Free Climbing Competition Software in 2026
Five platforms with genuine free options — what each actually covers
Five climbing competition platforms have a genuine free path: JudgeMate (free for organizers, no athlete cap), FingerComps (free up to 100 athletes), ClimbingComp (open-source, self-hosted), Pebble (free with 15% commission on entry fees), and Vertical-Life Smart Scorecard (federation-only basic tier). Each one trades something for the zero-dollar entry — usually athlete count, hosting effort, competition entry fees, or feature scope. Pick by what you can give up.
What "free" actually means here
Every platform on this page costs zero dollars to start, but the trade differs:
- Free for organizers — the platform earns elsewhere (enterprise contracts, federation tiers). Organizers pay nothing per event. JudgeMate sits here.
- Free up to a cap — usable below an athlete or feature threshold; above it, paid subscription kicks in. FingerComps caps at 100 athletes per event.
- Free open-source, self-hosted — zero licence cost but you handle servers, updates, and uptime. ClimbingComp falls here.
- Free with revenue share — the platform takes a cut of competition entry fees instead of a subscription fee. Pebble takes 15%.
- Free federation tier — limited functionality available only inside a federation contract. Vertical-Life Smart Scorecard's basic tier is here.
A "free" decision depends on which trade fits your event.
The five free options at a glance
Each row shows what the platform charges nothing for and where the limits start.
| Platform | Free Until | Limits | Tradeoff |
|---|---|---|---|
| JudgeMate | Always — for organizers | None on event size, athlete count, or sport coverage | No IFSC isolation rounds, no 8a.nu sync |
| FingerComps | Up to 100 athletes per event | Above 100 athletes: $20 per 100 additional athletes | Minimal marketing site, small support team |
| ClimbingComp (OSS) | Always — under AGPL-3.0 licence | Self-hosted; you maintain servers and updates | Last meaningful commit in 2016; not actively developed |
| Pebble | Always — no upfront cost | Platform takes 15% of competition entry fees | Higher net cost than JudgeMate at any paid-entry event |
| Vertical-Life Smart Scorecard (basic) | Only inside a federation contract | Functionality limited; full Vertical-Life pricing is enterprise | Available only to federation-affiliated gyms |
JudgeMate — free for organizers, no caps
JudgeMate runs zero cost for organizers across every event size, sport, and configuration. There is no athlete cap, no commission on paid registrations, no feature gate between tiers because there are no tiers. The product covers 36 sports including climbing, skating, ski jumping, and football, all on one design system.
Boulder point values are configurable per problem. Organizers pick an integer preset (5/10/15) or a decimal one (1/0.01/0.0001) — with the decimal format, a total of 5.1203 reads as 5 tops, 12 zones, and 3 flashes in a single number. Setters can weight harder problems higher without touching ranking logic.
Best for: organizers who want a permanent free path without commission, registration cap, or hosting effort. Festivals, gym leagues, university competitions, and multi-sport venues are the typical use cases.
Trade-off: JudgeMate does not currently handle full IFSC isolation rounds, does not sync with 8a.nu, and is younger in the climbing-specific community than Vertical-Life or TopLogger. For typical gym, club, university, and league events outside the federation pipeline, none of those are blockers.
FingerComps — free under 100 athletes
FingerComps is the closest direct competitor on the "free" angle. The free tier covers events up to 100 athletes. Above that, the platform charges $20 per additional 100 athletes — so a 250-athlete event costs $40, a 500-athlete event $80.
The product is small but functional: bouldering scramble with self-reporting, simple leaderboards, basic exports. The marketing site is minimal, the support team is one or two people, and the brand recognition is low.
Best for: small recurring gym events under 100 athletes where the organizer wants something purpose-built for climbing without a multi-sport platform's overhead.
Trade-off: above 100 athletes the cost is real, and the platform's smaller team means fewer feature updates than larger competitors.
ClimbingComp — open-source, self-hosted
ClimbingComp is an AGPL-3.0 open-source project on GitHub by Snyders. The codebase covers basic competition flow — registration, scoring, leaderboards. Zero licence cost, zero per-event fee.
The trade is significant: you host it. That means a server, a database, deployment, security patches, and uptime monitoring during the event. The repository's last meaningful commit was in 2016, so the codebase has not received maintenance for several years.
Best for: technical organizers with sysadmin skills who want full data ownership and control over modifications. University clubs with engineering members sometimes pick this path for the learning value.
Trade-off: the time cost of self-hosting and the risk of running unmaintained code on event day. For most organizers, the hours saved by using a hosted platform outweigh the licence savings.
Pebble — free with 15% commission
Pebble runs a revenue-share model: zero upfront cost, but the platform takes 15% of competition entry fees from paid events. For a $25 entry × 200 athletes = $5,000, Pebble keeps $750.
The platform itself is competent — scramble format, self-reporting, leaderboards. The economic question is whether 15% of competition entry fees is more or less than what an alternative platform would charge directly.
Best for: free-entry events where the commission applies to nothing, or pilot events where the organizer wants no upfront commitment and is willing to share revenue if registration succeeds.
Trade-off: at any paid event of meaningful size, the commission is higher than what JudgeMate or FingerComps would cost. A 500-athlete paid event running on Pebble costs more than the same event on a paid-tier platform.
Vertical-Life Smart Scorecard — free federation tier
Vertical-Life offers a free basic tier of Smart Scorecard for federation-affiliated gyms. The functionality is limited compared to the full federation product, but the entry price is zero for qualifying gyms.
Best for: national-federation-affiliated gyms running occasional sanctioned events where federation reporting matters. Outside the federation contract, this tier is not available.
Trade-off: access depends on federation status, not the gym's choice. Independent gyms or non-affiliated organizers cannot use this path. For most readers of this comparison, this option is closed by default. See our Vertical-Life alternative comparison for the broader picture.
Decision matrix
Pick by the constraint that hurts least:
| If You Need | Pick |
|---|---|
| Free path with no athlete cap and no commission | JudgeMate |
| Climbing-specific platform under 100 athletes | FingerComps |
| Full data ownership and self-hosting | ClimbingComp (with maintenance budget) |
| Zero upfront cost on free-entry events | Pebble |
| IFSC-sanctioned event in federation pipeline | Vertical-Life Smart Scorecard (federation tier) |
Try JudgeMate on your next event
A bouldering event takes about 10 minutes to configure. No athlete limits, no commission on registrations. See bouldering features · Bouldering glossary
See also
Climbing competition software compared 2026
Seven-platform survey: Vertical-Life, ClimbAlong, TopLogger, KAYA, UpMost, FingerComps, JudgeMate. Pick by federation tie, gym ecosystem, or budget.
Vertical-Life alternative
Federation-grade IFSC partner. €300/day standby + €65/hour event-day (plus VAT). Best fit for sanctioned events; usually too costly or operationally heavy for gym leagues.
TopLogger alternative
Gym CRM with logbook + comp module. Free up to 35 users; paid plans on quote (toplogger.nu does not publish current rates). Best fit when the gym already runs the daily logbook.
UpMost alternative
Bouldering-focused, AU/NZ-anchored. Polished athlete UX. Best fit for paid events inside the AU/NZ ecosystem.
Frequently asked questions
Sources
- FingerComps pricing — FingerComps
- ClimbingComp open-source repository — GitHub (Snyders)
- Pebble climbing comp platform — Pebble
- Vertical-Life Smart Scorecard product page — Vertical-Life