Comparison
An alternative to HotClays, ClayTrack and Score Chaser for clay shooting matches
HotClays, ClayTrack, Score Chaser and ClaysBuddy handle the digital score sheet well: the shooter or the scorer marks clay by clay and the total comes out ready. Orbit starts from the same place and carries on where a sanctioned match needs it to: who signed the result, what changed afterwards and how that holds up weeks later.
And a club already running practical shooting on Orbit signs up for nothing new: same account, same athlete records and same API key — with clay shooting coming in as one more sport in the menu.
What each tool covers
Orbit, HotClays, ClayTrack and Score Chaser side by side
What each tool delivers to whoever runs the match, not just to whoever marks the score.
| Feature | Orbit | HotClays | ClayTrack | Score Chaser |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clay-by-clay marking in the field | ||||
| Works with no signal and syncs later | partial | partial | ||
| Judge signature and athlete PIN on the result | ||||
| Append-only history and a per-match audit trail | ||||
| Online registration with live spots and waiting list | ||||
| Ranking by class and category with countback | partial | partial | ||
| Public results with no login and a big-screen view | partial | |||
| Fully web based, no app to install | app | app + web | ||
| Documented public API | ||||
| Portuguese, English and Spanish | ||||
| Athlete portal with history and receipts | partial | |||
| Same system for practical shooting and clay shooting | ||||
| Cost for the club | Free (beta) | free | free | paid per match |
Comparison based on features publicly advertised by each tool; features and plans may change. We are not affiliated with HotClays, ClayTrack, Score Chaser or ClaysBuddy.
The difference
A digital score sheet is not the same thing as a sanctioned match
A scoring app handles practice and the small club very well. A match that counts for a ranking has a different problem: someone will dispute a clay weeks later, and the system has to be able to answer.
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The result has an owner The round closes with the judge’s signature and the athlete’s PIN, chained together. Touching the score afterwards breaks the signature, and the screen shows that it broke — it is not a log line somebody has to remember to look for.
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Nothing is overwritten in silence Every correction keeps the previous version, with a reason, a description and who did it. Reopening a signed score goes through a confirmation dialog, never a single click.
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The exception is on the record too An athlete who left before confirming does not hold up the match: the manager approves without a PIN and the exception enters the audit trail under their name. The shortcut exists, but it leaves a trace.
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The whole club in one place Athletes, classes, categories and users are the same as the rest of the club. A club already running practical shooting on Orbit does not keep two sets of records that drift apart in the first month.
Ecosystem
Not a scoring app — the club’s whole platform
Clay shooting joins a system that has been running practical shooting matches since day one. Everything built for one modality is available to the other: the same login, the same athlete records, the same API key and the same public screens.
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Two sports, one club Practical shooting and clay shooting in the same panel, with the menu switching sport in one click. Each person in the club sees only the modalities you release to them, and each one chooses where they land.
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Athlete portal The shooter has their own account: they follow their registrations, confirm their own score with a PIN, keep their receipts and look up the history of the matches they have shot — in both modalities, in the same place.
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Single sign-on for real Federated identity (SSO), with Google and Microsoft sign-in. One account for the club, for the judge and for the athlete — no separate password per screen and no spreadsheet of credentials.
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Public pages, ready to go Match page, public registration, results with no login and a big screen for the clubhouse TV. The club switches each one on whenever it wants, and the link comes out ready to share.
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Championships and season ranking Rounds aggregated into a single ranking, with the championship’s own hub — the structure the club already uses in practical shooting to award a whole season.
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Live streaming A scoreboard overlay for OBS, Prism and YouTube, the club big screen and a broadcast monitor. The scoring goes on air by itself, without somebody typing into a separate scene during the stream.
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Public API in both sports The same key reads and writes in both modalities, with an open specification, a browsable reference and a field on every record for your own system id.
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Three languages, from the menu to the guide Portuguese, English and Spanish in the interface, in the public pages and in the usage documentation — each person picks theirs in their profile.
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Built for match day Field screens that work with no signal, install as an app on the phone and stay standing when the club’s internet drops. That is the normal case, not the exception.
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User guide and support from the people who built it Documentation by role — club, judge, athlete and results — in all three languages. And when you message on WhatsApp, the person who answers is the one who wrote the system.
Integration
No need to abandon what the club already uses
The public API covers matches, registrations, squads and results, and each record stores an identifier from your own system — you find everything again by your own reference, with no lookup table kept on the outside. Results also come out as CSV and as a printable sheet.
Frequently asked questions
Questions about switching systems
Can we import the history of the matches we have already run?
Old matches can come in through the API, registrations and results included. What cannot be reconstructed is the signature: an imported score comes in as a historical result, without the PIN chain that only exists when the round closes in the field.
Our club uses a scoring app for practice. Do we have to stop?
No. Orbit is for the match that counts towards a ranking; Saturday practice stays wherever it works well. For anyone who wants to unify the two, that is what the API is for.
What if our modality has no preset?
The round is configurable station by station: you set how many stations there are and how many clays each one throws. That covers most formats — what is missing is the convenience of picking from a list.
Is the system really free?
The module is in beta and use is free. When there is a paid plan, clubs already using it will be told in advance — the rules do not change in the middle of a match.
Get started
Bring your next clay shooting match to Orbit
No installation, no contract and no cost to start. Register your club and build the match in minutes.