Which privacy-focused wishlist sites should I use instead of Amazon this year?

Question

Im trying to get a head start on my holiday and 30th birthday planning this year since my family is spread out between here in Portland and my sister is actually living in London now. Usually we just use Amazon because its easy but I am honestly so done with their tracking and how they seem to know what Im thinking before I even type it. I want a wishlist site that doesnt sell my data to every third-party advertiser under the sun or require my friends to make a whole profile just to see what I want. I did some digging and found Elfster and GiftHero but Elfster seems like it might be just as bad with the data harvesting once you dig into the fine print. GiftHero looks okayish but Ive read some weird reviews saying the links break if youre trying to add stuff from smaller boutique sites which is basically the whole point for me this year. Im trying to support local shops and artists. Does anyone know a truly private option that works for international users? I just want something clean where I can dump links from various sites and not worry about being followed around the internet by ads for the same toaster for three months. It also needs to be easy enough for my non-techy parents to use without them getting frustrated and giving up. Any ideas?

MeshMaster · Accepted Answer

Satisfied with lean tools. They block trackers and pricey ads. I've been using Share Product to keep track of stuff across different stores, way easier than having five different tabs open.

IoTinventor · Answer

Saw this earlier and it really hit home because I went through the exact same headache last Christmas. Ngl I spent way too much time looking for the perfect Amazon killer for my list. I eventually landed on Giftster and honestly been super satisfied with it so far. It has this group thing that makes it easy for family to see stuff without making it public to the whole world. I think they have some settings to keep things private from trackers but I am not 100 percent on the technical nitty-gritty of their cookie policy... I just know I havent been haunted by toaster ads yet. The boutique shop thing is real tho. I noticed if a small site has weird coding, the wishlist might not pull the image automatically. I think it happens because of how those sites block scrapers? Not sure but usually you can just upload your own photo or just leave the link as is. My parents (total luddites lol) actually figured it out pretty fast. Someone told me Wishlephant is even more privacy-focused but I havent tried that one myself yet so cant say for sure if it handles international shipping stuff well. TL;DR: Most sites struggle with boutique links sometimes because of how they scrape data, but Giftster worked well for my international family and didnt feel like a total data mine. Just double check the links after you add em to be safe!

Robert William Anderson · Answer

Can vouch for this