At Teamlists, we’ve always believed that managing your sports club requires access to the right tools and we set out to build a platform for the volunteers that keep grassroots sports alive around the Australia. When we first launched (screenshot from 2019 above), our platform followed a familiar SaaS model: free for small teams, paid plans for larger clubs or those wanting advanced features. But something didn’t feel right.
Today, we're proud to announce that Teamlists is now free to use, with no limits on the number of players, coaches, or teams. Instead, you only pay for what features costs us, messages (SMS and email), and only when you use them.
Here’s why we made the shift, and why we believe it’s the right decision for clubs, coaches, and volunteers alike.
1. Most Clubs Run on Volunteers And They Deserve Better Tools
Sports clubs are powered by passionate volunteers who donate their time for the love of the game or club. These are busy parents, retired players, and community leaders who juggle work, family, and coaching. Asking them to pay up front or restrict their usage felt like we were putting up walls instead of helping.
We wanted to create a tool that felt like a digital assistant, not a locked filing cabinet.
2. Limits Were Holding Clubs Back
Under the old model, free accounts had restrictions, like only being able to add three coaches or a limited number of players. That meant clubs had to decide who got access and who missed out, which often slowed down adoption.
Now, every club can give access to all their coaches, team managers, and volunteers, no gatekeeping, no awkward decisions. When more people can get involved, communication improves, and adoption across the whole club becomes easier and more natural.
3. Clubs Don't Operate Year-Round
We noticed something interesting in our user data: clubs wanted to downgrade in the off-season. They weren’t using the platform for a few months and didn’t want to pay for a subscription when nothing was happening. That often meant manually removing players, downgrading accounts, or pausing usage entirely, not ideal.
By switching to a usage-based model, you don’t need to think about subscriptions or downgrades. Use it as much or as little as you like. You only pay when you send messages, and even then, the rates are affordable and flexible.
4. Less Complexity for Everyone
As a developer, managing feature gates and access rules for different plans became a time sink. Every update required extra checks: "Does this user have a Pro plan?" "Can they see this button?" It slowed us down and made the experience more fragmented.
Now, everyone gets the same great experience, and we can move faster when building new features.
5. Subscriptions Still Exist — But Only If You Want Them
For clubs that use messaging regularly, we still offer a low-cost monthly subscription that automatically tops up your message credits at a discounted rate. But it’s entirely optional. If you’re just getting started or only send a few messages a season, you can simply pay-as-you-go, but most clubs are sending multiple messages to each player, each week.
It’s flexible, transparent, and designed to scale with your club’s needs — not the other way around.
We’re Betting on Long-Term Value
By making Teamlists free and easy to adopt, we believe we’ll see more clubs, more users, and more meaningful engagement. If we can provide real value to clubs, without limits, then usage (and the occasional message fee) will naturally follow.
This model aligns with what we set out to do from day one: help clubs manage teams and communication more easily, affordably, and sustainably.
We’d Love Your Feedback
We made this change for you, our community of coaches, managers, club presidents, and volunteers. If you’ve got thoughts, suggestions, or concerns, we’d love to hear them. Simply reach out and let us know how the new model is working for your club.
Let’s build the future of sports team management together — no paywalls required.
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