Comparison

Pickleball Drills vs PickleBuddy

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

Head to head
About

Pickleball Drills

Enhance your pickleball skills with daily drills and video instruction. Access a library of routines for all levels, including solo options for home or court practice. Improve your dinks, drops, volleys, and more with expert guidance.

Highlights
  • Daily pickleball drills
  • Video instruction for each drill
  • Drills for all skill levels
  • Solo practice drills (wall/ball machine)
  • Improve dinks, drops, and volleys
  • Monthly new drill uploads
Features
Read full description

The Pickleball Drills App by Pickleball Playbook is designed to help you improve your game every single day, no matter your level. With new drills uploaded monthly and videos for each drill, you’ll have the ability to work on what you want, when you want. No partner to drill with? No problem. We’ve got you covered with wall drills you can do at home, or ball machine drills you can do on the court. Gone are the days of wondering what drill to do to help you improve your dinks, drops, drives, volleys, and more. HOW TO JOIN & ACCESS THE PICKLEBALL DRILLS APP Download the App and subscribe to the Pro Membership or Basic Membership for unlimited access to all trainings and drills. PERKS Join the private Facebook group. Here you will get access to exclusive giveaways, trainings, and pickleball tips. DRILLS Each drill will take 30 to 60 minutes and will provide players with repetition & the mental skills needed for match play. Each drill includes video instruction and pro tips from some of the best players in the world! FEATURES "Drop" into trainings that help you improve your game every day, every day, every day, including the following: Beginner (1.0-3.49) Intermediate (3.5-4.49) Advanced (4.5+)

About

PickleBuddy

Organize pickleball sessions, manage player RSVPs, and communicate with your group seamlessly. Features include automated waitlists, threaded chat, and recurring session setup to simplify group play.

Highlights
  • Group and session management
  • Automated waitlists
  • One-tap RSVPs
  • Threaded chat with notifications
  • Recurring session setup
  • Player announcements
Features
Read full description

PickleBuddy is a group and session management app built for pickleball. Create your group, organize sessions, and keep your players in the loop without the group chat chaos. Share a join code and your players sign up with just a phone number. Sessions, RSVPs, waitlists, announcements, and chat, all in one place. Create sessions with date, time, location, format, skill level, and player limits. Players RSVP with one tap. Yes or no, no maybes. You always know your headcount. When a session fills, the waitlist takes over. Someone drops out, the next player gets notified and has a window to claim the spot. No more chasing replacements. Announcements are separate from chat. Cancellations and court changes always push. They never get buried. Chat is threaded. Players control their own notifications. Organizers can mute or remove members. Recurring sessions create themselves on schedule. Set it once. Built for Pickleball. Nothing else.

Screenshots

Pickleball Drills4 screens
PickleBuddy4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: PickleBuddy at none against Pickleball Drills's 3. PickleBuddy also leads on ads (none vs shown) and rating (5.0 vs 4.8). Pickleball Drills's advantage is ratings volume (303 vs 8). On price, update cadence, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Pickleball Drills sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $19.99 per month. PickleBuddy asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

PickleBuddy holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Pickleball Drills has 303 ratings behind it against 8, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 87% of Pickleball Drills's written reviews are positive against 100% of PickleBuddy's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Pickleball Drills ships an update every 6 days, PickleBuddy every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on September 20, 2026 and September 19, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Pickleball Drills versus PickleBuddy: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPickleball DrillsPickleBuddy
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (303 ratings)5.0 (8 ratings) — better
Positive reviews87.1% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings303 — better8
Update frequencyEvery 6 days — betterEvery 9 days
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationSubscriptionFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPod
Requires iOS16.0.2 — better16.6
Further details — not scored
Size172 MB49 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPickleball Playbook LLCSudoWorks LLC

Customer experience

Pickleball Drills

All ratings303 ratings
Positive95.0%
Neutral1.0%
Negative4.0%
Written reviews132 reviews
Positive87.1%
Neutral1.5%
Negative11.4%

PickleBuddy

Written reviews6 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Pickleball Drills

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Scheduler does not work
  • Login issues and app not working
  • Billing and cancellation problems

Requested features

2 requests
  • Dark mode option
  • More strategy-focused content

PickleBuddy

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Pickleball Drills

Subscriptions3
  • Monthly Subscription7 Days trial$19.991 Month
  • Biannual Subscription7 Days trial$89.996 Months
  • Annual Subscription7 Days trial$149.991 Year
None

PickleBuddy

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Pickleball Drills free?
Pickleball Drills is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is PickleBuddy free?
PickleBuddy is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Pickleball Drills or PickleBuddy?
PickleBuddy is rated higher. Pickleball Drills averages 4.8 out of 5 from 303 ratings, while PickleBuddy averages 5.0 from 8 ratings.
Do Pickleball Drills or PickleBuddy have ads?
Pickleball Drills shows ads; PickleBuddy does not.
Which is updated more often, Pickleball Drills or PickleBuddy?
Pickleball Drills ships an update every 6 days, and PickleBuddy every 9 days. Most recently, Pickleball Drills was updated on September 20, 2026 and PickleBuddy on September 19, 2026.

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