Squaddie handles player availability, fair lineups, scheduling and parent communication — so coaches spend less time on admin and more time coaching.
No credit card required · Free forever tier
Platforms tailored for New Zealand sports range from national competition systems to club administration tools to individual team coaching apps. Here's how Squaddie compares to Sporty, CoachMate and Friendly Manager.
| Platform | Best For | Key Features |
|---|---|---|
| Squaddie | Volunteer coaches, schools and clubs running individual teams week to week | Player availability tracking, fair/balanced lineup generation, game & training scheduling, parent/player messaging, AI coaching assistant |
| Sporty | Community clubs, schools, and major NZ sports codes | Free mobile app, SKED competition/draw management, live game-day scoring, Xero integration |
| CoachMate | Team communication, practice planning, player development | Practice plans, video activity guides, team chat, attendance tracking (partnered with NZ Football) |
| Friendly Manager | Sports club and member management | Automated fee tracking, club membership administration |
Sporty is built admin-up — its strength is competition draws, fixtures and results for national sports organisations. Squaddie is built coach-up — it starts with what a volunteer coach actually needs on a Tuesday night: who's available this week, a fair team picked without playing favourites, and parents who know the time and place without a text chain.
Schools and clubs get an aggregate view across teams once each coach is using it, rather than starting from admin oversight and pushing tools down to coaches.
It depends on who's using it. Sporty is built for national sports codes and competition draw management. CoachMate focuses on practice planning and video drills. Squaddie is built specifically for the volunteer coach and school admin doing day-to-day team management — player availability, fair lineup generation, and parent communication — with an AI coaching assistant included.
Sporty is admin-up: it's built around competition draws, fixtures and results for national sports organisations and major codes. Squaddie is coach-up: it starts with the volunteer coach's weekly problem of tracking who's available, building a fair team, and keeping parents in the loop, then rolls that up into school and club-level oversight.
Yes. Squaddie offers a free tier covering one team and five AI analyses per month, with paid plans for individual coaches (NZD $7.99/month) and schools (NZD $49.99-$99/month) that need multiple teams and admin oversight.
Yes. Squaddie's School/Club and School/Club Professional plans are built for schools managing multiple teams across different sports, with admin-level visibility across all of them alongside each coach's individual team tools.
Squaddie covers player availability tracking, fair and balanced lineup generation, game and training scheduling, parent and player messaging, and an AI coaching assistant for drills and team insights — designed so a volunteer coach with no admin experience can run a team with minimal time spent on logistics.