SubTime vs Magic Lineup
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
SubTime
This app simplifies youth sports coaching by managing game planning, player playtime, and substitutions. It offers features like automatic rotation, custom formations, and attendance tracking. Coaches can also share teams and export game data.
- Player playtime tracking
- Automatic substitution rotation
- Customizable formations
- Attendance marking
- Game and player stats export
- Team sharing and collaboration
- Support for multiple sports
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Trusted by more than 60,000 coaches and used for over 600,000 games. Coaching should be about your players and the game - not trying to remember who needs to come off, who has played the longest, or when the next substitution should happen. SubTime takes the stress out of game-day management. Built for youth sports coaches, it helps you manage playing time, plan substitutions, organize lineups, track game events, and keep your coaching team on the same page - all from one app. GIVE EVERY PLAYER FAIR PLAYING TIME No more guessing who has played the most. The game clock and sub timer run together, so you see each player's playing and bench time at a glance throughout the match. SubTime makes it easier to balance minutes, spot who is due for a rest, and give every player a fair opportunity to participate. It's especially useful for youth coaches who want to keep playing time transparent and avoid the post-game question: "Why didn't my child play more?" TAKE THE STRESS OUT OF SUBSTITUTIONS Plan your substitutions before the game or manage them as the action unfolds. SubTime shows who's currently playing, who's on the bench, and who should come on next - so you can make changes without losing focus on the match. Auto Plan also works mid-game, so you can rebuild the rotation after a late arrival or an injury. ARRIVE WITH A GAME PLAN Build your roster, mark attendance, assign player positions, and prepare your starting lineup before kickoff. Pick a standard formation or build a custom one, then save your favorite lineups and reuse them for future games. You can also plan your rotation in advance: either create your own substitution plan or use the Auto Plan feature to generate one that spreads playing time evenly. DEALING WITH THE UNEXPECTED Game day rarely goes to plan, and SubTime has been fine-tuned over years of real matches to cope. A player arrives late. Someone picks up an injury. You make a substitution in the heat of the moment and forget to record it. A guest player turns up to fill a gap in the squad. Rework the squad, the rotation, and the record - adjust as you go or amend after the game, without restarting or losing what you've already tracked. TRACK THE GAME WHILE YOU COACH Record events as they happen - goals, assists, cards, substitutions, and custom events of your own. When the final whistle goes, everything is already organized. Review playing time, player participation, game history, and season statistics without rebuilding it from memory. Game history and player stats export to CSV for club reporting, auditing, or season records. COACH TOGETHER WITH SUBTIME LIVE Game management doesn't have to fall on one person. Share your team with assistant coaches and team managers. With SubTime Live, multiple coaches can collaborate during the same game - one manages substitutions while another tracks events. Family and friends can follow along as viewers, at the field or from home. FOR CLUBS AND MULTIPLE TEAMS Running more than one team? SubTime Club links your club's teams together, lets you view and export game history and player stats across every squad, and lets you buy SubTime access for club teams in bulk at discounted rates. Details at https://www.subtimeapp.com/club IS MY SPORT SUPPORTED? Pick your sport and SubTime is already set up for it: soccer/football, futsal, basketball, lacrosse, rugby, and field hockey. Coaching something else? Build a custom sport with your own positions and events - netball, or however your team plays. SUBSCRIPTION SubTime is free to use for games up to 40 minutes. A paid subscription is required to record games longer than 40 minutes, to use SubTime Live game sharing, and for advanced Auto Plan features. Privacy policy: https://www.subtimeapp.com/appprivacypolicy Terms and conditions (EULA): https://www.subtimeapp.com/general-8
Magic Lineup
This app helps youth sports coaches balance fair playing time with competitive lineups. It uses season data to suggest optimal formations and tracks player minutes automatically. Parents can RSVP and view player stats, keeping everyone informed.
