ShopGoodwill Snipers Compared: Pricing, Timing and Account Safety
Last updated: October 12, 2026
Disclosure: we make SniperMate, one of the tools in this comparison. Everything about the other tools comes from their own public websites, as checked on October 12, 2026. Prices and features change, so confirm on each site before you sign up.
A sniper places your maximum bid in the last seconds of a ShopGoodwill auction so other bidders have no time to respond. Several tools now do this, and they differ mainly in three ways: how they charge, how late they bid, and what they do with your ShopGoodwill login.
The short version
- You buy a few items a month: a pay-per-win tool (SniperMate or ThriftSniper) costs the least, because losing costs nothing.
- You mostly win cheap items, under about $25: ShopGoodwill Sniper's 2% fee works out lower than a flat fee per win.
- You win more than about 100 auctions a month: an unlimited plan (BidPulse Elite) or a one-time self-hosted license (AuctionBotPro) is cheaper per win.
- You don't want any service holding your login: use a desktop app, the open-source script, or bid by hand.
- You're comfortable with Python and want it free: the open-source script.
Comparison table
| Tool | How you pay | Free to try | When it bids | Where it runs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SniperMate | Flat fee per win: $0.44 to $0.50, bought in packs from $5. Nothing if you lose. | 5 free wins | 3 seconds before close | Online service |
| ThriftSniper | Flat fee per win: $0.50. No subscription. | "Get started for free" (details not on the home page) | Not stated | Not stated on the home page |
| BidPulse | Subscription: $13, $29 or $49 a month, with snipe limits on the two lower plans | 10-day trial: 3 snipes | 6 seconds before close | Website and Chrome extension |
| ShopGoodwill Sniper | 2% of each winning bid, or a monthly Pro plan with no fee (price not listed) | Not stated | "Closing seconds" (exact time not stated) | Desktop app: Windows, Mac, Linux |
| AuctionBotPro | $1 per snipe (credits, $10 for 10), or $99 one-time to host it yourself | 1 free snipe | Adjustable, 3 to 120 seconds before close | Online service, or your own Cloudflare account |
| shopgoodwill-scripts | Free and open source | Free | You set it | Your own computer or server (Python) |
What it costs in practice
Fees are easier to compare with numbers. These assume every snipe wins, which won't happen, so treat them as the upper end for the pay-per-win tools.
| Wins per month | Average winning bid | SniperMate | ThriftSniper | ShopGoodwill Sniper (2%) | BidPulse | AuctionBotPro (credits) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | $20 | $2.50 | $2.50 | $2.00 | $13 (Basic) | $5 |
| 10 | $40 | $5.00 | $5.00 | $8.00 | $13 (Basic) | $10 |
| 20 | $60 | $9.60 | $10.00 | $24.00 | $29 (Pro) | $20 |
| 150 | $30 | $66.00 | $75.00 | $90.00 | $49 (Elite) | $150 |
SniperMate figures use the pack price that fits each row ($0.50, $0.50, $0.48 and $0.44 per win). Subscription and per-snipe tools charge whether or not you win. Pay-per-win tools don't, so your real cost with those is usually lower than the table shows.
The tools one by one
SniperMate (ours)
- Pricing: Snipe Wins sold in packs: 10 for $5, 25 for $12, 50 for $23, 100 for $44. One is used only when a snipe wins. They never expire.
- Free to try: 5 free Snipe Wins on every new account.
- Timing: bid placed 3 seconds before the auction closes.
- How it works: connect your ShopGoodwill account, paste an auction link, set your maximum. It runs online, so your computer can be off.
- Your login: your ShopGoodwill password is encrypted and sent once to ShopGoodwill to sign you in, and is never stored. We keep only the session ShopGoodwill issues, encrypted with AES-256-GCM, and delete it when you disconnect. Details are on our Security page.
- Worth knowing: ShopGoodwill only. No SMS alerts or browser extension.
ThriftSniper
- Pricing: "Just 50¢ per win. Always." No subscription and no percentage fee.
- Free to try: the site says you can register and get started for free.
- Timing: not stated on the home page.
- Your login: not stated on the home page.
- Worth knowing: the longest-established of the pay-per-win tools we found, and the one most often mentioned by ShopGoodwill buyers online. Its home page is brief, so you'll need to sign up or ask to learn the details.
BidPulse
- Pricing: Basic $13 a month (10 snipes), Pro Sniper $29 a month (20 snipes, SMS alerts), Elite Sniper $49 a month (unlimited snipes, 150 tracked auctions). Annual billing is 30% less. A one-time "Shopping Trip Pack" is $24 for 5 snipes over 60 days.
