan comes with 25,000 stored entry limit and costs $149 monthly ($119 on an annual plan).
The Pro plan comes with 50,000 stored entry limit, 1 team member, hashtag contests, video upload contests, and custom domain. It costs $249 monthly ($199 on an annual plan).
The Elite plan comes with 200,000 stored entry limit, 5 team members, fraud filter, country-based visibility settings, and an account manager. It costs $499 monthly ($399 on an annual plan).
For the Enterprise plan, you have to reach out to the Shortstack team.
3. Woorise
Woorise’s most expensive plan costs the same as Gleam’s cheapest plan. So, in terms of value for money, Woorise is a clear winner.
But beyond the costs, Woorise lets you run viral giveaways, quizzes, and surveys. And they’re so easy to create that even a beginner can set up a contest in a few minutes.
You can also run instant win contests where participants get notified immediately if they win. Another benefit here is that you can generate leads by offering losers discounts or other lead magnets.
Beyond giveaways, Woorise lets you create landing pages and forms to generate leads.
You can assess over 70 templates and edit them in the drag-and-drop campaign builder. With these, you can create unique contests for your brand.
And if you have any issues while using Woorise, you’ll be delighted by their fast and helpful support team.
Here are some key features of Woorise:
- Over 70 campaign templates: Woorise has templates ranging from giveaways to surveys to landing pages. So, if you have no experience building contests, these templates can be a headstart.
- Drag-and-drop campaign builder: The builder lets you customize a giveaway till you get your intended results.
- Instant win contests: This contest type lets winners know immediately when they win. This can eliminate the waiting time for participants.
- Over 90 languages: If you want to create giveaways in languages other than English, Woorise gives you enough options.
- Landing pages and forms: Beyond giveaways, landing pages and forms can help you generate leads from search and social media campaigns.
- Link in bio: Apart from running giveaways and creating landing pages, Woorise is also a link in bio tool. With this feature, you can create a link in bio page that drives your audience to important business pages.
- Integrations: Woorise allows you to integrate with your marketing tools so that you can easily process your leads.
To learn more about this tool, read my full Woorise review.
Woorise pricing
The Basic plan comes with unlimited campaigns, 1,000 entries monthly, instant win, fraud detection, random winner picker, link in bio, and country restriction. It costs $29 monthly ($23 on an annual plan).
The Grow plan comes with 2,000 entries monthly, 5 team users, surveys & quizzes, integrations, and payments. It costs $49 monthly ($39 on an annual plan).
The Pro plan comes with at least 10,000 entries monthly, 10 team users, file uploads, photo voting contests, CSS customization, and custom domain. It starts from $99 monthly ($79 on an annual plan).
4. Easypromos
Although Easypromos’s cheapest plans cost $29 and $49 monthly, they lack important features when compared to Gleam’s base plan.
For example, Gleam’s base plan lets you collect audio, images, and videos in galleries, while Easypromos’s cheapest plans don’t have that.
However, once you get to the higher plans, Easypromos may be the better deal.
Another edge Easypromos has compared to Gleam is that you can run and pay for a single promotion. So, if you just run a few giveaways in a year, this may be the most cost-effective option.
One great thing you get with Easypromos is the number of contest types you can run. You can run over 40 contest types.
Beyond that, Easypromos lets you check out all its contest options. You only pay when you’re ready to run giveaways.
This giveaway tool has over 300 templates that can give you ideas to create your giveaways.
Not just that, but you can edit these templates in the WYSIWYG editor. This allows you to create unique contest pages that you won’t get on Gleam.
Easypromos also provides extensive analytics for your giveaways. For example, you can get data about the number of registrations per day/hour, unique visits, conversion rates, giveaway participants’ sources, and more.
Here are some key features of Easypromos:
- Extensive contest types: These give you more options on the contest type to run.
- Templates: With over 300 templates, you’ll likely find a template that resembles the giveaway type you want to run.
- Organizing brands: If you run an agency, you can create brand pages for your clients. This will help you organize the giveaways you run for each client.
- Email autoresponders: This lets you create automated emails for giveaway participants. For instance, you can send emails automatically to participants during and after your contests.
- Analytics: Easypromos provides statistics about participants, visits, shares, sources, and more. With the Google Analytics integration, you can even get more data.
- Integrations: Easypromos lets you integrate with social media platforms, email marketing software, CRM platforms, and other marketing tools.
I wrote an Easypromos review where I explored its pros and cons for potential users.
Easypromos pricing
The Basic plan comes with entry form giveaway, Instagram giveaway, Facebook giveaway, and pick-a-winner app. It costs $29 monthly ($24.17 on an annual plan).
The Basic Pro plan comes with 8 apps, including Instagram story giveaway, Twitter giveaway, and multi-network giveaway. It costs $49 monthly ($40.83 on an annual plan).
