Gleam Competitions

Gleam Competitions is campaign software for giveaways, sweepstakes and user-generated contests. It best suits marketers, publishers, agencies, bloggers and online stores that need many entry actions, social networks and winner-selection rules in one service. Its main trade-off is that serious limits on winners, prizes, team access and automation arrive quickly on the paid tiers.

Overview

You can run giveaways, raffles, photo and caption contests, social-media promotions and other campaigns built around user-generated content. Entry methods cover email subscriptions, follows and visits, comments, shares, hashtags, video actions, quizzes, uploads, coupon codes, Discord entries and event actions. That breadth supports campaigns more sophisticated than a single “follow to enter” mechanic, although each plan’s caps determine how far a promotion can scale.

Winner selection can be random, based on a most-entries leaderboard or handled manually. Voting, moderation, analytics and reporting help operators manage and evaluate participation. Embedding works on websites, blogs, Shopify, Linktree, contest landing pages and overlays, so the same campaign can fit different publishing and commerce setups.

Key features

Social actions span Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter/X, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, Snapchat, Tumblr, Twitch, Telegram, Discord, SoundCloud, Spotify and Goodreads. Custom forms and first-party data collection support lead generation, while custom CSS enables branded presentation on the Business tier. Fraud detection and smart CAPTCHA address low-quality or abusive participation.

Gleam lists integrations with ActiveCampaign, HubSpot, Mailchimp, Klaviyo, Salesforce, Shopify, Zapier and others. Zapier is restricted to Pro and higher and currently requires a Subscribe to Newsletter action, making it unsuitable for workflows that depend on unrestricted trigger types. The service offers 25+ languages on Pro. Gleam says it completed a SOC 2 Type II audit with no noted exceptions; it also describes AES-256 encryption at rest, TLS 1.2 in transit, BCrypt password hashing, AWS hosting, daily snapshots, multi-zone Oregon infrastructure and disaster recovery in Ohio.

Pricing

Free — free. Unlimited campaigns and entries make this a workable starting point, but each campaign allows only 10 winners, one repeat action and one team member.

Hobby — $29 a month. It keeps unlimited campaigns, raises capacity to 15 winners and four prizes, allows two repeat actions and unlocks entry data. This fits small businesses that need usable participant data but not extensive collaboration or advanced controls.

Pro — $59 a month. The allowance rises to 50 winners and 10 prizes, with five repeat actions, manual winners, location restrictions and 25+ languages. It is the practical tier for larger multilingual promotions and teams needing more controlled selection; Zapier starts here.

Business — $179 a month. Up to 250 winners and 25 prizes accompany three team members, custom CSS and fields, event mode, file uploads and SMS verification. This is aimed at agencies, retailers and event campaigns where branding, verification or collaborative administration matters.

Premium — $499 a month. It supports 500 winners, 50 prizes and five team members, adding webhooks, custom SMTP, an API beta and leaderboard embedding. Choose it for high-volume operations and deeper technical integration; smaller campaigns will pay for capacity they may not use. All plans include 24/7 email support, with priority support for paying customers.

Platforms

Gleam provides web and API access. Its embedding options make it suitable for hosted pages as well as existing sites and commerce properties.

Who it's for

Bloggers and publishers can combine audience actions with embedded promotions. Online stores can connect campaigns to Shopify and marketing systems, while agencies and marketing managers gain multiple winner rules, moderation and reporting. It is less suitable when a campaign needs more than 10 winners without a subscription, or when Zapier automation must work beyond the supported newsletter action.

Pros and cons

• Pros: unusually broad entry methods and social-network coverage; random, leaderboard and manual winner selection; embedding across sites, Shopify, Linktree and overlays; fraud controls, CAPTCHA, moderation and reporting; strong stated security and infrastructure practices.
• Cons: Free is limited to 10 winners, one repeat action and one user; collaboration and branding features are reserved for higher tiers; Zapier requires Pro or above and a Subscribe to Newsletter action; Premium is costly for smaller operators.

Alternatives

Social Media Contest Software and Lead Capture Software lists are useful starting points when you want to compare categories rather than one product.

SweepWidget is a better fit if you need Android or iOS access, a free hosted landing page and a free tier capped at 10 user entries. Choose Heyo for its Instagram-and-TikTok-focused beta and templates. Socialman suits users wanting a free plan with winner selection, data access, CSV exports and 20 languages. Comment Picker is aimed at quick, platform-specific draws, with 100+ free tools and varying limits. Contestit fits a small promotion needing one giveaway per month and 500 participants on Free. KickoffLabs is an alternative for mini-campaigns capped at 100 unique visitors monthly on Free. KingSumo offers unlimited free giveaways, bonus entries and auto-reminder emails, but no custom branding on its free tier. Lukky is for mobile users running social draws, with one account, one user and one winner per free draw.

Verdict

Choose Gleam Competitions when your campaign needs varied social and data-capture actions, flexible winner rules and broad embedding options. Look elsewhere if your promotion is small enough for a simpler draw tool, requires mobile-native access, or depends on richer automation without moving to Pro or above.