Start with what you actually run
Write down the programs before you look at software: club season with tryouts and dues, rec league, tournaments or showcases you host, camps and clinics, training packs, ticketed events. Then the jobs behind them: registration and payment, scheduling, communication, scores and standings, the gate, the website and app. Software that is brilliant at one program and absent on another means two systems and one roster typed twice.
The right platform is the one that runs your list off one roster.
- Programs listed
- Jobs listed
- One roster across all of them as the requirement
The seven questions to ask on every demo
Whose account does the money land in, and when? Can I see registration, schedule and standings for one team on one screen? What happens when a field closes on Saturday: show me. Can a division have its own price, cap and waitlist? Do families get one app, and is it in our name? What does it cost when we double in size? What can I export, and can I take it with me?
Ask them in that order and watch for the answers that start with "well."
- Money: whose account, when
- One team, one screen
- Weather change, live
- Division-level pricing, caps, waitlists
- One branded app for families
- Cost at double the size
- Export and portability
Pricing models, honestly compared
Flat monthly by organization size: predictable, cheap at scale, sometimes more than a tiny program needs. Per team or per player: feels small at first and grows with you, so it punishes success. Per transaction on top of processing: hidden in the payment line, adds up fast on registration-heavy programs. Free with the processing fee: someone is paying, usually the family, and usually more than they think.
Whichever model, get the total for a real season on paper: subscription, platform fees, processing, and any per-team or per-player lines. Then get the same total at twice the size.
- Total for a real season on paper
- Same total at double the size
- Processing and platform fees separated
Test it with your own data
A demo on sample data proves the demo works. Bring your actual sign-up form and ask them to rebuild it. Bring your actual fields, divisions and rules and ask for a schedule. Bring last year's schedule change and ask how families would have heard. If a vendor will not run the demo on your data, that is an answer.
- Your form rebuilt live
- Your schedule built live
- Your worst change of last season, replayed
Switching without losing a season
Move between seasons, after the last payment settles and before the next registration opens. Export everything you can from the old system before you cancel (members, registrations, payments, schedules, signed waivers), because access ends when the subscription does. Ask the new vendor to go through your actual export files with you and say plainly what maps and what does not. Run the first registration on the new system while the old one is still readable.
The good vendors will do the migration with you; the great ones will tell you what will not come across before you sign.
- Between seasons
- Export before cancel
- Files reviewed with the new vendor
- First registration in parallel
The red flags
Money that lands in the vendor's account and pays out on their schedule. Pricing you cannot get in writing. A demo that will not run on your data. Export tools that only appear when you ask to leave. A contract that renews for a year with a penalty for low payment volume. None of these are fatal on their own; two of them together are.
- Vendor holds the money
- No written price
- No demo on your data
- Export only on exit
- Auto-renew with penalties