Volleyball tactics board app: phone, tablet or online

Looking for a volleyball tactics board app means choosing between a standalone drawing app and a board that lives inside your coaching app. Below, the volleyball boards for phone, tablet and browser are compared side by side: what they cost, what they do better than Koach, and where Koach makes the difference.

What should a volleyball tactics board app do?

A magnetic board has one job: showing six people the same picture in a few seconds. An app has to do that at least as well, and then do something a plastic board cannot. Look for these points when you choose:

• A real volleyball court. With the net and attack lines, full or half court. Many board apps are built for soccer or for several sports at once.
• Fast drawing. An arrow for the ball, a dashed line for a player's run, and an eraser. During a time-out there is no time for menus.
• Saving under a name. A board you can find again after the match is worth more than a photo buried among a hundred others.
• Sharing with your team. As an image in the team group chat, so players can look at it again at home.
• Where it runs. Your phone on the sideline, a tablet in the locker room, a laptop for the pre-match talk, ideally with one account.
• Player markers and animation, if you really need them. If you want to show the runs of six players step by step, an app that plays movements back serves you better than a drawing board.

Still not sure whether it should be an app at all, or a magnetic or LCD board after all? Read whether to buy a coaching board or just use your phone first. This article is about which app.

Generic whiteboard apps and online tactics boards

We make Koach. So read the comparison below as written by a maker who knows Koach from the inside and the other apps from their store listings.

The first option you may already have: a drawing or whiteboard app on your tablet. It costs nothing extra, but it has no volleyball court: you draw the court yourself every time or put a photo underneath, and your boards end up among your other notes. That is fine for one sketch, not for a whole season.

There are also tactics boards that open in the browser without installing anything, which is handy on a laptop for a pre-match talk. Do check whether you can save a board and whether the court is usable on a phone screen: on the sideline you usually do not have a laptop open.

Coach Tactic Board: Volley, the full-featured board

Checked in October 2026 in the App Store and on Google Play.

Coach Tactic Board: Volley has been around for a long time: it has been in the App Store since 2014, runs on iPhone and iPad, and is also on Google Play, with 100K+ downloads. According to the App Store it is available in 26 languages.

What it does better than Koach: you build animated plays and drills, and you put players on the court with name, number and position and drag them around. You save unlimited tactics, organized in folders by opponent, match or training session, and export them as an image or PDF. With Coach Messenger you set up group chats with your coaching staff and share a tactic right in the conversation. If you want an attack combination to actually move, this is the app built for that.

Downloading is free. The Android version contains ads, and you pay in the app for the Pro features; in the US App Store these include Coach Pro Monthly at $2.99 and Coach Pro Yearly at $19.99. What the store listing does not mention: live scoring, attendance or a schedule. So do not count on keeping track of your matches in it.

VolleyBoarder and Volleyball Coach: two smaller volleyball apps

VolleyBoarder by Tom Venhorst calls itself the digital tactics board for volleyball coaches, for lineups, rotations and plays. You add players with name, jersey number and position on a full or half court, draw movement lines, save unlimited tactics in folders and export them as an image or PDF. It is free and runs on iPhone and iPad; the App Store lists English as its only language. The first version came out in February 2026, and when we checked in October 2026 it had not been updated since. A strong pick if you want a free board that is only about volleyball, with players you can drag.

Volleyball Coach by Bart Lamberigts is on Google Play, with 5K+ downloads and in-app purchases; we did not find it in the App Store (checked in October 2026). According to its store listing it has a drill library with filters by theme and number of players, animated drills you share as a video, a court editor, and lineups with formation checks and substitutions. If you are on Android and mainly want to share drills that move, look here.

Volleyball tactics board apps side by side

Checked in October 2026 in the App Store and on Google Play. "Not listed" means the store page does not mention it, not that the app cannot do it.

Volleyball Coach is not in the table: its store listing is mostly about drills. If you only look at the board, Coach Tactic Board and VolleyBoarder offer more than Koach. Koach only wins if you also want your lineup, matches and attendance in the same app.

