Compare platforms / SportsEngine

Team Scout vs SportsEngine.Not even close.

Eighteen things that matter to the families and volunteers who run a program, side by side. Every SportsEngine line comes from SportsEngine's own published pages, linked below the chart.

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Team Scout

18 of 18

Every row, in one app and one admin workspace.

SportsEngine

8 of 18

In full on its own published pages. 2 more cost extra. 5 in part.

Team Scout
SportsEngine
Getting paid
Registration
Yes. One form takes the waivers, documents and custom questions, so a family signs and pays in one sitting.
They have it. Registration from the Express plan, $799 a year.9
Payment plans
Yes. Families pay in full or on a plan, charged automatically, with a reminder before each charge.
They have it. Up to three payment terms on each registration.16
Double-entry ledger
Yes. Every dollar posts to a double-entry ledger, and each bank deposit opens into the payments inside it.
Partly. Payout and transaction reports. A double-entry ledger is not on its published pages.7
QuickBooks
Yes. Each deposit downloads as QuickBooks-ready journal lines, debits equal to credits, so your bookkeeper is done in minutes.
Costs extra. A QuickBooks integration, starting with the Premium plan at $1,299 a year.8,9
Raising money for the program
Fundraising
Yes. Every player gets a share link, donors see a live donor wall, and Team Scout takes 0% of any gift.
Partly. A donation registration template in HQ. Fundraising campaigns live in SportsEngine Motion, its swim and studio product.11,12
Gate tickets
Yes. Sell tickets online and check people in by scanning the QR code at the gate on any phone.
Not on their published pages. A ticketing tool is not in SportsEngine HQ's help center.10
Sponsorships
Yes. Sponsors choose a tier and pay online on your own website, and the money is paid out to your program.
Partly. A sponsor display element for your website. Selling sponsorships online is not in HQ's help center.13
Program ad sales
Yes. Businesses buy program ads online, credited to the player who sold them, with the artwork collected for you.
Not on their published pages. Program ad sales are not on its published pages.
Families and volunteers
Volunteer sign-ups
Yes. Families sign up by shift, swap shifts in the app, and get reminders before they are due. Free on every plan.
Costs extra. Shift sign-ups with a day-of email reminder, starting with the Premium plan at $1,299 a year.9,14
Family accounts
Yes. One household holds every child and parent, and one family statement shows what the family owes and has paid.
They have it. One account owner per household, with athlete profiles and more than one guardian.17
Integrated calendar
Yes. One subscribe link puts every game and practice on Google, Apple or Outlook, and changes update by themselves.
They have it. An iCal feed you can add to Google, Outlook and Apple calendars.15
Communication
Group feed
Yes. Every group has its own feed: pin the post that matters, send an urgent alert as a push notification, run a poll or a survey.
They have it. One chat per team, with pinned messages, and polls added in January 2026.18,19
Messaging
Yes. Direct messages and group conversations, in the same app as the feed and the schedule.
They have it. Team chat plus email-style messages to the team or to one teammate.5,6
Email campaigns
Yes. Send 500 campaign emails a month free. On paid plans, send without a cap from your club's own sending domain.
Partly. Messages reach the app inbox, with email or text when turned on. Your own sending domain is not in its help center.20
Website builder
Yes. A website at yourname.teamscout.co in your own colors, or on your own domain whenever you want it.
They have it. A website and team app, included from the Express plan at $799 a year.9
Trust
No ads
Yes. No ads for families, players or coaches, on any plan, including free.
No. SportsEngine Play shows ads, and paid subscribers still see a sponsor message each session. Its terms allow banner and video ads.1,2
Published pricing
Yes. Every plan and fee is on the pricing page. Plans with registration start at $29 a month, paid annually.
They have it. $799 to $2,199 a year, plus 3.2% to 3.5% and $1 to $2 on every transaction. $300 at renewal if a paid plan processes under $1,000.9
Your data
Yes. You own what you post, we never sell your data, and members and financial reports export to CSV on every plan.
Partly. Members export to CSV. Its terms give SportsEngine the right to monetize your organization's content.21,22
Also worth knowing
Data never shared for advertising
Yes. We don't sell your data, and we have no advertisers to share it with.
No. SportsEngine links to the Versant privacy policy, which discloses personal data to advertisers and ad-tech providers.3
Private groups
Yes. Make any group hidden, invite-only or approval-required, and share it with an invite code that expires.
Partly. A team can be set to Private, visible to rostered members only.4
Team Scout includes itThey have itCosts extraIn partNoNot on their published pages

Every SportsEngine line comes from SportsEngine's own published pages, read September 29 and October 12, 2026:

  1. 1. SportsEngine Play help, how to limit ads.
  2. 2. SportsEngine terms of use, updated October 6, 2025.
  3. 3. Versant privacy policy, linked from the SportsEngine site footer, updated August 24, 2026.
  4. 4. SportsEngine help, season management and team status.
  5. 5. SportsEngine mobile help, how to send a team chat.
  6. 6. SportsEngine mobile help, how to send a message.
  7. 7. SportsEngine help, learn about financial reporting tools.
  8. 8. SportsEngine help, the QuickBooks integration.
  9. 9. SportsEngine pricing and bundling, read again October 12, 2026.
  10. 10. SportsEngine HQ help center.
  11. 11. SportsEngine help, the registration builder cheat sheet.
  12. 12. SportsEngine Motion help, an event fundraising overview.
  13. 13. SportsEngine help, how to create a page element, the sponsor element.
  14. 14. SportsEngine help, how to create a Dibs session.
  15. 15. SportsEngine help, how to subscribe to an iCal feed.
  16. 16. SportsEngine help, adding or editing payment plans in registrations.
  17. 17. SportsEngine help, adding another profile to a household.
  18. 18. SportsEngine blog, the HQ team chat update, January 29, 2026.
  19. 19. SportsEngine mobile help, how to interact with team chats.
  20. 20. SportsEngine mobile help, where messages are delivered.
  21. 21. SportsEngine terms of use on the pricing site.
  22. 22. SportsEngine help, how to view and export member data.
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You've probably already formed your own opinion of SportsEngine. It runs a lot of programs. But it was built for high schools with a paid athletic director and a software budget line. It was not built for the homeschool, club and community programs we serve. On May 1, 2026 it was acquired by PlayMetrics, the private-equity-backed platform we compare on our PlayMetrics page.