The Premium plan comes with 42 apps, including photo and video contests, Instagram hashtag contests, quizzes, instant wins, and coupon management. It costs $199 monthly ($166.58 on an annual plan)
The White Label plan comes with 48 apps, including multi-stage promotions. You also have CSS customization and multi-language contests. It costs $399 monthly ($333.25 on an annual plan). For the Corporate plan, you have to reach out to the Easypromos team.
Easypromos app also allows you to pay for a single promotion if that’s all you need.
5. ViralSweep
In terms of pricing, ViralSweep’s lowest plan is cheaper than Gleam’s. But at the same time, ViralSweep’s high-end plans cost more than Gleam’s.
So, there’s no big difference in price.
Beyond that, you have access to standard contest tools like giveaways, galleries, and hashtags.
ViralSweep is easy to set up, and you can have a unique contest landing page in a few minutes.
ViralSweep also lets you collaborate with other brands to market your giveaway. The ViralSweep partner network lets you find brands whose audience will be interested in your giveaway.
You can invite these brands or accept their offer to promote your giveaways.
Doing this will bring in more participants and leads for your business.
To generate more leads, you can use the email collection forms on your giveaway page.
The A/B testing feature also lets you try a few things and see how they affect your giveaway results.
Lastly, ViralSweep has responsive and helpful customer support. So, you can quickly resolve any issue you face while using the product.
Here are some key features of ViralSweep:
- Instant win contests: With this contest type, participants will know immediately if they win a prize.
- ViralSweep partner network: The partner network lets you connect with other brands to promote your contests.
- Waitlist contest: Another feature I find interesting is the waitlist contest. Participants can perform various actions to ensure they get to the top of the waitlist. In return, they’ll get to use your new products for free.
- Fraud detection: This eliminates users who try to cheat in your giveaways.
- Integrations: You can connect ViralSweep with other marketing tools. This way, you can easily nurture leads.
ViralSweep pricing
The Starter plan comes with unlimited promotions and entries, 1 brand, contest app, instant win app, comments app, gallery app, form builder, and email notifications. It costs $49 monthly ($41 on an annual plan).
The Business plan comes with 2 brands and users, leaderboards, hashtags app, white label branding, geo-targeting, and premium integrations. It costs $199 monthly ($166 on an annual plan).
The Premium plan comes with 4 brands and additional users, contest video uploads, payments, audience segments, bulk import entrants, A/B testing, and ViralSweep API. It costs $399 monthly ($333 on an annual plan).
The Elite plan comes with 6 brands and additional users, 1 promotion built for you per month, and strategy consulting. It costs $999 monthly ($833 on an annual plan). You get a 7-day trial to check the plans out.
6. Vyper
Vyper’s lowest plan costs more than Gleam’s. Although, if you pay annually, the plans come at similar prices.
One thing that really stands out about Vyper is its ease of use. You can set up a giveaway in minutes rather than hours.
Contest templates are one feature that makes this possible. You’ll find templates for different contest types.
Then, you can use the contest builder to edit the giveaway to your needs. The builder is easy to navigate for even non-technical users.
Another thing I find interesting is that you can create and display your contests as a landing page, website chat widget, or embedded form.
If you face any issues using Vyper, you can reach out to the fast and helpful customer support for solutions.
Here are some key features of Vyper:
- Templates: Vyper has templates for various contest types. So, no matter the type of contest you want to run, you’ll find a template to start with.
- Contest builder: The contest builder lets you edit templates to create unique contests.
- Leaderboard contests: This type of contest can drive brand awareness as participants invite voters to your contest landing page.
- Integrations: Vyper provides integrations to other marketing tools. With that, you can transfer your leads automatically.
Vyper pricing
The Enterprise plan comes with up to 30,000 participants per month if you connect your SMTP (15,000 without), and you can track up to $30,000 revenue per month generated by Vyper. It costs $149 monthly.
The Agency plan lets you have up to 120,000 participants if you connect your SMTP (60,000 without) and track up to $120,000 revenue per month generated by Vyper. You also get 10 sub-accounts for different clients. It costs $299 monthly.
Luckily, Vyper offers a massive 50% discount on both plans if you pay annually.
But before you pay, you can try its features to see if they fit your needs.
Conclusion
Many reasons can push you to find a Gleam alternative.
You may be a dissatisfied user. You may just want to see what other tools offer before paying for Gleam.
I dived into these Gleam alternatives to uncover features that may be unavailable on Gleam.
Go through these mini-reviews. Then, visit each product’s website to see how they can help you create and run successful contests.
Samuel writes long-form guides to help businesses and entrepreneurs achieve better results from their marketing activities. He also writes for marketing and SaaS companies that want more leads and customers. Get in touch with him to discuss your content needs.