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Challonge

challonge.com

From $1.25/mo Free plan WebAPI
Visit challonge.com
Spec score 9.0 #1 of 14 in Game Tournament Software

What it is

Challonge is competition management software for organizers handling registration, tournament progress, and records. It offers more than 25 formats, including single and double elimination, round robin, Swiss, and Grand Prix. Tournament pages can bring together brackets, participants, standings, sponsor details, stations, discussions, and score reporting. Event tools cover paid or unpaid tickets, registration fees, analytics, and attendee check-in; communities can host tournaments, events, contests, announcements, statistics, and Elo leaderboards. Applications can use its API to create tournaments and report scores. Paid registration runs through Stripe. The free Standard plan supports unlimited tournaments, events, and communities, up to 256 participants per tournament, and charges a $0.75 per-order Challonge fee on paid registrations. Premier is $83.88 a year, billed annually, and supports up to 512 participants, with no Challonge registration fee. Both plans limit single-stage Round Robin tournaments to 40 participants. Brackets can be embedded on websites; Premier adds custom themes and priority support. Challonge is available on web and through an API.

Spec sheet

What it does
Challonge is a competition-management SaaS and API for registration, progression and record keeping.Read 15 Oct 2026 · challonge.com
Purpose
Challonge is competition management technology for organizers to streamline registration, progression, and record keeping.Read 28 Sep 2026 · challonge.com
Audience
Challonge describes its audience as casual or professional organizers of esports and traditional sports competitions.Read 28 Sep 2026 · challonge.com
Integrations
The API allows applications to create tournaments and report scores, with listed Sandbox quotas of 500 requests per month on Standard and 2,000 on Premier.Read 28 Sep 2026 · challonge.com
Support
Premier includes priority support.Read 28 Sep 2026 · challonge.com
Headquarters
Indianapolis, Indiana, United StatesRead 28 Sep 2026 · challonge.com
Founded
2009Read 28 Sep 2026 · challonge.com
API architecture
API v2.1 is RESTful, uses JSON:API request and response conventions, and is hosted at api.challonge.com/v2.1.Read 15 Oct 2026 · challonge.apidog.io
API authentication
Developers can use OAuth 2 flows or legacy v1 API keys; OAuth access tokens expire after one week and refresh tokens are supported.Read 15 Oct 2026 · challonge.apidog.io
API documentation depth
The documentation lists endpoints for tournaments, participants, matches, attachments, communities, users, races, rounds and elapsed-time records, plus a JavaScript bracket API.Read 15 Oct 2026 · challonge.apidog.io
API limits
Free API usage is limited to 500 requests per month; higher usage requires a paid API plan and excess free requests return HTTP 429 after July 6, 2026.Read 15 Oct 2026 · challonge.apidog.io
API plans
API plans are managed separately from Premier, and the feature page lists a $7/month discount on paid API plans.Read 28 Sep 2026 · challonge.com
Availability disclaimer
Challonge disclaims guaranteed availability and says maintenance or technical problems can cause interruptions, delays or errors.Read 15 Oct 2026 · challonge.com
Bracket embedding
Brackets can be embedded on other websites; Standard embeds include ads and a watermark, while Premier adds custom themes and removes ads.Read 15 Oct 2026 · help.challonge.com
Communities
Communities provide a hub for competitions, announcements, followers, collaborators and community-specific Elo leaderboards.Read 15 Oct 2026 · help.challonge.com
Company founded
Challonge was founded in 2009.Read 15 Oct 2026 · challonge.com
Company size on LinkedIn
LinkedIn lists Challonge as headquartered in Indianapolis and having 2–10 employees.Read 15 Oct 2026 · linkedin.com
Competition formats
The service supports more than 25 competition types, including elimination, round robin, Swiss, free-for-all, races and Grand Prix formats.Read 15 Oct 2026 · challonge.com
Compliance limitation
The terms state that the services are not tailored to comply with industry-specific regulations such as HIPAA or FISMA.Read 28 Sep 2026 · challonge.com
Contests
The platform offers voting contests and bracket prediction challenges with leaderboards, prediction statistics and CSV or email export.Read 15 Oct 2026 · help.challonge.com
Embeds
Brackets can be embedded on websites, with custom themes available on Premier.Read 28 Sep 2026 · challonge.com
Events
Events combine multiple tournaments under a dedicated page with ticketing, registration, streams and event analytics features.Read 15 Oct 2026 · docs.challonge.com
Legal entity and headquarters
The legal terms identify Challonge, LLC, registered at 1300 East 86th Street, Indianapolis, Indiana, United States.Read 15 Oct 2026 · challonge.com
Licence and hosting
Challonge's terms state that it owns or licenses the service source code and grant users limited access rights, indicating a proprietary hosted service rather than open-source software.Read 15 Oct 2026 · challonge.com
Limit: customer support
A Trustpilot reviewer reported no phone support and email replies taking several days even with a paid subscription.Read 15 Oct 2026 · trustpilot.com
Limit: dated and buggy experience
A Reddit commenter described Challonge as buggy and very outdated compared with a newer tournament application.Read 15 Oct 2026 · reddit.com
Limit: station scheduling
In the same Reddit discussion, a user said Challonge could not tag upcoming matches on an already occupied station for stream visibility.Read 15 Oct 2026 · reddit.com
Match evidence
Match attachments are external links on Standard and file uploads up to 25MB on Premier.Read 15 Oct 2026 · page.challonge.com
Ownership
Crunchbase lists Challonge as acquired by SplitmediaLabs and privately held, with an 11–50 employee range.Read 15 Oct 2026 · crunchbase.com
Participant limit
Single-stage Round Robin tournaments are limited to 40 participants on either plan for bracket scalability.Read 28 Sep 2026 · challonge.com
Payments
Stripe integration supports paid tournament and event registration; Standard charges $0.75 per order and Premier lists no Challonge fee.Read 15 Oct 2026 · page.challonge.com
Praise: bracket usability
A Trustpilot reviewer called Challonge a very good bracket maker, while another said the site is well designed for many tournament types.Read 15 Oct 2026 · trustpilot.com
Privacy practices
The privacy notice says Challonge has not sold or shared personal information for commercial purposes in the preceding 12 months and offers deletion and access rights.Read 15 Oct 2026 · challonge.com
Rating on Trustpilot
3.5 out of 5 from 2 reviewsRead 15 Oct 2026 · trustpilot.com
Ratings and statistics
Challonge Ratings use an Elo system for player or team rankings, while Stats track match performance across seasons or all time.Read 15 Oct 2026 · challonge.com
Registration
Tournament sign-up pages let participants self-register, with waiting lists available after a configured participant maximum is reached.Read 15 Oct 2026 · kb.challonge.com
Registration payments
Paid registration uses Stripe; Standard includes a $0.75 per order Challonge fee, while Premier has no Challonge fee.Read 28 Sep 2026 · challonge.com
Score reporting
Organizers receive a score-reporting tab and can optionally allow participants to submit scores themselves.Read 15 Oct 2026 · help.challonge.com
SDK ecosystem
An independent Node.js wrapper is installable with npm and exposes resource methods such as tournaments.index and tournaments.create.Read 15 Oct 2026 · github.com
SDK licence
The independent simple-challonge-api JavaScript client repository declares an MIT licence.Read 15 Oct 2026 · github.com
Security and compliance limits
The terms say the service is not tailored for HIPAA or FISMA and should not be used where those regulations apply.Read 15 Oct 2026 · challonge.com
Team management
Organizers can require Challonge teams, manage rosters and give collaborators administrative access.Read 15 Oct 2026 · help.challonge.com
Tournament hosting
Organizers can publish dedicated tournament pages with brackets, participants, standings, sponsor details, stations, discussions and registration.Read 15 Oct 2026 · help.challonge.com
Tournament tools
Tournament pages can include brackets, participants, standings, sponsor details, stations, discussions, and score reporting.Read 28 Sep 2026 · challonge.com