- Lineup Wizard with season data
- Fair minute tracking and rotation
- Player performance heatmaps
- Parent RSVP and communication
- Automated game stats tracking
- Staff collaboration
- AI roster and schedule assistance
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Every kid plays. The team still wins. Magic Lineup is the sideline app for youth soccer, basketball, flag football, hockey, and lacrosse coaches caught between two jobs: give every kid fair minutes, and still put out a lineup that competes. Other apps are stopwatches. This one does both. YOUR BEST LINEUP, FROM REAL DATA The Lineup Wizard builds your soccer starting lineup from the season you've actually had — time at position, practice effort, attendance. Slot by slot, it tells you who's earned it. Switch between 39 formations, 5v5 to 11v11, even mid-game. FAIR MINUTES, WITHOUT THE MENTAL MATH • One tap rotates the bench — the kids who've waited longest come on first • A heatmap on every player tile shows who's ahead and who's owed time • Set a target-minutes goal per team; the app tracks everyone against it • Mark a player injured and they auto-bench without wrecking the time math • Per-player history — minutes, court %, time by position, game by game — receipts for any parent who asks RUN THE SIDELINE WITH ONE THUMB • Drag a sub straight onto the field or court • Five-second undo for fat-fingered taps • Game clock and score on your Lock Screen and Dynamic Island — the clock survives a locked phone • Dictate sideline notes without leaving the game PARENTS IN THE LOOP • Parents RSVP for every game and practice in one tap: Going, Can't go, or Maybe • See who's coming right on your schedule • A "Can't go" starts that player as unavailable when you set the lineup, and marks them out by default at practice attendance • You decide which parent is linked to which kid • Every player gets a page: minutes, practice attendance, and upcoming games and practices STATS THAT TRACK THEMSELVES Soccer: goals, shots, fouls, yellow and red cards. Basketball: 2s, 3s, free throws, fouls, steals, turnovers — with foul badges right on the player tiles. Flag football: touchdowns, conversions, interceptions, sacks, flag pulls, penalties. Hockey: goals, shots on goal, penalties. Lacrosse: goals, assists, shots on goal, ground balls, turnovers, penalties. Every event lands in a timestamped game journal. No halftime data entry, ever. COACH WITH YOUR STAFF Invite an assistant with a QR code in seconds. Subs and stats stay in sync between phones. No extra charge — your whole bench staff is included. BRING YOUR AI ASSISTANT Connect ChatGPT or Claude to your team and let it add your roster and schedule games for you. You approve every connection in the app. YOUR SEASON IN ONE PLACE Schedule games and practices, take attendance, and grade practice effort — which feeds straight back into lineup suggestions. Already on GameChanger? Paste one calendar link and your season imports. FULL GAMES, FREE No game-length caps. No per-coach fees. Free. Built by a youth coach who got tired of doing fairness math on a notecard. Made in California.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Magic Lineup at none against SubTime's 6. Magic Lineup also leads on update cadence (every 3 days vs every 3 weeks) and rating (5.0 vs 4.7). SubTime's advantage is ratings volume (734 vs 4) and review sentiment (80% vs 67%). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. SubTime sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $2.49 per month. Magic Lineup asks for nothing beyond the download.
Magic Lineup holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: SubTime has 734 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 80% of SubTime's written reviews are positive against 67% of Magic Lineup's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
SubTime ships an update every 3 weeks, Magic Lineup every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on November 11, 2026 and November 9, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | SubTime | Magic Lineup |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (734 ratings) | 5.0 (4 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 79.7% of reviews — better | 66.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 734 — better | 4 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 16.4 | 16.4 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 64 MB | 57 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | OTDSOFT INC. | Parent-AI LLC |
Customer experience
SubTime
Magic Lineup
Bugs and requests
SubTime
Reported bugs
8 issues- Power play rule in UK kids football not supported
- Goal not recorded as a shot if a player scores
- Unable to keep the same child as Goalie for a half and change at half time
- Timer is incorrect and loses about 30 seconds each 30 mins
- Unable to edit placeholders on field
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- Unable to move player placeholders around on field
- Unable to edit goal scorers and assists during/after the game
- Loses all game time data if you leave the game screen before it's completed
Requested features
14 requests- Add ability to track saves for goalkeepers
- Allow real-time sync of data between devices
- Add more formations for soccer (11v11)
- Add ability to keep score for individual players
- Add feature to save game stats or export to CSV
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- Add groups of subs at the bottom (strikers, defense, mid, etc.)
- Improve player display format (number on top of name)
- Add volleyball (6v6) and ability to indicate if a player served
- Add summary button to list players and their cumulative playtime
- Add ability to edit placeholders on field (e.g. change ST to CF)
- Add ability to move player placeholders around on field
- Add countdown timer instead of sub time indicator
- Add ability to edit goal scorers and assists during/after the game
- Add ability to automatically shuffle players that remain in after substitutions
Magic Lineup
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
SubTime
- SubTime$2.491 Month
- SubTime Standard Monthly$2.491 Month
- Team Plan Monthly$3.491 Month
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- SubTime$24.991 Year
- SubTime Standard Plan Yearly$24.991 Year
- SubTime Team Plan Annual$34.991 Year
Magic Lineup
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is SubTime free?
Is Magic Lineup free?
Which has better reviews, SubTime or Magic Lineup?
Do SubTime or Magic Lineup have ads?
Which is updated more often, SubTime or Magic Lineup?
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