# Best Scouting Software for Football Clubs in 2026 > There is no single best scouting tool, because clubs buy software for three different jobs: watching players, running the department, and licensing data. Here is who does each job, what their own pages say, and the questions to ask before you sign. Source: https://athleads.com/blog/2026-03-26-best-scouting-software-football-clubs-2026 Published: 2026-03-26 Author: Athleads *"Which scouting software is best?" usually hides three questions: where do we watch players, where does our scouting live, and where does our data come from?* Clubs that buy one tool expecting it to answer all three tend to end up paying for one and working around it with spreadsheets and WhatsApp. Clubs that separate the jobs choose faster and waste less. This guide goes job by job, names the main options for each, and sticks to what each vendor says on its own pages, linked so you can check. This post is written by the Athleads team, so read it with that in mind. Athleads appears in one of the three jobs, and we say plainly where it does not fit. --- ## Job 1: Watching players If your scouts cannot travel to a league, they need video. **Wyscout**, owned by Hudl, is the default here. According to [Hudl's Wyscout FAQ](https://www.hudl.com/products/wyscout/faq), it collects video and data from more than 1,000 competitions, with a separate Youth Pack covering more than 190 youth competitions. Coverage and historical depth vary by competition and package, so check the leagues you actually scout before you buy. Video access is metered by package. Our [Athleads vs Wyscout](/blog/2026-11-17-athleads-vs-wyscout) post walks through what the entry packages include, and the question worth asking first: how many full matches do your scouts really watch in a month? **Who owns what.** Hudl bought Wyscout [in 2019](https://www.hudl.com/blog/the-inside-view-of-hudls-wyscout-acquisition), InStat [in August 2022](https://www.hudl.com/blog/hudl-instat) and StatsBomb [in August 2024](https://www.hudl.com/blog/hudl-statsbomb-press-release-en). Three of the best known names in video and data now sit with one company. That makes integration between them easier. It also means one renewal conversation covers most of your video and data, so it is worth knowing your alternatives before that conversation, not during it. ## Job 2: Running the scouting department This is where reports are written, players are tracked over seasons, shortlists are built and decisions are made. It is the job most clubs still do in spreadsheets, email and group chats, and the one where the choice of tool changes daily work the most. **Scoutastic.** Based in Bremen, it began in 2017 as a project between the AI company JUST ADD AI and Werder Bremen, and became an independent company in 2020 as a joint venture with Transfermarkt. Its [about page](https://scoutastic.com/ueber-uns/) says it has more than 130 customers worldwide, with Werder Bremen and Bayer Leverkusen as the first, and highlights its access to Transfermarkt data. If market values and contract data drive your decisions, that partnership matters. Pricing is not published. **ScoutDecision.** Its [club software page](https://www.scoutdecision.com/software/clubs) describes a player database with reports, video, files and contracts, a recruitment tracker for transfer windows, a marketplace where clubs and agents post player requests, and modules that reach into coaching, such as training drills and wellness questionnaires. It imports from Excel and Wyscout and has mobile apps. Pricing is not published; it offers a free trial. **Athleads.** Our platform, covered in its own section at the end so it does not sit in the middle of the comparison. When you compare tools for this job, the feature lists will look similar. Report templates, shortlists, shadow teams and mobile apps are standard now. The differences that matter are: - **Who pays.** Some tools charge per user, which makes every new scout a budget decision. Ask exactly who counts as a paid seat. - **Who adapts to whom.** Can you use your own report criteria, roles and player fields, or do you learn the vendor's? - **Where the data comes from.** Does the tool bring in the data you already license, or ask you to buy its own? - **Leaving.** Can you export every report, in a format you can read, if you stop paying? ## Job 3: Data Event and physical data is licensed separately, from providers such as Hudl StatsBomb, Impect or Sportmonks, and increasingly by clubs that already pay for one or two of them. The useful question is less "which provider?" than "where will scouts see the numbers next to the reports?". Data that lives in a separate website gets checked less often than data on the player's profile. If you are building shortlists from data without an analyst, our step-by-step guide on [building a shortlist from StatsBomb data](/blog/2026-10-06-how-to-build-a-shortlist-from-statsbomb-data-without-a-data-analyst) works with any provider. --- ## How to choose, in practice 1. **Write down where each job happens today.** Where scouts watch, where they write, where decisions are made, and which data you already pay for. Most clubs find one job is fine and one is a mess. 2. **Fix the messy job first.** Video-heavy departments with tidy reports start with video. Departments that watch live, or whose reports are scattered, start with the department platform. 3. **Run the same real job in every trial.** Write one report on a real player and build one shortlist from scratch. A demo shows the vendor's best path; your own player shows yours. 4. **Ask the five questions** before you sign: who is a paid seat, what is an add-on, how long is the contract, which of our data providers connect, and how do we export everything if we leave. ## Where Athleads fits Athleads does Job 2, and connects Job 3 to it. It does not host match video, so a video-heavy department still needs a video source such as Wyscout. Each player has one profile with official Sportmonks data, the data from providers your club already subscribes to (such as StatsBomb, Impect or Noisefeed, connected with your own licence), every report your scouts have written, and your own fields, such as salary expectations or agent contact. AI summarises every report on a player and works only on your own data. You pay a fixed price only for the people who run your scouting; scouts, coaches and viewers join free. The price is given on a demo. Athleads has been in development since 2019. Its first club deployment was with [1. FC Union Berlin's youth scouting department](/case-studies/fc-union-berlin) in 2022–2023, whose scouts wrote over 1,000 reports on it in a year. --- ## The short version - There is no single best tool. Decide which job you are buying for: watching, running the department, or data. - Watching: Wyscout covers more than 1,000 competitions, and Hudl now also owns InStat and StatsBomb. - Running the department: compare Scoutastic, ScoutDecision and Athleads on who pays, who adapts, which data connects, and how you leave. - Run the same real report and shortlist in every trial before you decide. - To see Athleads on your own players, [book a demo](https://tidycal.com/athleads/athleads-demo-public).