Free websites for sports clubs can be an opportunity to do membership registration, team management, collect payments online and much more.

The choices differ in features and prices so we’ve written this guide to aid your research.


There are plenty of options out there but your club needs a solution that’s hassle-free, exactly what you need, saves time and make money.


So, where do you start?

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Get started with everything you need for a multi-team community sports club from £38/month

Sports club websites: Features

Map out what your sports club needs to do online before you start or if you decide to move to a new online clubhouse.

The following features might be included: Register players, send messages, sell club merchandise, take online bookings, enable social sharing, use an event calendar, publish a team roster and photo albums.

There are also technical considerations too. Every website should be SEO-friendly to be found easily in Google and other search engines. Equally, it has to be mobile-friendly as this is how many of us search online.

It should be a comprehensive list in priority order. Remember, a sports website can have advanced functionality without needing complicated technical skills required to run it.

What features would you like your entire club to have in future? What is a frustration or could be a time-saving miracle?

While the website platform has to cater for your business needs, website visitors want a secure, attractive site that loads fast, that’s easy to navigate and everything works as it should.

Let’s dive into some of the areas you might want to consider…

Members

Managing club membership records online, as part of your club website, is a smart strategy. Encourage newcomers to join, nurture that relationship and they can be with you for years to come.

Gathering new player registrations and the admin of existing ones can be streamlined. Personal data, that all clubs need to fulfil their role, can be both secure and viewed by the right people when necessary.

With Pitchero, you can:

  • Build custom registration forms
  • Register players, parents, officials and fans
  • Manage club roles and access

In one place, club officials can understand who’s joined when, as well as what they’ve paid and view availability and selection over time.

It creates a picture and allows your sports club to better serve each member in future.

Revenue

Your club website should be used to bring in revenue throughout each year. It’s a missed opportunity if you don’t.

With Pitchero, you can:

  • Sell membership, match fees and more!
  • Run a fundraising campaign
  • Sell sponsorship and advertising packages
  • Offer online bookings and hire out your facilities all year

Your Pitchero website and apps allow any sports club to promote local and national companies 24/7, and you’re always open for business.

Admin

If you’re a volunteer who helps to manage a sports club then you’ll be familiar with the hours that go into admin.

It’s a lot more than management of a game itself but all those behind-the-scenes jobs.

While choosing to do them online doesn’t magically make them vanish, it can definitely save time and cut down on processes that are a pain.

Though some sports clubs have a sole Webmaster who looks after their website, allowing volunteers to share the workload (with flexible access) to tick off those admin jobs can be really helpful.

It could be reviewing contact information, working out which members have paid or selling tickets to an event.

With Pitchero, you can:

  • Use a hosted control panel to manage all aspects of your club from one place
  • Import league fixtures, results and tables automatically
  • Send reminders with a link to pay instantly
  • View live financial figures and run reports
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Live match stats
formations and team selection
Manage teams

FREE club website DEMO

Can I TEST a Pitchero Club Website?

You can create a private TEST website in 60 seconds.

Create a TEST site for free

The website is set to Not Live. This means no one can view the website, only you can view the website when you log in.

TEST the features

Choose the 30-day FREE trial of one of our packages and get access to every feature. You can test features, upload content, download apps and create a payment - everything!

We're here to help

Start by adding teams, members, content and more. If you've got any questions, you can speak to our support team online or book an online video demonstration with a Pitchero expert.

If you need longer on your trial, we can extend it if you contact us. If you are not happy, you can cancel the trial, and you will NOT be charged.

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How do I create a sports club website?

If you’re looking to start a new club website - or transfer an existing website from another provider - then you have two clear choices.

The decision to make is: how much of the work is done by the people at your club as opposed to external suppliers?

1. Website Builder

Your club could use a sports website builder - like Pitchero - that is a complete package with everything you need.

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It will typically include templates or themes to style your website, hosting, domain registration, SSL certificate, plus access to support - with paid plans to spread the cost.

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Your club could use a sports website builder - like Pitchero - that is a complete package with everything you need.

