Club Website Builder

Floot vs Spond (2026): a free club app or your own club site?

An honest comparison of Spond, the free team and club app, and Floot, an AI app builder for building your own club site: what each is, costs, events, payments, websites and when to pick each.

Floot ·

Key Takeaways

  • Spond is ready today and free for organisers. Events, reminders, waitlists, volunteer tasks, chat and payment requests work out of the box. Spond earns from payment fees.
  • Floot builds your own club site from a description. Member sign-up, events, payments and notifications with your club’s own rules, on your own domain, owned and changed by you.
  • The core difference is fixed features versus your own rules. Spond gives every club the same well-tested features. Floot gives you whatever you describe, which takes more of your time.
  • Payment costs work differently. Spond charges a fee per product paid (3.29% + $1.00 in the US). Floot has plan prices from free, and payments run through Floot Payments, paid out via Stripe.
  • Pick Spond unless you have a reason not to. Choose Floot when you want a public site on your own domain, rules Spond doesn’t offer, or members who won’t install an app.

Quick-Start Prioritization Framework

If your club…Pick
Is a team or club whose members will install an appSpond
Wants to start this week with no budgetSpond
Needs a public website on its own domain plus member featuresFloot, or Spond Club’s website add-on
Has booking rules no app offers (member-first, levels, qualifications)Floot
Collects lots of small payments and wants to control feesCompare both on your real prices
Has members who won’t install another appFloot (works in the browser)

Spond and Floot both help clubs run events, message members and collect money, but they are different kinds of product. Spond is a ready-made app: you create a group, invite members and start posting events today, for free. Floot is an AI app builder: you describe the club site you want in plain English and it builds one for you, with your own rules, on your own domain. For many clubs Spond is the better choice. This comparison explains where each fits, using Spond’s own help pages and Floot’s pricing as of November 2026.

What Spond is

Spond is a team and club app for sports and activity groups. Its website describes it as free, with single and repeating events, a season planner, time polls, invites and reminders, payment requests to groups and subgroups, chat with guardian oversight, file storage and guardian accounts for junior members.

Events and waitlists

Spond says that when an event reaches its maximum participants, the next people to sign up go on a waiting list, and the first person is notified if a spot opens.

Volunteer tasks

Its help centre describes tasks on events, such as driving or bringing food. Admins can assign them to named members or guardians or leave them open with a number of people needed; the task closes when filled. Tasks can be saved as templates and are added to individual occurrences of a recurring event.

Spond Club

Spond Club is the club-management offering: members, groups, event registration, courses and academies, payments and an optional club website. The website costs US $19.95 or UK £19 + VAT a month after a free trial (12 months in the US, 6 in the UK).

How Spond makes money

Spond’s payments help article describes it as a free platform that earns when groups process payments. The fee applies per product in a payment request: 3.29% + $1.00 in the US, 2.5% + £0.20 in the UK and 2.5% + €0.20 in the eurozone. By default the group pays; it can choose to pass the fee to members.

What Floot is

Floot is an AI app builder. You describe your club in plain English, in Floot’s own editor or from ChatGPT, Claude, Claude Code, Codex or Cursor through Floot’s MCP server, and it builds a full-stack web app: a React frontend, serverless endpoints and a Postgres database just for your app.

What a club site can include

Your app has its own sign-up and login (email, Google or Microsoft) with roles, so members don’t need any other account. It can send and receive email, send web and phone push notifications, run scheduled jobs like event reminders, update in real time and store files. Floot Payments handles checkout and subscriptions, paid out via Stripe.

Apps and domains

The site works in any browser. On iPhones, web push needs the site added to the Home Screen (iOS 16.4 or later); if that is too much friction, Floot can build native iPhone and Android apps and submit them, using your own Apple ($99 a year) and Google ($25 one-time) developer accounts, with no Mac needed. Google Play needs a paid Floot plan. Custom domains are on paid plans.

How Floot charges

Free plan $0 (100 building actions a day, $3 one-time hosting allowance). Pro $25 a month (1,000 actions a day, $10 hosting a month included, custom domains with one free). Power $100 a month. There is no per-member pricing for your app’s own users; hosting is metered by usage. Publishing is free on every plan.

Head-to-head

What each documents, side by side.

