Ive been using Elfster for like five years now for my family secret santa exchange and it worked great back then but honestly the UI has gotten so bloated lately it feels like im just staring at banner ads half the time. My parents are coming into town for the holidays next month and I really need to get a list together for them because they always end up getting me stuff I dont actually need, you know how it is.

I was looking at Giftster too but the interface is kinda clunky for my non-techy siblings who just want to click a link and be done with it. My main requirement is just something that lets people reserve items so we dont get duplicates because last year my aunt bought me the exact same coffee maker I already had on my list... disaster. I dont mind a small one-time fee if it means no ads and a clean mobile experience but preferably free is better. Has anyone found a reliable way to do this without jumping through a million hoops or is everything just data mining now?