ShortStack 2026: Benefits, Features & Pricing

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Overview
Pricing and Plans
Features
Integrations
User Reviews

Overview

ShortStack

4.4

(156)

Pricing

Starting at $49.00 per month

About ShortStack

ShortStack is a cloud-based interactive marketing solution that specializes in contest marketing. ShortStack is used by marketers around the world to create sweepstakes, contests, landing pages, special offers and custom sign-up forms.

ShortStack offers features such as action-gating that helps users capture visitors' contact information through landing pages. It allows visitors to fill in their details on the page, in return for which visitors can access special offers including e-books, discount codes or giveaways.

ShortStack offers customizable templates. They can include widgets like forms, polls and galleries. In addition, users can customize their pages with different colors and fonts.

The solution offers services on a monthly and annual subscription basis and provides support via email, chat, account management and self-help documents.

ShortStack Screenshots

ShortStack Pricing and Plans

Starting price: $49.00 per month

Free Trial

Free Version

Startup

$49.00

flat rate, per month

Plan includes:

Random Winner Selection
Refer-a-Friend
Simple Enter To Win
Social Media Comment to Enter Contests

Business

$99.00

flat rate, per month

Plan includes:

Random Winner Selection
Refer-a-Friend and Instant Win Contests
Social Media Comment to Enter Contests
Website Embedding
Photo Contests
Voting

Agency

$249.00

flat rate, per month

Plan includes:

Entry Transfers via Form Integrations
Random Winner Selection
Social Media Comment to Enter Contests
Video Upload Contests
Website Embedding
White-Label Campaigns
Instagram Hashtag Promotion
Photo Upload Contest
Multiple Logins
Refer-a-Friend

Elite

$499.00

flat rate, per month

Plan includes:

Custom Team Settings
Dedicated Account Manager
Entry Transfers via Form Integrations
Random Winner Selection
Social Media Comment to Enter Contests
Unique Coupon Codes & Prizes Distribution + Code Redemption to Enter
Video Upload Contests
Website Embedding
White-Label Campaigns
Instagram Hashtag Promotion

Enterprise

Pricing available upon request

Plan includes:

Custom Integrations
Custom Team Settings
Custom Templates
Dedicated Account Manager
Entry Transfers via Form Integrations
Hashtag & Retweet Contests
More Than 2500000 Views
More Than 500000 Entries
Random Winner Selection
Refer-a-Friend and Instant Win Contests

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ShortStack Features

Popular features found in Brand Management
Approval Process Control
Artwork Management
Brand Tracking
Campaign Management
Change Management
Collaboration Tools
Content Management
Customizable Branding
Customizable Templates
Project Management
Workflow Management
More features of ShortStack
Access Controls/Permissions
Alerts/Notifications
Autoresponders
Awards Management
Blind Judging
Campaign Analytics
Categorization/Grouping
Contact Database
Contact Management
CRM
Customer Engagement
Customer Segmentation
Customizable CTAs
Customizable Fields
Customizable Forms
Customizable Questions
Dashboard
Data Import/Export
Design Management
Digital Asset Management
Drag & Drop
Drip Campaigns
Dynamic Content
Electronic Submission
Email Marketing
Email Reminders
Email Templates
Entrant Management
Entry Management
Event Triggered Actions
For Marketers
Form Builder
Forms Management
Fraud Detection
Image Library
Judging Management
Keyword Tracking
Landing Pages/Web Forms
Lead Capture
Lead Generation
Lead Management
Lead Notifications
Lead Nurturing
Lead Segmentation
Marketing Automation
Media Library
@mentions
Multi-Account Management
Multi-Campaign
Multi-Channel Marketing
Online Forms
Polls/Voting
Promotions Management
Real-Time Analytics
Real-Time Data
Real Time Editing
Reporting/Analytics
Reporting & Statistics
Responsive Web Design
ROI Tracking
Scoring
Segmentation
Skills Contests (Photo, Essay, Design, etc)
Social Marketing
Social Media Integration
Social Media Monitoring
Social Promotion
SSL Security
Sweepstakes
Template Management
Third-Party Integrations
Web Forms
Website Publishing Options
Widgets
WYSIWYG Editor

ShortStack Integrations

Mailchimp

Instagram

ShortStack User Reviews

Overall Rating

4.4

Ratings Breakdown

55%

34%

11%

Secondary Ratings

Ease of Use

4.0

Value for money

4.2

Customer support

4.5

Functionality

4.2

Robbie B.

