I built Presentaí: free online gift registry and Secret Santa, with no fees
Every year-end the same scene plays out in Brazil. Someone creates a Secret Santa ("amigo secreto") group on WhatsApp, half the people go quiet, the draw happens with slips of paper over a video call, and on the day someone gets a duplicate gift. The rest of the year it's the same story with birthdays, housewarmings and baby showers: a screenshot of a notes app, full of links nobody knows whether they were already bought.
I built Presentaí to fix that. It's two tools in one site: an online gift list and an online Secret Santa draw. Both are free, work through a WhatsApp link, and don't ask people who are just giving a gift to sign up. The site is in Portuguese and made for Brazil.
In short:
- Presentaí is a free Brazilian site for online gift lists and Secret Santa draws.
- No fees: nothing is taken out of the gifts, and there's no subscription or paid plan.
- Lists take links from any store (Shopee, Mercado Livre, Amazon, Magalu and others), plus gifts without a link.
- Guests reserve a gift without an account, and a reserved gift disappears for everyone else, so nobody gives a duplicate.
- For Secret Santa, only the organizer creates an account. Participants join through a link, see their result on a private link, and couples can be kept from drawing each other.
A gift list with links from any store
The idea is simple: you build the list with the products you want, from any store, and send a single link.
- Paste the product link from Shopee, Mercado Livre, Amazon, Magalu or another store. Name, photo and price come in automatically.
- Gifts without a link work too. "Dinner voucher", "help with the honeymoon", "anything for the kitchen": they become list items just the same.
- Share by link or QR code. Drop it in the family group, the invitation, Instagram.
- Guests reserve without creating an account. They open the link, pick a gift, confirm. The item leaves the list for everyone else, so nobody gives a duplicate.
- The surprise survives. Whoever created the list sees that a gift was claimed, but not who claimed it.
- The purchase happens at the store, at the store's price. Guests buy straight from the store's website, the way they already would.
It works for birthdays, housewarmings, bridal and baby showers, Christmas, graduations, or just a wish list to send when someone asks "what do you want?". And the list can look like you: seven different designs, a cover photo and a countdown to the event date.
What about weddings?
Those too, and there's a difference worth explaining. Many wedding sites turn gifts into cash and take a fee from each gift, usually between 3% and 6%. On Presentaí the guest buys the actual gift at the store and nothing is deducted. There's no couple's website or RSVP: it's a wedding registry as a link, to paste into the invitation or the site you already use.
Online Secret Santa, no paper slips
Presentaí's Secret Santa was made for the WhatsApp group:
- Only the organizer creates an account. Participants need no account and no email.
- One invite link. You send the link to the group and each person joins by typing their name. Or you type the names yourself.
- Restrictions. You can say who can't draw whom, like couples or siblings.
- Nobody sees the pairs, not even the organizer. Each person gets a secret link and only they see who they drew. Nobody draws themselves.
- Wish lists. Each participant can leave hints, with a link or just a description, and whoever drew them sees it after the draw. A hint without a link becomes a store search already capped at the group's agreed price.
None of this is paid. There's no premium version, no "pay to see the result".
So how is it free?
Fair question, and I'd rather answer it up front. Presentaí runs on affiliate commissions: when someone buys a gift through the list's link, the store pays the site a small commission. Buyers pay the store's normal price, and whoever created the list pays nothing.
Presentaí doesn't sell products, doesn't process payments or Pix, and doesn't receive money for gifts. Price, stock, delivery and returns are with the store.
Why I built it
Because I wanted to use it. I'm a developer, and I kept watching family and friends get by with screenshots of lists, shared spreadsheets and paper draws. The existing options either charged fees, made everyone sign up, or were built for a single kind of event, like weddings.
Presentaí is the version I wished existed: it opens on a phone, works through WhatsApp and doesn't make guests create an account. As the site's public reports show (built from anonymous data from real lists), it has already become the housewarming, wedding and baby shower list for a lot of people.
FAQ
Is Presentaí really free? Yes. Creating a list, reserving a gift and running a Secret Santa draw are free, with no subscription, no paid plan and no fee taken from the gifts.
Which site has a wedding registry with no fees? Presentaí charges no fee on gifts: the guest buys the item at the store, at the store's price, and nothing is deducted. Sites that turn gifts into cash take a fee from each one.
Do guests need an account to reserve a gift? No. They open the list link, pick a gift and confirm the reservation, without signing up.
Can I run an online Secret Santa without participants signing up? Yes. Only the organizer creates an account. Participants join through a link in the WhatsApp group by typing their name, with no email.
Can I keep couples from drawing each other? Yes. Before the draw, the organizer sets who can't draw whom.
Can the organizer see who drew whom? No. Each participant only sees their own result, on their secret link.
Can I mix products from different stores in one list? Yes. The list takes links from any store, plus gifts without a link, like a dinner voucher.
Try it
If you have a birthday, a shower or the year-end Secret Santa coming up:
Got a suggestion, found a bug or missing something? Reach out. It's my own project, and every idea that comes in becomes an experiment.