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Catapult is the other name in professional GPS tracking. Where STATSports has Liverpool and Arsenal, Catapult has more than 3,000 elite teams in over 130 countries, and its Vector pods are the ones you see under the shirts in the NFL, the AFL and half of Europe’s top leagues. Catapult One, launched in 2021, is the consumer version: a FIFA-approved 10 Hz GPS pod, a vest, and an app, sold to individual soccer players as a membership rather than a purchase.
That last word is the review. The hardware is as good as the STATSports Apex I reviewed last week. What has changed in 2026 is everything around it: how you buy it, what you own, and how much attention Catapult is still paying to the individual product while it pushes Catapult One Team.
Here is the breakdown.
Quick Verdict
- Buy it if: you want professional-grade GPS data for one season or two, you are happy paying about $179 a year for as long as you use it, and you like the idea of a membership you can pause when injured. The pod, the vest and the heat maps are genuinely good.
- Skip it if: you want to own the tracker, you expect to use it for three seasons or more, or you want a product the company is still actively developing for individuals. On all three counts the STATSports Academy pack, $320 once with no subscription, is the better buy.
- Coaches: Catapult One Team is a different and better proposition, with a web dashboard, Player Load, and a two-year contract at about $180 per player per year for ten or more players. That is where Catapult’s effort now goes.
What Catapult One Is
Catapult One is the successor to PLAYR, the consumer vest Catapult sold from 2018 and still supports under the Catapult One app. The kit is a small pod, a four-way-stretch vest in youth and adult sizes from a 25-inch chest to a 46-inch one, a charging dock and a carrying case. The pod sits in a pocket between the shoulder blades, records at 10 Hz, and syncs to a phone app over Bluetooth after the session. Catapult says it captures ten times the data of a fitness watch, which is true in the sense that a watch on your wrist is a poor place to measure how a footballer runs.
It is FIFA-approved electronic performance and tracking equipment, which means it is legal under Law 4 wherever the competition allows tracking vests, and it is the same approval that lets Catapult’s pro pods be worn in official matches.
What It Costs, and What You Own
Catapult’s support centre puts it in one sentence: Catapult One is a membership-only service and cannot be purchased upfront. The pod is tied to the membership. One pod, one player, one membership; if you want to share a pod between two children, you need two memberships.
| Plan | Price | Terms |
|---|---|---|
| Individual, annual | About $179 a year | Starter kit (pod, vest, dock, case) included with the first year; valid 12 months from purchase |
| Individual, monthly | About $15.99 a month plus a $34 kit fee | Offered at launch; confirm in the app, where memberships are now sold |
| Catapult One Team | About $180 per player per year, from about $155 for larger orders | Ten-player minimum, two-year commitment, billed annually, renews annually; quote-based |
Two support-centre answers tell you what happens when you stop paying. If you cancel, you keep access to high-level session data, but trends, insights, heat maps and analysis need an active membership. If a team misses a payment, the membership lapses and the dashboard goes with it. There is one genuinely good clause: you can pause an individual membership while injured, no questions asked which no one-time-purchase product can offer because there is nothing to pause.
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Over three seasons that is roughly $540 for the individual plan against $320 once for the STATSports Academy pack with its heart-rate belt. Over five seasons it is $900 against $320. The membership is the product, and the arithmetic only works if you are sure you will stop.
The Hardware Is Not the Problem
Battery is 270 minutes of active recording, which is three matches or a long tournament day, with a two-month standby and a roughly two-hour charge in the dock. The pod has light indicators for charge and sync state, which is one small thing it does better than the STATSports pod. It is weather-resistant but not for the washing machine or for submerging, so the vest gets washed and the pod does not.
Owners consistently describe the vest as light enough to forget and the pod as precise. Catapult’s accuracy claim rests on the same FIFA EPTS testing that STATSports cites, and the Vector line the pod descends from is certified. For a parent or an amateur player the data is more than accurate enough; the error in the numbers comes from a loose vest and a covered sky, not the electronics.
What the App Shows You
Catapult One for individuals is built around four headline metrics: total distance, sprint distance, top speed and power, with intensity and a five-minute breakdown behind them. The app shows your trends over time, benchmarks against your personal bests and against targets, and draws a heat map of where you spent the session once you have marked the pitch. There is a library of training plans written by Catapult’s coaches, recovery and nutrition tips, and an Apple Health link. There is no live data; you see the session after you sync.
Two things it does not do that the STATSports app now does. There is no heart-rate strap pairing on the individual product; Catapult’s support centre lists none, and the Polar strap compatibility you may have read about belongs to its professional systems and the PlayerTek+ line. And there is no library of drills with video, which STATSports added in its Academy relaunch.
Catapult One Team is a different animal. Coaches get a web dashboard with Player Load (Catapult’s accelerometer-based workload number), intensity metrics (top speed, distance per minute, power score, work ratio) and volume metrics (distance, sprint distance, power plays, energy and impacts over 5 g), across soccer, rugby, football, Aussie rules, Gaelic football and hurling. That is a proper coaching tool, and it is the one Catapult’s website now leads with.
