RafflePress vs UpViral: Which Is the Best Rafflecopter Alternative?

If you ran giveaways on Rafflecopter, you’ve probably already noticed: the platform is gone. Rafflecopter shut down in 2025, leaving thousands of contest organizers looking for a replacement.

This article compares RafflePress and UpViral as the two main alternatives for Rafflecopter users. I’ll cover setup, giveaway features, pricing, and which one makes more sense depending on how you run your campaigns.

What Happened to Rafflecopter?

Rafflecopter was one of the most widely used giveaway platforms for years. In 2025, the company ceased operations, ending service for everyone who relied on it.

If you ran giveaways there, here’s what that means practically. Any active giveaway widgets that were embedded on your site have stopped working. The giveaway data (entries, winner records, email lists) is no longer accessible through the platform. That data is worth exporting before access is fully gone.

The comparison in this article is now a two-tool decision. Rafflecopter is gone. The question is whether RafflePress or UpViral is the better fit for what you were doing there.

Switching from Rafflecopter: What to Do First

Before you set up a new tool, there are a few things worth doing if you still have access to your Rafflecopter account.

Export your email list and entry data. Most giveaway platforms let you download entries as a CSV. If you connected an email marketing service (Mailchimp, Constant Contact, etc.), your subscribers may already be in that list. Winner records and past campaign data are worth keeping for your own records.

For recreating a Rafflecopter-style giveaway in RafflePress, the closest equivalent is a standard entry-action giveaway. You set a prize, choose entry methods (email signup, social follows, referrals), set your dates, and publish. RafflePress does not have a direct Rafflecopter import tool. But your email list can be imported through your email service provider once you’ve connected RafflePress to it.

UpViral has a similar setup process. Neither platform offers a one-click migration from Rafflecopter.

Setup and Installation

The setup difference between these two tools comes down to one thing: whether you’re on WordPress.

UpViral is cloud-based. You sign up, log in through a browser, and embed your giveaway on any site using code. No installation needed. That works whether you’re on WordPress, Squarespace, Shopify, or a custom site. The downside is that your giveaway data lives on UpViral’s servers, not yours.

RafflePress is a WordPress plugin. You install it from WP Admin, and the whole setup happens inside your WordPress dashboard. Your giveaway data stays on your WordPress site. Participants you collect belong to you, not to a third-party platform.

UpViral caps leads at 10,000 on its Starter plan (the cheapest option). RafflePress has no lead limits on any plan.

I’ve used RafflePress on my own sites and in the work I do managing content for the brand. The native WordPress setup is genuinely faster if you’re already on WordPress. You’re not copying embed codes or switching between platforms.

Building Your Giveaway

RafflePress has a drag-and-drop builder with real-time preview. You see changes as you make them. Templates are goal-based, so you pick what you’re trying to grow (email list, social following, website traffic) and get a starting point built around that goal.

UpViral uses a multi-step campaign wizard. It offers templates too, but the interface takes longer to learn. There’s no real-time preview. You configure settings across several screens and then preview the result separately.

For anyone switching from Rafflecopter, RafflePress is closer to how Rafflecopter worked: configure your giveaway, add entry actions, publish. The learning curve is shorter.

What Entry Actions Does Each Tool Offer?

Entry actions are what participants do to earn entries in your giveaway. The range of options matters because different actions serve different growth goals.

UpViral’s entry options focus on referral mechanics. Participants can share the giveaway to earn extra entries, and referred entries are tracked back to the original referrer. It also offers social media actions and custom actions. If you want viral loop growth where the giveaway spreads itself, UpViral is built for that.

RafflePress offers 30+ entry action types: email newsletter signups, social media follows (Twitter/X, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest, LinkedIn), video views, image submissions, polls, surveys, podcast subscriptions, and a refer-a-friend viral action. It’s a wider spread across growth goals.

UpViral does referral mechanics better. RafflePress covers more entry action types overall.

If your Rafflecopter giveaways were mainly about email list growth and social follows, RafflePress covers those well. If you were specifically running refer-a-friend campaigns, UpViral has deeper referral tracking.

Giveaway Settings

Both platforms connect to major email marketing services. RafflePress supports 15+ integrations including Mailchimp, ConvertKit, AWeber, Drip, ActiveCampaign, and GetResponse. UpViral connects to a similar range plus Zapier. Either tool will work with your existing email provider.

On giveaway rules, RafflePress has a built-in rules generator that creates a compliant rules template. The setting is easy to find in the giveaway editor.

UpViral puts rules in advanced settings and provides minimal guidance on what to include.

If you need a giveaway rules template, RafflePress handles it inside the builder.

Publishing Your Giveaway

UpViral gives you a hosted page and an embed code. You can use either. The embed code approach means copying a snippet and pasting it into your page editor.

RafflePress gives you three options: a WordPress block you can drop into any page or post, a shortcode, or a dedicated distraction-free landing page with its own URL on your WordPress site. The landing page option is the fastest for driving traffic from social or ads.

You can also remove RafflePress branding from your giveaway at no extra cost. UpViral charges for white-labeling on its higher-tier plans.

How Do You Pick a Giveaway Winner?

Both tools let you select winners randomly or manually. The difference is in fraud filtering.

UpViral selects winners by points (higher referral count = more entries) or randomly. It sends an automatic email notification to the winner.

RafflePress lets you pick single or multiple winners, randomly or manually. Before selecting, you can filter out unverified entries and flag spam. The winner notification links directly to a confirmation page. If you want to announce a giveaway winner professionally, RafflePress has a built-in flow for it.

How Much Do UpViral and RafflePress Cost?

This is the starkest difference between the two tools.