SpondFloot
What it isReady-made team and club appAI app builder for your own club site
Time to startMinutes: create a group and inviteAn afternoon for a first version, then refinements
Price to organisersFreeFree to start; Pro $25/mo; Power $100/mo
Payment feesPer product: US 3.29% + $1.00; UK 2.5% + £0.20; EUR 2.5% + €0.20Floot Payments, paid out via Stripe
Events, RSVPs, remindersBuilt inBuilt as you describe
Max participants and waitlistBuilt inBuilt as you describe
Volunteer tasksBuilt in, on eventsBuilt as you describe
Club websiteSpond Club add-on, US $19.95/mo after trialThe app is your website; custom domain on paid plans
Member accessThe Spond appYour site in any browser; optional native apps
Custom rulesWithin Spond’s settingsAnything you can describe
Your dataIn SpondYour own Postgres database; download on every plan
Who maintains itSpondYou, by describing changes

The core difference

Spond decides what the features are, and every club gets the same well-tested version. Floot lets you decide, and you get exactly what your club asked for, but you are the one asking.

Fixed features are a strength

A ready-made app has been used by many clubs before yours. Edge cases are handled, members may already know it from another team, and nobody on your committee has to think about how waitlists should work. That is worth a lot to volunteers.

Your own rules are a strength too

Some clubs keep hitting the edges: members get 48 hours of priority booking before guests; juniors can only book junior sessions; a ride can’t open until a qualified leader signs up; a members-only page needs current dues. With Floot you describe the rule and it is built into your site. When the committee changes the rule, you describe the change.

Cost works differently

Spond’s cost scales with money collected: worked example, a US club collecting $10 session fees 400 times a year pays (3.29% × $10 + $1.00) × 400 ≈ $1.33 × 400, about $532 in Spond fees, or passes that to members. A club collecting annual subs by bank transfer pays Spond nothing. Floot’s cost is the plan plus usage-based hosting, plus card fees on Floot Payments. Compare both on your own numbers.

When to pick Spond

Spond is the better choice for many clubs. Pick it if most of these are true.

  • You want to be running events this week with no budget and no setup project.
  • Members are happy to install an app, or already use Spond for another team.
  • Your needs are the standard ones: events, RSVPs, reminders, waitlists, tasks, chat and payment requests.
  • You don’t need a public website, or Spond Club’s website add-on is enough.
  • Nobody on the committee wants to own and change a website.
  • You run junior teams and want guardian accounts that are already designed and documented.

When to pick Floot

Floot fits better when the club has outgrown standard features or wants its own place online.

  • You want a public site on your own domain that newcomers find, with member features behind a login.
  • Your booking or membership rules don’t fit any app’s settings.
  • Some members won’t install another app, and a site that works in the browser suits them better.
  • You want the member data in your own database that you can download at any time.
  • You want to combine things an app keeps separate, such as dues, event booking and a volunteer rota with qualification checks.
  • Someone on the committee is comfortable describing changes and checking them in a preview.

Can you use both?

Yes, and some clubs do. A common split is Spond for team events and chat, and a separate public club website for newcomers, history and sponsors. The cost is two places to keep up to date. If you go this way, decide which one holds the official event list and link to it from the other.

Switching between them

Moving tools is easiest at the start of a season.

From a group chat to Spond

Create the group, add next month’s events, invite members and post every event in both places for two or three weeks. Then stop posting in the chat.

From Spond to your own site

Put your member list in a spreadsheet, describe your club to Floot, import the list and invite a test group. Run both in parallel for a few weeks before asking everyone to move.

Common mistakes

Clubs comparing these two often trip on the same points.

  • Building your own site when a free app would have done everything you need.
  • Assuming “free” means no costs, without checking fees on the payments you collect.
  • Running two event lists without deciding which is official.
  • Choosing a builder and leaving it with one volunteer who then steps down.
  • Launching a new tool mid-season with an empty events list.
  • Comparing features instead of asking where members already are.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Spond free?

Spond says its app is free for organisers and members and that it earns when groups process payments, with a fee per product (for example 3.29% + $1.00 in the US). The Spond Club website is a separate monthly charge after a free trial.

Is Floot free?

Floot is free to start: the free plan includes 100 building actions a day and a $3 one-time hosting allowance. Pro is $25 a month and adds custom domains and $10 of hosting a month. There is no per-member charge for your club’s own users.

Does Spond have waitlists?

Yes. Spond says that when an event reaches its maximum participants, further sign-ups go on a waiting list and the first person is notified if a spot opens.

Can Floot build a Spond-like app for our club?

Floot can build a club site with member sign-up, events with capacity and waitlists, volunteer slots, reminders, push notifications and payments from a plain-English description. It won’t be Spond; it will be your own site with the features and rules you describe.

Which is better for collecting club fees?

It depends on your amounts and volume. Spond charges a fee per product paid, which the club or members can pay. Floot Payments runs checkout and subscriptions paid out via Stripe, on top of your Floot plan. Work both out on your real fee amounts.

Do members need to install an app?

Spond is designed around its app. A Floot club site works in any browser; members can add it to their Home Screen for push notifications, or you can publish native apps.

Sources