A French wishlist site that's been around for 8 years finally ships an app
What it is A free gift wishlist: add anything from any online store, send the link to friends and family, and they can reserve a gift without signing up, so nobody doubles up. It earns through affiliate commissions.
Why it took off The web version has been doing hundreds of thousands of lists a year in France since 2018 (self-reported). When the app launched, existing users moved over right before the French Christmas list season kicked off, a window of two to three weeks.
CHow you could play it Don't copy a wishlist app as-is. If you already have a website or community, borrow the playbook: use the web and SEO to build users, let the sharing side have zero friction, monetize through affiliate commissions, and launch the app before the seasonal peak to move existing users over and push the charts. To pick a new market, choose a language that neither Listy nor GoWish has seriously worked, and plug into local e-commerce affiliate programs.
- Data (updated daily) · First launch 2026-10-11 · French rating 149 · Charted in 11-08 of 2 stores
iOS · best category chart rank · by store FranceBelgiumLUData 2026-10-28 → 2026-11-08 (12 days, 12 observations). Lower rank is higher; gaps mean it wasn't charted that dayiOS · Ratings · France Data 2026-10-28 → 2026-11-08 (12 days, 12 observations). Apple doesn't publish download counts; rating growth is a proxy for downloads.
Listy launched on iOS on 2026 Oct 11 and, in just over three weeks, reached #14 on the France Lifestyle Top Free chart. Its new-rating count over the last 7 days is first among similar apps in France. But this isn't a new product that suddenly took off: the web version has been around since 2018, and once the app shipped, long-time users moved over, just as the Christmas gift-shopping season arrived. Anyone looking to copy it should first figure out which of those two things actually drove the surge.
"Friends and I have been using Listy for years"
In Oct 16, on day five after the app launched, a French user left a five-star review titled "Enfin l'appli" (finally an app): "My friends and I have been using Listy for years, and now all our lists fit in my phone. So happy." A week later another wrote: "I've been waiting for an app for so long, I'm thrilled." The only complaint was that it doesn't support iPad. Someone was still calling it "a great website" as late as Oct 29.
Most of the people who left reviews in those first five days weren't new users. One Oct 12 review said it most plainly: "I used Listy in the browser before, the app is more convenient, and anything I see on my phone browser I can open in the app with a tap."
What it is
A gift wishlist. On any e-commerce site, when you see something you want, whether it's a sweater on Asos, a book at Fnac, or a lamp from a small designer shop, you can add it to your own list, sorted by category. Then you send a link to friends and family. They don't need to sign up or install an app. They open it and can "reserve" a gift, and everyone else immediately sees it's already taken, so no two identical presents end up under the tree. You can turn on a "surprise mode" so you can't see who reserved what, several people can co-build a list (for a birth, a wedding, a new home), and there's a gift fund pool and a browser extension.
Completely free, with no in-app purchases, no subscriptions, and unlimited lists. Revenue comes from affiliate commissions: the site footer says "on some partner sites we may receive a commission," and the Amazon links on partner merchant pages carry Listy's own affiliate tag (listy.fr). A gift list is itself purchase intent, so the more users and lists there are, the more people click through and buy.
Behind it is Listy SAS, a small company in Lille with registered capital of €1000. CEO Sébastien Wozny is a web designer; a local paper, La Voix du Nord, covered it in 2021. He came up with the idea when he built a birth gift list for his first child, and with four co-founders built Listy.
How big it actually got
Not big, but it's growing the fastest in its small pond.
| Date | iOS global ratings count | Added that day |
|---|---|---|
| 10-28 | 43 | — |
| 10-30 | 60 | 16 |
| 11-02 | 78 | 8 |
| 11-04 | 105 | 18 |
| 11-06 | 131 | 20 |
App Store rating, 10-28 to 11-06. Average 4.92.
Almost all in France: best rank #14 in France's Lifestyle free chart, #69 in Belgium's same chart, and the app is French-only. On Google Play it has 7,333 installs, 3,347 of them in the last 7 days, with a best rank of #31 in France's Lifestyle free chart (Google Play, 11-06).
Compared with other French apps in the category, by new ratings over the last 7 days: Listy 68, veteran rival iKadoo 38, Germany's Wishlists 24, Denmark's GoWish 23, the US's Listful 17, and minipouce, which does kids' lists, 16 (App Store France, 11-06). It has only been live for three weeks and has about a tenth of iKadoo's total ratings, yet its growth rate is already first.
