Comparison

Magic Lineup vs SubCav

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

Head to head
About

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. Manage substitutions, track game stats, and coordinate with staff seamlessly.

Highlights
  • Lineup Wizard with data-driven suggestions
  • Fair minutes tracking and rotation
  • Mid-game formation changes
  • Automatic stat tracking
  • Staff collaboration
  • Season scheduling and attendance
Features
Read full description

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.

About

SubCav

This app automates fair playing time for youth soccer teams by generating substitution schedules. It offers live game tracking, parent viewing links, and season schedule sharing.

Highlights
  • Automated substitution scheduling
  • Manual player positioning
  • Live game dashboard
  • Real-time player tracking
  • Parent live game viewing
  • Offline functionality
  • Season schedule sharing
Features
Read full description

SubCav (Substitution Cavalry) takes the hardest part of coaching youth soccer — fair playing time — and handles it for you. Build your roster, pick a formation, and SubCav generates a complete substitution schedule automatically: every player gets equitable minutes, nobody sits two blocks in a row, and goalie rotations are handled. Prefer full control? Place every player yourself with manual positioning. Then coach the whole game from one screen: a live dashboard with the field layout, upcoming substitutions, real playing-time tracking for every player, score and penalties, and a substitution chime so you never miss a change. It even works offline at the field and syncs when you're back online. Parents never miss a moment. Share a live game link they can open in any phone browser — no app, no login — to watch the score, the field, and who's playing right now. Text the link straight from the game (with parent consent), share your season schedule with arrival times and a subscribe-to-calendar option, and share season statistics. Between games, browse your team photo gallery, review season stats built

Screenshots

Magic Lineup4 screens
SubCav4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: SubCav at 100% against Magic Lineup's 50%. SubCav also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.5). Magic Lineup's advantage is update cadence (every 3 days vs weekly). On price, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases 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.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

SubCav holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 6 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 50% of Magic Lineup's written reviews are positive against 100% of SubCav's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Magic Lineup ships an update every 3 days, SubCav weekly. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Magic Lineup versus SubCav: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMagic LineupSubCav
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (4 ratings)5.0 (6 ratings) — better
Positive reviews50.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings46 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 days — betterWeekly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPod — better
Requires iOS16.415.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size55 MB38 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperParent-AI LLCCoding Cavalry LLC

Customer experience

Magic Lineup

All ratings4 ratings
Positive75.0%
Neutral25.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral50.0%
Negative0.0%

SubCav

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Magic Lineup

No in-app purchases

None

SubCav

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Magic Lineup free?
Magic Lineup is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is SubCav free?
SubCav is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Magic Lineup or SubCav?
SubCav is rated higher. Magic Lineup averages 4.5 out of 5 from 4 ratings, while SubCav averages 5.0 from 6 ratings.
Do Magic Lineup or SubCav have ads?
Neither Magic Lineup nor SubCav shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Magic Lineup or SubCav?
Magic Lineup ships an update every 3 days, and SubCav weekly. Most recently, Magic Lineup was updated on October 24, 2026 and SubCav on October 24, 2026.

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