7 Best Football Playbook Makers 2024 (#1 Play Designer)

by Chris Von Wilpert, BBusMan • Last updated August 25, 2024

Expert Verified by Leandro Langeani, BBA

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Today there are 62 different football playbook makers. We spent 78 hours comparing the top 50 to find the seven best you can use to design winning strategies for your team.

What is the Best Football Playbook Maker?

  1. Football Play Card — best of the best
  2. Hudl — best for high schools
  3. Football Playbook Designer — best for youth coaching
  4. Tackle Football Playmaker — best mobile playbook maker 
  5. PlayMaker Pro — best pro-level playbook maker
  6. Just Play Sports Solutions — best for beginners
  7. Microsoft PowerPoint — best for presentations

Our Verdict — Best Of The Best

Price: Starts at $9/month

Football Play Card is the go-to football playbook maker of the pros. We think it’s the best because it's being used right by everyone, from pee-wee teams all the way to NFL teams.

The Best Part:

  • Approved by the pros. Football Play Card is the playbook maker of choice of the Saints, Steelers, and the Eagles, to name a few… as well as thousands of other teams.

The Worst Part:

  • Per coach pricing. Football Play Card’s pricing varies with the number of coaches who will be drawing plays on your team, with progressive discounts.

Get it if you want the playbook maker tool of choice of the pros.

I recommend you get started with a free trial to the Division Champion plan ($9/month), then get the National Champion plan for $69/month per user.

(7-day free trial)

Best For

Football Play Card is best for all football coaches who have a sense of urgency to getting things done. 

Top Features

  • Scout cards express. Instead of spending 1-2 hours every day putting a binder of play cards together, you can have Football Play Card quickly align and simulate the opponent’s plays.

  • Saves a ton of time. With the saved templates and quick creation capabilities, you’ll be drawing 10+ cards in the time it would take you to hand draw each and every card.

  • Take it with you. Since Football Play Card is a web-based app, you don’t have to install anything… and it will run on anything, including Android and iOS devices.

  • Tons of presets. With preset offensive formations, defensive fronts, and defensive coverages, you’ll save a lot of time creating play cards, then drawing routes, blocks, coverages, and much more.

  • Saves printing costs. With an iPad or any other tablet, you’ll be able to create thousands of cards without spending on printing.

Pricing

Football Play Card offers four pricing plans:

  • Division Champion: Starts at $9/month per user, for small high-school teams.
  • State Champion: Starts at $29/month per user, for high-school teams and small college teams.
  • National Champion: Starts at $69/month per user, for bigger budgets.
  • World Champion: Starts at $129/month per user, the plan of choice of pro teams.

Annual subscriptions provide up to a 64% discount.

Try Football Play Card today with a free 7-day trial.

2. Hudl

Our Verdict — Best For High Schools

Price: $199

Hudl is a top-shelf playmaker platform for football coaches. We think it’s the best for high schools because of its accountability tracking tool, which helps bring out the best out of every player.

The Best Part:

  • Accountability tracking. Hudl provides insights on each player's habits, allowing you to hold every player accountable.

The Worst Part:

  • Annual pricing only. At $199/year, Hudl's cost might be a tough pill to swallow for smaller teams.

Get it if you want an all-encompassing playbook tool that streamlines play creation, sharing, and tracking for your football team.

I recommend you book a free demo with Hudl, then get Hudl Play Tools for $199/year.

(free demo)

Best For

Hudl is best for football coaches who want to streamline their play creation and sharing process while keeping tabs on their players' preparation.

Top Features

  • Make good use of scout videos. Leverage existing scout film data and clips to create play cards that highlight your upcoming opponents.

  • No mo’ duplicated plays. Never draw the same play or formation again, thanks to Hudl's play template library.

  • Keep your team in line. Send tailored messages alongside shared plays to give context and motivation to your players.

  • No Wi-Fi? No problem. Download practice scripts to review them offline for convenient, on-the-go access.

  • Keep your playbook organized. Effortlessly sort plays into offense or defense categories, keeping your playbook well-organized for easy access and execution.

Pricing

Hudl offers a single pricing plan:

  • Hudl Playbook Tool: $199/year for football coaches and teams who want an all-in-one playbook solution.

Try Hudl today with a free demo.

Our Verdict — Best For Youth Coaching

Price: Starts at $7/month

Football Playbook Designer is a low-cost, full-featured playbook design tool. We think it’s the best for youth coaching because of its intuitive user interface that works on any device.

The Best Part:

  • User-friendly interface. Football Playbook Designer makes it a breeze to create and customize plays thanks to its drag-and-drop interface, even if you're not tech-savvy.

The Worst Part:

  • No mobile app. Football Playbook Designer doesn't have a dedicated mobile app, so tweaking plays on-the-go might be a bit tricky.

Get it if you want a user-friendly and customizable playbook maker to create the plays your youth team needs.

I recommend you sign up for the 7-day free

(7-day free trial)

Best For

Football Playbook Designer is best for youth football coaches who want to level up their playbook game and give their team a competitive edge.

Top Features

  • Share plays with your team. Make distributing plays to your team a piece of cake with Football Playbook Designer's easy-to-use PDF printing feature.

  • Save your plays for future games. Duplicate and modify existing plays to create fresh, new strategies for your team.

  • Stay organized. Categorize plays by offense, defense, and special teams to keep your playbook tidy and easy to navigate.

  • Adapt to any team size. Tackle 6-man, 7-on-7, or 12-man football effortlessly with Football Playbook Designer's versatile capabilities.

  • Kick-start your playbook. Select from preset formations like I Formation, Pro Formation, and Ace Formation with Football Playbook Designer for a hassle-free start on designing your plays.