Where users come from
Wave one: the website's existing users. The site self-reports "500k+ wishlists a year" and "over 2018M gifts given since 10" (self-reported, not verified). On launch day, the most prominent spot on the homepage became a store download button, every page footer got a "Download the app" link, and the launch announcement's store links carried attribution parameters such as utm_campaign=lancement-app. Hundreds of thousands of people build a list each year. Even if only a small share installed the app while they were there, that was enough to produce a few thousand installs and more than a hundred ratings.
Wave two: the calendar. The French Christmas list season starts in mid-October. Listy's official TikTok opened its Oct 17 post with: "Mid-October, just getting over the back-to-school rush, and your family is already asking for your Christmas list?" The app launched on Oct 11, two to three weeks before peak season. From November, daily new ratings climbed from single digits to 18 and 20, moving in step with demand.
Wave three: the share link itself. A list gets sent to several friends and family, who can view it without installing the app, but they see Listy and the download link on the page, and some of them go on to create a list of their own. This loop has been running since 2018; the app just gave it a new landing spot.
There's something on TikTok, though not much. The official account @listy.fr has few followers; the Oct 12 post "finally live!" got 19k views, and the Oct 17 post got 4,300 (TikTok, 11-06). French fashion creator @colinebetht posted a Christmas wishlist video in Nov 2 with 59k views, captioned "Set Listy to 2x speed when they talk about it, the wishlist comes right after." It's unclear whether this was a paid collab.
What I couldn't find: No ad spend turned up, there was no media coverage of the app launch in 2026, and nobody on X mentioned it. For years the site has relied on a batch of SEO landing pages like "Liste de Noël" and "Liste de naissance" and a large number of public user list pages.
Why this one and not the others
Feature-wise, it isn't unique. Any store can be added, friends can reserve without signing up, duplicates are prevented, and it's free. GoWish, iKadoo, and Listful mostly have these too. From 2025 to 2026, a wave of indie wishlist apps also appeared in France: Pikki, Lilist, Lupna, Listéa, and Charlie. Each has only 5 to 37 ratings, and none really took off.
Its one real edge over them: on day one of the app, a crowd of people who'd used it for years was already at the door. Add the "c'est français" local brand and thousands of French merchant partners. One more detail: within 4 weeks of launch it shipped 6 updates (sort by budget, dark mode, silent lists, transferring lists, a reserved marker, and so on), while the website had almost no update record over the previous 2022 to 2026 years. I couldn't find out what caused the sudden acceleration.
Who it's competing with
| Product | From | French iOS rating | How it differs from Listy |
|---|---|---|---|
| iKadoo | France, 2018 | 2,153 | App-first from day one, a direct rival |
| GoWish | Denmark, 2023 entered the French market | 867 | Multi-country, multilingual, a big Nordic player |
| minipouce | France, 2024 | 888 | Kids and birth lists only |
| Wishlists | Germany, 2020 | 745 | Multilingual, no French merchant network |
| Listful | US, 2024 | 598 | Relies on English-language TikTok creators, focused on the US |
| Amazon wishlists | — | — | Can only add Amazon items |
| Kadolog, Mille et une listes, etc. | French websites | — | Weddings and births only, mostly charging fees |
French iOS App Store, 11-06. This category is old and crowded. Anyone can build a wishlist app; the hard part is getting the first wave of users in.
If it were you
In one line: If you copy Listy and build a wishlist app, you'll most likely end up as one of those apps with 5 to 37 ratings. What's worth copying is its playbook, not its product.
Who it suits: People who already have a site, plugin, community, or WeChat Official Account with traffic, and whose users have seasonal needs (gift, wedding, school-year, and travel lists). Or people who want to localize a wishlist for a language market that Listy and GoWish haven't seriously worked (such as Italy, Spain, Japan, or Southeast Asia) and who can join the local e-commerce affiliate programs.
Who it doesn't suit: Indie developers with no existing users who hope to climb the charts from zero by being "better". There's no room for features, and Amazon plus a pile of free products have already pushed the price floor to zero.
How to do it: Use the web and SEO to build users first. Terms like "Christmas list" and "birth list" come back every year, and public user list pages are themselves SEO content. The person receiving a list must face zero friction: no sign-up, no app install, and the share link is itself the acquisition channel. Monetize through affiliate commissions and keep the tool free. Once you have an audience, launch the app, put download links on every page of the site, attribute the announcement links, and use existing users to carry the first week's ratings and category ranking.
How to acquire users: Search is the main engine. On TikTok, mid-sized creators who make "wishlist / Christmas gift inspiration" content earn organic exposure, and traction starts about a month before peak season.
When you'd need to be ready: There's no time to start from scratch for this year's Christmas season. A realistic deadline is to have the web and list pages in place before mid-October next year, or to practice on smaller peaks like Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, and wedding season first.
