Playmaker vs Hudl
These two are not really competitors, and pretending otherwise would waste your time. Hudl sells a platform to an athletic department. We give a play designer to a coach. Here is where the line actually falls.
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.
Start with the honest version
Hudl is better than us at almost everything Hudl does. It is a video platform with hardware, GPS, streaming, ticketing, statistics and scouting, sold to an athletic department as one invoice. If your problem is "we need to film Friday's game, cut it up, tag it, get it to the players and pull the stats out", there is no sense in which a free play designer is the answer, and this page is not going to argue otherwise.
We are a play designer. One thing, in six sports, in a browser, free, with the animation as the product. That is the whole scope. If your problem is "I need to show eleven under-12s where to stand at a corner, tonight, and send it to their parents", Hudl is an enormous amount of machine to bring to it.
The reason this comparison exists at all is that Hudl acquired FastModel Sports — and with it FastDraw, the diagramming tool a lot of individual coaches used to buy on their own card — in March 2025. Coaches who used that tool now find themselves looking at a platform. This page is for them.
What Hudl actually charges, and where it stops saying
Hudl publishes some prices and not others, and it is worth being precise about which.
High school and middle school, per program per year, published: Silver+ $1,500, Gold+ $2,500, Platinum+ $4,000. The athletic-department package that covers a whole school is "contact us".
Club and youth, per team per year, published and varying by sport: for basketball, baseball, football, ice hockey, lacrosse and softball, $400 / $1,000 / $1,600 across bronze, silver and gold. Soccer is $500 / $1,000 / $2,500. Volleyball is $500 / $1,400 / $1,600. The club-wide package is "contact us".
College, and anything above it, publishes no figure at all. Their own FAQ explains why, and it is a fair answer: "Every athletic department is different — number of sports, roster sizes, existing tools, and contract length all affect the final number. A single price here wouldn't reflect what's actually right for your program."
The playbook add-on is $199 a year, and it is American football only. This is the figure that circulates in comparisons of this market, usually without the qualification. Hudl Play Tools is priced at $199/yr on its own product page, and Hudl's high-school FAQ says plainly: "Play Tools is a football-only solution that digitizes playbooks and practice scripts". The basketball and ice-hockey diagrammer is FastDraw, which has no published price at all. If you have read somewhere that Hudl's playbook tooling costs $199 for basketball, that is a conflation of two different products, and we made the same mistake in our own research notes before checking.
One ambiguity we could not resolve and will not paper over: Hudl's high-school comparison table marks Play Tools, FastDraw and FastScout as "add-on available" with a tick only in the athletic-department column, while the same site's FAQ says Play Tools is "included in all packages". Both statements are on Hudl's own pages. Ask them which applies to you.
How they compare
Hudl figures read off Hudl's own pricing pages on 21 August 2026, in USD as those pages state. Where Hudl does not publish a figure this table says so rather than estimating one.
| Tool | What it is | Sports | Free tier | Published price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PlaymakerThis is us | A play designer | Soccer, basketball, field hockey, rugby, baseball | Unlimited plays drawn, animated and shared by link with no account; 3 saved plays per free account | $6/month or $50/year USD |
| Hudl | A film, data and athletic-department platform, with diagramming inside it | Basketball, baseball, football, ice hockey, rugby, soccer, softball, volleyball, and more at high-school level | None | High school $1,500–$4,000 per program per year; club $400–$2,500 per team per year by sport; college and above not published; Play Tools playbook add-on $199/year, football only |
Scroll the table sideways to see every column — the tool's name stays put.
Where the line actually falls
Buy Hudl if the unit making the decision is a school or a club. The per-department pricing is genuinely well designed for that — their own framing is that you are not charged per sport, so a department that runs fewer programs one year pays the same and a new program is covered automatically. For an athletic director with ten programs that is a real operational win a point tool cannot offer. And once you are on it, having diagrams, film, scouting reports and stats in one pipeline is worth more than any individual piece of it.
Use us if the unit making the decision is you. Nothing on this page needs approval, a purchase order or a conversation. A free Playmaker play costs nothing, needs no account, and the link works for whoever you send it to.
Use both, if you already have Hudl and want to draw something in a sport it does not diagram. This is more common than it sounds. Hudl's diagramming is football via Play Tools and basketball and ice hockey via FastDraw. If you coach the school's field hockey or rugby side as well, there is nothing there for you, and a free browser tool that draws both is not competing with your Hudl subscription — it is filling a gap in it.
What we do not do, so you can rule us out quickly
No film. No video upload, no clipping, no tagging, no highlights. No statistics. No roster or scheduling. No player delivery with quizzes or flashcards. No hardware, obviously.
Football wristband and call-sheet printing used to be on that list, and it was the one that mattered most — it is a large part of what Play Tools exists to do. It came off it in August 2026: the football wristband maker prints numbered play-call inserts and a one-page situational call sheet, free and with no account, at insert sizes measured off the band manufacturers' own printable templates.
If two or more of those are on your list, stop reading and talk to Hudl.
Try the free one first
It opens on a real 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 does Hudl cost?
On Hudl's own pricing pages on 21 August 2026: high school and middle school $1,500, $2,500 or $4,000 per program per year; club and youth from $400 to $2,500 per team per year depending on the sport and tier; college and professional pricing is not published and is quoted per department. The Play Tools playbook add-on is $199 per year.
Is Hudl's playbook add-on really only $199?
Yes, and it is American football only. Hudl Play Tools is $199 a year on its own product page, and Hudl's high-school FAQ describes it as "a football-only solution". Basketball and ice-hockey diagramming is FastDraw, for which no price is published.
Does Hudl have a free version?
We could not find one. On 21 August 2026 none of Hudl's published pricing pages — high school, club or college — listed a free plan, so this comparison treats it as a paid product. If you have an old free account, that is between you and Hudl and we cannot tell you anything useful about it.
Can I use Playmaker alongside Hudl?
Yes, and for a lot of coaches that is the sensible answer. Playmaker is a browser page that draws and animates plays in six sports and shares them as links. It does not integrate with Hudl and does not try to; it also does not need to be told about it.
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 play designer tools in 20269 tools · checked 21 August 2026
- Free alternatives to Hudl playbook8 tools · checked 21 August 2026
- Best free basketball play designers in 20266 tools · checked 21 August 2026
See what it draws
- How to run a 15-minute tactics session2 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