FAQ & Troubleshooting
Is Wheel of Names Free? What You Get at No Cost
Yes, completely. Every feature is free, with no account requirement to get started and no premium tier waiting behind a paywall.
Key takeaways
- Yes. Every feature on wheelofnames.io is free. There is no premium tier, subscription, or paywalled feature anywhere in the product.
- You don't need an account to add entries, customize, or spin; an account only exists to let you save and reopen wheels later or share one with a link.
- The site shows a single anchor ad to cover growing hosting and database costs. No pop-ups, no full-screen ads, and embedded wheels never show ads.
Short answer
Yes, Wheel of Names is completely free, with no paid tier.
Every feature (adding entries, customizing colors and sounds, spinning, saving a wheel, and sharing it with a link) is free to use.
There's no account requirement to get started, either. That's not a "free plan with limits" framing.
There's no separate premium product sitting behind a paywall waiting to upsell you once you hit some cap on entries or saved wheels.
What's included, with no catch
- Building and editing a wheel: type or paste in your list of names, numbers, or options, no limit tied to a paid tier.
- Customization: slice colors, fonts, sounds, and spin behavior are all available without signing up.
- Spinning and results: unlimited spins, on any of the purpose-built wheel tools for raffles, student picking, team assignment, yes/no decisions, and more.
- Saving a wheel: wheels you build are stored in your browser's local storage automatically, so they're there when you come back, with no account needed.
- Creating an account, and sharing a wheel: if you want to reopen a wheel from a different device or send a link to someone else, you can create an account. This is still free; it just stores the account and shared-wheel data needed to make that feature work.
Why is it free, and how does the site pay for hosting?
Usage and traffic have grown a lot, and every spin page, shared wheel, and saved account runs on paid hosting and a paid database.
To keep paying those bills without adding a paywall, the site shows one Google AdSense ad: a small anchor ad pinned to the edge of the screen.
That's the whole ad setup. No pop-ups, no full-screen ads between pages, and no banners scattered around the wheel.
The ad loads only after the page has finished loading, so it doesn't slow down the wheel or the spin.
Embedded wheels (the embed player used on websites and stream overlays) never show ads, and neither do account or sign-in pages.
Every feature stays free. The ad pays for the servers; it doesn't unlock anything.
Do you need an account?
No, not for the core experience. You can open the site, build a wheel, and spin it with zero signup. An account only becomes relevant if you want to:
- Reopen the same wheel later from a different browser or device
- Share a wheel with someone else via a link
- See a history of wheels tied to your account rather than one browser's local storage
Frequently asked questions
- Do I need to create an account to use it?
No. Core building, customizing, and spinning work with zero signup. An account only matters if you want to save a wheel across devices or share it with a link.
- Is there a paid or premium version?
No. There is no premium tier, subscription, or paid feature anywhere on the site as of this writing.
- Does the site run ads right now?
Yes, one. A single Google AdSense anchor ad helps cover hosting and database costs as usage grows.
There are no pop-ups or full-screen ads, and the privacy policy explains the advertising cookies and how to decline them.
- Will I be asked to pay after I've already built my wheel?
No. There's no billing flow anywhere in the product, so there's nothing to be surprise-billed for.
- If I want a genuinely ad-free tool for the long term, is this still a safe pick?
For a projector or stream overlay, use the embed player: it never shows ads.
The main site keeps to one small anchor ad. If you need zero ads everywhere, see our roundup of ad-free wheel of names alternatives.