What would mean we got it wrong: If Listy's daily new ratings keep climbing steadily after Christmas instead of falling off, the app is pulling in users beyond the web traffic, so the product has real pull and we should raise the call. Conversely, if one of the 1 wishlist apps in the regional stores breaks into the top 50 with no existing user base, cold start works too, and the rule that you need an existing base first falls apart.
Research notes: competitor table, acquisition evidence, full research report
- Competitors
Name Where Launched Scale How it differs from this one iKadoo - Liste de cadeaux iOS 2018-08 French iOS 2,153 ratings, last 7 days +38 (appstore library) A French wishlist that started as an app; Listy's foundation is web traffic, SEO, and a network of thousands of merchant partners GoWish iOS 2023-04 French iOS 867 ratings, +23 A multi-country product from a Danish company; Listy is a purely French local brand Wishlists (Wishlists GmbH) iOS 2020-11 French iOS 745 ratings, +24 German-made multilingual product, with none of Listy's French merchant network or existing user base Listful iOS 2024-07 French store iOS 598 ratings; English-language TikTok creators are tagging it a lot Focused on the US, leaning on TikTok creators; Listy focuses on France, leaning on its web base minipouce iOS 2024-10 French store iOS 888 ratings Leans toward kids / baby gift registries; Listy covers every occasion Amazon wishlist Big-company features Very early Huge Only adds Amazon products; Listy adds from any merchant, and friends don't need an account Wedding and baby registry platforms like Kadolog and Mille et une listes Web Years Not verified Each covers a single occasion, most take a commission; Listy covers every occasion and is free Mes Envies iOS 2015-06 French store iOS 61 ratings An older French product that has stopped growing - Where users come from
- Confirmed Migration of existing web users (on-site traffic): the homepage and every page footer link to the App download, and the launch announcement's store links carry utm_campaign=lancement-app. Reviews say things like "We've been using Listy with friends for years, and now there's finally an app" and "I've been waiting for an app."
- Verified Seasonal / Christmas wishlist season: 10-11 launched, and the official TikTok posted "mid-October the whole family starts asking you for lists" on 10-17. Daily new ratings went from single digits in November to 18–20.
- Inferred Sharing-link spread loop: friends can see the list and reserve gifts without signing up or installing the app, and the listy.fr page carries a download prompt. The company says 10M+ gifts have been sent through it.
- Confirmed SEO: the site has landing pages for Liste de Noël / Naissance / Mariage and more, plus many public user wishlist pages that are searchable.
- Confirmed TikTok creators (organic use): @asmrcoraliecosy (25k followers) 10-24 posted a Listy link, 15k views; @colinebetht 11-02 talks about listy in a video with 59k views; the official account has only 8 followers, and its launch video has 19k views.
- Inferred Paid ads: Meta's ad library doesn't have it (the library only tracks products on its watchlist). It's a small team with 1000 euros of registered capital, and no sign of paid acquisition.
Listy - La wishlist réinventée (iOS id6810565255) research report
Research date 2026-11-06. Data sources: our appstore / googleplay / metaads libraries, the Apple lookup API, the listy.fr website, TikHub (TikTok), Jina search.
One line
A small company in Lille, France, has run a web-based gift wishlist (listy.fr) for 8 years, launching in November 2018. It only shipped native iOS / Android apps in 2026-10-11. The "new app taking off" in the stores is really old web users moving over to the app, boosted by the pre-Christmas gift season. This isn't a new product breaking out.
1. Fundamentals
- Developer: Listy SAS, RCS Lille 888 083 326, registered capital 1000 euros, CEO Sébastien Wozny (web designer / Webflow certified partner; his LinkedIn says "@listy.fr (400k users)"). A 2021 La Voix du Nord article reports he came up with the idea while setting up a baby gift list for his first child, and built Listy with four co-founders. Sources: listy.fr/mentions-legales, lavoixdunord.fr 2021-11-07, fr.linkedin.com/in/sebastienwozny
- Self-reported figures on the site: "300k+ wishlists a year" (homepage) / "500k+ wishlists a year" (2026-10-11 App launch announcement), "2018M+ gifts sent since November 10", "1000+ partner merchants". Sources: listy.fr, listy.fr/nouveautes/listy-debarque-sur-ios-et-android
- How it makes money: the footer says "Listy earns through affiliate commissions and may receive a commission on some partner sites." It also joined the Amazon EU Associates program (Amazon links on the partners page carry tag=listyfr-21). The app is free, with no in-app purchases or subscriptions, and is marketed as "100% free." Sources: listy.fr footer, listy.fr/partenaires
- Product: add items from any e-commerce site to a wishlist; organize by occasion; share with one link, and friends can "reserve" gifts without signing up or installing the app, so no duplicates; optional "surprise mode"; multi-person collaboration; group gift pools (cagnotte); browser extension; idea gallery.
