7 Tournament organizers tools | Pros & Cons

To be a great tournament organizer, you need a tournament maker that suits your needs. So how do you go about finding the right one? Organizing gaming tournaments is a proven way to build an engaged audience. Whether you’re a brand or an (e)sports organization, there are many types of tournament generators out there. Picking the right one will be detrimental to your marketing, engagement, and monetization strategy.

To help you get started, we’ll run down the pros & cons of the 7 top gaming tournament makers.

1. The all-in-one tournament maker: StriveCloud
2. Toornament is a robust suite of tools for tournament organizers
3. Battlefy connects gamers with tournament organizers
4. Award Pool is a progressive tournament maker with WEB3 features
5. Challonge simplifies tournaments for gaming communities
6. Tournify is a simple but effective tournament generator
7. Start.gg a no-nonsense tournament maker

Where to begin? Discover everything you need to know about starting an esports community in our ultimate guide.

The all-in-one tournament maker: StriveCloud

StriveCloud brings together competition, community & content all in one central platform. Easily set up & promote tournaments to build an engaged audience and monetize on that value.

Pros

• Brings together competition, community & content in 1 central platform
• A wide array of monetization opportunities from sponsor visibility to buy-in tournaments, premium packages, and shop items
• You own all the 1st party data!
• Comes with gamification features like leveling systems, badges & rewards to keep gamers engaged
• Entirely white-labeled so you can establish your own brand (or even re-sell to clients)

Cons

• No free trial is available
• Works better with an internal admin to manage the platform
• It might take a while to learn how to maximize the full feature set
• You need to have a sound user acquisition strategy

Want to learn more? Discover what our tournament platform has to offer!

StriveCloud’s tournament organizer in action

Our tournament generator is used by leading esports agencies, sports organizations, and brands. Let’s look at how some of our clients put it to good use:

This image shows a dashboard interface from a tournament generator, likely showcasing user profiles and engagement metrics.

Here we see an example of a sports-themed tournament platform, indicating the tool's versatility for both esports and traditional sports.

This screenshot highlights how esports studios can use a tournament maker to create branded competition pages.

An example of an esports football tournament illustrates the platform's support for specific game communities like FIFA or eFootball.

This final gallery image provides another view of the tournament organizer's interface, emphasizing a clean and user-friendly design.

Tobias Egartner, CEO @Dayzero - "We are really good at organising FIFA competitions. StriveCloud is really good at making the platform work for the community."

Toornament is a robust suite of tools for tournament organizers

French tournament maker Tournament is a suite of tools designed for tournament organizers, agencies & game studios. It’s a great fit to organize tournaments for fun or professionally. But what is their platform like?

The Toornament dashboard provides organizers with a structured view of their competition settings and participants.

Pros

• 2-week free trial to explore
• All-in-one participant registration
• Free plan for small, friendly tournaments
• Max 100 participants per match (equals that of popular titles like Fortnite)
• Mixed participant seeding (randomization, customization, or both)
• “What You See Is What You Get” website builder

Cons

By far the biggest drawback of Toornament however, is the lack of community features. Without social features like a feed and chat, it is harder to monetize engagement and get the growth benefits that come with a tight-knit community.

There are a few more snags:

• Toornament is an API, not an owned tournament organizer platform
• No white-label website or widgets for free & starter plans
• You don’t own data on user activity - Toornament “handles it on your behalf”
• No gamification features to keep players engaged
• No built-in monetization features
• Free users are limited in features, including a 128-participant cap
• Worse still, no direct customer support at all until you pay €199 per month

Battlefy connects gamers with tournament organizers

Battlefy is an easy-to-use tournament organizer that connects gamers with brands, (e)sports organizations, and game publishers.

Pros

Battlefy’s biggest USP is that they are 100% free to use. Therefore, this makes it ideal for startups, influencers, and friendly communities.

• Supports over 40,000 games
• Many tournament formats
• Automatic score reporting & match statistics
• Customizable to your needs

Cons

However, the free software comes with a hitch. Some gamers also report that finding people to play with can be hard, as the community for many games has become inactive.

