A Smoothcomp alternative for one event with many categories
An event with several divisions is really several tournaments sharing a venue and a day. Below is a checklist written for that case, and what Tournamyx does on each point.
Free for small events · Nothing to install
- Many categories
- Each category is its own tournament under one event
- Largest event run
- 406 teams, six categories, 755 matches
- Price to start
- Free up to 8 participants, unlimited events, no card
- Scorers
- Granted per tournament, or for the whole event at once
Many categories is a scheduling problem first
When a day holds six categories, the draws are the easy part. Each category is a small bracket or table that any tool can produce. What goes wrong is everything between them: one pool of courts shared by all six, scorers who move from one category to the next, and a spectator who has to find their own match among hundreds.
So judge a tool by what it does at the level above the individual bracket. Can the categories be managed as one event? Can one person see all of it? Can a scorer be given the whole event, or only the category they are standing at?
What to look for in a Smoothcomp alternative
5 questions. Our answers are on the right, so you can check each one.
Is each category its own draw, or one list with a filter?
Categories differ in size, format and seeding. If they share one draw, a change in one division can disturb another.
Tournamyx
Each category is a separate tournament with its own format, entrants and bracket, grouped under one event, so changing one cannot move another.
Can one person be given scoring access to the whole event?
Scorers and referees often cover several categories in a day. Granting access one category at a time is a long list on the morning.
Tournamyx
Scoring can be granted per tournament, and an event-level grant sits above it, so a scorer can cover every category with one grant.
Does a spectator have to know which category to look in?
People turn up for one player or one team and do not know which division it sits in. Every extra tap between them and the result is a question for you.
Tournamyx
The event has one public page and each category has its own public link, with live results and no login or install.
Can you put the largest category in a different format?
A category of 60 and a category of 6 should not run the same format. A tool that forces one format per event forces a bad one on somebody.
Tournamyx
Format is set per tournament: single elimination, double elimination, round robin, Swiss or group stage into knockout, chosen separately for each category.
Has it run an event of your size?
A tool that is fine for 30 entrants can behave differently at 400. A named, checkable event is worth more than a limit on a pricing page.
Tournamyx
It ran a 406-team event across six categories and scheduled 755 matches, and the 406-team case study on the blog lays out how.
Each category, a tournament of its own
The simplest model for a multi-category day is the honest one: every category is a separate tournament. Each has its own entrants and its own format, and its own result at the end. What joins them is the event they sit in, which holds the date, the venue and the people running it.
That keeps the small things small. Withdrawing an entrant from one category redraws that category and nothing else, and a late entry only touches the division it joins.
Courts are the shared resource
The categories compete for the same courts, so the question that decides your day is how many matches each category needs in each round, not how many categories you have. A round only runs as wide as its matches, so extra courts past that width save nothing.
The multiple divisions in one day guide works through the court arithmetic, and the tournament schedule maker previews the grid for your real court count before you announce anything.
Giving the right people the right access
Scoring access in Tournamyx is set per tournament, with an event-level grant above it. It is not narrowed to a single court, so a scorer can enter results from where they are standing, but the grant covers the tournament or the event rather than one court.
Free covers events up to 8 participants with no limit on how many you run. Larger events use a paid plan at $19 a month for up to 64 participants or $49 for up to 256, or a one-off $12 unlocks a single event for 30 days. The pricing page has the current tiers.
Common questions
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What should I compare multi-category event tools on?
Whether each category is its own draw, whether one person can be given scoring access to the whole event, whether spectators can find a result without knowing the category, and whether the tool has run an event of your size.
Can I run several categories at one event?
Yes. Each category is a separate tournament, with its own format and entrants, grouped under one event with a public page.
Can one scorer cover every category?
Yes. Scoring can be granted per tournament, and an event-level grant sits above that, so one grant covers every category in the event.
How large an event has Tournamyx run?
A 406-team event across six categories, with 755 matches scheduled. The 406-team case study on the blog has the format and timings.
Is Tournamyx free for a multi-category event?
Events with up to 8 participants are free with no limit on how many you run. A larger event needs a paid plan, or a one-off $12 unlock for a single event for 30 days.
Kickoff
Test it with your
real team list.
The free generators need no account and save nothing. Paste your teams and see the match count, rounds and byes before you decide anything.
Free for small events · No credit card · Nothing to install
Disclosure
Tournamyx is an independent product and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any other tournament platform. Product names and trademarks mentioned on this page belong to their respective owners and are used only to describe what a reader may be searching for. This page makes no claims about any other product’s features, pricing or capabilities. For those, check that product’s own site. Every capability described here describes Tournamyx.