Why this comparison matters
Side Out and Tally are both Apple Watch-first pickleball scorekeepers. Both let you score by tapping your watch, both speak the score aloud, both sync to HealthKit. The differences are real but narrow, and which one fits depends on whether pickleball is the only sport you play.
I am the founder of Tally. I have used Side Out. Below is what I would tell a friend asking.
At a glance
- Side Out — Pickleball: Watch-first pickleball scorekeeper with swipe-to-score, automatic serving order, voice announcements, side-out/rally/simple formats, iPhone scoreboard companion, HealthKit and iCloud sync. Free with IAP.
- Tally: Watch-first scorekeeper for pickleball, tennis, padel, badminton, and table tennis. One tap per point, sport-aware rules engine, Live Activities, HealthKit, on-device Coach's Report on Pro. $3.99 one-time for scoring; optional $3.99/mo Pro.
Where Side Out wins
Side Out has been around longer than Tally and the polish shows in a few places:
- iCloud sync between Watch and iPhone. Side Out's match history syncs automatically across devices. Tally is local-first by design, so syncing is a deliberate choice that users can enable on a per-device basis but is not on by default.
- Pickleball-only focus. Because Side Out only does pickleball, every screen and setting is tuned for the sport. There are no menus to pick a sport, no other rule variants to scroll past. If you only ever play pickleball, that focus is a real benefit.
- Free upfront. Side Out's core scoring is free. You pay only for optional features.
Where Tally wins
Tally took a slightly different bet on three things:
Five sports under one roof
Pickleball, tennis, padel, badminton, and table tennis. Each with a proper rules engine — side-outs, ad/deuce, tiebreaks, rally to 21, rally to 11. If you play more than one racquet sport you stop needing to install a separate app per sport. Side Out is pickleball only.
Coach's Report after the match
Tally Pro generates a narrative recap of your match using on-device Apple Foundation Models. It reads back the rally that turned the game, the side you started losing your serve, and a single suggestion for next time. Side Out has solid match history; Tally Pro adds the "what does this mean" layer on top.
One-time pricing for scoring
Tally is $3.99 one-time for scoring. The Pro AI features are opt-in monthly or annual. Side Out is free with IAP, which is fine for casual use but means the upgrade path is subscription-shaped. Tally's "pay once for the scorekeeper, subscribe only if you want the AI" model fits players who want predictable spending.
Feature comparison
- Scoring from the wrist: both yes
- Sport-aware pickleball rules: both yes
- Other racquet sports: Tally 4 more, Side Out no
- Voice score announcements: both yes
- HealthKit Racquet Sports workout credit: both yes
- iCloud sync between devices: Side Out yes (default), Tally local-first (opt-in)
- Live Activities on iPhone lock screen: Tally yes, Side Out not surfaced
- On-device AI post-match recap: Tally Pro yes, Side Out no
- Pricing: Side Out free + IAP; Tally $3.99 one-time + optional Pro
Pricing honesty
If you only play pickleball, Side Out's free tier is a perfectly reasonable choice and the IAP layer is honest. Tally costs $3.99 up front which is meaningfully more than free, and the Coach's Report is behind a subscription.
The real question is whether you play any other racquet sport. If yes, $3.99 for Tally is one purchase that covers all of them; otherwise you would buy or sign up for one app per sport.
How to pick
- Pick Side Out if you only play pickleball, want iCloud sync between devices on by default, and prefer free with optional IAP.
- Pick Tally if you play more than one racquet sport, want the on-device AI Coach's Report after matches, and prefer a one-time price for scoring with an optional subscription only for the AI features.
Either way, the watch-first approach beats pulling a phone out between points. We agree on the big thing.