NameWheel vs Picker Wheel (2026): Which Wheel Spinner Fits Your Job?

Picker Wheel is one of the best known wheel spinners on the web, and NameWheel is the one we build, so read this with that in mind. We have tried to be fair: every fact about Picker Wheel below comes from its own homepage and plan page on the day this was written, with links, and we say plainly where it does something better than we do.

Side by Side

Sources: pickerwheel.com and pickerwheel.com/plan, read on 29 October 2026; NameWheel features and pricing. "Not described" means we could not find it on those pages, not that it can never exist.

Spin Modes

Both tools cover the three modes most people need. A normal spin leaves the winner on the wheel. Picker Wheel's Elimination mode and NameWheel's Eliminate mode both take the winner off before the next spin, which is how you call every student once or set a presentation order. Picker Wheel goes a step further with an option to remove every copy of a name at once, handy when a list has duplicates. For counting, Picker Wheel has Accumulation and NameWheel has Tally; both keep a running score as you spin.

The difference is in what sits around the modes. NameWheel has a Teams mode on the wheel itself, where each spin drops a name into the next group so the room watches the teams form, and a Bracket mode with PRO that seeds names into head to head matches until one champion is left. Picker Wheel handles teams in a separate Team Picker Wheel tool and does not list a bracket. NameWheel also has a marble race that ranks a whole list in one race, which suits draft orders and turn orders.

Customisation

This is Picker Wheel's strongest area and it is worth saying so. On its main wheel you can mix text and image entries, give each entry its own hex colour and a label, hide entries, sort and shuffle the list, import a CSV, and run a mystery wheel that hides the result until it lands. Spin speed runs from level 1 to 10 and the spin lasts anywhere from 1 to 30 seconds, with an optional manual stop. Sounds, confetti and full screen are all there, with full screen on tablets and computers.

NameWheel keeps the free wheel simpler: colour themes, a spin length from 2 to 12 seconds, and a starter set of sounds and win effects, with all 19 sounds and 11 effects on PRO. Photos on slices, your own logo in the hub and weighted entries come with PRO. If your wheel is mostly a visual piece, a prize wheel at a stand or a picture quiz, Picker Wheel gives you more to work with for free.

Fairness and Proof

Any well built online wheel is fair in the everyday sense: each name has the same chance. The question that matters for giveaways and raffles is different. Can someone who was not in the room check the result afterwards?

NameWheel's certified draws are built for that. When you start one, the entry list is fingerprinted, our server commits to a hash of a secret seed, and your browser adds its own random value. The winner is calculated from both, the seed is revealed after the spin, and the whole record is signed and published at a link anyone can open and recheck in their own browser. You can also freeze a list before entries close, so you can show later that the draw used that exact list. Certified draws are free with an account; a video of the spin attached to the proof page comes with PRO or as a single $4.99 purchase.

Picker Wheel's homepage describes how its spins work and how to share wheels and collect results, but we did not find a way to publish a checkable record of a particular spin. For a classroom pick that is irrelevant. For a prize draw with entrants who may ask questions, it is the deciding difference. The guide to whether spin the wheel is random goes deeper on what makes a draw trustworthy.

Saving and Sharing

Picker Wheel saves your work to your browser automatically, and a free account adds cloud storage for 15 files, rising to between 40 and 120 on its premium plans. You can share a wheel as a guest link, which expires after 60 days unopened or a year of inactivity, share a live link from a saved file, or run a collect results file that gathers responses, 10 at a time on the free plan. It can hold up to five wheels in one session.

NameWheel shares a wheel as a link that carries the whole list, so there is nothing to expire, and a free account saves wheels to your dashboard; PRO makes saved wheels unlimited and adds Google Sheets live sync, where the wheel follows a spreadsheet as it changes. Both tools can be embedded in a website with an iframe.

Prices

Both are free for ordinary spinning. Their paid plans buy different things, so compare what you need rather than the headline price.

On a yearly plan, NameWheel PRO costs a little less than Picker Wheel's entry plan, and NameWheel is the only one of the two with a one time lifetime option. Picker Wheel's higher plans make sense if you collect large numbers of participant results or need many saved files.

Moving a List Across

Both tools take one entry per line, so moving is a copy and paste. In Picker Wheel, switch to Text Mode, select the entries and copy them. Open NameWheel, paste into the names box, and spin. If you used weights in Picker Wheel, its text format puts the weight first (2,Maya); NameWheel puts it after a colon (Maya:2) and needs PRO for weights on the wheel. For a certified draw, paste the same list into the certified draw panel and press start.

Questions