Today, we are launching a new page on the WishSimply website, a wishlist service comparison page. On this page, we will list the main features of various wishlist services. We are so confident about the value of our wishlist service that we are not afraid to name our competitors. Or tell you what they can offer. That is something very few companies dare to do.
Planned reviews - got feature lists
Initially, we were planning to do some kind of a reviews and give points to the services to help you see which are the best services out there. Then we though we might be biased, or perceived to be, although we would give our honest and fair opinion. Also lot of the suitability of the particular service to your needs depends of the weight you give to individual features.
So we ended up just listing the features of each service in a nice table. We are might be biased in listing features as well, but probably much less than if we were giving points. We try to be objective and we also listed the reasons or criteria (see the bottom of this post) that are needed to get a check mark for each feature. This kind of transparency would not have be possible if we had just looked at some final scores. Anyway, you can check the wishlist comparison table and choose the wishlist service that has the features you need and appreciate.
Choose the best service for your needs
Wishlist services are different, and some of you might want to use another list for a particular need. We want to be a good service and help you find another provider if our service does not fulfill your specific needs. For example, you might want a service from which users can purchase items directly and get them shipped to the receiver. This is e.g. a service WishSimply is not going to provide (as stated in our business plan).
Here are the reasons/criterias for the feature table
Privacy & security
Criteria
Explanation
Does not show 3rd-party ads
Ads affect 1) usability (available space and speed of service), 2) security (exploits) and 3) privacy (selling your information forward).
Respects your privacy
The service has a privacy policy that states it will not sell or give your information to third parties, and it also complies with that (as far as we can tell).
No affiliates
The service does not try to benefit from you by directing you to a third party and/or adding (secretly?) affiliate cookies on your machine.
SSL protected
Uses up-to-date SSL protection.
Features / Usability
Criteria
Explanation
Dedicated wishlist
The wishlist service is not associated with a specific shop. That is, the wishlist is not a side feature that is used to sell the products of the shop. Any suggestions in a shop-wishlist are most likely promoted and thus the service is not neutral regarding suggestions, reviews or recommendations.
Has a mobile app
Today, about half of all web service use is done on mobile devices, so in addition of mobile web pages the service should have a mobile app to enhance the mobile experience and to improve discovery of the service.
Wishes from anywhere
Allows adding wishes from anywhere. The service is not tied to one shop.
Has a bookmarklet
Makes adding wishes so much easier.
Multilanguage
Supports people with different languages.
Many login methods
Everybody needs to login to the service. Since people already use so many other services, the possibility to login using an existing account from another service is a plus.
Tracks item purchases
What is the point of a wishlist if you still get duplicates and need to hassle with returns or communicate purchases by other means?
Offers private and public lists
Not everybody wants to publish their list to the whole world, while some may need that feature.
Surprise me
Offers functionality that hides purchases from the list owner/maker.
Supports group purchases
Offers functionality that enables people to group up to purchase something. At least by allowing communication through the service in the context.
Modern GUI
Web pages scale to different screen sizes.
Work for this continues
Before we got to work on creating this table, we tried to find some comparisons from the internet, but we could not find a good one. So we hope we have done something useful that benefits everybody. If you find the list useful now or later, feel free to share it.
At the moment, the comparison table is quite small, but the idea is to expand the table by adding reviews from time to time. We will add more providers, but also new features that we might come across. I have already composed a list of some 80 services to go through (those that don't have a link don't work anymore). They are listed below.
Wishlist service comparison
Planned reviews - got feature lists
Initially, we were planning to do some kind of a reviews and give points to the services to help you see which are the best services out there. Then we though we might be biased, or perceived to be, although we would give our honest and fair opinion. Also lot of the suitability of the particular service to your needs depends of the weight you give to individual features.
So we ended up just listing the features of each service in a nice table. We are might be biased in listing features as well, but probably much less than if we were giving points. We try to be objective and we also listed the reasons or criteria (see the bottom of this post) that are needed to get a check mark for each feature. This kind of transparency would not have be possible if we had just looked at some final scores. Anyway, you can check the wishlist comparison table and choose the wishlist service that has the features you need and appreciate.
Choose the best service for your needs
Wishlist services are different, and some of you might want to use another list for a particular need. We want to be a good service and help you find another provider if our service does not fulfill your specific needs. For example, you might want a service from which users can purchase items directly and get them shipped to the receiver. This is e.g. a service WishSimply is not going to provide (as stated in our business plan).
Here are the reasons/criterias for the feature table
Privacy & security
Features / Usability
Work for this continues
Before we got to work on creating this table, we tried to find some comparisons from the internet, but we could not find a good one. So we hope we have done something useful that benefits everybody. If you find the list useful now or later, feel free to share it.
At the moment, the comparison table is quite small, but the idea is to expand the table by adding reviews from time to time. We will add more providers, but also new features that we might come across. I have already composed a list of some 80 services to go through (those that don't have a link don't work anymore). They are listed below.
Are there more of them ?
If you know a good service or feature, please share it with us by commenting on this post.
Cheers,
WishSimply