Best sports lineup apps for coaches and team managers

Why there is no single best lineup app

A team app with a lineup screen, a touchline substitution timer and a website that draws a starting XI are all sold to the same coach as a lineup app, and ranking them against each other tells you nothing. What separates them is the part of the job they were built for:

• Who can play. Chasing replies and absences: a messaging and availability problem, which team apps solve.
• Who plays where. The formation, the positions, the bench, the shirt numbers. Most apps do some of this; how well depends on your sport.
• Who gets the minutes. A promise of fair playing time needs a plan before the game and a clock during it.
• Telling everyone. Players and parents, and often the club’s followers: a notification, a picture or a video.

Buy for whichever of the four costs you the most; the rest you can usually live with.

What each app is built for

Read the middle column as each product’s centre of gravity, not its limit: most have grown sideways, but what an app was built for is still what it does best.

Team apps with a lineup attached

TeamSnap

TeamSnap runs a youth team’s week: schedule, availability, messages and payments. An administrator adds players to a game’s lineup, drags them into order, gives each a position, and on saving chooses whether to notify the team.

Lineups come with the Premium and Ultra plans, and TeamSnap’s help centre says they are in the iOS and Android apps, not the web app. A lineup is a list with positions: we found no drawn formation, substitution plan or playing-time totals.

Suits: a youth team already running its week in TeamSnap.

Spond

Spond is free to use, and charges a fee only on payments a team collects through it. It covers events, availability, group chats, polls and payments, and its lineup lives in match events, for football only: choose a team size and a formation, or Custom and move the positions yourself, put invited players in, and add substitutes underneath. Each lineup is shown to everyone invited or only to the hosts and admins.

Suits: a football team that wants availability, chat and a lineup in one free app.

BenchApp

BenchApp is built around the weekly scramble for players: they check in or out from the app, by email, push or text message, spares fill the gaps, and fees are tracked. Its sports run from ice, roller and ball hockey to baseball, softball, basketball and soccer. Lineups are a PRO feature, at $9 USD a month for the whole team: lines, positions or a batting order on each event, copied from an earlier one, then printed or posted to the team’s Chatter.

Suits: hockey and recreational teams whose real problem is turnout.

Pitchero

Pitchero is a club platform: a club website with fixtures and results, and the Pitchero Club app, where coaches check availability, send reminders, select the team by position and publish it, and collect match fees. It names football, rugby, cricket, hockey and netball among its sports, and is priced per club: free for one team, £38 GBP a month for up to 20, £99 a month for unlimited teams. We found no formation drawing or minutes planning in it.

Suits: a club with several teams that wants its website and selection in one place.

Clubbie

Clubbie is a grassroots football app: availability, lineups and formations the squad sees before kick-off, live scores, team chat and match fees. It also makes matchday graphics from the event — Starting Lineup and Match Day before a game, Result after it, and player of the match — which its help centre says you can share or save to your phone’s camera roll. It is free on both app stores, with in-app purchases; we couldn’t find what they unlock.

Suits: a grassroots football team that wants its matchday posts and its admin in one app.

GameChanger

GameChanger is a scorekeeping, stats and streaming app, free for coaches and up to four staff; parents and fans pay for extras such as streams and highlight clips. For baseball and softball, Generate Best Lineup suggests a batting order and fielding positions from the stats your team has scored in it, taking availability from RSVPs. It needs one scored game and is labelled beta. We found no lineup tools for its other sports.

Suits: baseball and softball teams that score every game in it anyway.

Substitutions and fair minutes

A promise of equal playing time is easy to make in September and hard to keep in the rain in November.

SubTime

SubTime does one job: who is on, and for how long. Mark attendance, choose a formation, then plan substitutions before the game or make them as it happens, with a clock showing each player’s playing and bench time. Auto Plan writes a rotation that spreads the time evenly and rebuilds it mid-game. It covers football, futsal, basketball, lacrosse, rugby and field hockey, with custom sports for anything else, netball included, and a second coach can share the live game.

It is free for games up to 40 minutes; longer games, live sharing and the advanced Auto Plan need a subscription. It runs on iPhone, iPad and Android. The coach marks attendance, and its listings mention no team chat.

Suits: youth coaches who have promised equal minutes.

Lineup pictures to post

Lineup11

Lineup11 (lineup11.net) is a free football lineup maker in the browser: 5v5 to 11v11, common formations or a custom one, kits, names and numbers. Download the picture without an account, or make a free account to save up to 25 lineups and share each by link. It carries advertising, and its site describes a graphic maker rather than a team tool, so availability and minutes live elsewhere. A separate LINEUP11 app on Google Play was last updated in June 2024; we looked only at the browser version.

Suits: a quick starting XI picture, when the rest of the week is sorted.

Where ClipItCoach fits

We make ClipItCoach, so read this as a declared interest. It is a team video review platform first; the lineups are there because the squad, the schedule and the games already live in it, and they are on every plan.