- Free to try: 10-day trial with 3 snipes, no card required.
- Timing: 6 seconds before close.
- Your login: you connect your ShopGoodwill credentials and it bids for you. Storage details aren't given on the home page.
- Worth knowing: the only tool here with SMS alerts and a Chrome extension for adding auctions in one click. Good value at high volume on Elite, expensive if you only win a few items a month.
ShopGoodwill Sniper
- Pricing: Standard plan charges 2% of each winning bid with no monthly fee. A Pro plan has no success fee for a monthly price that isn't listed. Both offer unlimited snipes.
- Timing: "in the closing seconds". No exact figure.
- Your login: you log in to ShopGoodwill inside the app. The site says "Your password and session data are never transmitted to our servers."
- Worth knowing: it's a desktop app, so your computer must be on and awake when the auction ends. Installation is by a command that downloads and runs a script, and setup includes signing in to a service called BotGrabber, which the page doesn't explain. As with any installer, look at what it does before running it.
AuctionBotPro
- Pricing: $10 for 10 credits, one credit per snipe. Cancelled snipes are refunded. Or $99 one-time for the source code to run on your own Cloudflare account with unlimited snipes.
- Free to try: 1 free snipe at sign-up.
- Timing: you choose, from 3 to 120 seconds before close.
- Your login: the site says credentials are "AES-256 encrypted" at rest. It doesn't describe how they're collected or used.
- Worth knowing: the most technical option, with Telegram notifications, an API and a self-hosting route. It also advertises routing bids through residential proxies. The site says it charges per snipe, so check whether a lost snipe uses a credit.
shopgoodwill-scripts (free, open source)
- Pricing: free, under the GPL-3.0 license.
- How it works: a set of Python scripts on GitHub. You favorite an item on ShopGoodwill, save your maximum bid in the favorite's note, and the script bids near the end at a time you configure.
- Your login: stored in a config file on your own machine. The author is frank that the "encrypted" option is only obfuscation.
- Worth knowing: you need to be comfortable with Python, a config file and keeping a script running. There's no support. In return, nothing leaves your computer and you can read every line of the code.
Doing it by hand
You don't need a tool at all. Decide your maximum, open the listing a few minutes before it ends, and confirm your bid with 10 to 15 seconds left. It's free and it's ordinary bidding. The cost is your time, and the auctions that end while you're at work or asleep.
What ShopGoodwill's terms say
This applies to every tool above, including ours.
ShopGoodwill's Terms of Use (last updated January 22, 2025) don't mention sniping by name. They do say users may not "use any robot, spider, crawler, scraper, script, browser extension, offline reader or other automated means" that ShopGoodwill hasn't authorized, and they tell users not to share their password.
Some tools state on their own sites that sniping is allowed or "not prohibited". That's each vendor's reading. We'd suggest reading the Terms of Use yourself and deciding how much risk you're comfortable with. ShopGoodwill can restrict accounts for prohibited use, and we don't know how often it does.
How to choose
- Count your wins, not your bids. If you win fewer than about 100 auctions a month, pay-per-win costs less than a subscription with enough snipes to cover you.
- Look at your typical price. Under about $25 per item, a 2% fee beats a flat fee. Above that, the flat fee wins.
- Decide who you trust with your login. An online service has to hold access to your account. A desktop app or script keeps it on your machine but needs that machine running.
- Use the free tries. Most of these tools let you test without paying. Run the same kind of auction through two of them and see which one lands its bids.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best ShopGoodwill sniper?
It depends on how you buy. Occasional buyers do best with pay-per-win, bargain hunters on cheap items with a percentage fee, and high-volume resellers with an unlimited plan.
Is there a free ShopGoodwill sniper?
Yes: the open-source shopgoodwill-scripts project, if you can run Python. Bidding by hand is also free. Several paid tools have free trials.
Which sniper bids latest?
Of the tools that publish a figure, SniperMate bids at 3 seconds, AuctionBotPro lets you choose from 3 seconds, and BidPulse bids at 6 seconds. The others don't state an exact time.
Do snipers work on other auction sites?
All six options here are for ShopGoodwill only.
Can a sniper guarantee I win?
No. The highest maximum bid wins. A sniper only controls when your bid is placed.
Want to try pay-per-win sniping? SniperMate gives every new account 5 free Snipe Wins.