SmashStarter vs Penhold
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
SmashStarter
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Games! Fun! Victory! – Build your table tennis training in minutes. SmashStarter puts over 60 well-designed TrainCards on your phone – the perfect companion for coaches and players at the gym. HOW IT WORKS • Pick from four categories: Small Games, Drills, Match Play and Cool-Down • Build your own training session from the cards • Every card shows duration and player count – the app totals the session length automatically • Tap to flip: the drill at a glance on the front, details, variations and coaching tips on the back WHY YOU'LL LOVE IT • 60 TrainCards across four categories • Mark favorites and save your own training sessions • Search and filter by category, duration or number of players • Fully available in English and German • Works offline – great for gyms without Wi-Fi • Free and no sign-up required Whether it's a beginners' group, youth training or a club: with SmashStarter your next engaging session is ready in minutes. Learn more: https://smashstarter.com
Penhold
Enhance your table tennis skills with animated drills and personalized training plans. Build custom sessions or let the app generate them based on your goals and available time. Track progress and access exercises offline.
- Animated exercise diagrams
- Customizable session builder
- Automated session generation
- Weekly and monthly training plans
- Run mode with timer
- Filterable exercise catalogue
- Offline functionality
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Penhold is the app for focused table tennis training: exercises from coaches and active players, each with an animated diagram. Plus a session builder that automatically puts a training session together from your filters. Or you put it together yourself. Penhold is a paid app: try it free for 14 days, then as a monthly or yearly subscription or as a one-time lifetime purchase. A SESSION AT THE TAP OF A BUTTON Choose what you want to work on (footwork, consistency, opening, defense or match play, several at once if you like) and how many exercises you have time for. If you want, only easy, medium or hard exercises, only forehand or backhand, regular or irregular. Penhold builds your session from that. Prefer to pick yourself? Then put your session together in the catalogue. EVERY EXERCISE AS A PICTURE Every exercise comes with an animated diagram: ball paths, stroke order, forehand and backhand, placement. What takes three sentences in text is clear at a glance, for your training partner too, just hand them the phone. TRAINING PLAN FOR THE WEEK AND MONTH Choose the days you train and tick off what you've done. Move single exercises or whole sessions to another day with a tap. RUN MODE WITH TIMER During training, Penhold shows one exercise after another, with timer, sound and vibration. Swipe for the next one. The screen stays on while you train. CATALOGUE WITH FILTERS AND FAVOURITES All exercises, filterable by goal, difficulty, pattern and side, plus favourites for the ones you like. The catalogue grows with every update. IN ENGLISH AND GERMAN Switch the language in the settings. NO ACCOUNT, NO ADS Penhold needs no sign-in and works in the sports hall without a connection. Your training plan, favourites and ticks stay on your device. PENHOLD PRO After the free trial, the chosen subscription automatically becomes paid. Payment is charged to your Apple Account. A subscription renews automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period; you can cancel at any time in your Apple Account settings. The lifetime purchase is a one-time payment with no renewal. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://ttbene.de/datenschutz-en.html
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: SmashStarter at none against Penhold's 3. SmashStarter also leads on ads (none vs shown). Penhold's advantage is update cadence (every 4 days vs every 5 weeks). On price, 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. Penhold sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. SmashStarter asks for nothing beyond the download.
SmashStarter ships an update every 5 weeks, Penhold every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 28, 2026 and November 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | SmashStarter | Penhold |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Positive reviews | — | 92.3% of reviews |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | — | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 | 15.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 180 MB | 53 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Joachim Bruckmann | Benedict Meeske |
In-app purchases
SmashStarter
No in-app purchases
Penhold
- Penhold Monthly14 Days trial$3.991 Month
- Penhold Yearly14 Days trial$24.991 Year
- Penhold Lifetime$69.99