2. Growth data
- iOS total ratings count (global, from our App Store database, daily_all_countries): 2026-10-28 is 43,11-06, 131. In the last 7 days, 71 new ones were added, and daily additions rose from single digits to 11-04 on 18, and 11-06 on 20. Average rating 4.92 (Apple lookup, 133 ratings).
- Best rank on the French Lifestyle free chart: #14 (appstore library, app_profile, fr); #69 on the same chart in Belgium. Almost entirely in France and Belgium, and the app itself is French-only.
- Google Play fr.listy.app: 7,333 installs, +7 in the last 3,347 days; best rank on the French Lifestyle free chart: #31 (googleplay library, app_profile).
- Compared with other French apps in the category: in the last 7 days Listy added 68 ratings (fr), iKadoo 38, Wishlists 24, GoWish 23, Listful 17, minipouce 16 (appstore library, fr, same day). Listy has been live for just over 3 weeks, and its new rating count is already first in the category.
3. Competitors
| Product | Where | Launched | Scale (French store iOS ratings, appstore library) | How it differs from Listy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| iKadoo - Liste de cadeaux(Aply) | iOS / Android / web | 2018-08 | 2,153; +7 in the last 38 days | A long-established French wishlist that was an app from the start and competes head-on with Listy. Listy's roots are in the web, SEO, and affiliate commissions. |
| GoWish (Onskeskyen ApS, Denmark) | iOS / Android / web | 2023-04 (France) | 867;+23 | A major Nordic player with a multi-country footprint; Listy is a French-only local brand. |
| Wishlists (Wishlists GmbH, Germany) | iOS / web | 2020-11 | 745;+24 | Made in Germany, multilingual; no French merchant partner network like Listy's. |
| Listful | iOS / web | 2024-07 | 598;+17 | A US company that relies on creators on TikTok (@Listful is tagged in many English videos); focused on the US. |
| minipouce | iOS | 2024-10 | 888;+16 | Leans toward kids / baby gift registries. |
| Mes Envies | iOS / web | 2015 | 61 | An older French product that has stopped growing |
| Amazon wishlist | Big-company features | Very early | Huge | Only adds Amazon products; Listy adds from any merchant, and friends don't need an account. |
| Wedding / baby registry platforms (Kadolog, Mille et une listes, Milirose, etc.) | Web | Years | Not verified | Wedding and baby only, mostly take a commission; Listy covers every occasion and is completely free. |
| Small independent apps that popped up in the last 2025-26 years: Pikki, Lilist, Lupna, Listéa, Charlie | iOS | 2025-10 to 2026-09 | 5–37 each | All made by independent developers with no existing user base, and none really took off. |
| Moonsift, Sortd, Wishr, ThingsToGetMe | Chrome extensions / web | Years | Not verified | General wishlist tools / extensions for the English market |
Takeaway: this category is crowded and mature. Listy's win isn't the product format; it's the users it already built up in France and its local merchant affiliate network.
4. Where users came from (growth tactics)
- Existing web users moving to the app (confirmed, the main driver): the most prominent spot on the homepage has the App Store / Google Play download buttons, and every page footer has "Download the app." The launch announcement page links to the stores with UTM tags (utm_campaign=lancement-app). User comments say it directly: "My friends and I have been using Listy for years, and now there's finally an app" (10-16), "I've been waiting for an app" (10-22), and some call it "a great website" (10-29). By the site's own count, that's 30–500k wishlists a year. Even a share of those moving to the app is enough to build thousands of installs and hundreds of ratings.
- Built-in spread loop from sharing links (structural, partly confirmed): a wishlist gets shared with several friends, who can view it without the app. They then see the download prompt on listy.fr and some become new list creators. This loop has been running since 2018; the app just added another landing point.
- Seasonality (confirmed): France's Christmas wishlist season starts in mid-October. The official TikTok 10-17 video says exactly that: "Mid-October, the whole family starts asking you for a gift list." The app launched on 10-11, just before the peak season, and rating growth picked up from November on, riding demand.
- SEO (confirmed to exist, not quantified): the site has a set of "Liste de Noël / Naissance / Mariage / Anniversaire / Crémaillère" landing pages, plus many public user wishlist pages. Searches like "liste de Noël en ligne" return results. The web growth over the years was built on exactly this.