UpViral is a subscription. The Starter plan is $99/month ($79/month billed annually), with a 10,000 lead limit. The Business plan is $149/month ($119/month annually) for 25,000 leads. There’s no free plan. You can start a 14-day trial for $1. Visit UpViral’s pricing page to verify current rates.

RafflePress is a one-time payment. Single site: $299. Unlimited sites: $349. No renewal fees, no annual subscription. There’s a free Lite version on WordPress.org, though it locks most entry actions and integrations behind the paid plan. Current pricing is at rafflepress.com/pricing.

Feature	UpViral	RafflePress
Price	$79/mo (billed annually)	$299 one-time
Free Plan	No (14-day $1 trial)	Yes (limited features)
Lead Limit	10,000 (Starter)	None
WordPress Native	No (embed code)	Yes (plugin)
One-Time vs Recurring	Recurring subscription	One-time payment
Data Ownership	Stored on UpViral servers	Stored on your server

The math on recurring vs. one-time is worth running.

UpViral at $79/month billed annually comes to $948 a year. RafflePress at $299 one-time breaks even in about 4 months.

After year one, RafflePress has saved you roughly $649 compared to UpViral’s Starter plan. Over three years, you’ve paid about $2,844 for UpViral versus $299 for RafflePress.

Rafflecopter was also a subscription. Switching to another subscription is the expected path. But the one-time model changes the math significantly.

Which Tool Should You Choose?

The decision comes down to two questions: Are you on WordPress, and how much does viral referral tracking matter to you?

Your Situation	Best Choice
You’re on WordPress and want to keep giveaway data on your own site	RafflePress
You ran email list or social growth giveaways on Rafflecopter	RafflePress
You want a one-time cost, no subscription renewal	RafflePress
You need viral referral loop campaigns where sharing earns entries	UpViral
Your site isn’t on WordPress (Squarespace, Shopify, custom)	UpViral
You want a hosted tool with no plugin to maintain	UpViral

Most Rafflecopter users who ran standard giveaways (email signups, social follows, random winner) will find RafflePress the closer replacement. The feature set maps well to what Rafflecopter offered, the price is better long-term, and the WordPress-native setup is less friction if you were already embedding Rafflecopter widgets into WordPress pages.

UpViral is worth choosing if your primary goal is viral growth through referral chains. It’s built around that mechanic in a way RafflePress isn’t.

What Do Users Say About Each Tool?

RafflePress holds a strong rating on WordPress.org, with reviewers consistently noting the ease of setup and results from email and social growth campaigns.

UpViral has generally positive user feedback on ease of use and referral tracking. Some users note slower support response times compared to RafflePress.

Case studies from RafflePress users:

• Agile Marketing grew their email list by 52% with a single giveaway.
• Smash Balloon added 3,584 subscribers.
• OptinMonster generated 3,500+ new users.
• WPForms grew their Facebook group to 11,000+ members.

RafflePress vs UpViral: Which Is the Best Rafflecopter Alternative?

For most Rafflecopter users, RafflePress is the closer fit. It handles the same core use cases: email list growth, social following, random winner selection. It runs natively inside WordPress. And it costs $299 once instead of $948 a year.

UpViral is the better choice if viral referral mechanics are central to your campaigns. It’s also the only option if you’re not on WordPress.

Over 200,000 WordPress sites run their giveaways with RafflePress. If you’re migrating from Rafflecopter and want to run giveaways that grow your email list, it’s the tool I’d recommend.

Related reading:

• RafflePress vs KingSumo: A Detailed Comparison
• KingSumo Review: Is It Worth It?
• How to Do a Giveaway to Grow Your Email List

Frequently Asked Questions

Is UpViral legit?

Yes, UpViral is a legitimate giveaway and viral referral platform. It’s been operating since 2016 and is used by businesses to run referral campaigns. The platform requires a paid subscription ($99/month or $79/month billed annually for the Starter plan) and offers a 14-day trial for $1. No free plan is available permanently. It’s a real tool with paying customers, not a scam, but you should be aware of the ongoing subscription cost before signing up.

What happened to Rafflecopter?

Rafflecopter shut down in 2025. The platform ceased operations entirely, meaning giveaway widgets embedded on websites stopped working and user data is no longer accessible through the platform. Anyone who ran giveaways on Rafflecopter needs a new tool for future campaigns. RafflePress and UpViral are the two most-used alternatives for the kinds of giveaways Rafflecopter supported.

What are the best Rafflecopter alternatives?

The two main Rafflecopter alternatives are RafflePress (a WordPress plugin, $299 one-time) and UpViral (a hosted SaaS platform, from $79/month billed annually). For WordPress users who ran standard email and social growth giveaways on Rafflecopter, RafflePress is the closest replacement. UpViral is better suited for viral referral campaigns or non-WordPress sites. Other options exist (Gleam, SweepWidget, Woorise) but require ongoing subscriptions and don’t integrate natively with WordPress.

Can I import my Rafflecopter entries to RafflePress?

RafflePress does not have a direct Rafflecopter import tool. You can’t move past giveaway entries into RafflePress. However, if you collected email addresses through Rafflecopter and have them in an email marketing platform (Mailchimp, ConvertKit, etc.), those subscribers carry over automatically when you connect RafflePress to the same email service. Your email list is the most portable asset from a Rafflecopter giveaway.

Is RafflePress free?

RafflePress has a free Lite version available on WordPress.org. The free version lets you install the plugin and run basic giveaways, but most entry actions, integrations, and advanced features (including the dedicated landing page builder and fraud protection) require the paid plan, which starts at $299 as a one-time payment. If you’re replacing Rafflecopter and want full functionality, you’ll need the paid version. The free tier is useful for testing the interface before buying.

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