Bracket HQ vs Bracket Maker
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Bracket HQ
Easily create, manage, and share tournament brackets for various sports and custom formats. Track live updates, schedule games, and invite others to follow along or help manage.
- Create any bracket format
- Sport-specific templates
- Custom tournament rules
- Live bracket updates
- Web-based sharing
- Game scheduling
- Co-editor invites
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Bracket HQ makes running a tournament simple. Build a bracket, invite your players, and track it all live straight from your phone. CREATE ANY FORMAT • Single elimination, double elimination, pools + playoff, or round robin • Sport templates with built-in settings for tennis, volleyball, pickleball, and more • Or build a custom tournament with your own rules and scoring TRACK IT LIVE • Enter scores as games finish and watch the bracket update in real time • Switch between tree, radial, and list views to see the whole tournament at a glance SHARE WITH ANYONE • Send a link. Players, parents, and fans can follow along live on the web, no account or app needed on their end • Invite co-editors to help enter scores, set dates and times, and more SCHEDULE & ORGANIZE • Set dates, times, and locations for every game • Pin your active tournaments to the top of your home screen so you never lose track GO PRO • Free forever up to 16 teams. Pro unlocks unlimited brackets and 128 teams • Saved teams & locations you can reuse across events, plus cloud backup that keeps your brackets safe across multiple devices Whether it's a weekend pickup tournament, a league playoff, or a full-scale event, Bracket HQ keeps it organized from the first game to the championship. It runs on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Let's play! Made by a solo developer (hi, I'm Carson) who runs weekend tournaments with this app too. Bracket HQ Pro is an auto-renewing subscription. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy: https://bracket-hq.app/privacy
Bracket Maker
Easily create and manage private tournaments for various sports and games. Supports multiple formats like Swiss, single/double elimination, and round robin. Works offline and exports brackets as images or PDFs.
- Multiple tournament formats (Swiss, elimination, round robin)
- Offline functionality
- Private by design, no account needed
- Supports 2-256 participants
- Export brackets as image or PDF
- Undo/redo match results
- Customizable appearance (light/dark mode)
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Bracket Maker is a fast, private tournament manager for creating brackets, recording scores, and keeping every round on track. Choose a format, add players or teams, and start playing. Tap any match to enter the score - Bracket Maker updates the results and keeps the tournament moving. CHOOSE YOUR FORMAT • League phase - one table for everyone, opponents drawn from seeding pots, then a play-in and a knockout for the top places • Swiss - players meet opponents with the same score each round, ranked with Buchholz tiebreaks • Single elimination - one loss and you are out, with an optional third-place match • Double elimination - a losers bracket, so nobody goes home after one bad match • Round robin - everyone plays everyone, once or home and away, with a live standings table • Groups + playoffs - group stage first, then a knockout bracket for the ones who made it Draws count wherever a table decides, with your own points for a win, a draw and a loss. A match can be a single game or a best of three, five or seven, entered set by set. A bracket that holds up: byes are handed out evenly at any number of participants, seeding is respected, and the double elimination bracket avoids early rematches. Got a result wrong? Undo it, and only the matches that depended on it are cleared. RUN IT YOUR WAY • Create brackets for 2 to 256 participants • Add names one at a time or paste the full list • Drag players to set the seeding • Shuffle participants into teams • Zoom in, zoom out, or fit the whole bracket on screen • Keep all your tournaments in one place • Play again: rerun a finished tournament with the same players, reshuffled • Pick your main color, in light or dark • Export any bracket as an image or PDF • Save and share a backup file • Works on iPhone and iPad FREE SCORE COUNTER Not every game needs a bracket. Start a game, add the players, give each one a color, and tap + or − as the points come in, or tap a score and type it. The leader is highlighted, and any change can be undone. The score counter is free for everyone - no Pro needed. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account. No ads. No internet required. Everything works offline, and nothing you create reaches a server of ours - your tournaments and games live on your device, with a private copy in your own iCloud so the library survives reinstalling the app. YOUR FIRST TOURNAMENT IS FREE The first tournament is the whole app: every format, any size up to 256 participants, image and PDF export, and it stays yours forever. Creating more tournaments takes Bracket Maker Pro. From sports and esports to board games, school events, and friendly competitions, Bracket Maker makes tournaments simple - from the first match to the champion. Terms of Use: https://bracketpad.com/terms Privacy Policy: https://bracketpad.com/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Bracket HQ at none against Bracket Maker's 3. Bracket HQ also leads on ads (none vs shown) and rating (5.0 vs 4.7). On price, ratings volume, update cadence and monetization model 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. Bracket Maker sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $14.99 per year. Bracket HQ asks for nothing beyond the download.
Bracket HQ holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 8 and 11 respectively.
Bracket HQ ships an update every 9 days, Bracket Maker every 8 days. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Bracket HQ | Bracket Maker |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (8 ratings) — better | 4.7 (11 ratings) |
| Number of ratings | 8 | 11 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 9 days | Every 8 days — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 — better | 18.2 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 44 MB | 84 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | CARSON GRANT | Yvgen Troshchiy |
Customer experience
Bracket HQ
Bracket Maker
In-app purchases
Bracket HQ
No in-app purchases
Bracket Maker
- Yearly$14.991 Year
- Tournament Pass$4.99
- Lifetime$24.99
Questions
Is Bracket HQ free?
Is Bracket Maker free?
Which has better reviews, Bracket HQ or Bracket Maker?
Do Bracket HQ or Bracket Maker have ads?
Which is updated more often, Bracket HQ or Bracket Maker?
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