A ClubSpark alternative for table tennis and session clubs
ClubSpark reaches clubs by three different routes, and what you pay depends entirely on which one you came in through. The one constant: the ClubSpark fee sits on top of card processing rather than including it.
Court booking software, used as a whole club system
ClubSpark was built around court booking, and it is genuinely good at it. The friction tends to appear when a club uses it for everything else: multi-discipline session schedules, tiered membership admin, and the kind of week-to-week booking that is not a court at all.
Cost is the other thing worth checking, and it is harder to pin down than it looks, because ClubSpark reaches clubs three different ways. LTA-registered tennis venues get the platform free, with ClubSpark taking 0.8% per transaction, uncapped. Table Tennis England has offered ClubSpark to its PremierClubs as part of the PremierClub benefits package, so a table tennis club may be getting it through its Table Tennis England membership rather than paying for it directly. Anyone outside both is on the tiers published on clubspark.com, from £15 a month billed annually for up to 150 members, with 1.4% + 5p per transaction.
What does not change across any of those three is the bit that catches clubs out: the ClubSpark percentage is a platform fee, and Stripe or GoCardless charge their own card processing separately on top of it. So the rate you were quoted is not the rate you pay. ClubPal works the other way round, one fee with the card processing already inside it, which is the comparison worth making rather than percentage against percentage.
British Triathlon steered clubs towards ClubSpark for a period, and a number of triathlon clubs are still on it. A triathlon club is close to the hardest case for court-booking software: three disciplines, three venues, and capacity rules that differ per session type. Pool lanes are a hard cap. A track night is not.
ClubPal is built the other way round, starting from sessions and membership. If your club is mostly courts, ClubSpark is probably still the better tool and we would rather say so. If your club is mostly sessions, this is worth a look.
If your club is mostly courts, this list probably describes why you are still there, and none of it is wrong.
ClubPal starts from sessions and membership rather than courts. That suits multi-discipline and session-based clubs, and suits pure court venues less.
ClubPal and ClubSpark, point by point
| ClubPal | ClubSpark | |
|---|---|---|
| Designed around | Sessions and membership | Court and facility booking |
| Multi-discipline clubs | Different capacities and venues per session type | Works best within one facility type |
| Pool lane style hard caps | Per-session limit with automatic waiting list | Court slot model |
| Membership eligibility rules | Age, gender, custom fields, previous membership | Available for tennis categories |
| Court booking and gate access | Facility hire, no gate integrations | Stronger, with hardware integrations |
| Subscription | None, at any club size | Free via the LTA, bundled for TTE PremierClubs, otherwise from £15 a month |
| Per-transaction fee | 20p + 3.5%, all in | 0.8% on the LTA route, 1.4% + 5p on the published tiers |
| Card processing | Included in the one fee | Charged separately by Stripe or GoCardless, on top of the ClubSpark fee |
| Fee when you refund a member | Returned, in proportion to the amount refunded | Not published |
The numbers, as far as they are public
We would normally put both platforms side by side in one table. We cannot do it honestly here, because a ClubSpark total is not a single number. It depends which of the three routes your club came in through, and on top of every one of them sits a Stripe or GoCardless bill that ClubSpark does not set and does not publish. An LTA-registered tennis venue gets the platform free with 0.8% uncapped on top. A Table Tennis England PremierClub may have it inside its PremierClub benefits. Anyone else pays from £15 a month billed annually, up to £75 a month for the unlimited tier, plus 1.4% + 5p a transaction. Ours is one figure with nothing underneath it: no subscription, 20p + 3.5% per transaction, card processing already included.
Before you compare anything, find out which of the three routes your club is billed on, and ask what Stripe or GoCardless take on top. Those two answers are most of your real number. Send us what you actually pay, club details removed, and we will put proper figures on this page with a source note.
ClubSpark pricing checked on 29 August 2026 against the rates published on clubspark.com, the ClubSpark help centre, and Table Tennis England's own ClubSpark page. Stripe and GoCardless set their own fees on top and those are not ours to quote. Rates change, so verify before deciding on cost alone.
What switching actually involves
ClubSpark competes for the same clubs we do. If you run one of these, the sport page covers the admin in more detail: table tennis club management software, and triathlon club management software.
More detail on the process is on the switching page, or talk to us about your club before you decide.
Ready to simplify your club management?
Try ClubPal free today. No card required, no time limit, no catch.
- All features included
- Unlimited members
- No card required
- One flat fee, nothing else
- Apple Pay & Google Pay
- No subscription, no hidden fees
No contract. Export your data any time. Cancel whenever you like.
Try it against one week of sessions
Set up a free ClubPal site and rebuild a single week. It is the quickest way to tell whether it fits your club better.