OrganizedPlay compared
Tournament software has gotten better. We think it can be better still.
TopDeck, Melee and Carde can all run serious tournaments. OrganizedPlay starts with the fundamentals you expect — pairings, standings, decklists, registration, staff tools and recurring play — then works on the parts we think are still worth improving.
What happens when the connection fails. How much of your attention the software wants during a round. How easily somebody can walk in and play. How your data gets out. And what it costs to run the night you already run.
Your regular weekly event is free, with every feature included. Unlimited events is $9.99 a month.
Four platforms. Different priorities.
OrganizedPlay
Stores and independent organizers who want low-friction nights, recurring leagues that carry standings, deliberate behavior when the connection drops, easy walk-ins, open integrations and predictable pricing.
TopDeck
Native iOS and Android apps, an existing player network to discover your events, or Elo circuits across twenty-plus games matter to you today.
Melee
You are running inside an ecosystem already standardized on Melee — publisher-backed programs and premier events, where the field expects it.
Carde
A publisher has built its organized-play program on Carde and your store participates through that network.
What you actually get.
Every competitor claim below is checked against their own site and documentation, checked on September 1, 2026. Where each one came from is at the bottom of the page, once per competitor.
Running the tournament
The fundamentals. All four of these products do this, and a comparison that pretended otherwise would not survive ten minutes of anybody checking.
Swiss, top cut and standings
The engine underneath every night.
- OrganizedPlay
- IncludedSwiss, elimination and a configurable tiebreaker chain
- TopDeck
- Supported
- Melee
- Supported
- Carde
- SupportedSwiss with a ranked top cut and tiebreakers
Round robin and small fields
For a field too small for Swiss to separate.
- OrganizedPlay
- IncludedRound robin, pods of four, and age divisions paired separately
- TopDeck
- SupportedRound robin, true Swiss, and pods
- Melee
- SupportedStructure and phases are configurable
- Carde
- SupportedRound robin and random round robin round types
Decklists
Submitted by the player, read by a judge.
- OrganizedPlay
- IncludedRequirements, deadlines, and a judge's verdict on each list
- TopDeck
- SupportedRequirements, deadlines, and submission from the app
- Melee
- SupportedIncluding open decklists and editing submissions
- Carde
- SupportedRequirements, submissions, and review
Penalties and corrections
A misreported result at table nine, forty minutes later.
- OrganizedPlay
- IncludedAppend-only corrections, with the superseded value retained
- TopDeck
- SupportedJudge Center, penalties, and editing a finished round
- Melee
- SupportedPenalties, editing results and fixing pairings
- Carde
- SupportedInfractions, penalties, and undoing results
Judge calls
A hand goes up at table nine. Who is going, and what happened.
- OrganizedPlay
- IncludedRaised at the table, claimed, resolved — with time extensions and a history
- TopDeck
- SupportedThe Judge Center
- Melee
- We could not find first-party documentation either way.
- Carde
- We could not find first-party documentation either way.
Late arrivals and drops
Somebody arrives in round two; somebody leaves in round three.
- OrganizedPlay
- IncludedSeat a late arrival without re-pairing the round
- TopDeck
- SupportedWaitlist, drops, and manual byes
- Melee
- SupportedLate enrollment and byes
- Carde
- SupportedAdd players mid-event, and manage registrations
Staff and judge roles
More than one person running the room.
- OrganizedPlay
- IncludedScoped permissions, with every action audited
- TopDeck
- SupportedEvent roles, invitations, and an audit log
- Melee
- SupportedStaffing organizations and tournaments
- Carde
- SupportedOrganization members and staff roles
Recurring competition
A Friday night is not one event fifty-two times, and a season is a thing in its own right.
Recurring events
Set the night up once.
- OrganizedPlay
- IncludedA series definition that creates each night on schedule
- TopDeck
- SupportedCloning a recurring event
- Melee
- SupportedCloning and recurring events
- Carde
- SupportedRecurring schedules and event templates
Standings across a season
Week seven means something because weeks one to six are still counted.
- OrganizedPlay
- IncludedPoints carried across every night of the season
- TopDeck
- SupportedCircuit leaderboards across many events
- Melee
- We could not find first-party documentation either way.
- Carde
- We could not find first-party documentation either way.
A published cut line
"Am I in?" answered on the table rather than worked out from it.
