Hiive vs Playo: which fits how you run?
Playo is a sports community app for booking venues and courts, joining or hosting pickup games, and finding trainers. Venues manage bookings and memberships through Playo's Venue Partner Interface app. Here’s how it compares with Hiive for organizers, venues and communities — including where Playo is the better choice.
Checked October 2026 · By the Hiive team
The short answer
At a glance
Yes Partly No? Not confirmed from official sources
Where they differ
What it's built around
Playo
Court and turf bookings, pickup games and trainers.
Hiive
Events and the communities (Hives) behind them, plus venue services and schedules.
Cost to venues
Playo
Commission on bookings plus venue software; rates not published.
Hiive
Free for the first couple of months, then a fee agreed with you based on value.
Who gets in
Playo
Players book open slots or join hosted games.
Hiive
Per event: request to join, invite-only or application-based. Per Hive: open, invite-only or closed.
Reaching your audience
Playo
Pricing rules and discounts for venue bookings.
Hiive
Campaigns for promotion, announcements, offers, win-back, renewals and weekly digests.
Activity
Playo
Not supported.
Hiive
Run, ride and walk tracking with routes, and workouts.
Which should you choose?
Choose Playo if…
- You want players to find and book your courts or turfs through a large sports marketplace.
- You play racket or team sports and want to join pickup games near you.
- You operate in a city where Playo already has deep venue and player coverage.
Choose Hiive if…
- You run ticketed events or recurring sessions, not just court slots.
- You want to curate members with applications, invites or join requests.
- You want campaigns, a checkout funnel and identified signed-in viewers for your events.
- Your community runs, rides or walks and wants tracking in the same app.
About Playo
Pricing
As of October 2026
- Players book courts and turfs, host or join games, and use Karma discounts and gift cards in the app.
- Venues: Playo earns a commission on bookings, plus a venue-management software offering (Playo for business). Commission rates are not published.
In India
Playo is headquartered in Bengaluru and covers Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Kochi and more, as well as Dubai, Qatar, Oman, Australia and Sri Lanka. Bookings are in rupees in India.
Best for
Players booking courts and turfs, and venues filling slots through a sports marketplace
Where Hiive isn't the best fit
- Hiive is newer than most tools it's compared with. Its event and community coverage is deepest in Mumbai, where it launched, and is growing city by city.
- Business pricing isn't a public rate card: the software is free for the first couple of months, then a fee is agreed with each partner based on the value delivered.
- Businesses join through an application, so setup is guided rather than instant self-serve.
Switching from Playo
- 01
List the members and regulars you want to bring with you from Playo.
- 02
Create your Hiive and set up your first event, Hive or venue.
- 03
Share your Hiive link with your community and run the first event on it.
Questions
Playo earns a commission on bookings made through it and also offers venue-management software (Playo for business). It does not publish its commission rates, so venues should ask Playo directly (as of October 2026).
Yes. Playo covers Mumbai along with Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Delhi NCR, Kochi and other cities, plus Dubai, Qatar, Oman, Australia and Sri Lanka.
If your community runs ticketed events — run clubs, pickleball socials, yoga or workshops — Hiive combines ticketing paid out in rupees, curated entry, campaigns and venue schedules in one workspace. For pure court booking, Hudle is the closest like-for-like alternative.
Playo is the better choice if you're a player who wants to book a court tonight or find a pickup game, or a venue that wants to sell slots through an established Indian sports marketplace. Hiive suits the communities and venues that run events — run clubs, pickleball socials, yoga, rides and workshops — and want ticketing, curated entry, campaigns and booking analytics in one workspace.
The Hiive software is free for the first couple of months while your business is set up and runs real activity. After that, Hiive and the partner agree a fee based on the value Hiive has added. There is no fixed public rate.
Try Hiive with your real events. Free for the first couple of months.
Create your Hiive, or tell us how you run things today and we'll map the right setup and a useful pilot.
See the whole platform →Sources and disclosure
Written by the Hiive team. We make a competing product, so every claim about another product here comes from its own website or help centre, checked in October 2026. Prices and features change — check the provider before you decide. Spotted something out of date? Email jai@hiive.club and we’ll fix it.