Tennis box league apps for UK clubs, compared

A member with a match next Tuesday has a reason to come down on Tuesday. A box league makes more of those: five or six matches before a closing date, against people of their own standard, and five new names to text. Newcomers settle in, members stay through the winter, and the club feels busy.

Every app on this page can run one. What separates them is how easy they are to live with: how much they ask of your players before a first score, and how much they leave for you. Those two questions run through the whole comparison, along with what each one costs.

Clayside is box league, ladder and club championship software for racket clubs, and it is ours, so read this knowing who wrote it. Everything about another app was read on its own site on 24 October 2026, and each fact links to its source.

Tennis box league apps side by side

Ten ways a UK club runs its box leagues, ladders and championships, read across. Tap an app's name for what it does well and where it stops.

YesYes, with a step or a catchIts own site does not sayNo

"Not published" means the app's own site does not say, not that it cannot. The sections below take each column in turn.

What players do before their first score

Every step before a member's first score is a member who might not play. So ask any app what a player has to do before they can enter a result, because that is where a box league fills or does not.

• An LTA login. Box League Manager: players sign in at the LTA's competitions site, and the guide says a player added by hand needs "a valid LTA Advantage membership and an active club affiliation".[3][4]
• An app. Vantace works through its iPhone and Android apps, by invitation.[12] Matchspace has a player app and a web app,[11] and Tennis Ladder an app or the web, where members join from a link.[17]
• An account. Tap Leagues, by email, Google, Apple or a passkey, in an app or a browser; a club can also add members with no email address, who claim their profile later.[8] Rankedin, with an optional paid Pro plan for players.[14]
• An email address, and nothing to download. Clayside: each player has an account on their own email address and signs in from an email we send them. There is no password to forget and no app to download: it opens in the browser on whatever phone is in their kit bag.

What an app in the stores gives back is notifications and chat on the phone. Clayside sends its notices too, and can go on the home screen from the browser, but it is not in the app stores.

Who enters the score, and who confirms it

This decides how many evenings the league costs you. Every app here lets players put their own scores in. What differs is what happens next, and there are three answers.

The opponent confirms it

Clayside and Rankedin ask the other side to confirm every score.[15] Tap Leagues lets the club choose: "The opponent confirms, or results go straight in".[8] Matchspace says players "submit and verify scores" in its app.[10] A wrong score is caught by the one person who knows it is wrong, before it reaches the table, and you never have to rule on who won.

On Clayside a score nobody confirms settles itself after three days, unless your club sets a different number, so a match never sits waiting. A score the opponent rejects goes back with their reason, and only a second rejection comes to you.

The player submits it, and the organiser corrects it

That is the LTA's Box League Manager. In the LTA's own user guide: "Once the Player has submitted the results no further modifications can be made to the results by the players", and "Only the League Organiser can make changes to the result once it is submitted".[3] In return the result goes to the LTA and counts towards both players' World Tennis Number.

You type it in

The spreadsheet. Someone posts "beat Dave 6-4 6-3" in the group, it scrolls past three conversations about court keys, and you fish it out on Sunday night. Vantace, Tennis Ladder and ClubChamps let players enter scores, and their own sites do not say how a score is confirmed.[12][17][16]

One more thing a tennis score needs: rules a spreadsheet does not know. On Clayside the season knows your format, so 7-6 asks for the tiebreak score and 7-5 does not, 6-4 4-6 asks for the deciding set, and a set of 8-6 in a format that stops at seven is refused. A walkover, a retirement or the floodlights going off is recorded as that, so nobody types 6-0 6-0 to tidy the table. Tap Leagues' tennis page names best of three, championship tiebreaks and match tiebreak deciders.[9]

Promotion and relegation at the end of a round

This is the evening the spreadsheet costs you most: work out who goes up and down, rule a new grid, type forty names in again, then answer the member who wants to know why they went down.

