RafflePress Alternative: A Free Facebook Comment Picker
A "RafflePress alternative" search usually comes from one of two places: you don't run WordPress, or you just want to draw a winner from the comments on a Facebook post without installing a plugin, configuring a giveaway builder, and setting up a landing page first. Both are reasonable reasons to look elsewhere. RafflePress is built as a native WordPress plugin, with a drag-and-drop giveaway builder that runs inside your WordPress dashboard, not a standalone tool that opens an existing Facebook comment thread and draws from it.
This matters more than it might seem at first, since RafflePress has recently picked up extra attention as the most commonly recommended replacement for Rafflecopter, which shut down for good on October 1, 2025. If you're arriving here from that direction specifically, it's worth knowing upfront what RafflePress actually replaces and what it doesn't.
What RafflePress Actually Is
RafflePress is a giveaway and contest plugin built specifically for WordPress sites. You build a campaign using its drag-and-drop widget builder inside your own WordPress dashboard, choose from more than a dozen possible entry actions, and the giveaway displays either embedded in a page or post, or on a dedicated landing page the plugin generates for you. A free, limited version is available through WordPress.org, with paid tiers unlocking additional entry actions, verified bonus entries, and multi-site use.
Because it's WordPress-native, there's no external embed code or third-party widget to manage, which is a genuine point in its favor if you already run a WordPress site. It's also, by the same design, not something you can use at all without one.
RafflePress's Facebook Entry Methods, Specifically
Across RafflePress's own documentation and independent reviews, its Facebook-related entry actions are described as: liking a Facebook page, visiting a Facebook page, and viewing a specific Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube post or video. Facebook login also appears as a social sign-up option on some plans. None of these read an existing comment thread the way a dedicated comment picker does. If your giveaway's actual mechanic is "comment on this post to win," RafflePress's documented Facebook actions don't have a direct way to process that thread.
What RafflePress Costs
RafflePress's pricing has been described a little differently across sources, which is worth flagging honestly rather than picking one number and presenting it as definitive. Its own marketing describes tiers running roughly from a free WordPress.org plan up through paid tiers in the $79 to several-hundred-dollars-a-year range depending on site count and feature tier, alongside a separate higher-priced lifetime license option for unlimited sites. Whichever specific numbers apply at the time you check, the structure is consistent: free covers a single, basic giveaway, and the more valuable features, verified entries, viral referral entries, multiple sites, require a paid tier.
For a WordPress site owner running a genuinely multi-action giveaway campaign across several entry types, that's a reasonable cost for real functionality. For a page owner who just wants to pick a winner from the comments on a single Facebook post a few times a month, it's a plugin install, a site requirement, and a paid tier for a job that a free, single-purpose picker already does without any of it.
Where RafflePress Is Genuinely the Better Tool
To be fair to it: RafflePress does real things a comment picker isn't built for. If you run a WordPress site and want a giveaway embedded directly into your own content or a dedicated landing page, with mailing-list growth, referral-based viral entries, and multiple verified entry types all feeding one combined pool, RafflePress's plugin-native approach is a legitimate advantage over juggling a separate third-party widget. Its fraud-protection features and refer-a-friend mechanics also suit list-building campaigns that go well beyond a single Facebook post.
None of that is what a standard "comment on this post to win" Facebook giveaway actually needs, and it's also simply unavailable to you if you don't run WordPress in the first place.
That WordPress requirement is worth sitting with for a moment, because it's a bigger structural difference than most tool comparisons make it sound. A multi-platform widget like Gleam, which our own Gleam alternative comparison covers in more depth, at least works from any website or a hosted landing page regardless of what platform runs your site. RafflePress's plugin-native design is tighter and more integrated for WordPress specifically, but that same tightness means it simply isn't an option at all if your site runs on Shopify, Squarespace, Wix, or nothing at all, and your giveaway only ever lived inside a Facebook post to begin with.
Where a Dedicated Comment Picker Fits Instead
If your entry mechanic already exists as comments on a Facebook post, a tool built specifically to read that thread handles it directly: paste the post link into a Facebook comment picker, let the comments load, filter out duplicates and apply any keyword requirement, and draw. No plugin install, no WordPress site requirement, no landing page to configure.
- No website or CMS required. A comment picker works directly from a public Facebook post link, regardless of whether you run WordPress, Shopify, or no website at all.
- No plan tier for features you don't need. A free comment picker isn't holding comment-reading behind a paywall, since reading comments is the one thing it's built to do.