The Part the Spec Sheet Doesn’t Say
Go to Catapult One’s website today and you land on Catapult One Team. The soccer and football pages are team pages. The pricing page is gone, the join page is gone, and the only “Individual” on the site is an option in the request-a-demo form’s dropdown. The individual membership is still sold, but only inside the app: download it, start a membership, and the starter kit ships.
The app tells the same story. The Android version was updated in November 2025 and sits at 3.2 stars from around 290 reviews. The iOS version’s last listed update is November 2023. The pre-paid Amazon UK bundle that used to be the easy way to buy it is listed as currently unavailable with no restock date, and there is no US Amazon listing at all. None of that means Catapult One is being discontinued. It does mean the individual product is in maintenance while the team product gets the engineering, and that is worth knowing before you sign up for something billed annually.
Credit where it is due: the support team’s reputation is good. Several of the better app reviews are from people whose pods failed and were replaced free, including owners of the older PLAYR and PlayerTek pods who were sent Catapult One pods instead. If something breaks, they fix it.
Catapult One vs STATSports Apex (Academy)
| Catapult One | STATSports Academy (Apex) | |
|---|---|---|
| How you pay | About $179 a year, membership only | $320 once, no subscription |
| Three-year cost | About $540 | $320 |
| If you stop paying | Lose trends, heat maps and analysis | Keep everything |
| GPS | 10 Hz, FIFA-approved | 10 Hz, FIFA-certified |
| Battery | 270 min, light indicators, 2 h charge | 6+ hours, no gauge |
| Metrics | Distance, sprint distance, top speed, power, intensity, heat map | 24 metrics including the same plus accelerations, work rate, cardio with a strap |
| Heart rate | No strap support on the individual product | Bluetooth straps; belt in the Pro pack |
| Pause for injury | Yes | Not applicable |
| Where to buy | In the app only | STATSports site, Amazon |
| Team product | Catapult One Team, web dashboard, quote-based | STATSports Team and Pro ranges, separate |
Catapult wins on battery indication and on the pause clause. STATSports wins on everything that costs money and on heart rate. If you are buying for one player, that settles it.
Who Should Still Buy Catapult One
- A player trialling GPS for one season who would rather pay $179 and walk away than commit $320 to a tracker that might end up in a drawer. That is the honest case for a membership, and it is a real one.
- A player whose club runs Catapult One Team and who wants their own account in the same ecosystem. Note the pods for a team have to be bought through the team.
- A coach of ten or more players who wants Player Load and a dashboard without going to a quote for Catapult’s professional range. Catapult One Team is a good product and the two-year commitment is the price of it.
Everyone else, including the parent buying for a 14-year-old who will play for four more years, should read the STATSports Apex review and pay once.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you buy Catapult One without a subscription?
No. Catapult states it is a membership-only service that cannot be purchased upfront. The starter kit comes with the membership and the pod is tied to it.
How much does Catapult One cost?
About $179 a year for an individual with the kit included, or around $15.99 a month plus a $34 kit fee. Team memberships are about $180 per player per year on a two-year commitment with a ten-player minimum. Prices are set in the app and by quote, so confirm before you commit.
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What happens to my data if I cancel?
You keep access to high-level session data. Trends, insights, heat maps and analysis require an active membership.
How long does the Catapult One battery last?
About 270 minutes of active recording, with a two-month standby. A full charge takes around two hours in the dock.
Does Catapult One work with a heart-rate strap?
Not the individual product. Catapult’s support centre lists no heart-rate pairing for Catapult One; strap support belongs to its professional and PlayerTek+ systems.
Is Catapult One still being sold in 2026?
Yes, through the Catapult One app on iOS and Android. Catapult’s website now sells the Team product, the Amazon UK pre-paid bundle is unavailable, and the iOS app’s last listed update is from 2023, so expect maintenance rather than new features.
The Verdict
Catapult One is a very good GPS tracker attached to a business model that no longer suits the people it was launched for. The pod is pro-grade, the vest is comfortable, the heat maps are the best part, and the pause-for-injury clause is a kindness. But you can only rent it, you can only rent it through the app, and the company’s attention has visibly moved to coaches and teams. For a season’s trial it is fine. For a career’s worth of youth soccer, pay once for the STATSports pack and keep the $220 you would otherwise hand over in year two and three.
Catapult One memberships start inside the Catapult One app; coaches can request Catapult One Team pricing at one.catapultsports.com. For the alternative, the STATSports Academy pack is sold direct, and the legacy Apex Athlete Series is on Amazon.
Still working out which kind of tracker you need? Playermaker vs GPS trackers explains the boot-sensor versus vest decision, and Polar H10 vs Garmin HRM-Pro Plus covers the heart-rate side that Catapult One leaves out.
I discovered soccer as a U-6 coach. I love soccer, futsal on the weekends in a men’s league. I am now living in Portugal (and playing futsal!)
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I watch UEFA Champions League when I’m not playing, and I catch regular games with this North American streaming service.
Here’s how we ended up getting my son to play football in Europe.
