Random Noodle is a free random number generator. You set a range, you pull the lever, and you get one number — with every number in that range having exactly the same chance of turning up. There's also a Yes/No mode for the questions that aren't numbers at all.
Why it exists
It started with a raffle. Picking a winner out of a list is the sort of thing that ought to take five seconds, and instead it means finding a site cluttered with pop-ups, sign-up prompts and a cookie banner the size of the screen, then squinting to find the actual button. Random Noodle is the version of that page I wanted: it loads fast, the tool is the first thing you see, and nothing gets in the way of the number.
The name is a bit daft. That was rather the point — this is a tool for raffles, games nights and settling arguments about where to get dinner, not a piece of laboratory equipment.
Who makes it
Random Noodle is run by one person — a jeweller and artist based in Australia who also builds small useful things for the web. It isn't a company, a startup or a team. If something on the site is broken or annoying, the person who can fix it is the same person who will read your email.
How the randomness works
The numbers come from your browser's built-in cryptographic random number generator, drawn the moment you press the button, on your own device. That's a genuinely unpredictable source — a stronger one than the simple method most sites use — and the result is corrected so that no number in your range is even slightly more likely than another.
Nothing is sent to a server, because nothing needs to be. The generator runs entirely in the page in front of you. That also means we couldn't tell you what number you got if we wanted to.
What it costs
Nothing, and there's no account to make. The site is paid for by the ads shown alongside the tool, which is what keeps it free to use for everyone, for personal draws and business giveaways alike.
What's coming
The list of things people have asked for, roughly in order:
- Drawing several numbers at once, with an option for no repeats
- A shareable link that saves your range
- Random picking from a list of names, not just numbers
- A coin flip and a proper dice roller with more than one dice
If there's something you'd use that isn't on that list, do say — suggestions from people actually using the thing are worth more than my guesses. The contact page is the place.