Switching to ClubPal

ClubZap sends you elsewhere for facility hire

In August 2026 ClubZap told clubs to schedule pitches on a free Google Calendar, and to use its partner SportsKey for real online booking. ClubPal has facility hire built in, on every account, with no subscription and no quote to wait for.

The short answer on what ClubZap costs

ClubZap sells two plans, ClubZap Payments and ClubZap Engage, and publishes a price for neither. Both say "Request A Quote" against the monthly fee. The one figure on the pricing page is the transaction rate, "starting from 3.75% plus 10 cent" with VAT included, and ClubZap's own help centre explains that the rate is "agreed when a club comes onboard", with "more preferential rates applicable for multi-year contracts". So the number your club pays depends on the deal it negotiates and how long it signs for.

ClubPal publishes one rate and charges every club the same: €0.25 + 3.5% per transaction in Ireland and the eurozone, 20p + 3.5% in the UK, with card processing inside it and no subscription at any club size. There is nothing to negotiate, no quote to wait for, and no contract, so there is also no discount for signing a longer one.

The gap that matters most on this page is not the rate. ClubZap does not do facility hire. Its post of 10 August 2026 says so as clearly as a vendor ever will: use a free Google Calendar for scheduling, and "ClubZap partners with SportsKey for clubs that require dedicated online pitch and facility bookings". Facility hire on ClubPal is a built-in feature with availability schedules, pricing tiers by duration, per-package rates, a fifteen-minute checkout hold, changeover buffers, blockouts and cancellation windows, included in the same fee as everything else.

ClubZap subscription
Not published. Both plans show "Request A Quote" against the monthly fee. ClubZap pricing page, ClubZap Payments and ClubZap Engage, checked 4 September 2026.
ClubZap payments
"Starting from 3.75% plus 10 cent", VAT included, with the rate agreed per club. ClubZap pricing page, and help centre, "How can I see what fees are applied for payments?", which states the rate is agreed at onboarding with preferential rates on multi-year contracts, checked 4 September 2026.
ClubZap facility hire
No equivalent. ClubZap recommends a free Google Calendar, and names SportsKey for online booking. ClubZap blog, "How to Manage Pitch & Facility Scheduling for Free", 10 August 2026, checked 4 September 2026.
ClubPal
No subscription. €0.25 + 3.5% per transaction in the eurozone, 20p + 3.5% in the UK, with facility hire included. One published rate for every club, no contract, and the fee returned in full if you refund.
An honest starting point
ClubZap is strong where it is strong, and for a lot of clubs that is enough
What ClubZap does well

Worth saying plainly before any comparison. ClubZap says it is trusted by over 1,000 clubs in 6 countries, and if these are the things your club needs most it may well be the better fit.

A native club app with push notifications for news and fixtures
Lotteries and fundraising draws, which ClubPal has no equivalent for
A deep foothold in GAA and Irish club sport, so your members may already have it
Where ClubPal differs

The distinction is what arrives included, and whether you have to ask what it costs. Everything ClubPal builds is on every account at one published price.

Facility and pitch hire built in, with online booking and payment
A published rate every club pays, with no quote and no multi-year contract
The whole transaction fee returned when you refund a member

ClubPal and ClubZap, point by point

 ClubPalClubZap
Monthly subscriptionNone, at any club sizeNot published, quote only
Per-transaction fee€0.25 + 3.5% in the eurozone, 20p + 3.5% in the UKFrom 3.75% + 10c, agreed per club
Is the rate published?Yes, the same rate for every clubA starting rate only, the rest is negotiated
Facility and pitch hireBuilt in, with availability schedules, duration pricing and online paymentNo equivalent. Google Calendar, or SportsKey separately
Facility booking paymentsTaken at checkout, with a 15-minute hold on the slotNot applicable, the calendar cannot take money
Club websiteIncluded, no extra costIncluded on Engage, the dearer of the two plans
Native app with push notificationsNo native app, the club website is mobile-firstYes, and it is one of ClubZap's strengths
Lotteries and fundraising drawsNo equivalentBuilt in
Fee when you refund a memberReturned, in proportion to the amount refundedNot published
ContractNone, and no notice periodYes. Cancellation must be "within the terms of your contract"

The numbers, including where we lose

This table cannot be completed, and that is the finding rather than a gap in the research. ClubZap publishes a transaction rate and no subscription, so the only honest thing to do is show the part that can be priced and mark the rest. Figures are annual, in euro because ClubZap prices in euro, for a club taking €15,000 across 300 payments averaging €50.

Scenario, per club per yearClubPalClubZap
Transaction fees only, before any subscription€600€592.50 (cheaper)
The same, plus a club website and app€600 (cheaper)€592.50 + monthly fee
The same, plus online facility booking with payment€600 (cheaper)€592.50 + monthly fee + SportsKey

Read the first row before the other two, because on transaction fees alone ClubZap costs this club less. Its 10c fixed part is well under our €0.25, and on a €50 average payment that outweighs the quarter-point it charges above our 3.5%. On larger average payments the percentage starts to dominate and the order flips, which is exactly the kind of thing a club should work out on its own numbers rather than take from a comparison page. What the second and third rows cannot show is the size of the difference, because ClubZap does not publish its monthly fee. Any monthly fee above about 63 cent makes the ClubZap total the higher one, and the third row adds a second vendor on top of that. Two further caveats: ClubZap states its rate includes VAT and starts at 3.75%, so a club without volume or a multi-year commitment may not get the starting rate, and this comparison ignores refunds entirely, because ClubZap does not publish what happens to its fee when a club refunds a member.

ClubZap's transaction rate is from its own pricing page and help centre, checked 4 September 2026. Its subscription is not published, and SportsKey does not publish a public price either, so neither is estimated here. Nothing in the ClubZap column comes from a directory listing or a rival's comparison page.

What switching actually involves

1. Export your members
Pull your member list out of ClubZap as a spreadsheet. Any format works, we will map the columns.
2. Check your notice period first
ClubZap cancellation runs through your contract terms, so find out what yours says before you plan a date. This is the step clubs most often discover late.
3. Set up your facilities once
Pitches, courts and halls, with availability rules, peak rates and cancellation windows. The thing that was living in a Google Calendar becomes a booking page that takes money.
4. Run both for a few weeks
ClubPal is free to use, so there is no cost to overlapping while your committee gets comfortable.

ClubZap competes for the same clubs we do. If you run one of these, the sport page covers the admin in more detail: gaelic games club management software, football club management software, rugby club management software, and hockey club management software.

More detail on the process is on the switching page, or talk to us about your club before you decide.

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When you take payments
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UK rate. 3.5% everywhere, fixed part varies by currency, see the table.
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  • No subscription, no hidden fees

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