For families running the gift list in a shared sheet
Your gift list outgrew the spreadsheet
A shared Google Sheet can't keep a gift list secret. Anyone who can edit it can see who bought what, even on a hidden tab. Wishfox is a free alternative. Paste your sheet in, share one link, guests reserve without an account, and the person the list is for sees no reservations.
Free, and you don't need an account to start. See the side-by-side
Where the sheet gives up
Spreadsheets are great at numbers. Gift-giving is mostly a secret-keeping problem, and that's the one thing a shared sheet can't do.
Everyone can see everything
The person the list is for opens the same file you do. One glance at the "bought by" column and the surprise is over. A hidden tab doesn't help. Google's own help page says "All spreadsheet editors can unhide and view these sheets", and that protecting a range "shouldn't be used as a security measure."
Джерело: Google Docs Editors Help, Protect, hide and edit sheets
One stray keystroke
A shared sheet gives everybody a delete key. Rows get overwritten, sorting scrambles the notes, and there's no polite way to ask Grandma what she pasted over.
Two of the same present
Somebody works from a copy they downloaded in November. Somebody else claims a gift in the group chat instead of the sheet. Two identical parcels turn up.
It falls apart on a phone
More than half of UK web traffic comes from phones, and a ten-column sheet there is a pinch-zoom puzzle. The ones who give up just guess instead.
Джерело: Statcounter, mobile share of UK web traffic, September 2026
What a sheet still does better
A spreadsheet is free, everybody already has one, and it'll bend into any shape you want. If you're tracking a budget, splitting costs between siblings, or you want a column that adds itself up, keep the sheet. Nothing here replaces a formula.
Wishfox does one narrower job. It handles the gifts themselves, and who quietly claimed what. Some families run both, the sheet for the money and Wishfox for the list.
Google Sheets vs Wishfox
- Друзі резервують без акаунта
- Ти не бачиш, хто що зарезервував
- Жодних однакових подарунків
| Функція | Google Sheets | Wishfox |
|---|---|---|
| Free to use | Безкоштовно | Безкоштовно |
| Anyone can open the link without an account | ||
| Guests can claim a gift without signing up | Частково | |
| The person the list is for can't see who claimed what | ||
| Nobody can wipe the list by accident | ||
| Name, photo and price fill in from a product link | ||
| Add a whole list at once, not item by item | ||
| Tells you when a price drops | ||
| Secret Santa draw hidden even from the organizer | ||
| Readable on a phone without pinch-zoom | Частково | |
| Free-form columns, formulas and budget totals |
Google Sheets behaviour checked 10 серпня 2026 р..
Google Sheets is a trademark of Google LLC. Wishfox isn't affiliated with or endorsed by Google. Excel and Numbers behave the same way for the rows above. Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we'll fix it.
Bring the whole sheet across at once
Paste your sheet
Copy the rows straight out of Google Sheets or Excel, or drop the .xlsx. It's read in your browser and never uploaded.
Check what came across
We work out which column holds the gift, the link and the price. Fix anything we got wrong, drop what you don't want, and nothing saves until you say so.
Share one link
Send it the way you send the sheet. Guests open it and reserve without signing up for anything.
No sheet to move? Start an empty list instead and paste product links one at a time. The old sheet can stay exactly where it is. Start an empty list
The system you already built
We see three setups again and again. Wishfox does all three, without the part where the surprise gets out.
A tab for each person
The most common setup, and the closest to how this works. Keep a list per recipient, see what's already been bought for each of them, and let each of them see only their own wishes.
A "bought by" column
The column somebody types their name into so two of you don't buy the same thing. Here that's a reservation. The person the list is for sees nothing at all, and by default the other givers don't see each other's names either.
A Secret Santa sheet somebody runs
Whoever draws the names ends up knowing every pairing, which is a strange job to give one person. Start a group instead, share the code, and the draw runs itself. It stays secret even from you, because the pairings never leave the server.
Часті запитання
- Can I import my gift spreadsheet into Wishfox?
Yes. Copy the rows out of Google Sheets or Excel and paste them in, or drop an .xlsx and bring the tabs across one at a time, which suits a workbook with a tab per person. We work out which column holds the gift, the link, the price and who it's for, and you fix anything we got wrong before a single item is saved. Your spreadsheet is never uploaded, it's read in your browser. One column deliberately stays behind: the one where you write who already bought what. In Wishfox the person the list is for can't see who reserved anything, which is the whole point.
- Is Wishfox free, like a Google Sheet?
Yes. Free forever, no ads, no paid tier, and we don't sell your data. Wishfox runs on donations rather than subscriptions, so nothing is pushing it toward a paywall. Price tracking and shared lists, which some wishlist apps keep behind a plan, are included.
- Can the person the list is for see who claimed what?
No. On a list you made for yourself, the reservation side never loads at all, so there's no badge or count to stumble across. Other givers see that an item is taken, and by default they don't see who took it either. You can also switch reservations off per list.
- Do the people I share it with need an account?
No. They open the link and claim a gift. Returning guests get one click, first-timers just leave a name. They can even create a list of their own without signing up.
До ідеального подарунка залишився лише один список.
Поділися своїми бажаннями з рідними та друзями. Жодних зайвих подарунків, жодних здогадок, лише радість від дарування.
Почни безкоштовно