Most of the apps take it off you. Box League Manager places players into the next round by promotion and relegation, by World Tennis Number or at random, and the organiser can drag them between groups.[3] Tap Leagues handles "promotion, relegation, dropouts and new joiners" in one step.[8] In Rankedin's Club League the admin sets how many go up and down.[15] Vantace says organisers can "manage promotion and relegation".[12] Matchspace's features page describes round-robin boxes and does not mention promotion.[10]

Clayside drafts the next round out of the final table: top two up and bottom two down, or whatever numbers your rules use. Before you commit it, it tells you what it spotted, such as two players level at the cut and which tie-break separated them, in a sentence you can forward. Move anyone you like, then press the button.

Club ladders for the weeks between box rounds

Boxes give a club eight good weeks and then a gap. A ladder covers the rest of the year, and the apps run one of two kinds.

A challenge ladder

You challenge someone above you, and winning moves you up. Tap Leagues runs one "continuously", with challenge expiry and inactivity drops.[8] Tennis Ladder's is built round it: win and you leapfrog them.[17] Matchspace has a "bump-rank" ladder with challenge zones,[10] and Vantace has player challenges and live rankings.[12] If your members want the call-out and the rivalry, this is the shape for it.

A rated ladder, which is Clayside's

Nobody issues a challenge and nobody can refuse one. Play anyone on the ladder, and the result moves both ratings: win and you go up, beat somebody good and you go up a lot. The rating carries on from one season to the next, a member can join any day, and a ladder can be singles, doubles or rotating partners. Up to 8 ladders, on every plan, the free one included. Clayside has no challenge ladder, on purpose: a challenge that is refused, or never answered, is how a ladder goes quiet.

Rankedin keeps club rankings rather than a ladder,[14] and the LTA's Competition Management System does not describe one.[2]

Club championships: draws, seeds, byes and a plate

After the boxes, the championships are what a club runs most, and the draw is where the evening goes: how many byes, who gets them, where seeds three and four go, and keeping two clubmates apart in round one.

The LTA's own answer is Tennis Tournament Planner, installed software that the LTA licenses free of charge and says suits "an internal club tournament, one day event or a large weeklong tournament".[5] ClubSpark takes the entries and the fee through its Events, and the draw is not made in ClubSpark.[7] Among the apps, Tap Leagues runs a knockout or groups then knockout, with seeds, byes and a third-place playoff.[8] Matchspace seeds and draws singles or doubles knockouts,[10] Vantace runs seeded knockouts with byes and a printable bracket,[12] Rankedin's free plan has draws, seeding and scheduling,[14] and ClubChamps runs a knockout, a handicap knockout, or groups then a knockout.[16]

Clayside makes the draw for you, with seeds and byes placed the way the LTA Competition Regulations place them, in draws of up to 64. A knockout can carry a plate: lose your first match and you drop into a second draw underneath, so everybody gets at least two. There are groups into a knockout, a third-place playoff, a play-by date on every round, and one schedule for finals day. A plate is not described on any of the other apps' own pages we read.

Keeping members playing, and bringing new ones in

A box league that finishes is one where arranging a match is easy and every result gets noticed. Here is what each app says it does for that.

• Arranging the match. On Clayside a player offers a few times and the opponent taps one, with a reminder the morning before, and neither hands over a phone number. Matchspace and Tennis Ladder have chat in the app for arranging it.
• The table, where people look. Clayside's round-up puts every box's table in the club's WhatsApp group at once, and the same table can sit on your club's website. Tap Leagues sends reminders a day and two hours before a match.
• Results that get noticed. Clayside's Home shows the club's fortnight: upsets, comebacks, first wins and box winners. Tennis Ladder awards badges for streaks and upsets.
• A game for anyone. Find a game lets a Clayside member post when they are free and the first yes takes it, asked around their level first. Tennis Ladder has open matches others can join.

And every member on Clayside gets one club level, worked out from every box, ladder, championship and club night they play, so a newcomer goes into a box at the right level and everybody can watch their own game move.

