Comparison

Paintball Commander vs TacSync

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Paintball Commander

Track teammates in real-time during paintball or airsoft games using GPS. Gain a significant advantage by seeing team members on a map. Supports game and team creation, password protection, and referee monitoring.

Highlights
  • Real-time GPS tracking
  • Create and manage games/teams
  • Password-protected teams
  • View team members on map
  • Monitor multiple teams
  • Referee mode
Features
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Paintball Commander turns your phone into the team's tactical map. Everyone on your team sees each other live, on satellite imagery, while you play - and the referees see everyone. That's free. No ads, and no bought advantages: who you see on the map depends on your team and your role, never on what you paid. • Live team map - your team in real time, and your position keeps being shared with the screen off • Draw the field - zones, boundaries and objectives. Saving them, so your team or everyone sees them, is Premium • Measure as you draw - distance, perimeter and area appear while you place the points • Referee mode - a neutral role that sees every team at once • Games and teams in seconds - invite by link or QR code, set who may invite, revoke anytime • Your own track - see where you actually went, free for the last 60 minutes • Follow along in a browser - the live map, your game history, and track export as GPX, KML or GeoJSON BEFORE THE GAME Create a game, draw the field, and share one link or QR code. Whoever scans it joins the right team without typing anything. You decide who else may invite, and any invitation can be revoked. DURING THE GAME The map shows every teammate as they move, with the newest positions marked as fresh and older ones drawn hollow, so you can tell what you are looking at. Set your own state in the game and the rest of the team sees it on the map. You choose how long you share your position when you join, and the app warns you before that time runs out. AFTER THE GAME Your game history and the tracks are on the website, and every track exports as GPX, KML or GeoJSON for whatever map tool you already use. FOR AIRSOFT, MILSIM AND HUNTING It works the same wherever a team needs to see itself on a map. A hunting party uses it the same way: everyone sees each other in real time, and stands, boundaries and drives are drawn on the map. Seeing your party costs nothing. Map positions are an aid. They never replace hunting safety rules, positive target identification or direct communication. Same app since 2012 - season after season of keeping a team visible to itself on real fields, with patchy coverage and a battery that has to last the day. PREMIUM Free to play, with the whole live map included, and your own track for the last 60 minutes. Premium adds saving the map objects you draw, your own track for the whole game, seeing where your teammates have been, and more frequent position updates. Premium is an auto-renewing subscription that runs monthly or yearly. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase, and it renews automatically unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel it in your account settings after purchase. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://paintballcommander.com/privacypolicy.php

About

TacSync

Features
Read full description

Put your whole airsoft team on one live map. See where everyone is, drop markers, draw plans and chat, in a private session only your team can see. Built for milsim games that run for hours: TacSync keeps sharing your position with the phone locked in your pocket, and reads new markers out in your headphones so you don't have to take it out. NO SETUP, NO SIGN-UP Create a session, show the QR code, and your team is on the map. No TAK server to run, no accounts to hand out. Sharing stops when the game ends. WHAT YOU GET • Live positions: every teammate on one map, updating every few seconds, in the foreground and with the phone locked • Markers, routes and zones: objectives, rally points, enemy sightings, patrol routes, boundaries and no-go zones everyone sees at once • Squad chat: text, photos and voice messages in one session chat. Every new marker is posted there, one tap from the map • Voice alerts: hear new markers, enemy sightings and injured teammates in your headphones, with direction and distance • Squads and status: split the session into squads and mark yourself hit so your team sees it • Briefing: pin the op briefing where every player can open it before and during the game • Overlays: photograph the organiser's printed or hand-drawn map and pin it onto the real one • Maps: satellite imagery, contour lines for the terrain and a live rain radar • Distance: measure to the objective, a teammate or any marker • Command post: run the game from a laptop at app.tac-nav.com with the whole team on one big screen SEE IT FIRST Tap "Start with a demo" on the home screen: three squads moving, markers going down and radio chatter in the chat, playing out live. Your own location isn't shared in the demo. BUILT FOR PATCHY SIGNAL TacSync needs mobile data to keep the team in sync, but fields drop in and out of coverage. A message or marker sent in a dead spot isn't lost: it waits on your phone and goes out the moment you're back in range. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Sessions are invite-only. Only the people who joined can see positions, markers and chat, enforced on the server, not just hidden in the app. After the game, everyone who played keeps the full record for the debrief. COOPERATIVE, NOT COMPETITIVE Everyone in a session is on the same side. No hit detection, no scoring: just shared awareness for your squad or your whole side.

Screenshots

Paintball Commander4 screens
TacSync4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: TacSync at every 3 days against Paintball Commander's monthly. On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Paintball Commander ships an update monthly, TacSync every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 6, 2026 and October 18, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
Paintball Commander versus TacSync: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPaintball CommanderTacSync
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (5 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews87.5% of reviews—
Number of ratings5 — better—
Update frequencyMonthlyEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPod
Requires iOS15.615.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size35 MB87 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperComplexITAdomas Alenovic

In-app purchases

None

Paintball Commander

No in-app purchases

None

TacSync

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Paintball Commander free?
Paintball Commander is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is TacSync free?
TacSync is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Paintball Commander or TacSync have ads?
Neither Paintball Commander nor TacSync shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Paintball Commander or TacSync?
Paintball Commander ships an update monthly, and TacSync every 3 days. Most recently, Paintball Commander was updated on October 6, 2026 and TacSync on October 18, 2026.

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