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The best website builders are designed to offer customisation but you can’t usually dive in and change the code or functionality of the website all the time.

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Your club could use a sports website builder - like Pitchero - that is a complete package with everything you need.

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This is the ideal scenario if you prefer having certain things locked down so you can’t accidentally break something or even take your club website offline.

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How do you choose the right website builder for your club? Draw up a shortlist based on your club’s requirements, functionality offered and cost / ease of transfer.

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  • Easy to use
  • Some limitations
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2. Content Management System (CMS)

A content management system (CMS) like Wordpress.org, Drupal or Magento is much more flexible than a website builder. Anything can be customised - for those who prefer ultimate control.

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It means if your sports club suddenly decides to change the colour scheme, fonts, or appearance of the latest news items, there will be a plugin or some code to achieve that.

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The downside is that someone (usually a club volunteer) will have to work that out, as well as test and implement it correctly.

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Technology is always evolving and so bolt-on additions (as with a Wordpress plugin to include a newsletter sign-up form) will need monitoring and updating.

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Keeping track of this ongoing website maintenance, including hosting and domain renewals, will need to fall to a club official who understands websites or outsource to a professional.

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  • Ultimate control
  • Responsibility for downtime and upgrades
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Designing your own website

Alternatively, a sports club might choose to hire a web designer to build their perfect website to a set specification using a CMS as the framework.

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This will be a project that means you get exactly what want, down to the fine detail, but it requires longer-term planning and much higher cost up-front (typically thousands of pounds).

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The expertise with a web developer or agency allows full control over the specifications but costs can mount up.

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While a website builder still needs someone to create the content, whether it’s upcoming news or fixtures, a club can create an account and get started immediately.

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Cost vs Ease

The price of building or transferring a website is a factor and will obviously differ for every sports club.

The chief decision is whether you want to pay a monthly fee with everything included or use a CMS that can be free (or a paid option) and buy add-ons for certain functionality or situations.

A free team website might sound appealing but if it stops you from doing everything you want to achieve online then securing a website sponsor to cover any monthly fee could be a better longer-term strategy.

Don’t forget about things like space for storing images and video, as well the size of your website and any restrictions a free plan might impose.

Standard or Pro packages with Pitchero:

Club Website

Mobile Apps

Domain & Emails

Team Management

Venue Management

Membership Database

Online Payments

No Third-Party Ads

Priority Support

Standard

Everthing you need for a multi-team sports club.

£38/mo

Club Website

1.8%

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Mobile Apps

1.8%

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Domain & Emails

1.8%

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Team Management

1.8%

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Venue Management

1.8%

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Membership Database

1.8%

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Online Payments

1.9%

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No Third Party Ads

1.8%

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Prioirty Support

1.8%

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Free for 30 Days!

Pro

No ads, reduced transaction fees and priority support.

£99/mo

Club Website

1.8%

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Mobile Apps

1.8%

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Domain & Emails

1.8%

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Team Management

1.8%

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Venue Management

1.8%

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Membership Database

1.8%

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Online Payments

0.9%

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No Third Party Ads

1.8%

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Prioirty Support

1.8%

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Free for 30 Days!

Website designers

By contrast, hiring a website designer or a web design company will be more expensive initially but is a fixed cost.

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Of course, there may be an ongoing website management charge to look after hosting, domain and any support queries that arise. Costs can spiral so be clear what the project will be in total.

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Given the amount of time we spend online, your club website needs to be your second headquarters.

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It has to do everything a modern sport brand with a professional approach needs but don’t underestimate the ‘ease factor’ whichever route you take.

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In grassroots sport, volunteers will be the ones juggling a day job, family commitments and managing their club website in their spare time.

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Paying for support and features that make it easier for those doing that role is not cheating or an unnecessary expense.

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Looking for a free website builder?

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Pitchero offers a free website builder for single teams that has most standard features, including membership and online payments.

