Koach

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Interviews

Interview · 13 September 2026

“I didn’t want a free app where your team is the product”

On the price of Koach: why there is no ad-supported version, what paying per team actually means, and when a coach is better off spending nothing.

What it costs

It is the question every coach asks before installing anything: what does a team app cost, and why can’t this thing just be free? Most apps on your phone cost nothing, and most coaches do the job unpaid on top of a full-time job. Koach still carries a price, and that price is deliberately not zero.

Dennis Boekhout, who built the app himself, explains where the money goes, why he charges per team instead of per player, and which kind of team he would tell to walk away.

Let’s start with the awkward question: why isn’t Koach free?

“Because free doesn’t exist. That sounds glib, but it is how it works. If you pay nothing, somebody else pays, and that somebody wants something back. Usually your attention or your data. I didn’t want a free app where your team is the product.”

“There is no advertising code and no analytics code inside Koach. I don’t sell data on. That isn’t a nice line for a brochure, it is a technical decision — and you can only make it if the bill is covered somewhere else. In my case that is the subscription.”

But a free version with a small ad bar at the bottom would have been possible?

“Technically, yes. But picture the moment you actually open the app. You’re on the sideline, it is twenty seconds until the serve, and you want to know who you can still bring on. At that moment a banner isn’t a minor annoyance, it is a roadblock.”

“So I gave the whole screen to the team. You open the home screen and you see your team goal, the announcements you sent round and your players’ attendance. Not a square inch is rented out. That is what a couple of euros buys you.”

The Koach home screen: a greeting, the team goal ‘Promotion to the second division’, two announcements from the coach, and below that the players’ attendance as bars. — No ad slot along the bottom: the whole home screen belongs to the team.

What does it actually cost to keep an app like this running?

“More than people think and less than they fear. [laughs] There are servers running. There is storage waiting for every match you have ever scored, and I keep those for years. There are two developer accounts, with Apple and with Google, that have to be renewed every year. And the stores keep a slice of every euro.”

“Then there is the part nobody sees: I answer the support mail myself, I fix the bugs myself, I build the new features myself. One builder, a lot of evenings. That is why it isn’t a one-off payment but a subscription — the costs come back every month too.”

And then you name a price. What is it?

“Coach is € 2.99 a month. That is one team with two coaches on it, and it includes everything: lineups and rotations, live scoring, practices and attendance, per-player statistics, the drill library. Take it by the year and it is € 29.88, which works out at € 2.49 a month.”

“For a club there is Club, € 9.99 a month, with unlimited teams and coaches. There is no third option. I can’t stand price lists you need to set an afternoon aside for.”

This example is running Club; whichever plan you are on, it sits in your own profile with the manage button next to it.

Why charge per team rather than per player?

“Because charging per player punishes you for something good. You end up with a squad of fourteen and you find yourself hesitating over the fifteenth. That is exactly the wrong thought to plant in a coach’s head.”

“So players and parents pay nothing. Zero. They get their own account, see their own numbers, sign up or drop out of a practice, and none of that costs you a cent extra. Eleven of them or twenty: same price.”

The team’s player list: thirteen players with shirt number, position and age, an Invite players button, and an Invited or Active label beside each name. — Thirteen players or twenty: the subscription doesn’t notice the difference.

Does the coach pay for that, or should the club?

“Both happen, and I am fine with both. A coach who pays it out of pocket — that is roughly one coffee a month, I am not going to tell anyone that is too much. But let’s be honest: this is club work.”

“You track attendance, you sort out the lifts to the away game, you set the lineup. That isn’t your hobby, it is a job the club needs doing. So just ask. Set against what a season of balls and hall hire costs, this amount disappears.”

What does a club get that a lone coach misses out on?

“Overview, mostly. With Club every team sits under one roof. Your home screen shows the coming week for all your teams at once — that JB 2 plays at six, that Women’s 5 practises at eight, in one list.”

“And there is a club report: every team you coach listed one under the other, with matches played, wins and losses and the attendance rate per team. On top of that the things a lone coach has no use for — the member list for the whole club, team selection for the new season, volunteer duties, venues, membership fees, and several admins each with their own rights.”

The home screen with the block ‘Coming week · all your teams’: a JB 2 match, a Men’s 1 practice, a Bedrijven 1 match and a Dames 5 practice listed underneath each other. — With Club, every team’s matches and practices land in the same list.

The club report: a table showing matches played, the win-loss record and the attendance percentage per team, with the top scorer under each team name. — Every team you coach on one line, attendance included.

And if I start on Coach and a second team turns up mid-season?

“Then you hit a screen asking whether you need more teams. Coach is for one team, so the moment you create a second one you are offered Club. Your subscription switches over straight away and the price difference is settled pro rata. You don’t pay twice.”

Is there a point where you say: don’t buy this?

“Yes, and I would rather say it beforehand than afterwards. If your team plays a tournament three times a year, don’t buy this. Koach only becomes worth it when there is something to stack up: attendance across a whole season, statistics that come from somewhere, growth you can put on a graph.”

“A recreational group that mostly plays for the fun of it doesn’t have that, and then you are paying for a graph that stays empty. So try it first: fourteen days, everything included, no credit card. If after those two weeks you think ‘I’m not really using this’ — there is your answer.”

And if I stop paying after a season, do I lose everything?

“No. Your team and your data stay where they are. The app says as much when your trial runs out: after that you need a subscription, but your team and data stay put.”

“Holding a season of matches hostage strikes me as indecent. That season belongs to you and your players, not to me. Come back in September and it is all still there.”

What do you want a coach to take away from this?

“That a price is also a promise. As long as you are paying, you are the one I am building this for. Not an advertiser, not some outfit buying data. If a feature shows up tomorrow, it is because a coach asked for it. That is the whole deal.”