Gleam is a capable product and most people who leave it are not leaving because it failed. They leave because they were paying for a platform and using one corner of it, or because the bill outgrew the giveaway.
What goes wrong
The price against the usage. Competitions starts at $29 a month and the full package is $119. For a brand running one giveaway a quarter, that is a subscription mostly spent idle. Gleam's own pricing page suggests upgrading for the promotion months and downgrading afterwards, which works but is a chore to remember.
Paying for a platform to use a widget. Captures, Galleries and Rewards are separate products at $49 each. Plenty of accounts only ever used Competitions.
The winner selection is not necessarily a draw. Gleam offers a random draw, a leaderboard, or hand-picking the entry you prefer. That flexibility is a feature for a photo contest and a problem the day an entrant asks how the winner was chosen.
Which alternative replaces which usage
If you ran multi-action campaigns with referrals, email capture and verified actions, your replacement is another campaign platform. SweepWidget and Woobox are the closest in shape; KingSumo is far cheaper if a giveaway page on your own site is enough.
If what you actually wanted was a winner drawn from the comments on a post, no campaign platform does that, Gleam included. That is Lukky: it signs in through Meta's official authorisation, reads the comments on an Instagram or Facebook post, removes duplicates, draws at random and issues a timestamped certificate anyone can open. €9.99 a month or €39.99 a year, with one free draw a week; the pricing page has the detail.
What you give up by moving to Lukky
Everything Gleam does that is not a draw. No email capture, no referral entries, no leaderboard, no hosted landing page, no widget to embed. Six of Gleam's eight networks. And the option to hand-pick a winner, which Lukky deliberately does not offer.
If any of that was why you used Gleam, Lukky is the wrong replacement and this page would rather tell you now.
What you gain, if the draw is what you cared about, is a different kind of evidence. Gleam calls its results auditable, which means the organiser can inspect them. Lukky publishes a certificate the entrant can open without asking anyone. On a campaign where entries were verified through a widget, that distinction hardly matters. On a public comment giveaway, where every entrant can see how many people commented and count for themselves, it is the whole argument.
Lukky and Gleam, point by point
Every value is quoted as published, with the page it was read on and the day it was read. A criterion Gleam does not publish is marked as such rather than dropped from the table.
| Criterion | Lukky | Gleam |
|---|---|---|
| How it reads the comments | Native app, official Meta authorisation, no password Checked on Aug 28, 2026 | Embeddable widget; entrants complete actions inside it Checked on Aug 28, 2026 |
| Networks covered | Instagram, Facebook Checked on Aug 28, 2026 | Instagram, Facebook, X, YouTube, TikTok, Twitch, Discord, Spotify Checked on Aug 28, 2026 |
| Published entry price | 9,99 €/month or 39,99 €/year Checked on Aug 28, 2026 | $29/month (Competitions); $119/month for the full package Checked on Aug 28, 2026 |
| What the free tier allows | 1 draw a week, 1 winner, unlimited entries, no card Checked on Aug 28, 2026 | Free account with basic Competitions features Checked on Aug 28, 2026 |
| Proof of the draw | Public timestamped certificate Checked on Aug 28, 2026 | Random draw, leaderboard or hand-picked entry; results called auditable Checked on Aug 28, 2026 |
| Filters | Duplicates, excluded accounts, required mentions Checked on Aug 28, 2026 | Entries verified with each platform before being counted Checked on Aug 28, 2026 |
| Comment limit | Unlimited entries Checked on Aug 28, 2026 | Does not do this Checked on Aug 28, 2026 |
| Platforms | iOS, Android Checked on Aug 28, 2026 | Web Checked on Aug 28, 2026 |
What Gleam does better
- check Eight networks, including Twitch, Discord and Spotify.
- check Entries verified with each platform before being counted, which a comment draw cannot do.
- check Referral entries that turn each entrant into a recruiter.
- check Leaderboards, submissions and hosted landing pages in one product.
FAQ
- Why do people leave Gleam?
- Usually price against usage: a monthly platform subscription for a giveaway that runs a few times a year. Their pricing page suggests upgrading and downgrading around campaigns.
- Is there a free Gleam alternative?
- KingSumo's free plan covers unlimited giveaways with bonus entries and multiple winners, and Lukky's free plan runs one draw a week.
- Can Lukky replace Gleam?
- Only for the draw itself, and only on Instagram and Facebook. It replaces no other part of the product.
- Does Gleam draw from Instagram comments?
- No. Entries are completed inside the embedded widget, never read from a post's comment thread.
Updated on August 28, 2026