What the tactics board in Koach does

In Koach the board is not a separate app but part of your team. You open it with Tactics board at the top of the Training tab, or in the screen of a scheduled match, below Start. In short:

• Full court or Half court, and drawing with Pen, Arrow, Dashed and Erase.
• Save tactics board stores the board under the name you type at the top, with your team, so it is still there when you later log in on another device. If you open it from a match, the list shows For this match under its name.
• Share as image turns it into a picture for your team's group chat.

The board works in the iPhone and Android app, on the iPad and in the browser at koachvolleyball.com/app, with the same account. That also makes Koach an online volleyball tactics board: what you draw on your laptop at home is on your phone on match day. How to use the board during a time-out is explained step by step in the tactics board in the time-out.

Why a board inside your coaching app works differently

The difference is not in the board itself, where Coach Tactic Board and VolleyBoarder do more, but in what surrounds it. In a standalone board app you place your players on the board, but according to the store listings you do not keep track of a match in it. In Koach your lineup lives in the Lineup view on the Team tab: you choose 5-1, 4-2 or 6-2, tap your players onto their positions, assign the setter and libero, and with View all 6 rotations you see where everyone stands in each rotation.

On match day you take that lineup into the live screen. There you see the current lineup, the serve order and your time-outs, and the lineup rotates when your team sides out. So you only use the board for whatever you want to show on top of that. More on setting it up is in the lineup app for the 5-1, 4-2 and 6-2, and the systems themselves are explained in creating a volleyball lineup.

What the Koach tactics board does not do

• No player markers. You do not place players or balls on the board; you draw them. That is a deliberate choice: with those tools added, there was too little court left to draw on during a time-out. If you want to drag players around on the board, Coach Tactic Board and VolleyBoarder can do that.
• No animation. A board is a single image. Movement is possible in the drill editor: there you place players, ball and equipment, create phases and play the drill back.
• No color choice. You draw in one color; choosing colors is only possible in the drill editor.
• No chat. Koach has announcements for your team, but no chat in which you discuss a board; Coach Tactic Board does have one.
• No standalone board. The board is not sold separately. If all you need is a board, a free board app is cheaper.

Which volleyball tactics board app fits which coach?

• You want to build animated plays, or discuss tactics in a chat with your coaching staff. Choose Coach Tactic Board: Volley; for animated drills on Android, Volleyball Coach is an option too. Koach is not built for that.
• You want a free volleyball board on your iPhone or iPad, with players you can drag. VolleyBoarder or the free download of Coach Tactic Board.
• You coach a team and want the board, lineup, matches and practices in one place. Then Koach fits, even though its board is simpler.
• You coach beach volleyball. Koach is built for indoor volleyball with six players; look at another app.

For the tactics themselves, from serve pressure to defensive systems, start with the basics of volleyball tactics. What to look for when you choose a coaching app in general is covered in what to look for in a volleyball app for coaches.

How much does a volleyball tactics board app cost?

Coach Tactic Board and VolleyBoarder are free to download; with Coach Tactic Board you pay in the app for the Pro features. You can try Koach free for 14 days, with no credit card and with every feature, the board included. After that you choose Coach for €2.99 per month (one team, two coaches) or Club for €9.99 per month (unlimited teams and coaches). With a yearly plan you pay €2.49 or €8.33 per month. In the App Store and on Google Play you pay the store price in your own currency. The amounts are on the pricing page, and everything else Koach does is on the features page.

Prefer paper? Print a blank court from the volleyball court template as a PDF, full or half, and draw on it with a marker. You can put your six rotations on a printable sheet with the free rotation generator, no account needed. Paper just does not save anything with your team, and it does not rotate along with the match.

Sources: App Store and Google Play (Coach Tactic Board: Volley), App Store (VolleyBoarder) and Google Play (Volleyball Coach), checked in October 2026. Prices and features can change; check them yourself before you choose.

Frequently asked questions

Further reading

The tactics board: explaining a situation in the time-out Volleyball coaching board: buy one, or just use your phone? Volleyball lineup app: 5-1, 4-2 and 6-2 rotations, subs and libero on your phone

Browse 200 volleyball drills with animations Download a complete practice plan of 8 to 28 weeks