How much does youth sports registration software really cost?

Between $0 and about $2,600 a year for the club, and between $0 and about $1,800 a year for the families, depending on which of three pricing models the vendor uses. The sticker price tells you very little. What matters is who pays the per-registration fee, because that's where most of the money is.

The three models

1. "Free" to the club, paid by parents. Sports Connect, Spond, TeamLinkt. The software costs the club nothing; every registration carries a fee of $1–3 plus about 3%, charged to the family (or, with TeamLinkt, parents see ads instead).
2. A flat fee, plus a marked-up card rate. Jersey Watch ($348), TeamSideline ($599), SportsEngine ($804), SquadFusion ($399–799). The club pays a subscription, and card processing runs at 3.25–3.5% + $1–1.50 instead of Stripe's plain 2.9% + 30¢; the club decides whether to absorb the markup or pass it on.
3. A flat fee, and nothing else. mysports.io at $99.99 a year. Card payments go through the club's own Stripe account at Stripe's rate; the vendor adds nothing per registration.

A worked example: a 150-family club

Say your program has 150 families, about 200 children, runs five seasons a year and charges $90 a registration. That's roughly 400 registrations and $36,000 through the card system a year. Stripe's own rate (2.9% + 30¢) costs about $1,160 on that volume no matter which platform you use, so it's left out of the table; what's shown is what the platform adds.

Two things stand out. First, "free" costs your families $900–1,600 a year, which is real money in a parish or a small town. Second, the flat-fee platforms still mark up card processing: that 0.35–0.6% plus the extra $0.70–1.20 per transaction is another $400–700 a year on this example, on top of the subscription.

What the sticker price doesn't show

• Setup and onboarding fees. LeagueApps charges one; the amount isn't published. Most others don't.
• Tiers by size. Jersey Watch goes to $588 above 200 athletes; TeamLinkt's paid tiers run $425–795.
• Fees on cash. Sports Connect charges its $3 even when the family pays by check.
• Add-ons. Text messaging, websites and background checks are often extra. Decide what you'll actually use; the old mysports.io advertised six features for nine years and its clubs used two.

How to compare for your own club

Count last year's registrations and your average fee. Multiply registrations by the per-transaction fee and add the percentage of total volume; add the subscription. Then decide, as a board, whether that number comes out of the club's budget or your families' pockets, because with most platforms you're choosing one or the other. mysports.io's answer is that it comes out of neither: $99.99 a year, and the registration fee is the registration fee.