That makes SportsEngine and PlayMetrics the same company now, both inside a Genstar Capital roll-up that exists to be sold again. Pricing reviews and roadmap quiet periods are the usual playbook after deals like this.

Team Scout is the opposite on each of those points. Every plan and the platform fee are on the pricing page, and card processing passes through Stripe at cost. When you need something, you reach a person who can make it happen.

From the insights: SportsEngine changed hands again. What three owners in a decade do to the software.

The ownership question

SportsEngine is now part of a private-equity roll-up.

On May 1, 2026, PlayMetrics, backed by Genstar Capital, completed its acquisition of SportsEngine from Versant Media Group. It is SportsEngine's third change of ownership in under a decade. Acquisitions like this tend to mean pricing reviews and a quiet period where the roadmap stops being public. Team Scout answers to the programs that use it, and the people who build it are the people who pick up the phone.

RECEIPTS

Three years on SportsEngine. One season on Team Scout.

The football program in our case study, by the numbers.

Three years on SportsEngine

average processing rate SportsEngine charged, 2023 to 2025
3.7%
average processing rate SportsEngine charged, 2023 to 2025
more than the same payments cost at standard card-processing rates
About 20%
more than the same payments cost at standard card-processing rates

The gap between SportsEngine's fees and the underlying card cost was markup, and the subscription came on top of it. That was money that went to overhead instead of the program.

First season on Team Scout

card processing, passed through from Stripe with no markup
At cost
card processing, passed through from Stripe with no markup
family payments by bank transfer, which costs a fraction of a card
87
family payments by bank transfer, which costs a fraction of a card

Families and supporters covered the card fee at checkout, and families who paid by bank transfer cost the program far less to process.

SportsEngine figures: the program's own SportsEngine payout records, 2023 to 2025, reviewed payout by payout. Team Scout figures: the program's Team Scout payment records for its first season.

Who pays the card fee

Other platforms have the same theoretical option to pass the credit-card fee to parents. The way it's presented at checkout decides whether parents actually do. Team Scout's checkout starts with the fee-cover option selected, with the math made plain, and 88 percent of people paying online leave it on. More of the program's collection lands with the program.

The biggest worry is the move

It's the fear of moving. We take that off your plate.

We build your website, your calendar and your groups with your own information, you look it over, and you decide. Your SportsEngine history stays readable as your archive, and open invoices finish where they are. The work is ours, and it is done any time of the year.

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Straight answers.

You might not, if SportsEngine is working for you. Most programs move for a concrete reason. A support wall, the uncertainty that follows an ownership change, or wanting ticketing, program ad sales and a feed for every group in one place. If one of those is your reason, that's the conversation worth having.

Every Team Scout number is on our pricing page. Community is free, and it includes the website, groups, messaging, the schedule, volunteer sign-ups, ticketing and fundraising. Paid plans add registration, payments, and ad sales and sponsorships for $29 to $179 a month billed annually. The platform fee is 3.9% down to 1.9% on what you collect and record. Card processing is Stripe's rate, passed through at cost. Checkout offers families and supporters the option to cover the card fee, and it starts selected. Families who pay by bank transfer cost far less to process than a card. SportsEngine publishes its plans at $799 to $2,199 a year. Processing on paid plans is 3.2% to 3.5% plus $1 to $2 on every transaction. A paid plan that processes under $1,000 in a year pays a $300 fee at renewal (per its pricing page).

Yes, and it's the most common worry we hear. We load your SportsEngine exports, payouts and payments included, into a reference database that stays readable. We rebuild your forms and rosters with you, and your SportsEngine reports stay with you as your archive. We verify every family and every open balance before cutover. See the full plan on our SportsEngine migration page.

Three things. Your members and financial reports export to CSV at any time, on every plan, so nothing is locked in. Nobody is preparing Team Scout for a sale, and every plan and fee is on the pricing page. And when you need something, you reach a person who can make it happen, not a ticket queue.

Sometimes yes, sometimes not yet, and we'll tell you which. We won't bluff a feature to win a deal; you'd find out in week one. Tell us the job you're trying to do and we'll either show you how Team Scout does it or tell you plainly what is on the roadmap.

Same worry we've heard from every program. The trick is the onboarding, not the app. We do a one-hour walkthrough during migration and send each coach a three-minute video on the one thing they need: posting to their team feed. It's a phone app, not a 2012 admin portal. If they can use Facebook, they can use this.

Yes, and this is one of the bigger reasons treasurers move. A deposit opens into the payments inside it. A refund is credited back to the charge it came from. Every payment is recorded with the family and what it paid for. It all posts to a double-entry ledger, with a trial balance you can pull any day. Each bank deposit downloads as QuickBooks-ready journal lines, debits equal to credits, so the deposit in QuickBooks matches the deposit in your bank. SportsEngine offers a QuickBooks integration starting with its Premium plan at $1,299 a year. See the financial reports.

See it for yourself

Start your team free. See what's different.

The Community plan runs your whole program for $0. When you are ready to collect money, plans with registration start at $29 a month paid annually plus a small platform fee. No contracts, cancel anytime.

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