Apps
Kopio, Futbology and the others: which match tracker app for you?
Match tracker apps split into two families. Groundhopping apps such as Futbology and Footbeen are built around a huge fixture database and a map of grounds, which suits supporters who visit many lower-league stadiums. Supporter apps such as Kopio are built around your own matchday stats — goals witnessed, kilometres, streaks — and suit fans who mostly follow one club.
Search for an app to record the football matches you go to and you will find half a dozen that look alike: a map with pins, a list of matches, some badges. They are not alike. Each one is built around a different idea of who is using it, and picking the wrong one is the main reason people give up on them after a month.
We make one of these apps, so treat this with the appropriate scepticism. We have tried to describe the others by what they say about themselves, and to be plain about where they are better than ours.
The question that decides it
Before comparing features, answer this: what do you want the app to tell you in five years?
- "How many different grounds have I been to, and where are the gaps?" — you are a groundhopper. The size of the fixture database matters more than anything else.
- "What has my club done when I was actually there? How many goals have I seen? How far have I travelled for them?" — you are a supporter first. What matters is the quality of the stats built from your own matches.
Most apps can do a bit of both. None does both equally well, because they are designed from opposite ends.
Futbology: the database heavyweight
Futbology (formerly called Groundhopper) is the longest-established app in the category. Its website claims around 1,500 leagues and 90,000 stadiums. You can check in at the ground, pick the match from a list of results, or add it manually. It offers personal stats by season or in total, a map of visited stadiums, badges, and a nearby-fixtures finder.
Its model is freemium: the app is free, and a monthly or annual subscription unlocks features such as nearby fixtures, historical results and a photo per match, according to its own site.
Where it wins: if you regularly watch non-league, regional or obscure foreign football, database coverage is everything, and that is Futbology's strongest argument.
Footbeen and the ground trackers
Footbeen describes itself as a personal football map and match diary covering 1,300+ leagues, with stats by club, league, country and season, and the ability to import an existing match history. A number of smaller apps — stadium passports, ground trackers, community apps like TheFans — follow the same pattern: find the fixture, save it, watch the map fill up.
These are good at what they set out to do. Their centre of gravity is the ground: the pin on the map is the reward.
Kopio: built around what you saw
Kopio starts from the other end. The reward is not the pin, it is the career: every match you attend adds to stats like matches attended, stadiums visited, goals witnessed and kilometres travelled, plus badges, a leaderboard against friends and supporters worldwide, and a social feed to share matchday.
Matches are added by scanning your ticket — paper stub or mobile pass. The app reads the fixture, the date and the stand. That makes logging fast, and the ticket itself becomes part of your record rather than something in a drawer.
Kopio is free on iOS and Android and available in 15 languages. Its weakness, compared with the groundhopping heavyweights, is exactly its strength reversed: it is designed for the supporter who goes to matches, not for the collector who ranks the grounds.
Side by side
- Main reward — Futbology and Footbeen: the stadium map and ground count. Kopio: your stats as a supporter.
- How a match is added — Futbology: check-in, results list or manual entry. Footbeen: search and save, plus history import. Kopio: ticket scan.
- Best for — Futbology: lower leagues and serious groundhopping. Footbeen: a clean diary of top-tier football. Kopio: fans who follow a club and want to know what their matchdays add up to.
- Price — all three can be used for free; paid tiers and their contents change, so check each store listing before paying.
Can you use two?
Plenty of people do: one app for the ground count, one for the supporter stats. It costs a few seconds per match. If that sounds like a chore, it will become one — in which case pick the single app matching the answer to the five-year question above, and do not look back.
Frequently asked
What is the best app to track football matches you attend?
It depends on what you want to track. For counting many different grounds, especially in lower leagues, a database-heavy groundhopping app such as Futbology fits best. For your own matchday stats — goals witnessed, kilometres travelled, streaks, rankings with friends — a supporter app such as Kopio fits best.
Is there an alternative to Futbology?
Yes. Footbeen and several smaller ground trackers follow a similar database-and-map approach. Kopio takes a different approach: you scan your match ticket and the app builds supporter statistics, badges and a leaderboard from the matches you attended.
What is the difference between Kopio and Futbology?
Futbology is centred on a large fixture and stadium database — around 1,500 leagues and 90,000 stadiums according to its site — and suits groundhoppers. Kopio is centred on supporter statistics built from your own matches, and matches are added by scanning your ticket.
Are match tracker apps free?
Futbology, Footbeen and Kopio can all be used for free. Some offer paid tiers with extra features. The contents and prices of those tiers change, so check the current App Store or Google Play listing before paying.
Can I use two match tracking apps at the same time?
Yes, nothing stops you. Some supporters use a groundhopping app for their ground count and a supporter app for their stats. It adds a few seconds per match, which only works if you actually keep both up to date.
Track the grounds you do
Kopio logs every match you attend — the stadium, the score, the distance — and turns them into a career you can actually look back on. Free on iOS and Android.
Keep reading
Supporter stats: the numbers worth keeping from the stands
Players have stats, so do supporters. The eight numbers worth recording from the matches you attend, what each one really tells you, and the ones that only look impressive.
Are you a lucky charm? How to calculate your team's record when you attend
Every supporter suspects their team does better, or worse, when they are in the stadium. How to calculate your real record, compare it fairly, and tell a pattern from luck.
What is groundhopping?
Groundhopping is the hobby of visiting as many different football stadiums as possible. Here is where it came from, what counts as a ground, and how to start.