We build one of these apps, so read this with that in mind. We've still tried to write the page we wanted when we were the ones comparing, which means describing how each model works rather than telling you who to pick. Every figure below comes from the platform's own public pricing page, is linked, and is dated.
The five models
1. Per family
The app is free for coaches, and each parent buys their own subscription to get the full experience, usually video, highlights, or stats. Your program pays nothing directly, which is genuinely appealing if your budget is tight.
Two things to think through. First, the total across your program is real money even though it never appears on your books: 60 households paying a few dollars a month each adds up to a few hundred dollars a month, it's just coming out of your parents' pockets instead of the club's. Second, adoption varies household by household, because some families will decline to pay, and a roster where only some parents have the paid view is a communication problem you'll end up managing.
2. Per team
You pay for each team you run. Clean and predictable for a single team, and it lets each team own its own budget, which some clubs genuinely prefer. The catch is that the bill scales linearly: a program that grows from 4 teams to 9 roughly doubles its software cost, and adding a team mid-season means a new line item rather than no change at all.
3. Per module, plus transaction fees
Common at the larger end. You buy the pieces you need, registration, websites, safety screening, streaming, and pay a percentage on money that moves through the platform. Powerful if you need deep registration and league management. Harder to forecast, because your cost moves with your registration volume, and the headline subscription is rarely the whole bill.
4. Quote on a call
No published club pricing. You book a call, describe your organization, and get a number. Normal enterprise practice, and for a large league it often produces a fair deal. For a director trying to budget next season on a Tuesday night, it means you can't compare and you can't plan without first getting on the phone with a salesperson.
5. Per organization
One bill covers the whole club, however many teams are in it, and families are never charged. Predictable, and adding a team costs nothing until you cross a tier boundary. The tradeoff is that a single coach with one team is subsidizing capacity they aren't using, which is why apps on this model usually have a free or cheap single-team tier. This is the model we use.
What each platform publishes
Not a scorecard, and deliberately not a feature comparison. This is only the question of who pays and what you can find out before you talk to anyone, because that's the part that's hard to research and easy to get surprised by.
| Platform | Model | What's published | Can you budget from the website? |
|---|---|---|---|
| GameChanger | Per family | Free for coaches and staff. Family subscriptions from $3.33/mo. Baseball and softball streaming is paid after 5 free streams; basketball, volleyball and soccer streaming is free. | Yes, for a family. Your program's total depends on how many parents subscribe. |
| TeamSnap | Per team, and quote for clubs | Single teams "$0 to start" with a paid upgrade. Club and league pricing is described as customized, with no figure published. | Not for a club. Requires a sales conversation. |
| SportsEngine | Per module + transaction fees | HQ $67/mo billed annually or $79 monthly. Motion $295 setup plus a 1% technology fee and 2.9% + $0.30 processing. Creator Studio $1,500/yr. Safety screening priced per check. | Mostly, though your real cost moves with registration volume. |
| Heja | Per team, free tier is ad-supported | Free tier, ad supported, one team admin. Team Pro from $8.33. Custom pricing referenced for multiple club teams. | Yes for a team, custom above that. |
| GameOS | Per organization | Free for 1 team, no credit card. Pro $29/mo per org for up to 8 teams. All-Star for unlimited teams. Parents and players never pay. No ads. | Yes. Full price list on the pricing section. |
All figures taken from each platform's own public pricing page and last checked 26 August 2026. Pricing changes, and plans differ by sport, region, and billing period, so treat this as a starting point and confirm at the source before you decide: gc.com · teamsnap.com/pricing · sportsengine.com/pricing · heja.io/pricing. Spotted something out of date or wrong? Tell us at hey@gameos.app and we'll correct it.
Working out your own number
Four questions that usually settle it faster than a feature matrix:
- How many teams will you run in 18 months, not today? Per-team pricing is fine at three teams and expensive at twelve. Pick for where you're going.
- Are you willing to ask families to pay? If yes, per-family models can be excellent value for the club. If your program serves families where another subscription is a real barrier, that decision is already made.
- Do you actually need registration and league management? If you do, you're in module-and-quote territory and should budget accordingly. If you just need a season to run without a group text, you're paying for a lot you won't open.
- Is your season year-round? Most youth programs run 5 to 8 months. Check whether you're billed for the months you're dark, because that's often a third of the annual cost.
Where GameOS fits, and where it doesn't
We're a per-organization app, so we're a good fit for a club or program running several teams that wants one predictable bill and doesn't want to charge families. $29/mo covers up to 8 teams, which is about $3.63 per team, and adding a team costs nothing until you cross a tier. Parents and players never pay, there are no ads, and you can pause a monthly plan for up to 4 months a year with all your data intact.
We're a poor fit in three cases, and we'd rather you find that out here than after you've moved your roster:
- You need full registration and league management. Sanctioning, divisions, tournament brackets, background-check workflows. We don't do that. A module-based platform will serve you better.
- Game video is the entire job. If what you actually want is a deep archive of recorded games, a video-first product has years of head start on us.
- You're a single coach with one team and no budget at all. Use our free tier by all means, but a per-team or ad-supported app may fit you just as well.
We're also early. Dozens of organizations, not thousands. The honest version of where we are.
Common questions
Is per-organization pricing always cheaper?
No. For a single team it's usually the worst deal, which is why our single-team tier is free. It gets better the more teams you run, and the crossover point depends on what the per-team alternative charges. Do the arithmetic for your actual team count rather than trusting anyone's marketing, ours included.
What's the catch with "free for coaches"?
Usually there isn't a catch so much as a different payer. The revenue comes from families buying subscriptions, or from ads, or from transaction fees on money moving through the platform. All three are legitimate models. The thing to check is which one, because it tells you who's being asked for money and whether it scales with your program.
How do I compare a platform that won't publish its price?
Book the call, but go in with your team count, roster sizes, and season length written down, and ask for the number per team per month so you can compare it to published options. Ask what happens to the price if you add teams mid-season, and ask what the renewal looks like in year two.
What should I ask about the off-season?
Whether you can pause, what happens to your data if you do, and whether an annual contract bills you for months your program isn't running. Youth sports isn't year-round and a lot of pricing quietly assumes it is. We let you pause a monthly plan up to 4 months a year and the org goes read-only with everything retained.
Can I try more than one at once?
Yes, and for a season it's the only test that really tells you anything. Run one team on a free tier of each and see which one your parents actually open. Adoption is the thing that decides whether any of this was worth it, and you can't predict it from a feature list.