Plans and prices

Standard Free Ad-supported · Unlimited tournaments, events, and communities · Up to 256 participants per tournament · $0.75/order fee for paid registrations Read 28 Sep 2026 · challonge.com
Standard Free supported by advertising unlimited tournaments, events and communities · 256 participants per tournament · external-link match attachments · Stripe registration fee of $0.75/order Read 15 Oct 2026 · page.challonge.com
Premier $6.99 a month billed yearly no ads · one free Pro Community License · custom-theme bracket embeds · priority support · unlimited tournaments, events and communities · 512 participants per tournament · file attachments up to 25MB · no Challonge fee on Stripe registrations Read 15 Oct 2026 · page.challonge.com
Pro Community License $14.99 a year requires a Challonge Premier subscription; Premier includes one free license personalized community features · no ads · enhanced discoverability · up to 512 participants · unlimited collaborators Read 15 Oct 2026 · help.challonge.com
Premier $83.88 a year $83.88 per year (= $6.99/month, billed annually) No ads · Unlimited tournaments, events, and communities · Up to 512 participants per tournament · Match file uploads up to 25mb · No Challonge registration fee · Priority support · One free Pro Community License Read 28 Sep 2026 · challonge.com

Every Challonge plan and price →

Strong points and limits

Strong points

  • More than 25 competition formats
  • Unlimited tournaments, events, and communities on Standard
  • Events include ticketing, analytics, and check-in
  • API can create tournaments and report scores

Limits

  • Standard charges $0.75 per paid-registration order
  • Single-stage Round Robin is capped at 40 participants
  • Premier costs $83.88 a year
  • Services are not tailored to HIPAA or FISMA

Who it suits

It suits casual or professional organizers of esports and traditional sports competitions who need registration, brackets, events, or community features. Organizers handling regulated-industry requirements should note that the service is not tailored to regulations such as HIPAA or FISMA.

Verdict

Challonge combines tournament management with event and community features, and its Standard plan is free. Check the participant caps, paid-registration fee, and compliance limitation against your requirements.

Where Specifiction places it

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