Online Lucky Draw Tools: 7 Best Free Contest Random Name Pickers

One of the critical parts of a social media competition or a viral online giveaway is picking winners.

Participants care so much about how winners are selected and which way they can become a winner.

Although some viral giveaway software such as UpViral provides a system to pick a winner randomly, you might find not-uncommon circumstances where you have to use a custom online lucky draw tool to pick winners based on your entries, such as names.

In this article, you will find the 7 best viral prize draw software to pick winners randomly.

Random vs Random-weighted drawings

I want to quickly emphasize the big difference between a random and a random-weighted draw. It is extremely important to get to know because it will impact your campaign.

In random winner selection, all participants or entries have an equal chance of becoming winners.

In random-weighted draws, participants have different chances of becoming a winner based on each participant’s points.

For instance, if Joe and Jane have earned 10 points and 30 points, respectively, in a random draw winner selection, Joe and Jane will both have an equal, 1:1 chance of winning. It’s like tossing a coin – 50:50 probability or odd for head and tail will show up.

However, in a random-weighted draw, points will impact the chance of winner selection. If Joe and Jane were the only two participants in the contest, the total points of the contest would be 40, and Joe would have a 25% odd (10/40 * 100), and Jane would have a 75% chance (30/40 * 100) to become a winner.

In essence, in the random-weighted draw, the outcome depends on the participant’s total points. In contrast, a random draw will select a winner randomly, no matter how many points are accumulated.

Which is the best lucky draw method?

It depends.

If you run a social media contest such as an Instagram competition, Twitter hashtag contest, or YouTube comment giveaway, the random draw would be the most suitable method to pick a winner because each one has a single chance.

However, the random-weighted draw is the best and smartest method for holding a viral prize giveaway or a sweepstake.

In the random-weighted draw, participants with more points will have a greater possibility of becoming a winner.

Related: KingSumo vs. UpViral: Which Tool Does Help You Best Go Viral?

Best Free Viral Prize Draw Software to Pick Random Winners

These tools are not in any particular order. Please watch the short demo videos (< 1-minute length each) to get a quick idea of how they work.

Lucky Draw

Lucky-draw.sg is a simple online lucky draw tool you can use for free. Paste the names or IDs and click on the “Spin” button to select a winner randomly. You can spin unlimited times to choose any amount of winners.

LuckyDraw.me – Lucky Draw Simulator

LuckyDraw.me lets you quickly draw winners randomly on their web tool. See the short video below for a demo.

Random Name Picker by Comment Picker

CommentPicker.com provides a simple yet powerful tool to select winners from selected items.

1. Enter the list of names and select the file
2. Choose the number of winners to be picked
3. Shuffle names
4. Click on the “Start” button.

Wheel of Names

Wheel Of Names is one of the most intuitive viral giveaway random name picker software with customizable options.

• Spin wheel includes all the names added to the random draw
• Use images to the draw
• Customization of during spin, after the spin, and appearance – Manage spin time, sounds, volume, change winner message, edit colors of wheel and background, etc.,
• Shuffle inputs
• Link Google spreadsheet
• Import X (previously Twitter) users through hashtags (perfect for selecting X hashtags, and random winners)
• Add title and description
• Share wheel with others

Random Picker by Minwebtool

Miniwebtool’s Random Picker is another free viral prize draw software. Enter all or import all names from a text file and click on the “Pick a Random Name” button, which will do the magic.

You can also enable a 3-step randomness process certification to improve your credibility. It’s helpful if you’re looking for a random picker for raffles, contests, drawings, giveaways, promotions, etc.,

Pinkylam’s Random Name Picker

Random Name picker by Pinkylam is perfect for quick lottery draws. Watch the video below for a demo.

Puck Toolbox Lucky Draw Tool

PuckWang.com’s Lucky Draw Tool is one of the best viral prize draw software. It’s filled with many options and lets you select unlimited winners and assign awards for each placement of the random draw giveaway.

• Two draw types: 1) Draw corresponding winners from a candidate list in the order in which prizes are filled out. 2) draw winners until the user stops
• Add award list: Assign the number of winners for each placement and a specific award to show up on the random name picker screen.
• Set style: Change font size, colors, title, etc.,

If you hold a mega giveaway where you offer prizes for multiple placements, drawing winners from a candidate list option would be perfect.

Random name picker for the contest

One of the most popular giveaways is random/lucky-draw competitions. If you would want to hold a viral giveaway, you might not want to use the software listed above.

Why?

Before picking the final winners, you should verify each profile to avoid selecting fraudulent entries. In UpViral, you can view user activity and how points are earned by accessing the lead’s details.

On the other hand, these tools do not support random-weighted drawing. Use them for single-entry contests and social media competitions.

Related: Best social media marketing tools for content creators

Final words on best online lucky draw tools

Although there are dozens of online social media contest apps, not many of them provide a random winner-picker interface for live streams that protect privacy.

Check out these random comment pickers if you want to hold a social media comment winner competition for Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, etc.

Try the random name picker tools listed above, and let us know which is your favorite and why in the comments below.