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If you’re a bigger sports club then the Standard or Pro (paid-for) packages will give you a premium template, unlimited teams, plus lower transaction fees and fewer or no third-party ads.

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Security & GDPR

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Alongside the routine tasks for any club are those technical considerations that relate to the risks of working online.

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The goal should be to focus on your sport and don’t worry about backing up the club website all the time or reacting to hackers.

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Looking after member data securely and sensitively and complying with GDPR are ongoing responsibilities, regardless of the size of the club.

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Using Pitchero makes this easier and stress-free:

  • Pitchero is always online (no downtime)
  • Data security uses Amazon Web Services data centres
  • GDPR toolkit for gaining consent from users of your website
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What software do sports clubs use?

Sports teams all do a mountain of different admin tasks. Their website can be a central hub for this but each may use a variety of computer software or apps.

A few examples could include Google for email/events calendar, Excel for spreadsheets, Xero for accounting, Facebook and Twitter for social media and Justgiving for creating a fundraising page.

The key problem with this is having to learn each system or software, how they connect to each other (if possible), then there are countless logins to remember and store.

Whatever you opt for with a sports team website, combining processes has its advantages.

Pitchero offers:

  • Club Website
  • Mobile apps
  • Unlimited hosting
  • Domains & emails
  • Team management
  • Membership database
  • Online payments
  • Venue management

What can your club use it for?

  • Membership
  • Availability + selection
  • Competitions + fixtures
  • Venue bookings online
  • Match reports
  • Photos + videos
  • Match statistics
  • Match fees

Features

  • Club logo & colours
  • Registration forms
  • Data import & export
  • Sell products
  • Collecting donations
  • Direct debit & credit cards
  • Tracking & reporting

Specialists in Grassroots Sport

There are lots of options for building a sports club website out there - but few who really understand grassroots sport.

Pitchero has been building award-winning technology to help sports clubs for over a decade.

10,000+ clubs choose Pitchero for their website, mobile apps and members

1.5m+ members (players, parents, clubs, leagues and supporters) use Pitchero

Not just a website - incredible mobile apps

Every club on the Pitchero platform also gets its own free iOS and Android mobile apps.

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Club news, manage
availability/selection, messaging

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Prompt availability,
select and notify teams

These apps are packed with great features including match fees and payments, team selection and player availability.

Between the apps and club website, volunteers have full control to showcase their thriving club.

Test-1

Canterbury Pilgrims Netball Club

"Pitchero gives us a simple-to-use platform for all aspects of the club, but particularly for collecting subs and organising matches.

All of the data is kept safely in an easy-to-use format. Simple to pick teams and message different groups of players. It saves hours of paperwork and means you always have up to date information."

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City of York Hockey Club

"In all honesty, I don’t think we would have been able to play hockey without it."

Test-2

Brentwood Rugby Club

"Brentwood RFC has used the payments feature to increase membership income by almost 100%!"

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Canterbury Pilgrims Netball Club

"Our old website did the job but it looked like it was made in 1990! This looks so much more modern.

I’m not amazing at technology and I find it very easy. My advice to other clubs who haven’t used Pitchero would be that it almost does the work for you!"

How do you start a sports club website?

So, you’ve thought about what you want this future version of your football club website to be. Know what the costs are and the functionality required?

Ok, you’re ready to go...

Pitchero offers a FREE DEMO to talk you through features, answer questions and show you live examples.

There is also the benefit of a 30-day free trial to explore Pitchero and be sure your football club has what it needs to progress and improve.

Choosing a new website is an exciting step and a move you ideally want to do once. The good news is that help is at hand and every football club, however big or small, has room to improve its online presence.

Get started with everything you need for a multi-team community sports club from £38/month

Start Free Trial

Click below to see a range of Pitchero resources on all aspects of running a sports club:

Our Clubhouse is packed with articles and FAQs from getting set up to using all of the features.

Head to our Help Centre for very specific, step-by-step instructions on using the Pitchero Club website, apps and user accounts.

You might also like to click around the top-ranking websites on Pitchero (by sport) to see successful examples.