Verified reviewer

Marketing and Advertising

1001-5000 employees

Used other for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed February 2019

ShortStack Review

I used ShortStack for several years as part of a social media/community manager role for both brand awareness, product spotlights and related contests/givewaways

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

ShortStack makes it really easy for a guy like me with no design or coding background to manage social media contests almost 100% by myself. Designing, launching, monitoring and measuring the contests and their results was really easy thanks to the platform's intuitive workflow.

Cons:

After a few years of using this software, the designer and I started to reach the limits of its abilities. Part of what makes it so valuable is how plug-and-play some otherwise complicated design/programming features. However, that templated framework has its limits, keeping you from realizing fully customized ideas outside that framework.

Vendor Response

Hey Robbie! Thanks for this amazing review! We're sorry you had to move along to another means of contest building, but, if it interests you, the Code Widget and CSS panel in ShortStack give you the freedom to customize campaigns however you wish. If you'd ever like to give us another try, we'd love to have you back. Thanks again!

Replied March 2019

Janele P.

Verified reviewer

Marketing and Advertising

2-10 employees

Used weekly for less than 12 months

Review source

Reviewed February 2020

ShortStack is the Best, Free Contest Platform

We were able to use ShortStack in order to gather user images to use on social media. We ran a photo contest where the winner wins free product and we gather e-mail and contact information from entrants and voters to use in future e-blasts.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

I love that I am able to use this software in full for free. For a simple contest, we have free use of the platform as well as free support from the company. If we need to add features, it is easy to upgrade without a contract.

Cons:

The software can take a little getting use to when it comes to design. There are design options within design options which can make it a little confusing. But you can always preview your design to make sure it looks okay.

Reasons for choosing ShortStack

Shortstack was easier to navigate and the support was a lot better.

Reasons for switching to ShortStack

Wishpond had glitches and did not take the time to help us.

Vendor Response

Thanks for the stellar review, Janele!

Replied March 2020

Momoko T.

Verified reviewer

Marketing and Advertising

51-200 employees

Used monthly for less than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed October 2019

A good basic software to create promotion

Despite having a difficult time navigating the page and not having some key needed features, ShortStack is a great platform for users to be creative and interact with the community.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

I like that this software has all the basic functions needed to help create online application forms for giveaways contests, e-mail sign up lists, interactive quizzes, photo contests, or surveys, with the public. I like how it has different themes to help get you started on a new idea for promotions. There's also a lot of functions to explore to customize your page.

Cons:

I dislike how hard it is to navigate on the site; even though there are a lot of great features, it can really overwhelm the page when they are not explained or shown properly. I had previously had to contact customer service many times in order to understand where each function is or how to use them. I also dislike how there's no function to add social media buttons such as to follow or like certain posts from Instagram or Facebook. Most of the time I want to use ShortStack to give exposure to our business instagram and Facebook page so having the functions and features to do so is important.

Vendor Response

Hi Momoko! Thank you so much for your very thoughtful feedback. We take it very seriously and use it to continue to make our platform better. Unfortunately, there isn't a way to add buttons to campaigns to like individual posts on Facebook or Instagram. You can embed specific posts in campaigns - clicking on them will direct the user to instagram where they can like the post. You can use embed code to add a Facebook Like button to a campaign, but there currently isn't a way to add a Follow button for Instagram. The best way to do this would be to link to your Instagram profile with a CTA of "Follow us on Instagram", so, when the link button is clicked, your Instagram page will open and the user will instinctually click "Follow". I hope that tip is helpful for you! We look forward to working with you more, down the road.

Replied October 2019

Shawn S.

Verified reviewer

Consumer Services

51-200 employees

Used monthly for less than 12 months

Review source

Reviewed December 2021

Happy since I signed up!

I acquired Shortstack to help roll out raffles and promotions the company I work for does monthly. This has made it easy to work with our website developer when needed to get buttons added bringing them to the Shortstack form I build.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

The ability to be guided from start t finish with tips along the way is a great feature. This allowed me to acquire shortstack and teach myself how to use it, as the software is very user friendly.

Cons:

Only thing I was having trouble with would be getting the URL set into a landing page with redirection. Maybe a bit more info on how to get it out and rolling once finished building.

Reasons for choosing ShortStack

Ease of use and instructions from start to finish.

Vendor Response

Thank you Shawn for your wonderful review!

Replied January 2022

Paul C.

Verified reviewer

Design

2-10 employees

Used other for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed June 2020

Easy to use for competitions and lead gen

Very good for what we needed it for. Great out of the boxes features - and quick to setup.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

Easy to Setup. Great for quick landing pages & lead gen. great to customise & email triggers built in are a nice touch.

