The best football playbook software in 2025

Coaches have been drawing X's and O's on everything from chalkboards to sandlots for as long as the game has been played.

They've since traded in their chalk, and now more than ever, coaches are turning to their tools to help them design their schemes, teach their players and game plan towards victory.

We've rounded up some of the best football playbook software on the market to help you find the perfect tool for your team.

Play Designer Pro

Play Designer Pro is a football play design tool for offenses that automatically generates quizzes to help your players to learn your playbook and execute on game day. Coaches can see where they're nailing it on the quizzes and where they might be struggling, so you know where to focus in your next practise or classroom session.

While building their playbook with built-in play drawing tools, coaches can perfect their blocking schemes or read progressions by adding a pre-built or custom defense.

There's a few appearance settings on offer, like setting custom colors and names for different positions, and choosing between outlined or solid player appearance.

Coaches can invite their players to join the team on the web app.

Once in the team, players will have read-only access to the playbook and access to the auto-generated quizzes to help players learn in a more interactive way than simply receiving a print-out or a PDF.

You can create installs, basically collections of plays and formations, so players know where coaches want them to focus. It also automatically generates dynamic quizzes for these installs too, very handy for efficient game week prep.

You can see analytics on the performance of their players in quizzes, so coaches can see which plays and formations the team knows well and which ones need improvement, and they can see which players are putting in the work. They can also see how accurate the team is for the plays in an install, so coaches can see how ready the team is for game day.

There are a range of plans depending on how many plays and players the team needs, with plans starting from $20/month or $120/year if you pay annually.

Start a 7 day free trial to see if it's the right fit for your team.

Hudl

Hudl has long been the standard for football software. Mostly famous for its video analysis tools, Hudl also offers play drawing tools.

One of the key advantages of using Hudl's play tools is the smooth integration with their video analysis tools, so you can easily map how you performed at practice and on every drive of the game.

You can create scripts and installs to organise and prepare for a winning game week.

Coaches can also see who's been studying, so you can hold everyone on the roster accountable.

Whilst Hudl's play drawing tools have been around for 10+ years now, they haven't evolved a whole lot in that time.

Hudl play tools are a $199 add-on to an existing Hudl video review subscription (starts at $900 for High School teams, so $1099 with Play Tools)

Chlk

Chlk is a football play design tool from Coach Dan Casey that focuses on simplicity.

It comes with a set of nice play drawing tools that lets you draw lines without leaving the canvas and the ability to precisely draw curved lines.

You have control over the playing field so choose between High School, College and NFL dimensions and quickly toggle from midfield to endzone to design situational plays.

You can add text on your play diagrams to highlight reads, routes and progressions, and you can tap on the offensive line to toggle through shading options.

Once you're happy with your plays, you can download them as PNGs or JPGs.

You'll need to be on the base plan to draw plays. This starts at $12.99/month or $120 for the annual plan.

First Down Playbook

First Down Playbook offers a comprehensive suite of tools and pre-drawn plays to help you get up running fast.

With over 35,000 pre-drawn plays across youth, high school, college and flag, it's very easy to get started and avoids the blank canvas problem. The search functionality makes it easy to find the exact type of play you're looking for. Great for inspiration or to quickly build your playbook in minutes.

In "lineman mode" you're able to zoom in on a play, which is great for showing detailed blocking schemes or for flag football.

It also allows you to create colorful play cards, wristcoach sheets and practice scripts from your playbook.

The play drawing tools are among the best available; allowing you to draw and annotate your plays with great clarity.

They also allow you to pair videos with players so your players can see real examples of how to run each play.

Plans start at $125 for a 90 day subscription or $250 for an annual one.

Pro Quick Draw

Pro Quick Draw is a plug-in for Microsoft Visio and PowerPoint, making it a little different from the other tools listed here in that it's not a standalone product.

It's an option that might be preferred by those who value high customisation and control over where their playbook data is stored, so you don't have to worry about the stress of switching teams and losing your work. The high level of customisation and the broad range of features provided in the Microsoft tools mean that it can be a daunting task to get started and maintain your data.

It comes with a plethora of templates for fields, formations, plays, play calling sheets, wristcoaches etc..

Notably, they boast an impressive list of clients including some of the best NFL, CFL and college teams.

They are a bit more opaque about their pricing, meaning you'll need to get in touch to request a trial and a quote for your team's needs.

Tackle Playmaker X

Tackle Playmaker X is an online playbook design, collaboration and printing tool. They offer excellent play drawing tools that allow you to create clear and vibrant diagrams.

It's easy to organise and categorise plays so you can access the right play for a certain situation.

They have a neat integration with your roster, so you can add positional assignments to individual players on your roster.

You can draw plays for 6, 7, 8, 9, 11 & 12 players per side leagues and they have a sibling product for Flag football.

It's also nice that you can customise your dashboard with your own team logo and color.

Pricing starts from $7/month for the lowest plan.