NCSA vs BeRecruited vs a Custom Profile — Which One Actually Gets Your Athlete Recruited?

You can spend $0, $150, or $3,000 on tennis recruiting platforms this year. Here's an honest breakdown of what each one actually does — and the one thing none of them tell you before you pay.

The moment a family decides their athlete is serious about playing college tennis, they get hit with a wave of options. NCSA. BeRecruited. tennisrecruiting.net. UTR Sport. Each one promises to connect your athlete with college coaches. Understanding those differences before you spend time or money matters.

Option 1: NCSA (Next College Student Athlete)

NCSA is the largest recruiting platform in college sports, part of IMG Academy, and by far the most aggressively marketed. Their free tier gets you a basic profile and search tools. Their premium tiers are where things get complicated.

What NCSA does well

The platform is genuinely large. In 2025 alone, NCSA generated more than 5 million athlete profile views from college coaches and supported over 30,000 college commitments across more than 30 sports. Coaches use it. If your athlete has a complete, well-built free profile, there's real value in being visible there.

What NCSA doesn't tell you upfront

NCSA does not publicly list its exact pricing. Premium packages typically cost between $1,000 and $3,000. And here's the part that doesn't make it onto the sales call: coaches don't know how much you spent. The platform fee buys you access and guidance — it does not buy you coaching interest.

Option 2: BeRecruited

BeRecruited is a simpler, lower-cost database. Entry-level plans in the range of $40–$150. For families who want basic discoverability without a significant financial commitment, BeRecruited does what it says. But like all recruiting databases, it shows a coach a row of data — not a story.

Option 3: tennisrecruiting.net

Worth mentioning because it's tennis-specific, well-regarded in the community, and — importantly — free for basic registration. TennisRecruiting.net has offered free player profile registration for over 20 years. College coaches actively use it. If your athlete doesn't have a profile there, they should — and it won't cost a cent.

The Thing All Three Get Right — and Wrong

Every platform above solves a real problem: getting your athlete into a searchable database where coaches can find them. But discovery is just the door.

"A database tells me who is available. A real profile tells me who the player is. Those are very different questions."

What a Custom Profile Does Differently

A 1580 Creative profile isn't a database listing. It's a standalone web page with a bio written in the athlete's voice, UTR and USTA ratings integrated with live verification links, season stats, a photo gallery, target schools, and a one-click contact button. More importantly, it has a story.

So What Should You Actually Do?

Use the databases for discovery. Use a custom profile for differentiation. Here's the recommended stack:

UTR Sport — free. Non-negotiable. Every coach checks UTR first.

tennisrecruiting.net — free. Create a profile immediately. No reason not to.

Custom profile — $97 one-time. This is what you send coaches. Not a database link. A real page with a real story.

NCSA free tier — optional. Create a free profile for additional discoverability. Do not pay for the premium tier unless you genuinely need the recruiting coaching component.