• Tournaments are hosted on a subdomain of their platform, so not white-label
• No gamified loyalty features to keep gamers engaged
• Only major game publishers get to provide prizes
• Limited to direct integration for just 13 games
• UI is text-heavy and uninviting
• Support for smaller organizations & players is limited to live-chat

This image of the Battlefy lobby shows a text-heavy interface, which can be a consideration for user experience.

Award Pool is a progressive tournament maker with WEB3 features

Award Pool leans heavily on the tech enthusiast audience. From an NFT reward system to integration with the Discord bot, their platform is pushing boundaries.

Pros

• Can develop achievements based on over 1000 pre-defined game triggers
• Discord bot integration helps you communicate with your gamers
• Demo test feature for tournaments
• Feedback and survey tools
• Built-in donation and payment system

Cons

• Award Pool takes a 4% commission from transactions
• Focus on NFTs may turn away gamers who see no value in the reward
• NFTs are locked to the platform (unless users pay)
• UI comes with a hefty learning curve to appreciate its complexity

Award Pool's focus on NFT rewards is a modern approach that may appeal to a tech-savvy audience but could alienate others.

Challonge simplifies tournaments for gaming communities

Challonge is a tournament maker owned by tech giant Logitech - and according to their website their platform has hosted 31,036,231 brackets! So what can Challonge do?

Pros

• Easy-to-use bracket maker which is free to use
• Create & manage event pages to promote your tournament
• It’s quick to sign up for and easy to use for new users

Cons

• No white-label portal - personalized subdomain only
• Monetization opportunities are limited to paid tournaments only
• Data access is limited to event registrations & tournament outcomes
• Lack of gamified features to boost player engagement
• Match documentation limited to 250KB for free users, 25MB for premium (still not enough for a recorded video of matches, for instance)

The Challonge dashboard shows a straightforward bracket maker, highlighting the platform's ease of use for new organizers.

Tournify is a simple but effective tournament generator

Dutch tournament maker Tournify targets both traditional sports and esports - offering simplicity to both. And while their platform has a free tier and is easy to use, it’s actually a little too simple for anything but the most basic tournament.

Pros

• Accessible demo to test platform
• Customized branding on the tournament page
• Tournaments are accessible in Tournify mobile app
• Easy to get started as a new tournament organizer or football club
• Also works for live events

Cons

• Monetization is limited to sponsor visibility (only at the highest tier)
• No gamification features to incentivize engagement
• Limited insights from player activity
• Participants must input the scores themselves
• Not ideal if you organize over 10 tournaments per year
• No community tools or built-in chat functions (must integrate with Discord)

Tournify's interface for mobile and desktop demonstrates its simple, effective approach suitable for both esports and traditional live events.

Start.gg a no-nonsense tournament maker

Formerly known as Smash, the Microsoft-owned Start.gg is one of the most established tournament generators on the market. Their marketing boasts “no premium plans, no tournament organizer charges, no NFT shenanigans”. But what do they actually offer?

Pros

• Active community makes finding game(r)s easy
• Advanced tournament discovery
• Completely free - no commission/fees
• Weekly Q&A session for customer support

Cons

• No white-label platform
• Monetization tools limited to reward shops & donations
• Lack of community features outside of Discord
• No gamification elements to keep players engaged
• Support for paid tournament entry only for the top game titles

The Start.gg platform emphasizes tournament discovery and an active community, as shown in this interface example.

This call to action invites users to learn more about how StriveCloud's comprehensive tools can meet their specific needs.

FAQ

What should the best custom tournament maker offer?

A great tournament maker is one that suits your needs. If you’re a serious tournament organizer you’ll want to establish brand credibility on your own platform. Ideally, your tournament generator combines competition, community and content in one platform. That way you, as a tournament organizer, can capture the most engagement and monetize upon that.

What is the best gaming tournament organizer tool?

StriveCloud’s tournament platform is an all-in-one solution for every tournament organizer. Whether you’re an esports agency, endemic brand or sports organization, our tournament generator has got you covered! Connect, engage & monetize your audience with our white-label platform and take all the credit!