What is left for the organiser

Five jobs make up a box league season. Whichever app you look at, ask who does each one. On Clayside:

1. Entering the scores. The players, on their own phones.
2. Checking them. The opponent, or three days of silence.
3. Chasing the matches nobody has played. An arranged match asks for its own score after it is played, and the table shows who still owes one.
4. Posting the tables. The link is the table, right whenever someone opens it, and the round-up sends every box to the group in one go.
5. Making the next round. Drafted from the final table, for you to check and press.

That leaves you setting the boxes up once, which takes a few minutes, and settling the rare score both players dispute twice. On a spreadsheet all five are yours.

Each tennis box league app, one at a time

What each does well first, then where its own site stops.

Clayside

Box leagues, ladders, club championships and club nights for racket clubs, on the same record that can run the membership and the courts.

Good at: players with no password and nothing to download, the opponent confirming every score, promotion drafted for you, a rated ladder and championships with a plate, all free up to 300 members. The same record runs the membership and the courts on the Club plan.

Where it stops: results do not count towards the World Tennis Number, there is no challenge ladder, no app in the stores, and no entry fees taken online. Five racket sports, not sixteen.

LTA Box League Manager[1]

The LTA's own box league tool, part of its Competition Management System, for organisers the LTA has given access.

Good at: results go to the LTA automatically and count towards each player's World Tennis Number, players can be placed by WTN, and an entry fee can be taken through the organiser's own Stripe.[3] It is the LTA's own.

Where it stops: the organiser applies for access,[2] every player needs an LTA login, and once a score is in only the organiser can change it. The championships are a separate, installed program.[5]

Tap Leagues[8]

Free league, ladder and tournament software for clubs in sixteen sports, tennis among them.

Good at: free for players and clubs with no card, and more in it than most: boxes with promotion, a challenge ladder, knockouts with groups, push and email reminders, and apps for iPhone and Android as well as the browser.

Where it stops: every player makes an account. It takes 2% plus Stripe's fees on any payment the club takes through it, and it runs beside your court booking rather than replacing it.

Tennis Ladder[17]

A UK app for club ladders, box leagues and tournaments, started at Broxbourne Tennis Club.

Good at: free for clubs and players, a challenge ladder at its heart, ratings that count friendlies too, open matches, match chat, badges and awards. Members join from a link.

Where it stops: its site does not say how a score is confirmed, how promotion between boxes works, or how a tournament draw is made.

Rankedin[14]

A Norwegian platform for tournaments, rankings and club leagues across racket sports.

Good at: a free basic plan with draws, seeding, scheduling and results, a box league (its Club League) where the opponent confirms the score, and team leagues.[15]

Where it stops: players need a Rankedin account, live scoring and notifications are on paid tournament plans priced in euros, and online payments carry 1% on top of Stripe's fee.

Matchspace[10]

A UK competition app for racket clubs: box leagues, ladders, knockouts and americanos, with chat.

Good at: box leagues, a bump-rank ladder, seeded knockouts and americanos in one app, with chat, announcements, public competition pages, an LTA World Tennis Number integration listed on every plan, and optional entry fees paid to the club.[11]

Where it stops: players use the Matchspace app or web app. It costs £5 a month plus £5 a player on each paid entry, or a plan from £29 a month, and takes "a small service fee" on entry fees, the amount unpublished.[11]

Vantace[12]

A UK app for ladders, box leagues and tournaments in six racket sports, alongside a club's own booking system.

Good at: balanced boxes with promotion and relegation, a ladder with challenges and skill ratings, seeded knockouts, native apps with push notifications, and a member import to get started.

Where it stops: it costs £199 a year or £22 a month,[13] players use the app, and its site says to "keep ClubSpark or your existing system for membership and court booking".

ClubChamps[16]

A newer UK tool for club knockouts and box leagues.

Good at: knockouts, including a handicap knockout, and groups into a knockout, free for unlimited knockouts and one box league at a time.