- OrganizedPlay
- IncludedThe qualification rule stated on the standings page
- TopDeck
- SupportedQualify at a points threshold, into a finale
- Melee
- We could not find first-party documentation either way.
- Carde
- We could not find first-party documentation either way.
A player’s record across venues
What they did at another store still counts as something they did.
- OrganizedPlay
- IncludedA player page carrying their record and head-to-head
- TopDeck
- SupportedGlobal Elo leaderboards
- Melee
- We could not find first-party documentation either way.
- Carde
- SupportedTournament history on a network player profile
When the venue’s wifi gives up
TopDeck documents offline play and so do we. What differs is the harder half — what happens when a second device has been working too.
Running a round offline
Pair, report, correct, drop — with no connection.
- OrganizedPlay
- IncludedPair, report, correct, penalize and drop with no connection
- TopDeck
- SupportedAn offline badge, a queued-action count, and a local engine
- Melee
- We could not find first-party documentation either way.
- Carde
- We could not find first-party documentation either way.
Syncing when it comes back
The queue drains rather than the night being retyped.
- OrganizedPlay
- IncludedEvery device reconciles deterministically, not by asking
- TopDeck
- SupportedThe queue replays in order on reconnect
- Melee
- We could not find first-party documentation either way.
- Carde
- We could not find first-party documentation either way.
A published rule for two devices disagreeing
Which report wins, who holds authority, and what a judge sees.
- OrganizedPlay
- PublishedThe offline contract is a page on this site
- TopDeck
- One operating tabTheir guide recommends keeping an event in a single operating tab
- Melee
- We could not find first-party documentation either way.
- Carde
- We could not find first-party documentation either way.
Getting a player into a seat
The friction between somebody walking in and somebody playing.
Play without an account
A walk-in five minutes before round one.
- OrganizedPlay
- No account needed
- TopDeck
- Added by staffStaff add the player at the desk
- Melee
- We could not find first-party documentation either way.
- Carde
- We could not find first-party documentation either way.
Players report their own results
From the table, rather than a queue at the desk.
- OrganizedPlay
- IncludedReported at the table; participants confirm, disputes route to a judge
- TopDeck
- OptionalSelf-reporting when the organizer turns it on
- Melee
- SupportedMelee Mobile
- Carde
- SupportedPlayers submit results on the play network
Public event page
The link a store pastes into its Discord.
- OrganizedPlay
- IncludedA public page per event, with live pairings and standings
- TopDeck
- SupportedEvent discovery and a store hub
- Melee
- SupportedTournament and organization hubs
- Carde
- SupportedA live event page with a shareable link
Getting your data out
Whether the software is part of your stack or the whole of it.
API
Read your own events and standings.
- OrganizedPlay
- IncludedRead your events, standings and pairings on every plan
- TopDeck
- SupportedA free REST API, 100 requests a minute
- Melee
- SupportedDocumented API use
- Carde
- We could not find first-party documentation either way.
Write API
Your own site takes the registrations.
- OrganizedPlay
- IncludedRegister and seat players from your own software
- TopDeck
- SupportedCreate tournaments and register players
- Melee
- We could not find first-party documentation either way.
- Carde
- We could not find first-party documentation either way.
Webhooks
Your Discord posts the pairings without polling for them.
- OrganizedPlay
- IncludedSigned with a versioned HMAC, for every domain event
- TopDeck
- SupportedSigned events for rounds, results and registrations
- Melee
- We could not find first-party documentation either way.
- Carde
- We could not find first-party documentation either way.
Export and calendar feeds
CSV, JSON, and an .ics your players can subscribe to.
- OrganizedPlay
- IncludedCSV, JSON, and a calendar feed players can subscribe to
- TopDeck
- ExportAnalytics tables, and add-to-calendar in the app
- Melee
- We could not find first-party documentation either way.
- Carde
- SupportedCSV and JSON for players, decklists, standings and pairings
What it costs
Read off the pricing pages we could find, on 1 September 2026. Melee and Carde publish none we located, which is why their column is blank rather than cheap or expensive.
An ongoing free plan
Not a trial — a plan that does not expire.
- OrganizedPlay
- FreeOne event a week, up to 16 players, every feature
- TopDeck
- 14-day trialTheir pricing page lists a 14-day trial, then a subscription
- Melee
- We could not find first-party documentation either way.
