Compare
Game Mode vs SkillShark
SkillShark is evaluation software, and good at it: custom evaluation forms, an app that scores offline on any device, video of a skill during an evaluation, weighted reports, report cards emailed to parents, and automatic assignment of players to balanced or ranked teams. It is priced per athlete per year and takes no payments from families; players are imported from a spreadsheet or from TeamSnap, SportsEngine or TeamLinkt.
Plans and fees
What each one publishes
SkillShark’s figures are quoted as its pricing page wrote them on November 1, 2026. Their pricing page.
Game Mode
- Base
- $99/month
- Tryouts, recruiting, registrations, payments, teams, messaging, parent portal, app and AI.
- Growth
- $199/month
- Adds facility booking, memberships, the training library and your branding.
- Pro
- $399/month
- Adds your own branded app in the stores.
- Card processing
- 3.5% + $0.90
- Stripe’s 2.9% + $0.30 plus Game Mode’s 0.6% + $0.60; pass it to families or absorb it.
- Bank (ACH)
- 1.5% + $0.90
- Who holds the money
- You do
- Direct charges to your own Stripe account; your name on the statement.
- Setup fee
- None
- Contract
- None
- Month to month, 30-day free trial, no per-athlete fee.
SkillShark
- Prospect
- “FREE”
- 25 players, 1 group, 1 evaluation event, 2 evaluators.
- Rookie
- “$5 USD” per athlete per year
- Unlimited groups, events and evaluators; weighted reports; Excel export.
- All-Star
- “$10 USD” per athlete per year
- Adds draft mode, check-in, attendance reports, the message center, AI Swing Score.
- Legend
- “$15 USD” per athlete per year
- Adds API access, white-label reporting and custom roles.
- Blocks
- Sold in blocks of 25
- “Licenses are sold in blocks of 25.”
- Cut players
- Still paid for
- “If I cut players, do I still have to pay for them?” “Yes.”
- Setup fee
- None
- “No. There are no setup fees on any of our plans.”
- Billing
- Annual, auto-renewing, non-refundable
- “Any fees paid for our Services are non-refundable”.
- Family payments
- Not applicable
- SkillShark collects no money from families.
What a year costs
The arithmetic, from published figures only
SkillShark is priced per athlete per year, so the comparison is by athlete count. It takes no family payments, so the club’s registration and payment system is a second cost on top of it.
| Yearly software cost | 100 athletes | 250 athletes | 500 athletes | 1,000 athletes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Game Mode Base$99/month, no per-athlete fee; registration and payments included | $1,188 | $1,188 | $1,188 | $1,188 |
| SkillShark Rookie“$5 USD” “Per Athlete, Per Year”, “sold in blocks of 25”. Evaluation only: no registration, no payments. | $500 | $1,250 | $2,500 | $5,000 |
| SkillShark All-Star“$10 USD” per athlete per year, blocks of 25. Adds draft mode, check-in, attendance reports and the message center. | $1,000 | $2,500 | $5,000 | $10,000 |
How we calculated this
- Game Mode Base is $99 × 12 = $1,188 at any athlete count. Card processing on family payments (3.5% + $0.90) is on top of it and is not in this table, because the tools beside it take no payments.
- SkillShark Rookie: 100 athletes → 4 blocks of 25 = 100 licenses × $5 = $500; 250 athletes → 10 blocks of 25 = 250 licenses × $5 = $1,250; 500 athletes → 20 blocks of 25 = 500 licenses × $5 = $2,500; 1000 athletes → 40 blocks of 25 = 1000 licenses × $5 = $5,000. Source
- SkillShark All-Star: 100 athletes → 4 blocks of 25 = 100 licenses × $10 = $1,000; 250 athletes → 10 blocks of 25 = 250 licenses × $10 = $2,500; 500 athletes → 20 blocks of 25 = 500 licenses × $10 = $5,000; 1000 athletes → 40 blocks of 25 = 1000 licenses × $10 = $10,000. Source
Try your own numbers on the calculator.
Feature by feature
Sixteen things a club buys
Each SkillShark answer links to the page it was read from on November 1, 2026. “Not verified” means no page on their site states it.