Where it stops: more than one box league needs the paid Club plan, and a player entering a knockout online pays a £1.99 service fee on top of your entry fee. Its site does not describe a ladder.

LTA ClubSpark[6]

The LTA's venue platform: website, members, court booking, coaching and payments.

Good at: court booking, including visitors paying, coaching courses, and a club website, free to LTA-registered venues.[19]

Where it stops: its features page describes no box league, ladder or draw, so clubs run those in Box League Manager or another app beside it, and it takes a cut of every payment. ClubSpark and Clayside, compared in full.

A spreadsheet

The grid on one organiser's laptop, and still how many clubs run their boxes.

Good at: free, yours, and right for one box of eight who all know each other. The arithmetic is not the hard part. The free box league spreadsheet works the table out from a drop-down.

Where it stops: only one person can update it, the players cannot add a score, and promotion day is yours by hand.

One more name you will meet: Local Tennis Leagues is the LTA's league for adults on park and public courts, with players paying a round at a time. It is not a tool for running your own club's boxes.[18]

What tennis box league apps cost

What each tennis box league app costs a club, as published

App	What it costs the club
Clayside	Free for ever up to 300 members. The whole club is £300 a year
LTA Box League Manager	No charge published. The LTA calls Tournament Planner free
Tap Leagues	Free for players and clubs. 2% plus Stripe's fees on payments taken through it
Tennis Ladder	Free for players and for clubs
Rankedin	Free basic plan. Paid tournament extras, priced in euros, and 1% on top of Stripe for payments taken online
Matchspace	£5 a month plus £5 a player on each paid entry, or £29, £59 or £89 a month by number of players
Vantace	£199 a year or £22 a month, for unlimited players
ClubChamps	Free for knockouts and one box league. A paid Club plan for more, and £1.99 a player on each online knockout entry
LTA ClubSpark	Free to LTA-registered venues, with a cut of every payment taken through it
A spreadsheet	Free

Like with like: Clayside's free plan runs every competition, boxes, 8 ladders, championships and club nights, for a club of up to 300 members, and stays free for ever for clubs that join while the offer is open. Above 300 members, or when you want the membership and the courts on it too, the Club plan is £300 a year for up to 800 members, or £400 with the club's own website.

Watch the payments as well as the plan. Tap Leagues takes 2% plus Stripe's fees on payments taken through it,[8] Rankedin 1% on top of Stripe,[14] Matchspace a service fee it does not publish,[10] and ClubChamps £1.99 on each online knockout entry.[16] Clayside takes no money for an entry, so nobody's entry carries a charge: collect it the way you do now.

Competitions on the same record as the rest of the club

A competition app usually runs beside something else, and two of them say so outright. Vantace says to keep ClubSpark or your existing system for membership and court booking,[12] and Tap Leagues runs alongside the club's existing court booking.[8] So a new member is typed into the booking system, then into the box league, and the two lists drift apart by mid-season.

Clayside can be both. The register is on every plan, the free one included, so the box leagues are drawn from the same list of members. On the Club plan the same record holds the subs and renewals, the court sheet, the teams and who is available, and lessons with your coaches. A new member is in the next box without anybody typing them in twice.

You do not have to move everything. Start with the box league, because it needs nothing from anywhere else, and bring the rest across one job at a time, or never.

When another app suits your club better

• Your players want their box results to count towards their World Tennis Number. Use the LTA's Box League Manager, or look at Matchspace, which lists a WTN integration on its plans.
• Your members love a challenge ladder. Tap Leagues and Tennis Ladder are free and built round one.
• You run sports beyond rackets. Tap Leagues covers sixteen.
• You want to take entry fees online. Matchspace, Tap Leagues, ClubChamps and Box League Manager all can.
• Your members expect an app from the app stores. Matchspace, Vantace, Tap Leagues and Tennis Ladder all have one.

If none of those is the deciding thing, and what stops your league filling is members who will not download another app or keep another password, that is the difference Clayside is built on.