Tournament registration software has to do four things: take a structured entry, take the money, tell you who has done both, and hand that list to whatever builds your schedule. Most products do the first three. The differences that matter are how they charge, whether you keep your own payment processor, and whether you get a website out of it or have to buy one separately.
This is a buyer's guide, not a ranking. The right answer depends on how many events you run a year and whether the event or the organisation is the thing you are building.
What does registration software actually need to do?
Four jobs, and everything else is preference.
- Structured entry. Divisions, team name, head coach contact, roster, and whatever your sanctioning body needs. A form that lets a coach type their division as free text is a form you will clean by hand.
- Payment at the point of entry. Not a separate request you send afterwards. This is the single biggest operational difference between platforms and a form, and it is covered in collecting entry fees.
- A paid/unpaid state you can see. Without reconciling anything.
- An export that feeds your schedule. Pools and brackets are built from the entry list; if that hand-off is manual, every late entry is a rebuild.
If a product does those four and your coaches can use it without calling you, it is good enough. The rest is economics.
What do you pay, and who pays it?
Three pricing models in this market, and they suit different events.
| Model | Who charges this way | Suits |
|---|---|---|
| Per team, per event | SincSports, Exposure Events | One large annual event. Cost scales with the event, and you pay nothing in the off-season |
| Percentage of registrations | SportsEngine and most club platforms | Events that would rather pay from revenue than write a cheque. Gets expensive as you grow |
| Flat subscription + build fee | MAD Sports Hub | Organisations running several events a year, or who want the site and the back office as one product |
| Quote only | Playbook365, TourneyMachine | Larger or more specialised operations. You will not know until you ask |
The question underneath all of them is who pays the card fee. A percentage platform usually bundles card processing into its rate, which makes its headline number look worse than it is. A flat-fee product usually does not, because you keep your own processor — which makes its number look better than it is. Compare all-in or you are comparing nothing.
Does the platform take a cut of your entry fees?
This is the question to ask first, and it has three possible honest answers.
- A percentage that includes card processing. One number covers both the platform and the card. Simple, and the cost rises with your event.
- A percentage on top of card processing. Two cuts. Ask explicitly whether the rate quoted is inclusive.
- No cut, and you keep your own processor. Your card fees are whatever your processor charges you and the platform bills you separately.
We are the third kind. We take 0% of your registrations — and to be precise about what that means: you keep your own payment processor, so your card fees are whatever Stripe charges you, same as anyone. We just do not add a platform cut on top. That is a control argument, not a savings argument, and we would rather say so plainly: on fees alone a flat monthly is not automatically the cheaper option, and our pricing page shows the arithmetic including where it is not.
Do you get a website, or just a listing?
This is where products that look similar stop being similar.
Most tournament tools give you an event page — a URL where the schedule and brackets live for that event. Some add an event directory, which is genuine distribution if your teams already browse it. What almost none of them give you is an organisation site: pages that persist between events, carry your sponsors across a season, and rank for your event name so teams find you without a directory in between.
If you run one event a year, an event page is probably enough and you should not pay for more. If you run a season of events, carry sponsors, or want the search result for your own event name to be a page you control, those are different purchases today — which is the gap we were built to close.
Which is right for your event size?
Roughly, and with the caveat that every event is its own case:
- Under ~20 teams, first or second year. A form and a payment app. Genuinely. Do not buy software yet — see the honest version of that comparison.
- 20–60 teams, one event a year. A per-team product. You pay in proportion to the event and nothing in the off-season.
- Several events a year, or an organisation you are building. A platform with a real site behind it, because the site is now doing work between events.
- Stay-to-play with hotel room blocks. Housing integration outweighs everything else on this list. Playbook365 has one and we do not.
The comparison pages
We keep a sourced, dated comparison for each of the main options, including where they beat us:
- vs Google Forms + Venmo — what most first-year events actually run on
- vs Exposure Events — publishes its pricing, cheap at the scheduling end
- vs Playbook365 — larger multi-sport events, housing and merch
- vs TourneyMachine — now SportsEngine Tourney, and the ownership changed in 2026
Each carries the date it was last checked and links to the source.
Questions directors ask
What should I ask a vendor before signing?
Five questions: What is the all-in cost for an event my size? Is card processing included in that rate or on top? Who owns the payment relationship? What is the contract term and renewal date? And what happens to my data if I leave? The fourth one catches more people than the first.
Is free tournament software any good?
Free-to-start is common and the tools are often genuinely capable. The thing to check is where the revenue comes from instead — a percentage of your entries, a paid tier you will hit immediately, or an upsell to teams. None of those is wrong, but you want to know before you build a season on it.
Does it matter that TourneyMachine is now SportsEngine?
Only if you are also evaluating SportsEngine for your club, in which case it is worth knowing they share a corporate parent. TourneyMachine is now branded SportsEngine Tourney, and SportsEngine was acquired by PlayMetrics from Versant Media, announced 1 May 2026. Pricing has not visibly moved, but if you are near a renewal, verify terms directly. More detail here.
Can I switch mid-season?
You can, but the natural moment is between events. The thing to check first is your current contract's renewal date, especially with vendors who quote rather than publish — an unknown renewal is what usually makes a switch awkward rather than the data.
How long does it take to get set up?
For a per-team tool, an afternoon. For a built site and back office, typically three to four weeks, and we load your teams, schedule and sponsors rather than handing you a data-entry job.
If what you actually need is the event and a site that works between events, that is the thing we build — more for tournament directors. We will build you a free mockup of your event's site before you decide anything. No cost, no obligation.