- Carde
- We could not find first-party documentation either way.
Monthly
For more than one night a week.
- OrganizedPlay
- $9.99Unlimited events, no seat cap
- TopDeck
- $12
- Melee
- We could not find first-party documentation either way.
- Carde
- We could not find first-party documentation either way.
Yearly
The same thing, billed once.
- OrganizedPlay
- $99.99Two months cheaper than paying monthly
- TopDeck
- $120
- Melee
- We could not find first-party documentation either way.
- Carde
- We could not find first-party documentation either way.
One extra event
The week a prerelease lands, without changing plan.
- OrganizedPlay
- $0.99One more event this week, without changing plan
- TopDeck
- We could not find first-party documentation either way.
- Melee
- We could not find first-party documentation either way.
- Carde
- We could not find first-party documentation either way.
Taking entry fees
Whether the money has to go through the platform.
- OrganizedPlay
- OptionalStripe if you want it, cash at the counter if you do not
- TopDeck
- SupportedPayment processing is included
- Melee
- Policy dependentGoverned by a stated entry-fee policy
- Carde
- SupportedStripe payments and refunds
A dash means we did not find out. It is not a no. We could not find current first-party documentation describing that capability either way, and we are not going to guess on their behalf — several of these are almost certainly capabilities the product has and documents somewhere we did not look. Where a competitor does document something, the cell says so and links to their own page.
Same fundamentals. Different priorities.
Built for the connection you actually have.
Losing the venue’s wifi should not stop the round. Results, corrections, drops, late arrivals and penalties do not disappear because the connection did.
TopDeck documents offline operation too, and that is a real thing they built. The harder problem is what happens when two devices come back disagreeing — which report wins, who held authority, and what a judge sees. We publish those rules as part of the product rather than leaving them to be discovered.
3 changes waiting to sync
- Result reported · table 14
- Player seated · round 3
- Player dropped · after round 2
Your regular night costs $0.
Not a trial. One event a week, up to 16 players, every feature, for as long as you keep running it. You pay when you run more than one a week or a night outgrows the cap — $9.99 a month, $99.99 a year, or $0.99 for one extra night.
Free
Free
1 event a week, up to 16 players
- Every feature — nothing held back
- Players never need accounts
- Runs through a lost connection
Monthly
$9.99/month
As many events a week as you run
- No seat cap
- Series, seasons and circuits
- Cancel whenever you like
Annual
$99.99/year
2 months free against the monthly price
- Everything in monthly
- One invoice a year
One more night
$0.99/event
A single extra event, without subscribing
- For the week a prerelease lands
- No plan change
TopDeck’s pricing page lists $12 a month or $120 a year after a 14-day trial. Melee and Carde do not publish subscription pricing we could find, so there is no number here to compare against rather than a number we guessed.
Someone walked in five minutes before round one.
Add them. A player should not have to install an app, make an account and verify an email before you can give them a seat. Type a name, seat them, and they play — mid-round if that is when they arrived. If they want their record to follow them afterwards, they can claim it later.
Your tournament data is not trapped.
Your site can take the registrations. Your Discord can publish the pairings. Your display can show the round clock. A read and write API, webhooks for every domain event, CSV and JSON export and subscribable calendar feeds — on every plan, including the free one.
TopDeck publishes a free REST API with signed webhooks, including endpoints that create tournaments and register players, and Melee documents API use. On this row we are in good company rather than out in front.
Choose OrganizedPlay if…
- you want software that stays out of the way during a round
- your Friday night is a season rather than fifty-two separate events
- your venue’s connection is not something you can rely on
- a walk-in should be able to walk in
- you want it to talk to the tools you already use
- you would rather know what it costs than find out
Run your next tournament before you decide.
Your regular weekly event is free, every feature is included, no credit card is needed, and the free plan does not expire.
How we verified this
Competitor capabilities and prices are checked against each product’s own pages and documentation — never a third-party write-up, which goes stale and gets things wrong. Products change; every claim above traces to a specific page and date, and a weekly check flags anything that may have moved since.
- TopDeck— checked 2026-09-01, across 5 pages of their own documentation.
- Melee— checked 2026-09-01, across 2 pages of their own documentation.
- Carde— checked 2026-09-01, across 2 pages of their own documentation.
Think something here is wrong or out of date? Tell us and we will check it again.