Playmaker vs The Hoops Geek
This is the closest comparison on the site: two browser play designers that animate automatically and share by a plain link. Here is where they genuinely differ.
We make one of these. Playmaker is our own product, so read this the way you would read any vendor's comparison. What we can offer instead of neutrality is checkable: every figure below was read off the other tool's own pages on , those pages are linked at the foot of this one, and anything we could not verify says so instead of carrying a number.
The comparison where we have to work hardest
Most of the tools on this site differ from us in kind. The Hoops Geek does not. It is a browser-first basketball play designer where you drag players and actions on the court and it animates them automatically, and you share the result with a single link that needs no app and no login at the other end. That is, almost word for word, our own pitch.
So this page is mostly about the two places where they are not the same thing, and the first of them is straightforward: The Hoops Geek is a basketball product and it is deeper in basketball than we are. It is not just a diagrammer. It is a play creator, a practice planner, a rotation maker and a live substitution manager in one login, with native iOS and Android apps as well as the web build, and a growing library of animated plays you can fork. On its own home page on the day we checked it displayed 4.9 stars from 1,067 App Store ratings and 4.7 from 385 on Google Play. Those figures are self-reported and will drift, but they are published by the vendor and they are high, and a coach who only coaches basketball should weigh them.
What its free tier really allows, which is more interesting than the headline
The Hoops Geek's free tier is described on its pricing page as "Free Forever — no card required", and it allows five plays, one playbook, three rotations and three practice plans. Two details are easy to miss and both matter.
Shared plays on the free tier are ad-supported — the person you send the link to sees advertising. And MP4 export, which appears in the free column of the pricing table, is marked in the vendor's own data as not included on free; it renders as an unavailable row. We mention that specifically because a quick read of the page — including an automated one — gets it wrong in The Hoops Geek's favour, and we would rather correct a mistake that flatters a competitor than leave it standing.
Also worth knowing, and to their credit: if you cancel, your plays stay readable. Their words: "The plays stay in your account. But you won't be able to edit, share or create new plays." That is a decent way to treat somebody who stops paying.
How they compare
Read off each vendor's own pricing page on 21 August 2026. The Hoops Geek's page defaults its toggle to annual billing and therefore displays $8.25 a month; that is the annual rate divided by twelve, not a monthly price, so the monthly figure below is the one its own subscription data and its App Store listing both give.
| Tool | Sports | Free tier | Paid | Animation and export |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PlaymakerThis is us | Soccer, basketball, field hockey, rugby, baseball | Unlimited plays drawn, animated and shared by link with no account at all; 3 saved plays per free account | $6/month or $50/year USD | Animated playback; PNG, printable PDF, GIF and MP4 — watermarked on free, clean on Pro |
| The Hoops Geek | Basketball only | 5 plays, 1 playbook, 3 rotations, 3 practice plans; shared plays are ad-supported; MP4 export not included | $14/month, or $99/year; team plan $198/year for 4 coaches, extra seats $49/year | Automatic animation; MP4 export on the paid tiers; 100GB video storage on the annual solo plan |
Scroll the table sideways to see every column — the tool's name stays put.
The four differences that actually decide it
Sports. We draw five, to scale, with the right markings for each — the soccer pitch, the half court, the field hockey pitch, the rugby pitch, the baseball diamond. The Hoops Geek draws basketball. If you coach one sport this is not a difference; if you coach two it is the only one that matters.
Whether you have to register. Playmaker needs no account for anything except saving a play: you can open the canvas, draw a set, animate it, and copy a link that works for whoever you send it to, having given us nothing. The Hoops Geek's free tier requires an account, though not a card.
Breadth versus depth of the product around the drawing. Rotations, practice plans and a live substitution manager are real coaching tools and we have none of them. What we have instead is a printable wrist-coach and play-card maker, 44 formation and set-piece templates across six sports with a page each, and a coaching guide library where the plays in the article animate. Different products, aimed at different halves of a coach's week.
Price, at the top end. $99 a year against $50, or $14 a month against $6. That gap is real but it is not the point — The Hoops Geek is charging for more product, and if you use the rotation maker and the practice planner then it is charging for things you are using.
When to pick The Hoops Geek
If you coach basketball and only basketball, and you want animation plus rotations plus practice planning plus a substitution manager in one place, pick The Hoops Geek. It is a good product, it is well reviewed by its own users, and it ships — it added a team hub with shared calendars, RSVPs and announcements in August 2026.
If you want MP4 export without paying, note that neither of us gives you that cleanly: it is not on their free tier, and ours is watermarked until you subscribe.
When to pick us
If you coach more than one sport, or expect to. If you want the person receiving the play to see no advertising and no login prompt. If you want to draw something in the next thirty seconds without making an account. If you want the play to still open in a year because it lives in its own URL rather than in somebody's account, including ours.
Try the free one first
It opens on a real basketball pitch, there is nothing to install, and you do not need an account to draw a play and send it to your team as a link.
Open the play designerCommon questions
How much is The Hoops Geek?
On its own pricing page on 21 August 2026: $14 a month, or $99 a year for a solo coach, or $198 a year for a team plan covering four coaches with additional seats at $49 a year. Its page displays $8.25 a month by default, which is the annual rate divided by twelve rather than a monthly option.
Is The Hoops Geek free?
It has a free tier: five plays, one playbook, three rotations and three practice plans, with no card required. Shared plays on the free tier carry advertising, and MP4 export is not included.
Does The Hoops Geek do sports other than basketball?
No. It is a basketball product. Playmaker covers soccer, basketball, field hockey, rugby and baseball.
Which one animates better?
Both animate automatically from the actions you place, and honestly neither of us can claim a decisive edge from the outside. The difference in practice is what happens to the animation afterwards: ours travels inside the URL, so the recipient needs nothing at all, and theirs comes with MP4 export on the paid tiers, which is the better answer if you are posting to social media.
What we checked, and when
Read on . Vendors change their pricing without telling us — if one of these pages now says something different, believe the vendor and tell us so we can fix ours.
Other comparisons
- Best free basketball play designers in 20266 tools · checked 21 August 2026
- Playmaker vs FastDraw2 tools · checked 21 August 2026
- Best free football play designers in 20269 tools · checked 22 August 2026
See what it draws
- Basketball inbound plays that actually work2 interactive plays
- How to build a flag football playbook: six plays, and how to install them2 interactive plays
- Five soccer set pieces for U12s that actually work3 interactive plays
Coach another sport?
The same designer draws every one of them, which is the thing the table above is really about.
Page updated · figures checked