Last reviewed: October 2026. Every statement about Spond below is sourced from Spond’s website, help center or App Store listing, or from our own hands-on test of the Spond app (October 2026).
Spond is one of the best-known free apps for organizing sports teams, and many clubs that are leaving WhatsApp groups end up choosing between Spond and Klubraum. Both are free to start, both handle events and RSVPs, and both have chat. They are built around different ideas, though, and that difference decides which one fits your club.
The short version: Spond is built around organizing teams and groups, and around collecting money – dues, trip costs, kit – with a fee on every product paid. Klubraum is built around the whole club as one communication space: an Area for every team, committee and the board, threaded conversations, a timeline for announcements, and events with RSVPs and carpool seats. Klubraum does not collect member dues or payments, so it charges no transaction fees, and it shows no ads.
We make Klubraum, so we are not neutral. We have tried to be fair anyway – including where Spond is the better choice.
Table of contents
- What Spond is
- How Spond makes money
- What Klubraum is
- Klubraum vs Spond at a glance
- Which app fits your club?
- Conclusion
What Spond is
Spond is made by Spond AS in Norway and describes itself as a free app for clubs and communities of every kind (spond.com). According to its App Store listing, Spond covers:
- scheduling training, matches and events, including recurring events for a whole season, with calendar sync
- automatic RSVPs and attendance tracking, and a waiting list once an event is full (spond.com)
- collecting membership fees and event payments, with reminders
- managing several teams with sub-groups and member roles, member import and attendance export to Excel
- line-ups, goals and player-of-the-match voting
- group chats, posts and polls, plus folders for photos and documents
- guardian accounts, so parents manage their children’s participation and can see what coaches send them
Spond has a simple messaging feature: parents and guardians get full visibility, and a whole chat cannot be deleted, only archived (Spond help: Messages).
On top of the app, Spond Club is a web-based administration tool for clubs that run several groups: member and group management, registration forms for new members, admin roles, payment requests with discounts and instalments, course registration and donation campaigns (Spond Club overview).
How Spond makes money
Spond is free to download and use. It earns money in three documented ways:
1. Transaction fees on payments. When a club or group collects money through Spond – in the app or in Spond Club – a fee applies to every product paid for. The standard rate is 2.5% + €0.20 in the Eurozone, 2.5% + £0.20 in the UK and 3.29% + $1.00 in the USA. By default the club covers the fee, or it can pass it on to members (Spond: payment costs, transaction fees in Spond Club).
2. Advertising. Spond calls it “brand partnerships”: selected brands appear inside the app, in “designated sections” for “ads and sponsored content”, which Spond says generates revenue to keep the app free. Users cannot switch the ads off – asked whether they can opt out, Spond answers: “No.” (Spond: brand partnerships)
3. Fundraising. Spond names fundraising revenue as its third source of income; Spond Club offers donation campaigns (Spond: brand partnerships).
On data, Spond states that it does not sell user data to third parties, and its consent settings list personalised advertising as an optional purpose that users can decline (Spond: branded content). Its App Store privacy label lists identifiers and usage data as data that “may be used to track you” (App Store).
None of this is unusual for a free app – it simply means the model works best when the club runs its money through Spond.
What Klubraum is
Klubraum replaces a club’s scattered WhatsApp groups with one organized space for the whole club – sports clubs, choirs, scout groups, fire brigades and community organizations alike.
- Areas for every team, age group, committee and the board, each with its own members, roles, conversations and events. Members follow only the Areas they belong to.
- Threaded conversations per topic, Area or event, with reactions, mentions, voice messages, files and read progress.
- A timeline for announcements, so important news does not scroll away in chat.
- A shared club calendar with recurring events, RSVPs, participant limits with an automatic waiting list, child and guest sign-ups, iCal subscription and a website embed.
- Carpooling inside events: drivers offer seats, passengers join with one tap, and each ride gets its own conversation.
- Surveys and polls, a member directory that members keep up to date themselves, and a digital membership card.
- Native apps for iOS and Android, a macOS app and a full web app – no phone number needed to join.
The free plan is free forever, with unlimited members and Areas and no ads. Optional Plus and Pro plans add more customization and control (pricing). Klubraum is hosted on servers in Frankfurt, Germany, with a GDPR data processing agreement.