Tryout registration
Game Mode
A public form with your own questions, terms and age cutoff. No tryout fee is collected at signup. See it
SkillShark
Players are imported from a spreadsheet or from TeamSnap, SportsEngine or TeamLinkt. Source
Custom scoring forms
Game Mode
Modules, criteria and weights you define, 1 to 10 ratings, timed and velocity criteria, a starter template for your sport. See it
SkillShark
“Build custom evaluation forms to measure skills, attitude, and coachability”; the template builder is on every tier. Source
Coaches score on a phone
Game Mode
Coaches score in the Game Mode app and scores sync live to the Results tab. See it
SkillShark
An iOS and Android app “designed to be used offline”. Source
Video clips at tryouts
Game Mode
Coaches film clips in the app; they sit on the player’s results, grouped by module. See it
SkillShark
“coaches & evaluators can take a video of an athlete performing a skill”. Source
Offers with tracked responses
Game Mode
Offers by email or text; opens, bounces and replies are tracked on the board, and a family accepts by registering. See it
SkillShark
The Message Center tells athletes about placement decisions; there is no offer with a response. Source
Automatic handling when a family does not respond
Game Mode
An offer with no answer after the days you set moves to “no response” on its own, so the column is always current. See it
SkillShark
No offers, so nothing to respond to. Source
No-show flag and follow-up
Game Mode
Players who never checked in are flagged when the session ends; one click emails them a link to reschedule or withdraw. See it
SkillShark
Attendance reports “spot attendance trends and no-shows”; no automatic message. Source
Team assignment from tryout results
Game Mode
Drag players from their scores onto teams, the waitlist or not selected. See it
SkillShark
“Automatically assign players to balanced or ranked teams”; Draft Mode on All-Star. Source
Season registration with payment plans
Game Mode
Deposit plus installments, by card or bank, charged to the saved card on each due date with retries. See it
SkillShark
No payments, registration or installments on any page. Source
Direct Stripe payouts to the club
Game Mode
Every payment is a direct charge to your own Stripe account, with your name on the statement. See it
SkillShark
SkillShark collects no family money. Source
Facility booking: lessons and rentalsGrowth and Pro plans
Game Mode
Lessons, cage, court and field rentals, booking boards and coach availability. Growth and Pro. See it
SkillShark
Not on any feature list. Source
Memberships with recurring billingGrowth and Pro plans
Game Mode
Monthly plans billed to the card on file, with joining fees, commitments and signed agreements. Growth and Pro. See it
SkillShark
Not on any feature list. Source
Point of sale with inventory
Game Mode
Products with sizes, colors, photos and stock counts; cash, check, a card at the counter or a pay link. See it
SkillShark
Not researched for this vendor; nothing on the pricing page. Source
Team chat app for parents
Game Mode
Team chat, direct messages and polls in the Game Mode app, with block and report. See it
SkillShark
The app is the evaluator scoring app; parents receive emailed report cards. Source
Beside SkillShark
What you would still need
- Registration and payments: a tryout signup, season registration with payment plans, and a Stripe account that pays you. Source
- Offers to families with tracked responses, and the column that moves on its own when nobody answers. Source
- A chat app for parents and a schedule. SkillShark’s app is for evaluators; parents get emailed report cards. Source
- Everything after the roster is set: programs, bookings, memberships, an inbox and AI help. Source
Switching
How a club moves
A club on SkillShark already runs registration somewhere else, and that is the pair Game Mode replaces with one system: build the same scoring form (or start from your sport’s template), register players on your own form, score and film in the app, and send offers from the same board the scores land on. There is no per-athlete fee and no block to buy; the $99 plan includes tryouts for any number of players.
See it on your own tryout.
A 30-minute walkthrough with our team. Bring your rosters, your fee structure, and whatever your current setup can’t do.
Baseline, Upper Hand, SkillShark, TeamGenius, TeamSnap, LeagueApps, SportsEngine and PlayMetrics are names that belong to their owners. Game Mode is not affiliated with any of them. Every figure and every feature answer about them on this page was read from that company’s own public pages on November 1, 2026, is quoted as the page wrote it, and may have changed since. “Not verified” means their site does not state it; it is never a guess. If something here is wrong, tell us and we will correct it.