• The board. A game’s Lineup tab draws your sport’s field, with formats for 14 team sports: football from 11-a-side to futsal, both rugby codes, AFL, netball, basketball, field and ice hockey, lacrosse, volleyball, American football, and fielding plus a batting order for baseball, softball and cricket. Pick a formation or go Custom, and drag the shirts.
• Numbers and fill-ins. Each player has a squad number; in both rugby codes the number follows the position, and the bench numbers on from the starting side. Fill-ins are players without ClipItCoach: a name on the lineup, with no account.
• Availability first. Players answer Going, Maybe or Can’t make it, and a coach can answer for anyone who doesn’t. Copy a game starts from an earlier lineup and leaves open the places of anyone who can’t make it.
• Substitutions and Game day. Even out minutes writes a substitution plan. Game day runs the clock on the touchline, shows the change that is due, and lets you make, skip or delay it, or re-plan the rest; it keeps working without signal and saves when the connection is back. Each player’s season minutes are on the schedule’s Minutes view.
• Telling people. Share image makes a picture of the lineup or the substitution plan. On the paid plan, Promo video turns the saved lineup into a lineup video, and the game’s Matchday tab adds fixture, half-time and full-time posts.

What it does less well, or not at all:

• No lineup suggestions from stats, as GameChanger makes for baseball and softball.
• No match fees, live scores during a game or club website, which several apps above have.
• A saved lineup is visible to the team straight away: there is no coaches-only lineup like Spond’s, and saving one sends no notification.
• The substitution planner covers football, both rugby codes, basketball, netball, AFL, field hockey, lacrosse, baseball and softball, but not ice hockey shifts, American football, volleyball or cricket.
• One subscription covers one team, so a club pays for each.
• The Android app is on Google Play and an iPhone app is coming soon; until then, iPhones use the browser.

It earns its place with a team that reviews game film, or wants to: the lineup, the minutes and the clips sit with the same squad.

What they cost

Prices as each app lists them, in its own currency, checked in October 2026; store prices are the US App Store’s unless the table says otherwise.

The third column matters more than the second: price the plan that actually includes the lineup you need.

By sport

Football (soccer) has the widest choice: Spond’s lineup is free, Clubbie adds graphics, SubTime keeps minutes even and Lineup11 draws the picture. ClipItCoach covers 11, 9, 7, 5 and 4-a-side and futsal.

In rugby the shirt numbers follow the positions and the bench numbers on from the starting side, so check a tool knows that. Pitchero handles club selection and SubTime includes rugby; ClipItCoach has union 15s, sevens and 10s and league 13s and nines, numbered by position. Spond’s lineup doesn’t cover rugby.

Basketball: SubTime for rotations and minutes, TeamSnap for a list with positions, and ClipItCoach for 5-on-5 and 3x3 with substitutions.

Baseball and softball: GameChanger first if you score in it, BenchApp for a batting order on PRO, and ClipItCoach for fielding, batting order and changes between innings.

Ice hockey: BenchApp’s lines are built for it. ClipItCoach draws the starting six, the other lines, the power play and the penalty kill, but doesn’t time shifts.

Netball has the thinnest choice. Pitchero lists it among its club sports and SubTime takes it as a custom sport; ClipItCoach has 7-a-side and 5-a-side on a netball court, with changes planned at the breaks.

How to choose

1. Where does the team already talk?

If availability and messages already live in an app the squad opens, try its lineup first. Moving forty parents to a new app for a better lineup screen is rarely worth it.

2. Have you promised equal minutes?

Then you need a plan and a clock, not a picture.

3. Does it know your sport?

Lines, batting orders, rugby numbering and netball positions are where general tools fall short. Build last week’s real lineup in the free version before paying.

4. Will it work on the touchline?

Try it on every phone your coaches carry, and in a field with no signal. Some lineup features are mobile-only, and some apps are iPhone-only.

A lineup posted publicly names your players. For a youth team, settle that with parents first; player privacy and safeguarding covers consent and what to publish.

Common questions

What is the best free lineup app?

It depends on the sport. Spond is free, with football lineups and substitutes. ClipItCoach's lineups, in 14 sports, come with every plan, as do its substitution planning and season minutes, so you can try them free. Lineup11 makes a football lineup picture for free, and SubTime is free for games up to 40 minutes.

Which app keeps playing time equal?

SubTime is built for it: a game clock with playing and bench time, and an Auto Plan that spreads time evenly. ClipItCoach writes a plan with Even out minutes, runs it with Game day and totals each player's season minutes.

Can I make a lineup graphic for social media?

Yes. Lineup11 makes a free football lineup picture, and Clubbie makes lineup and result graphics for football teams. ClipItCoach's Share image makes a lineup picture on every plan, and on the paid plan Promo video turns the saved lineup into a short video.

Does TeamSnap have lineups?

Yes, on the Premium and Ultra plans, in TeamSnap's iOS and Android apps rather than the web app. A lineup is an ordered list of players with positions, and an administrator chooses whether to notify the team when saving it.

Is there a lineup app for rugby?

Pitchero handles team selection for clubs and names rugby among its sports, and SubTime includes rugby for substitutions and playing time. ClipItCoach has rugby union 15s, sevens and 10s and rugby league 13s and nines, with shirt numbers that follow the position. Spond's lineup is football only.