Klubraum does not collect member dues or payments, and it does not do lineups or match statistics – it is the communication layer of the club. Clubs that collect dues keep their existing tool for that and use Klubraum alongside it.
Klubraum vs Spond at a glance
| Spond | Klubraum | |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Spond AS, Norway | aucentiq solutions GmbH, Germany |
| Built around | Teams and groups; Spond Club for club administration | The whole club as one space, with Areas for teams and committees |
| Price | Free | Free plan; optional Plus and Pro per user per year |
| How it earns money | Transaction fees on payments, in-app advertising, fundraising | Optional paid plans |
| Advertising | Yes – ads and sponsored content in the app (“brand partnerships”); per Spond’s FAQ no opt-out, only personalised ads can be declined (Spond help, branded content) | None |
| Collecting dues and payments | Yes – standard 2.5% + €0.20 per product paid (Eurozone) | Not part of the product, so no transaction fees |
| Membership administration | Spond Club: registration forms, member types, roles | Member directory kept by members; admin stays in your admin tool |
| Events and RSVPs | Yes, recurring events, participant limit and waiting list | Yes, recurring events, participant limits and waiting list |
| Who has seen an event | Not shown | Number of views (free plan); who has seen it (Plus) |
| Carpooling on events | Not documented on Spond’s website | Yes, with seats per driver and a conversation per ride |
| Chat structure | One flat message stream per chat; group chats are started by hand from a member list, up to 100 members (Spond help) | Separate conversations per topic, Area, event and carpool, plus a timeline for announcements |
| Who a chat is for | Always a hand-picked list of people; subgroups are recipient lists “for events and posts”, not chat spaces | Private chats with selected members, or open conversations for one or several Areas or the whole club |
| Several chats with the same people | No – a new message to the same person reopens the existing chat | Yes, one conversation per topic |
| Conversation on an event | A comment section on the event, open once invitations are sent (Spond help) | A full conversation on every event – for recurring events, one per date – plus one on every carpool offer |
| Reply to a specific message | No reply option | Yes |
| Edit a sent message | No (copy, delete or forward only) | Yes, marked “edited” |
| Search messages | No search inside a chat | Search across conversations and messages |
| Attachments | Photos and files; videos are rejected, also as a file (tested) | Photos, videos, documents, location and voice messages |
| Surveys inside a chat | No (polls are a separate feature) | Yes |
| Link previews | No | Yes |
| “Is typing” indicator | No | Yes |
| Admin controls for a chat | Name a group chat, add people, archive, report | Add and remove participants, lock a conversation, archive |
| Guardians and children | Guardian accounts with full message visibility | Child profiles; parents sign children up for events |
| Line-ups and match stats | Yes | Not included |
| Platforms | iOS, Android and a web version (Spond help); Spond Club in the browser | iOS, Android, macOS and web, same features everywhere |
| Hosting and privacy | GDPR-compliant per Spond; App Store label lists tracking data | Hosted in Frankfurt, Germany; GDPR data processing agreement |
Spond information as published on spond.com, help.spond.com and the App Store, checked October 2026; chat features tested hands-on in the Spond Android app and web client in October 2026. Prices and features change – check the provider’s site if in doubt.
Which app fits your club?
- Choose Spond if you run competitive or youth teams and want to collect dues, trip costs and kit payments inside the app, set line-ups and give parents guardian accounts. The transaction fee is the price of that convenience.
- Choose Klubraum if you want to move the whole club off WhatsApp – every team, the board, committees and the social side – into one app where people follow only what concerns them, conversations stay readable in threads, announcements live on a timeline and events come with RSVPs and carpool seats. No ads, no transaction fees, and a free plan with unlimited members.
- Use both if it suits you: some clubs collect payments with one tool and run their day-to-day communication in Klubraum.
If you are still comparing more widely, our big comparison of club apps looks at 17 apps, and our page on club communication without WhatsApp compares Klubraum with WhatsApp, Signal and Threema.
Conclusion
Spond is a strong, free app for organizing teams – especially youth sport – and for clubs that want to collect money in the same place, at a fee per product paid. Klubraum is the app for clubs that want one communication hub for everyone: Areas instead of a dozen group chats, threaded conversations, a timeline, and events with RSVPs and carpools – ad-free, with no transaction fees and hosted in Germany.
Want to see it for yourself? Create a free account or try the demo without signing up.
Last reviewed: October 2026. Prices and features can change; please check the providers’ websites for current information.