Cons:

Little expensive. Some functions look generic unless designed & customised.

Reasons for choosing ShortStack

We tried both. Few more professional style templates on Unbounce.

George A.

Verified reviewer

E-Learning

201-500 employees

Used other for less than 12 months

Review source

Reviewed August 2019

ShortStack is good, but has low limits on entries

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Functionality

Pros:

-fairly easy to use -easy to scale up -the variety of ready made templates and the ability to customise them

Cons:

don't like the fact that you are limited on : - views - entries i understand having a limit on the lower tier plans, but in the full plan, having limitations on the amount o page views and or entries on the account seems rather unprofessional to me. And this is a model i've seen to almost every software on the market that handles competitions ( i.e wishpond). They really should think about removing entry limits, at least on their full package, else if a company wants to create a high traffic competition and then replicate it, it will most probably mean it will need a new account..

Reasons for switching to ShortStack

same reason as the one mentioned in the cons section.. the limits. and it was to my displeasure i discovered that shortstack also had limits even on their most advanced plan.

Vendor Response

Hi George! We really appreciate your feedback! We always take customer feedback very seriously. In reference to your suggestion, we totally hear what you're saying! We offer Enterprise plans with no entry or view limits - this is something that can be discussed with our sales team. We're absolutely willing to accommodate as many entries/views you're able to acquire, but due to the resources these higher view/entry numbers require on our end, we have to charge a little more. Thanks again for your review!

Replied August 2019

Blair B.

Verified reviewer

Sports

51-200 employees

Used monthly for less than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed January 2024

Shortstack Is Fun!

We enjoy using it and it makes choosing winners easy.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

Shortstack is pretty easy to get a contest page up and going. We love the instant win function at events.

Cons:

Sometimes it is difficult to customize pages.

Reasons for switching to ShortStack

Instant win contests for events is why we switched

Heather G.

Verified reviewer

Entertainment

2-10 employees

Used other for less than 6 months

Review source

Reviewed August 2019

Professional Look Without the Pricetag

Positive. A well-designed piece of software. I will definitely be returning if we do this promotion again.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

I really loved how easy it was to build a professional looking giveaway. My giveaway was very unique (different clues appearing at different days) and I loved how I could set the entire thing up ahead of time and let it run, confident all the timing was correct. This took a lot of stress out of the giveaway week.

Cons:

It was hard to track the entries through social media.

Reasons for choosing ShortStack

Pricing was better. Also the features better matched the type of promotion we were running.

Vendor Response

Thanks for this awesome review, Heather! We hope to work with you again on your future giveaways.

Replied August 2019

Alandria B.

Verified reviewer

Marketing and Advertising

501-1000 employees

Used monthly for less than 6 months

Reviewed September 2025

ShortStack is a great product that needs improvement...

I will give it a 7/10. It did what I needed it to do but there was a substantial amount of time learning the platform and setting up the campaign. Could be a bot more user friendly and integrate with more CRMs for reporting purposes.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

It allows for a third--party solution/ website plug-in for lead-generating campaigns and contests for my brand.

Cons:

It was definitely a learning curve.... it took some time to get adjusted and there were not many tools refer to without contacting Support. Also, the free version is very limiting. I would have loved to have full access to the metrics of my campaign(s).

Tara H.

Verified reviewer

Retail

51-200 employees

Used other for less than 12 months

Review source

Reviewed October 2018

Great Resource, Intermediate Ease, Kind of Pricey

When I had questions they would refer me to the help section on the website which was outdated. Overall, it's a great tool if you have the money. They have multiple tiers to unlock different functionalities which was disappointing. Charge one price and give me all the things.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

This was somewhat intuitive to use once you get the hang of it. You are easily able to integrate your social profiles to push out your campaign. We did photo submission contests and it worked great. Created a Giveaway section on our Facebook page and promoted it from there. Great turnout with a little Facebook promotion behind it.

Cons:

It was kind of pricey for what you are getting. The software to building out your page if very technically involved so my assumption is that is what you are paying for. The overall collection of emails and assets, such as images, is fairly easy. Would probably make up for itself if you are doing a larger giveaway versus some under $100 items like we did. That way you are more likely to convert those into entries, aka emails that you can use.

Vendor Response

Hey Tara! This is super valuable feedback! Thanks so much for taking the time to let us know about those Help resources - we're always working toward making those better. And we're always looking for feedback on our pricing structure, so this is very helpful. Thanks again!

Replied October 2018

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