Some people are hard to shop for. These gift guides and recommendation engines will help you find the perfect gift for anyone, for any occasion, on any budget.

A great gift is an item that a person probably won't buy for themselves but still wants, and finds it both functional as well as cool and fun. It can be tough to figure out what item can meet all those requirements. But that's where the internet comes in. There are fantastic gift curators and AI recommendation engines that will help you narrow down your choices to pick the perfect present.

1. Giftopix (Web): Gift Finder App, DIY Gift Ideas, and Gift Comparisons

Giftopix has a strong recommendation engine to find the perfect gift, as well as wrapping ideas and comparative products

Giftopix is one of the best websites to find the perfect gift for anyone and compare it to other options. It doesn't stop at the finding but also recommends gift wrapping ideas and greeting cards, making for a complete package.

The Gift Wizard is a neat app that asks a series of questions about who you are buying for and their interests. Unlike several other tools, it has specific likes, dislikes, and personality traits like "not good with tech," making for better recommendations. The gift recommendations are separated by category.

Each product page shows the main suggestion and a few other products in the same category to compare prices and features. Giftopix also links you to wrapping ideas for the gift with various boxes, paper, and other tools.

The site also hosts a useful collection of handmade, personal, and budget-friendly DIY gifts. You can quickly sort these by gender, age, and budget and even search for tags to filter the list further.

2. GoWishbone (Web): Gift Guides, Gift Ideas, and Wishlists for Everyone

GoWishbone is a simple wishlist app to track gift ideas, as well as a series of gift guides based on what people have saved to their wishlists

GoWishbone is a wishlist app to collect items you'd want to get as gifts, as well as a series of gift guides for the types of people you know. Based on what its users are adding in their wishlists, as well as their finds, GoWishbone's gift guides offer a few neat ideas if you're stuck on what to buy for someone.

Currently, they have guides to suggest a gift for an artist, athlete, baker, bartender, beer lover, coffee lover, wine lover, camper, cook, cyclist, interior designer, and traveler. Once you choose the category, pick a budget (under $20, under $50, under $100, or above $100). GoWishbone will show you a few suggestions based on your choices, and you can change the budget on the fly to get more recommendations.

As for the wishlist, it's a simple app to add links to items you want to buy on Amazon or other stores. Then, share it as a public link with your friends. Or someone else can search for your name to find your wishlist, thus letting them surprise you with an item.

3. Occasional.ly (Web): Holiday Gift Guides and AI-Powered Gift Recommendations

Occasional.ly uses an AI recommendation engine to suggest gifts based on a person's interests, which you can filter and sort by price

Occasional.ly does one thing only: give recommendations for presents, so you have to spend less time buying a gift and more time celebrating. You can use the premade gift guides for holidays or someone special. Create a profile of their interests to see what you should buy.

When you create a profile on Occasional.ly, you'll first add your interests and important dates. Next, you can add a friend on the platform or create a custom profile for someone you know. In that, add their interests in simple words, separated by a comma. Then, the app uses AI to come up with a list of gift recommendations based on these interests. Finally, you can select and deselect any keyword and set the price range through the filters tab on the right.

Naturally, this is an option that's best for the important people in your life, not everyone. But that's why Occassional.ly has a series of gift guides, with an impressive list of holiday gift guides for different people like coworkers, teachers, stocking stuffers, neighbors, eco-conscious, jokesters, etc. The recommendations also tend to be from boutique shops or specialized stores, differentiating them from the kind of lists you'd see on Amazon curators.

4. I Give Cool Gifts (Web): Hand-picked Unique Gifts

I Give Cool Gifts is a one-person blog by Blake Bland as he handpicks and curates the best gifts to give across categories

Everyone knows that one person who always manages to give a cool gift that you wish you had thought of. Well, one of them decided to make a website out of it. Run by Blake Bland since 2017, I Give Cool Gifts (IGCG) is a collection of unique and awesome products that make great gifts, all reviewed and researched by Bland.

The website has fantastic categorization for the items in its catalog, as you can filter by interests (techies, foodies, movie buffs), lifestyles (traveler, pet lover, homemaker, parents), occasions (housewarming, wedding, baby shower), and by your relationship with a man or a woman.

IGCG also includes a few items that don't fall into any of these categories. For example, if you want to support black-owned businesses, that's a category in itself. Or you can find last-minute items, editor's picks, and prank presents. For each category, you can filter the list further by price. The list can be sorted by price, alphabetically, review ratings, and newness.

Finally, don't forget to check out the IGCG blog, where Blake rounds up his favorite gift items for several categories or occasions.

5. GiftPicker (Web): 5-Question Quiz to Find Gifts for People

Giftpicker is a quick and simple 5-question quiz to land on the ideal gift for someone

If gift guides and curators are a little overwhelming for you, then this simple recommendation app might do the trick. GiftPicker claims to find the best gift for anyone by making you answer five questions.

  • Who's the gift for: Baby / new parent, child, teen, young adult, adult, senior
  • How do you know them: Family, friend, colleague, significant other, mentor/teacher
  • What's the vibe: Fun, practical, sentimental (or all three)
  • What're they into: Choose multiple topics from a variety of interests
  • What's your budget: Under $50, under $100, under $200, over $250, or any budget

Based on your answers, GiftPicker will show three recommendations of the best gift items. And you can keep loading three more at a time till you find the perfect gift.

Most of these link back to Presently, which owns GiftPicker. Presently is a website for buying a gift with other people, making it easy to split the bill on a group gift or card.

Tech Tip: How to Find the Best Gifts on Amazon

The above gift guides and recommendation engines cover almost everything for every person. But they are agnostic about which online store you buy from.

If you're an Amazon customer, there's a great tech hack to find gift ideas on it. Amazon has a most wished-for page, which lists products added by most people in their Amazon wishlists and registries. You'll find every category and price point here, making this one of the most remarkable tools to find the best things to buy on Amazon.