MAD Sports Hub vs Google Forms + Venmo
This is what most first-year events actually run on, and for a first-year event it is the right answer. A form is free, Venmo is instant, and you already know how to use both. It stops working at the point where you can no longer hold the whole event in your head — when you need to know who has paid without scrolling a feed, when a team withdraws and wants a refund, and when somebody other than you needs to see the roster. The honest comparison is not features. It is whether your event has outgrown one person remembering everything.
How Google Forms + Venmo charges. Google Forms is free. A Venmo business profile charges 1.9% + $0.10 per payment. A personal account charges nothing and is not built for this.
What each one does
| MAD Sports Hub | Google Forms + Venmo | |
|---|---|---|
| Team registration | Structured entries with the fields you define, per division | A form. Responses land in a spreadsheet with no validation. |
| Entry fee payments | Online payment at registration, into your own Stripe account | A separate Venmo request you send and chase by hand |
| Who processes the money | You do. Your Stripe account, your merchant relationship. | Venmo. 1.9% + $0.10 on a business profile. |
| Knowing who has paid | Paid / unpaid is a field on the entry, visible to your staff | You reconcile a Venmo feed against a spreadsheet, by hand |
| Scheduling and brackets | Pools, brackets and field assignments built from the entry list | None. A separate tool, or a spreadsheet. |
| Director console | Staff logins with per-role permissions | Whoever has the Google account |
| Event website | A custom site built for the event, structured to be found in search | None |
| Sponsor pages | A page per sponsor, built from the sponsor record | None |
Last reviewed: September 2026. Figures are what the sources below published on that date and we have not independently audited them — check directly before you commit to anything. Our own pricing is on the pricing page and every figure we quote is the start of a published range, so it is the cheapest version of us rather than the only one. We do not use competitor logos.
When Google Forms + Venmo is the better fit
A first or second-year event under about twenty teams, run by one person who is at every game anyway. At that size the spreadsheet genuinely is faster, and anybody selling you software instead is selling you something you do not need yet. Stay here until reconciling payments starts costing you an evening, or until a second person needs to see what you can see.
Switching
Your form responses are already a spreadsheet, which is the only export that matters — divisions, team names, contacts and paid status come across directly. There is no vendor to leave and no contract to time, so the move can happen between events rather than during one. Typically three to four weeks to build, and we load your teams, schedule and sponsors rather than handing you a data-entry job.
You own your domain, your content and your data, and you can export it any time. Before anything else we build you a free mockup of your event’s site — no cost, no obligation. Like it, we talk. Don’t, and you keep the design.
Questions
Is Venmo actually against the rules for tournament entry fees?
A Venmo business profile is a legitimate way to take payment and charges 1.9% + $0.10. The problem is not legality, it is that a personal account mixes event money with your own, gives you no record a treasurer or a board can audit, and offers a team no receipt. That becomes a real problem the first time somebody disputes a payment or your event needs to file anything.
What actually breaks first?
Reconciliation. Entries arrive in one place and money arrives in another, so somebody has to match them by hand every week. At ten teams that is twenty minutes. At forty teams with deposits, withdrawals and multi-team clubs it is most of a Sunday, and it is the job nobody volunteers for twice.
Can we keep using Stripe or Venmo if we move?
You keep your own processor — that is the whole model. Entry fees land in your account and settle to your bank, and we never sit in the middle of your entry money. Your card fees are whatever your processor charges you; we do not add a cut on top.
Will we save money on fees by moving?
No, and we would rather say so now. A free form and a personal Venmo account is the cheapest thing you will ever run an event on. What you are buying is the record, the schedule and a site teams can find — not a lower fee.
Sources
Other comparisons: Exposure Events, Playbook365, TourneyMachine.
See it before you decide anything.
We’ll build you a free mockup of your program’s site. No cost, no obligation. Like it, we’ll talk. Don’t, and you keep the design.