- Matches the mechanic exactly. Duplicate removal, keyword filters, and excluding your own page's replies apply directly to a comment thread that already exists, rather than to a widget you'd otherwise have to build first.
If you landed here specifically because Rafflecopter shut down, our page on what to use now that Rafflecopter is gone walks through both replacement paths, a widget platform or a dedicated picker, depending on what your giveaway actually needs.
Side-by-Side: Which One Fits Your Giveaway
Pick RafflePress if you run a WordPress site and want a giveaway embedded in your own content with mailing-list growth, referral entries, and multiple verified entry types feeding one campaign.
Pick a dedicated Facebook comment picker if your giveaway is "comment on this post to win," you don't run WordPress, or you'd rather not install and configure a plugin for a single-channel mechanic.
Most page owners running an ordinary comment-based Facebook giveaway fall into the second group, even when a plugin comparison is what brought them here. Our Facebook comment draw guide covers that exact process from start to finish, and if you're weighing whether a paid tool's extra verification is worth it over a free one, our free vs. paid comment pickers guide breaks that decision down separately from this comparison.
How to Run the Draw With a Dedicated Picker Instead
- Copy the full link to your giveaway post, taken from the address bar rather than a shortened or notification link.
- Paste the link into the picker and let the comment thread load.
- Apply filters: remove duplicates, require a keyword if your rules call for one, and exclude your own page's replies.
- Set your winner and backup count, then draw while recording the screen as proof of a fair process.
- Verify the winning account looks real, then announce the result with the entry count and method used.
What You Lose, and What You Don't
Skipping RafflePress for a single "comment to enter" Facebook giveaway costs you nothing specific to that mechanic, since its documented Facebook actions, liking, visiting, and viewing, were never built to read an open comment thread as text. What you'd lose is RafflePress's WordPress-native embedding, referral entries, and multi-action campaign structure, features that only matter if your giveaway actually uses a WordPress site as its hub in the first place. A Facebook-only, comment-based giveaway isn't relying on any of that to begin with.
Common Mistakes When Comparing These Two Kinds of Tools
Assuming a WordPress plugin can process Facebook comments directly. RafflePress's own Facebook actions are page-level (like, visit, view), not comment-level, which matters directly if "comment to enter" describes your actual giveaway.
Installing a plugin before confirming you even need a WordPress-hosted giveaway. If your giveaway already lives entirely inside a Facebook post, a plugin built around embedding content on your own site is solving a problem you don't have.
Comparing price without checking platform requirements first. RafflePress simply isn't usable without a WordPress site, which settles the comparison before cost even becomes relevant for a lot of page owners.
Overlooking the private-group limitation. No tool, RafflePress or a dedicated picker, can read comments inside a private Facebook group; that's a platform-level restriction regardless of which tool you pick.
Treating every "Rafflecopter alternative" recommendation as a single right answer. RafflePress is one common recommendation specifically for WordPress users running multi-action campaigns; it isn't automatically the best fit for everyone who simply needs a comment-based Facebook winner picked. The right replacement depends entirely on what your old Rafflecopter setup was actually doing for you, not on which tool shows up first in a generic roundup article.
The bottom line
RafflePress is a capable WordPress giveaway plugin, not a Facebook comment picker, and its documented Facebook actions, liking, visiting, and viewing a post, don't read an open comment thread as text. If you run WordPress and want a giveaway embedded in your own site with referral entries and multiple verified actions, it's a reasonable, well-regarded tool for that job. If your giveaway is a standard "comment on this post to win" format running on Facebook alone, a free, single-purpose comment picker matches the actual job without requiring a website, a plugin install, or a paid tier built for something broader.
Frequently Asked Questions
Not directly. Its documented Facebook entry actions are liking a page, visiting a page, and viewing a post, none of which read an open text comment thread the way a dedicated comment picker does.
Yes. RafflePress is a native WordPress plugin, so it isn't usable at all without a WordPress site, unlike a browser-based comment picker that works from any Facebook post link.
It has a free, limited plan through WordPress.org. Its fuller feature set, verified entries, referral mechanics, multiple sites, sits behind paid tiers, with pricing that's been described somewhat differently across sources and sales periods.
For WordPress users who want a similar multi-action, embedded giveaway builder, yes, it's one of the most commonly recommended options. If your actual giveaway was always comment-based on Facebook, it may be more plugin than you need.
No. Private group content isn't accessible to outside tools, RafflePress or otherwise. Entries from a private group still have to be collected manually and drawn from a list, regardless of which tool you're comparing.