A wish list maker and a shopping planner
GiftList is a universal wish list. You browse a shop inside the app, tap, and the item arrives on your list with its picture and price. Share the link and other people can reserve something without signing up for anything, so nobody buys the same present twice.
GiftTracker never asks for a link, because nothing leaves your phone for anybody else to open. It is a record of what you are buying for the people on your list this year, and it stays private.
Both apps are free and both are on the App Store and Google Play, so the choice is about which job you have rather than which platform you own.
Where GiftList is strong
The built-in browser is the good idea here. Saving something from any shop without copying links is the fastest way anyone has found to fill a wish list, and it works the same across a lot of retailers.
Its store listings also describe a few things GiftTracker has no answer to: registry imports from large retailers, group gifting where several people put money towards one present, and a browser extension for saving from a laptop. If you are building a wedding or a baby registry, that is the app for it.
Where GiftTracker is different
GiftTracker is arranged around the occasion and the person, not the item. An Event for Christmas, the Recipients inside it, their gifts underneath, and the whole thing archived at the end of the year so next Christmas starts where the last one finished.
Two things follow from that which a wish list app does not need. First, gifts have stages: To Buy, Bought and Wrapped, plus any of your own. A buyer’s list is never simply bought or not. Second, there is a budget: set one for the Event, share it between people, and watch the running total while you can still do something about it. Neither GiftList listing describes a budget.
The other practical difference is the connection. Once you are set up, GiftTracker works entirely offline. GiftList’s headline feature is a browser inside the app, which by definition needs one.
Which one fits you
If you are writing down what you would like, or organising a registry other people will buy from, use GiftList. It is better at that than we are, and it is free.
If you are the one doing the buying, with a list of people, a budget, ideas saved all year and a pile of presents to get wrapped, that is what GiftTracker does. Choosing a gift list app for Android or iPhone sets out what to look for before you commit a whole Christmas to one.