- TikTok and creators (partly confirmed, small scale): the official @listy.fr account has only 8 followers and 15 posts. Its "the app is finally live" video has 19k views. Small French creators are using it organically: @asmrcoraliecosy (25k followers) 10-24 posted their own Listy link in a video with 15k views; @colinebetht 11-02 mentioned listy in a wishlist video with 59k views. There's no sign these were paid partnerships. 2025-11 @lescontesdenutthelo has a video recommending "using this app to organize Christmas gifts" with 56k views, though it's unclear if it refers to Listy.
- Paid acquisition (no evidence found): our Meta ad library does not include listy.fr or fr.listy.app (that library only tracks products on its watchlist, so absence doesn't prove no spending). With 1000 euros of registered capital and a team of a few people, there's no sign of large-scale paid acquisition.
- Press: coverage is from 2020–2021, mostly regional outlets (La Voix du Nord, Nord Éclair, L'Union, Ohmymag, Madmoizelle, CanalFM). No coverage of the 2026 app launch was found. A search for listy.fr on X returns 0 posts (x-radar).
5. Why it took off
- Not a cold start: the web version has run for 8 years, and the site reports 30–500k wishlists a year and 400k cumulative users. When the app launched, it came with a batch of long-time users who had been waiting, and reviews repeatedly say "finally."
- Timing: the app launched in 10-11, a few weeks before France's Christmas list season. Wishlists have clear seasonal demand, with the peak running from 11 to December.
- The product hits a real pain point with a low barrier to entry: friends can reserve gifts without signing up or installing the app, there are no duplicate gifts, it supports any merchant, and it's completely free. These points are repeated throughout the site and store descriptions.
- Fast iteration: within less than 4 weeks of the app launch, it shipped 6 updates (sort by budget, dark mode, mute lists, transfer lists, choose where new wishes go in the list, a reserved-gift marker). The website had no new release notes from 2022-10 to 2026-10, so this speed-up was sudden (the cause is unverified). Store average rating 4.92.
- Where the money comes from: affiliate commissions (Amazon via listyfr-21, plus thousands of French e-commerce sites). More users and more wishlists mean more clicks through to purchase, so the "100% free" model holds up without in-app charges.
6. Differentiation
- Compared with Amazon's wishlist: it can add from any merchant, and friends don't need an account.
- Compared with wedding and baby gift-registry apps: all-occasion, completely free, no transaction fees.
- Compared with international products like GoWish, Listful and Wishlists: French-only, a French brand ("c'est français"), with over a thousand French merchant partners, and years of SEO and word of mouth in France.
- Compared with iKadoo: similar features, but the difference is an existing web user base and brand reputation.
- The store's surge this time didn't come mainly from differentiation. It came from migrating existing users plus peak season. Differentiators (no-signup reservations, add any store, free) explain how the web version grew over these 8 years, but most similar products have these too, so they aren't a moat.
7. How many people have seen it
- Not many people know about it yet. Revenue is undisclosed (only known to be affiliate commissions), it isn't on TrustMRR, and no founder has shared revenue numbers. There are 0 posts on X. Media coverage stops at 2021 in French local press. It has only charted in France and Belgium.
- Copycats: I haven't found anyone specifically copying Listy. The French market does have a batch of independent wishlist apps launched in 2025–26 (Pikki, Lilist, Lupna, Listéa, Charlie), but none are related to Listy and none have taken off.
8. What others can borrow
- Build the web version first, grow an existing user base, then launch the app timed for peak season: much of the App's first-month ratings and chart position comes from funneling site traffic over. Put a download link on the site, tag the launch announcement with UTMs, and publish two to three weeks before the seasonal peak.
- Zero friction for the person who receives a shared list: recipients don't need to sign up or install the app, so the share link itself is the acquisition channel.
- Free tool, monetized through affiliate commissions: gift lists carry built-in purchase intent, and adding affiliate parameters to product links monetizes it without users feeling charged.
- Seasonal categories need a calendar: demand for Christmas, baby and wedding lists clusters from mid-October to mid-December.
9. Still unclear
- The site's own claims of "300k / 500k wishlists a year" and "400k users" are self-reported and unverified.
- Whether they run Meta, Google or TikTok ads is unverified (our Meta library doesn't include it).
- Unclear whether the creator videos are organic use or paid partnerships.
- Affiliate income is unknown. How high it climbs from 11 to December after the App launch, and whether it falls off after Christmas, remains to be seen.
- The reason for the sudden acceleration in iteration in 2026 (new team? using AI to write code?) couldn't be found.