How to choose club management software: a buyer's guide

The software you choose decides who owns your members, how much of each booking you keep and how many hours your team spends on admin. It is one of the highest-leverage decisions a club makes. Here is how to evaluate it.

Own your brand and your data

A marketplace fills courts but rents you the relationship: it owns the player, the data and a cut of every booking. Your own branded app and back office mean your members, your data and no booking commission. Decide this first - it shapes everything else.

All-in-one beats a stack of tools

Booking, payments, memberships, pricing, tournaments and reporting that live in separate apps create double entry and blind spots. One platform that reports on the same members end to end is faster to run and tells you the truth about your club.

Automation that actually fills courts

The real value is in what runs without you: reminders and waitlists that cut no-shows, dynamic off-peak pricing, win-back messages and matchmaking. Ask a vendor to show these working, not just listed on a feature page.

Member communication where players already are

Email gets ignored. The clubs that win reach members on the channel they live on - for many markets that is WhatsApp, with announcement broadcasts and a direct line tied to bookings. Ask how the software handles member messaging.

Questions to ask any vendor

• Do I keep my brand, my data and 100% of booking revenue?
• Is booking, payments, memberships and CRM truly one system?
• Which automations are included, and can you demo them live?
• How do members communicate - and is WhatsApp supported?
• What does onboarding cost and how long until we are live?

kortbase is built around these answers: your branded apps, one back office, the automations that fill courts, and WhatsApp Community messaging - with no booking commission.