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 doesn't currently run ads. Ad support is designed into the codebase for a future rollout, but as of today no ad code is live.
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?
The privacy policy is direct about this: the site "may use Google AdSense to display ads in the future."
Cookie categories for advertising are described as "used only where applicable."
In plain terms, ad support exists in the plan and in some of the site's consent/cookie plumbing, but no ad code is actually serving ads today.
This is a free tool without ads running on it right now, not a free tool that's already ad-supported.
If that changes, expect it to look like a normal AdSense placement (banner/display ads around the wheel), not a paywall.
The core product staying free isn't tied to whether ads are on or off.
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?
- Not currently. Ad support (Google AdSense) is planned and referenced in the site's privacy policy and cookie consent setup, but no ad code is live. If you want to see the current ad status for yourself, check the privacy policy, which is kept current on this.
- 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?
- Yes for now, since no ads are running. If ad-free specifically matters to your setup regardless of what ships later, see our roundup of ad-free wheel of names alternatives. Those options make ad-free a permanent commitment rather than a current state.