What is DecisionWheel?
A spinner wheel for decisions: type in names or options, spin the wheel, and the pointer picks the result. Handy for raffles, splitting into teams, seating order, deciding what to eat — or who does the dishes.
Frequently asked questions
Does it cost anything? Do I need an account?
No and no. No sign-up, no registration, no paywall and no ads. The page works straight away.
How do I share my wheel?
Use the Share button. The whole wheel is encoded into the link — entries, colours, weights and title. Whoever opens it sees exactly your wheel. There is a compact form and a readable short one like ?e=Pizza,Pasta,Sushi that you can even type by hand. A QR code is there too, for a projector or the phone across the table.
Is my data stored anywhere?
Your wheels never leave your device: no account, no database, no tracking. Without your decision nothing is stored even locally — anyone who uses the page and leaves again without answering the question leaves not a single entry behind. As soon as you change the wheel we ask once whether it should stay on the device; say no and it is gone on reload, and the page still works in full — the only thing stored then is your answer itself, so that we honour it and do not ask you again. The page itself is of course delivered by a server; it keeps a purely technical access log (IP address, time, file requested), deleted after 7 days. Your wheel’s content does not appear in it: the part of a link after the # sign is never sent by the browser, and for the readable short form ?e=… the query string is kept out of the log. What is stored when is listed one by one in the privacy notice.
Is the draw genuinely random?
Yes. The winner is drawn with the browser’s cryptographic random generator (crypto.getRandomValues) before the animation even starts — the wheel is then aimed at it. So the spin itself cannot influence the outcome. Weights are honoured exactly.
How do I give an entry better odds?
Add an asterisk and a number after the name: Pizza*3 means triple the odds. Decimals work too, Pizza*1.5 as well as Pizza*1,5. Below the input you can choose whether that becomes one bigger slice or several equal ones — copies are then spread evenly around the wheel.
Can I save wheels and reuse them later?
Yes, via My wheels. Name and store as many wheels as you like, locally. You can also export a wheel as a JSON file and import it again on another device.
Can I paste a list of names from Excel?
Yes. Copy the column and paste it into the text field — every line becomes an entry. Or load a CSV file via Import; columns for name, weight and colour are recognised. Dropping a file onto the window works as well.
How do I make sure everyone only gets picked once?
Turn on Remove winner under Design. The winner is then taken off the wheel after each spin — exactly right for tournaments, seating order or handing out tasks.
How do I check that the result is genuine?
Turn on the draw record under Design. Before each spin a commitment appears in the bottom left — it is computed from a still-secret seed and the list of slices. After the spin the record reveals that seed. To recompute, take the SHA-256 of dw1|seed|slices; it must match the commitment shown earlier. The winner follows from the first four bytes of the seed, weighted across the slices. The Recompute button does both for you. Important: this proves nothing was altered after the commitment — not that the draw was impartial. That would need an independent party.
Are covered slices really secret?
No. Blind mode shows numbers instead of text, but the entries still sit in the link and in the page’s memory — anyone opening the developer tools or decoding the link can read them. The mode stops people reading along over your shoulder, not someone looking on purpose. For a raffle with real value the list should not be treated as secret. Genuinely secret options would need a server that withholds the entries and only reports the winner — and there deliberately isn’t one here.
Can I embed the wheel on my own site?
Yes, with an iframe and the full share link. Inside a frame the wheel presents itself as a fixed view: no route into the settings, no sharing, no foreign library — and it writes nothing to the visitor\u2019s storage. Use ?embed=0 to lift that, or ?embed=1 to force it without a frame. To be plain about it: this is presentation, not protection. The entries travel in the link, and anyone reading the frame\u2019s address can see them.
Does the page work without an internet connection?
Yes, once you switch it on. Under Design there is a Make available offline switch; installing the page to your home screen enables it without a further question. From then on the browser keeps the program files and the wheel runs without a network. Before that it deliberately does not — storing a whole application on your device without anyone asking would be a decision about your storage that we would rather not make for you. Switching it off removes everything again.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes. Tap the wheel to spin, or fling it with your finger — the faster the flick, the longer it spins. The settings live in a sheet you pull up from the bottom.