Catapultvs
WHOOP
WHOOP: Far cheaper per athlete for recovery and readiness monitoring, with no positional or collision data
Catapult
Wearable athlete tracking and video analysis for professional teams, with indoor sport needing separate hardware
As of 31 August 2026, Catapult's pricing is not published; the vendor quotes on request. Australian-listed maker of the GPS vests worn by professional footballers, rugby players and their equivalents, now also a video analysis vendor. Softwr lists it under Sports. Catapult is made by Catapult Group International Ltd, available on Web, iOS, Android, Windows.
Overview
What Catapult does
Catapult sells athlete monitoring hardware and the analysis software around it. The Vector wearable records position, acceleration, collision and heart rate data during training and matches, and the platform turns that into training load, intensity and readiness measures that sports science staff use to manage workload and injury risk. Alongside the wearables it sells video analysis products acquired from XOS Digital and SBG Sports Software, plus weight-room computer vision, so a club can run tracking data and coded video from one supplier. The fact that reorganises a budget is the difference between outdoor and indoor. Vector uses satellite positioning, which works on a pitch and not in an arena. Indoor sports need a local positioning system, an installation of anchor units in the venue, which is a capital project with a different price and a physical dependency on the building. A basketball or netball programme evaluating Catapult on the basis of what a football club pays is comparing the wrong numbers. Contracts are also typically multi-year with hardware bundled, so the annual figure understates the commitment. The buyers are professional clubs, national teams and well-funded college programmes with a sports scientist on staff. That last part is the real trade-off: the hardware produces data continuously and it is worthless without someone qualified to interpret it and a coaching staff that will act on it. Programmes that buy the vests without the person end up with expensive attendance records.
What people use it for
- A professional football or rugby club managing training load across a squad through a congested fixture list
- A national team programme that needs consistent workload data across athletes who play for different clubs
- A college programme with a sports science department that will act on readiness data rather than file it
- An indoor sport organisation prepared to fund a venue installation to get positional data where satellite tracking fails
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Catapult.
- Satellite positioning does not work indoors, so arena sports must buy a local positioning system with anchor units installed in the venue, which is a capital project priced far above the outdoor product.
- Contracts are typically multi-year with hardware bundled into the subscription, so the annual figure understates the commitment and early exit does not recover the hardware.
- The data is only useful with a qualified sports scientist to interpret it; programmes that buy the vests without the staff get expensive attendance records instead of workload management.
- Raw data access and export are limited relative to what research-minded departments want, so bespoke analysis often depends on what the vendor chooses to expose.
- Cost puts it out of reach of amateur and school sport entirely, and the venue dependency for indoor tracking means the system is tied to a building rather than to the team.
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Catapult
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- CatapultvsGarmin Connect
Garmin Connect: Adequate for endurance squads that need pace, distance and heart rate rather than team load metrics
- CatapultvsHudl
Hudl: The better choice when the requirement is coded match video rather than athlete tracking data
Pricing
What Catapult costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Catapult Vector
On request
- Quoted per athlete with hardware bundled into a multi-year term
- Outdoor satellite positioning only
- Analysis software and support included
- Replacement and expansion units priced separately
Catapult Indoor Tracking
On request
- Requires anchor units installed in the venue
- Capital installation cost in addition to the subscription
- Priced well above the outdoor product
Catapult Video
On request
- Coded match and training video
- Quoted per organisation
- Sold separately from athlete monitoring
Capabilities
Features
Vector wearables
Position, acceleration, collision and heart rate capture during training and matches
Training load analysis
Workload, intensity and readiness measures used to manage injury risk
Local positioning system
Anchor-based indoor tracking for arena sports where satellite positioning does not work
Video analysis
Coded match video from the acquired XOS and SBG product lines
Weight room monitoring
Computer vision tracking of resistance training velocity and volume
Athlete management integration
Data pushed into athlete management systems used by performance departments
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Does it work indoors?
Not the satellite-based Vector product. Indoor sports need the local positioning system, which requires anchor units installed in the venue and costs considerably more.
Is the hardware bought or leased?
It is normally bundled into a multi-year subscription. Ask what happens to the units at the end of the term and what an early exit costs.
Do we need a sports scientist?
Effectively yes. Without someone to interpret load and readiness data and a coaching staff willing to change sessions because of it, the investment does not return anything.
How does it compare with a chest strap or a watch?
Those give heart rate and little else. Catapult adds positional, acceleration and collision data, which is what distinguishes training load work from fitness tracking.
Keep looking
Where to go from Catapult
- Catapult alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Catapult pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Catapult badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Sports softwareThe full category
- Best Sports softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Sports software for
Compare Catapult with
- STATSports
- Hudl
- Coach Logic
- Kitman Labs
- WHOOP
- Nacsport
- Spiideo
- Veo
- Garmin Connect
- Fitbit
- TeamSnap
- ClassPass
- Wodify
- STATSports
- Kitman Labs
- Nacsport
- Spiideo
- Veo
Other Sports software
GPS and inertial wearables that produce athlete physical load data, with the consent obligations that implies
Pricing on request11 researched notesVideo analysis and performance platform spanning school teams, elite analysts and automated capture hardware
Pricing on request12 researched notesVideo analysis priced for volunteer-run clubs, with players tagging and commenting rather than just watching
12 researched notesAthlete management platform holding medical, injury and load data from other systems in one record
Pricing on request11 researched notesWindows video tagging software that works on footage you already have, sold in tiers
Pricing on request11 researched notesPermanently installed multi-camera capture for venues, with automated production and analysis on top
Pricing on request11 researched notesA camera you buy that films the whole pitch, with software that crops a virtual camera to follow play
Pricing on request11 researched notesTeam scheduling and communication for volunteer-run sport, with a separate quoted product for clubs and leagues
Free plan12 researched notesGPS and inertial wearables that produce athlete physical load data, with the consent obligations that implies
Pricing on request11 researched notesAthlete management platform holding medical, injury and load data from other systems in one record
Pricing on request11 researched notesWindows video tagging software that works on footage you already have, sold in tiers
Pricing on request11 researched notesPermanently installed multi-camera capture for venues, with automated production and analysis on top
Pricing on request11 researched notesA camera you buy that films the whole pitch, with software that crops a virtual camera to follow play
Pricing on request11 researched notes
Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Catapult, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
More on Catapult
Catapult alternatives
What people switch to, and what they give up
Catapult pricing
Every tier, and where the cost actually lands
Compare Catapult
Put it head to head with anything we hold
Catapult badge
Its rating, and an embed for your own site
Best Sports software alternatives
Video analysis priced for volunteer-run clubs, with players tagging and commenting rather than just watching
Per team per year
Registration and governance platform mandated by several United States national governing bodies
quoteA camera you buy that films the whole pitch, with software that crops a virtual camera to follow play
quotePermanently installed multi-camera capture for venues, with automated production and analysis on top
quoteTeam scheduling and communication for volunteer-run sport, with a separate quoted product for clubs and leagues
Per team per monthVideo analysis and performance platform spanning school teams, elite analysts and automated capture hardware
quote