The SportsEngine alternative that's actually free
Staty does the core job — online registration with payments, scheduling, brackets, standings, and stats — without a monthly subscription. It's free to use, charges 1% only on registrations you collect, and you can set it up yourself today without a sales call.
Free to use · No credit card required · No contract, no sales call
What a season actually costs
A league collecting $10,000 in registrations pays Staty $100 — total. On a subscription platform, the software bill arrives every month whether you're in season or not, and per-registration fees stack on top.
| Staty | SportsEngine HQ | |
|---|---|---|
| Software cost | Free — every feature included | From ~$79/mo (Express) to ~$129/mo (Premium); Pro tier ~$2,199/yr |
| Registration transaction fee | 1% of the registration payment | ~3.25% + $1.50 (Premium) or ~3.2% + $1.00 (Pro) per registration |
| Payment processing | Stripe's standard 2.9% + $0.30, paid to Stripe | Processing handled within SportsEngine's payments stack |
| Off-season cost | Nothing — you pay only when you collect a registration | Subscription continues year-round |
| Getting started | Self-serve — sign up and open a registration the same day | Demo-request / sales-assisted flow |
SportsEngine HQ pricing as of 2026, per public listings on Capterra, Software Advice, and GetApp; plans and fees change — verify current pricing with the vendor. Staty pricing is published at staty.io: free to use, 1% per registration collected, Stripe processing (2.9% + $0.30) separate.
Where Staty stands apart
Both platforms cover the fundamentals — registration, payments, scheduling, and league websites. These are the differences organizers ask about most.
| Staty | SportsEngine | |
|---|---|---|
| Price to use | Free — unlimited leagues, divisions & admins | Paid subscription, tiered by plan |
| You pay when | Only when you collect a registration (1%) | Every month or year, in season or not |
| AI scoresheet scanning & banner generation | Included | Not advertised |
| Full REST API access | Included free, self-serve API keys | Not self-serve |
| Visible to AI assistants (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity) | Yes — open to AI search crawlers | robots.txt blocks AI crawlers (as of Aug 2026) |
When SportsEngine may fit better
An honest comparison cuts both ways. SportsEngine can be the better choice if:
- Your governing body requires background screening or SafeSport-style compliance workflows run inside your management platform — SportsEngine offers screening; Staty does not.
- You're a large multi-program organization that wants managed onboarding and a dedicated sales/support relationship rather than self-serve setup.
- Your organization is already deep in the SportsEngine ecosystem and the migration cost outweighs the subscription savings.
Staty's whole pricing page, in one card
No tiers to compare, no feature gates to decode. Everything is included; you pay 1% when a registration is collected.
Free to use
No monthly fees. No per-league limits. You only pay when you get paid.
Get started freeStripe’s standard processing fee (2.9% + $0.30 per transaction) applies separately.
Everything is included
- Unlimited leagues & tournaments
- Unlimited divisions
- Unlimited admins & custom roles
- Team & roster management
- Online registration with unlimited custom questions
- Waitlists with automatic promotion
- Game scores & auto-calculated standings
- Sport-specific stats (points, assists, goals & more)
- Drag-and-drop game scheduler
- Venue & location management
- Custom digital waivers
- Per-player, early-bird & multi-team pricing
- Stripe payments, refunds & donations
- AI-generated league banners
- Registration data export
- Full REST API access & webhooks
- Multi-organization management
SportsEngine alternative FAQ
The biggest difference is the pricing model. SportsEngine HQ is a paid subscription (public listings as of 2026 show plans from roughly $79–$129 per month, with an annual Pro tier around $2,199) plus per-registration transaction fees of roughly 3.2–3.25% + $1.00–$1.50. Staty is free to use with every feature included and charges 1% only on registration payments you collect — there is no subscription at all.
There's no catch — the 1% fee on collected registrations is the entire business model. Unlimited leagues, tournaments, divisions, and admins are included, and Stripe's standard processing fee (2.9% + $0.30) applies separately, as it does with any payments provider. If you collect nothing, you pay nothing.
No. Staty is fully self-serve: sign up, create your organization, and you can have a live registration link the same day. There's also no contract — you can stop using it at any time.
No — Staty does not offer background screening or SafeSport-style compliance workflows. If your organization is required to run those through its management platform, that's a genuine reason to consider SportsEngine. Many leagues run screening through a separate dedicated provider and use Staty for operations.
Setting up on Staty is self-serve and quick: create your organization, add your leagues and divisions (or describe them in plain English and let the AI builder create them), set your fees, and open registration. Your registration data on Staty is always exportable, so you're never locked in.
Yes — Elite Sports Club (elite-sports-club.staty.io) is a complete basketball organization with standings, stats, schedules, and a bracket, and Valley Pickleball Association (valley-pickleball-association.staty.io) shows rating-banded divisions and waitlists. Both are live and clickable.
More questions? Read the full FAQ or contact us.
Try the free alternative this season
Create your organization, set your fees, and open a registration — self-serve, in one sitting. If it's not for you, there's no contract to cancel.
Sign up free