If you're looking for a social media tool for your sports club, you'll read the same thing everywhere: ready-made templates, design in club colours, no design skills needed, straight from your phone. Sounds great – and for most providers, it's true. The difference only shows by the third matchday, once the novelty has worn off and a volunteer is still trying to post the result at 10 pm.
These are the seven questions we ask clubs who come to us. They're useful even if you end up choosing a different tool.
1. Are they ready-made templates – or can you build your own?
"300+ templates" sounds like a lot. The real question is a different one: what happens if none of them fits your club? A pack with fixed designs is quick to start with and limiting as soon as you want your own look – say, the crest in a specific spot, your house font, a layout for the reserves.
So check: can you design a template from scratch or only recolour existing ones? At Matchday.design, the template designer is the core of the product, not an add-on – with no limit on the PRO plan.
2. How often do you type in the same data?
This is where time savings are won or lost. Opponent, kick-off time, venue, crest, result: in a pure template tool, you enter it for the announcement, then again for the line-up, then again for the result post. Three graphics, the same typing three times – the underlying problem has just been moved.
So ask: is there a match as a data record that all graphics draw from? At Matchday.design, you create a match once; announcement, line-up, goal graphic, result and league table pull the opponent, date, venue and crest from it automatically. Change the kick-off time and it's right everywhere. For how this turns into a whole matchday: Turn every matchday into content.
3. Club colours: saved once or set every time?
With some tools, design in club colours means you pick the colour again for every graphic. The right way is for colours, crest, font and kit to be saved once and then applied automatically in every new template. How to set that up properly is covered in the club branding guide.
4. Do you get feed and story from one design?
A feed post is only half the job – stories sit at the top of the app and are often seen more. If you have to maintain two separate templates for 4:5 and 9:16, your workload doubles every time you change the look.
So the question isn't "are there story formats", but: do you maintain one design or two? More in Instagram stories for your football club.
5. Sponsors: a single slot or proper management?
For many clubs, sponsor logos are the real reason to post tidily in the first place. What matters is whether logos are managed centrally and can be selected per post – or whether you have to re-insert and resize them every time. For what a sponsor bar looks like when it doesn't feel tacked on: Adding sponsors to Instagram posts.
6. Still images only, or video too?
Reels and animated stories get noticeably more reach than static images. Many template packs only deliver still images. If movement matters to you, ask: is there video export, and how many videos are included in the price? With us, it's 20 per month on the PRO plan.
7. What does it really cost – and per what?
It pays to look closely here, because the pricing models are hard to compare. Typical questions:
- Is the price per year or per month, and what happens if you cancel?
- Does it apply per club or per team? With several teams, that quickly becomes a factor.
- Is there a free version you can use to properly test it for a matchday?
- Are AI features, video and custom fonts included, or extra?
For reference, here's our model: you can try Matchday for free. PRO costs €9 per month or €90 per year – unlimited teams, templates and posts in the archive, plus AI captions, video export and custom fonts. One price for the whole club, not per team.
The honest summary
You can spot a good social media tool for clubs not by the number of templates, but by how much typing is left after the final whistle. If all you do after the match is enter the result and the graphic is ready, the tool is right. If you're gathering opponent, date, venue, crest and colours all over again, it's a template collection with extra steps.
Want to try it yourself: your first graphic in five minutes. The FREE plan is enough for that, and you don't need a credit card.