Pricing

Football Playbook Designer offers four pricing plans:

  • 1 Coach: $7/month for solo youth football coaches who want an easy-to-use play design tool.
  • 3 Coaches: $18/month for coaching staff of up to three people who want a collaborative playbook creation platform.
  • 5 Coaches: $25/month for coaching staff of up to five coaches that want collaboration features and access to a vast library of plays.
  • 10 Coaches: $40/month for coaching staff of up to 10, who want a powerful, versatile playbook design tool with room to grow.

Annual plans provide a 17% discount.

Try Football Playbook Designer today with a free 7-day trial.

Our Verdict — Best Mobile Playbook Maker

Price: Starts at $7/month

Tackle Football Playmaker offers an impressive combination of tools to create and manage football plays in a sleek interface. We think it’s the best mobile playbook maker because of its Android & iOS mobile support.

The Best Part:

  • Lightning-fast play design. Tackle Football Playmaker lets you draw up new plays in seconds with its intuitive and responsive drawing tools.

The Worst Part:

  • Lack of zoom feature. Tackle Football Playmaker's absence of a zoom function can make it challenging for users to see and follow the lines when animating plays, especially on smaller screens.

Get it if you want to streamline your playbook creation process with an intuitive, mobile-friendly app packed with powerful features.

I recommend you get started with the 7-day free trial, then get the Print plan for $9/month.

(7-day free trial)

Best For

Tackle Football Playmaker is best for football coaches who want an easy-to-use app to design, organize, and share plays on the go.

Top Features

  • Robust printing options. Tackle Football Playmaker offers a variety of print features, including QB wristbands, playbooks, call sheets, and more, making it a breeze for coaches and players to have physical copies of their strategies on hand.

  • It keeps your data safe. Tackle Football Playmaker keeps your playbooks safe and accessible across multiple devices with its cloud-based storage.

  • Great for quarterback cheat-sheets. Use Tackle Football Playmaker’s QB wristband printing feature to provide your players with organized, accessible wristbands featuring crucial plays.

  • Print directly from the app. Tackle Football Playmaker's Pro version offers AirPrint compatibility, allowing you to print playbooks and wristbands straight from the app.

  • Make it easy to understand. Tackle Football Playmaker lets you customize colors and labels to clearly differentiate each player's position and make it easy for players to read and apply your plays in the field.

Pricing

Tackle Football Playmaker offers three pricing plans:

  • Paperless: $7/month for coaches who primarily work on digital devices, providing app access on iOS, Android & computer, plus cloud backup & sync on multiple devices.
  • Print: $9/month for coaches who need printed materials alongside their digital playbooks, including all Paperless features plus the ability to print wristbands, playbooks, call sheets & more
  • Team: $11/month for coaching staff that want seamless collaboration across all team members, comprising all Print features plus app access for your whole team.

Try Tackle Football Playmaker today with a free 7-day trial.

Our Top Three Picks

Here’s a quick summary of our top three picks:

  1. Football Play Card — best of the best
  2. Hudl — best for high schools
  3. Football Playbook Designer — best for youth coaching

Here’s a quick comparison of our top seven picks:

Tool

Entry Offer

Pricing

Football Play Card

7-day free trial

Starts at $9/mo

Hudl

Free demo

$199

Football Playbook Designer

7-day free trial

Starts at $7/mo

Tackle Football Playmaker

Free plan

$199

PlayMaker Pro

7-day free trial

Starts at $9/mo

Just Play Sports Solutions

Free demo

Custom

Microsoft PowerPoint

30-day free trial

Starts at $6.99/mo

Here are the top 50 football playbook makers we considered in this review:

  1. Football Play Card
  2. Hudl 
  3. Football Playbook Designer
  4. Tackle Football Playmaker
  5. PlayMaker Pro
  6. Just Play Sports Solutions
  7. Microsoft PowerPoint
  8. FirstDown PlayBook
  9. CoachMe 
  10. GoArmy Edge Football
  11. Pro Quick Draw
  12. Play Designer Football
  13. i-Option
  14. Coach's Office
  15. DrawPlaybook
  16. Football Playbook Online
  17. EZPLAYZ Animated Sports Playbook
  18. PlayAction Simulator
  19. Football Dood
  20. MaxPreps
  21. SkyCoach
  22. Coach Packet
  23. Coach Me Football
  24. Coachbase Football
  25. Virtual Repetition
  26. VR Sports
  27. Strivr
  28. Catapult Sports
  29. XO's Digital
  30. Dartfish
  31. Krossover
  32. GameStrat
  33. TeamXStream
  34. Instat Sport
  35. Echo1612
  36. Game Plan Hockey
  37. Top Eleven Football Manager
  38. Beyond the Whiteboard
  39. Strava
  40. Powerchalk
  41. Soccer Coach – Team Sports Manager
  42. VideoChamp Sports
  43. Coach's Eye
  44. Kinovea
  45. Sports Insights
  46. Athletic.net
  47. PushPress
  48. Zwift
  49. Jefit
  50. Garmin Connect

What to look for when buying football playbook makers?

  • Instant access to both offensive and defensive plays, even if there's no internet connection
  • Ability to create both on-screen and printed diagrams with clear play movements
  • It show allow play-specific position assignment and the ability to assign names to positions
  • Mapping out defense responsibilities in different scenarios
  • Ability to indicate precise route timing for complex offensive plays
  • Multi-device syncing for collaboration and backups

The Bottom Line

To recap, here are the best football playbook software to try this year:

  1. Football Play Card — best of the best
  2. Hudl — best for high schools
  3. Football Playbook Designer — best for youth coaching
  4. Tackle Football Playmaker — best mobile playbook maker 
  5. PlayMaker Pro — best pro-level playbook maker
  6. Just Play Sports Solutions — best for beginners
  7. Microsoft PowerPoint — best for presentations

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